GDC conference organizers drop the ball [update 2]
by Vladimir Cole 
{ Mar 25th 2006 at 10:15PM }
This is a brief list of some of the quality issues that I noticed plaguing the Game
Developer's Conference held in San Jose and ended on Friday. It seems that nobody really talks about these things,
perhaps because they're simply grateful that there's any GDC at all. Well, I'm also grateful for GDC, but that doesn't
mean it's immune from criticism.
I should note that my beefs here are primarily informed by my perspective as a blogger covering the convention. We're sure that developers, publishers, recruiters and other major GDC constituent groups have their own issues. We encourage submission of other issues in the comments, below. If you prefer to send something anonymously, use our tips form located at http://www.joystiq.com/tips/.
[Image at right is from www.demotivation.com. The caption reads, "Mediocrity: it takes a lot less time and most people won't notice the difference until it's too late."]
In no particular order, gripes follow.
- Food. It's not easy feeding hordes of hungry conference goers, but an army marches on its
stomach. Trying to prop up conference energy with junk food is a trick that works in a single-day conference but
backfires over the course of a weeklong affair. GDC vittles were awful in just about every respect. Food quality was
low: soggy buns, low-quality ingredients, lack of condiments for sandwiches.
The menu itself contained many items that nutritionists would classify as junk food: potato chips, sugary cookies, starchy sides, muffins, bagels. Fruit didn't exist. What's more, the tables were quickly cleared of more palatable options leaving boxes upon boxes of vegetarian sandwiches that few wanted to eat.
To be fair, we should note that beverages were excellent. Peet's coffee, high-quality tea, water, diet drinks, and water were thankfully plentiful.
- Technical glitches. As with GDC San Francisco from last year, conference technology was notable
for the frequency with which it failed to service conference-goers. Most of the meeting rooms lacked Wifi connectivity,
meaning that smaller media outlets without budget for expensive EV-DO connections were frequently unable to provide
coverage of the big keynotes.
There are entire cities with millions of people in them getting ubiquitous Wifi networks. Surely a competent tech team should be able to Internet-enable a few meeting rooms in the middle of Silicon Valley.
Tech also failed in the area of audio quality. Of the 10 or so panels I attended, 80% started late because the technical gurus at the sound boards were futzing with the microphones. Two panels I attended were still troubleshooting microphone levels approximately 10 minutes after the scheduled start time.
Sound issues weren't limited to the start of panels. Microphones would frequently stop working in the middle of a panel discussion. It got so bad on one panel that multiple panelists got in the habit of testing their microphones before they started to speak. Nothing kills a good back-and-forth conversation like constant "am I on?" microphone checks. Sound quality was a frequent issue during last year's GDC as well.
Then there's the whole GDCTV and GDCRAdio fiasco. We're not sure what went wrong with the tech crew, but this much is certain: the amateurish technology implementation resulted in an inferior conference experience.
- Media confusion: We have no idea what was going on with the camera policy. There was no clear statement about when cameras were allowed and when they were not. Chris Grant was threatened with forcible removal from the Sony keynote when he was caught taking pictures, despite lack of signage indicating that photos would be forbidden, and despite a special green sticker on his ID badge that supposedly allowed him to take photographs in sessions. If you took out your camera in some sessions, nobody would complain. In other sessions, you were warned to make sure your flash was off. In still other sessions, you were told to put your camera away. We're happy to play by the rules, so long as the rules are consistent and well-publicised. GDC 2006's media rules, if they existed, were capricious, invisible, and inconsistently enforced.
- Quality inconsistency: Some sessions were simply excellent. Great energy, great content, and
flawless technical execution. Some were low-energy infomercials, and we're not talking about the "Sponsored
Sessions" either. In one session that I attended in last year's GDC, conference goers walked out of a ninja
infomercial visibly upset. The speaker had somehow secured a slot at GDC and used his allotted hour to shamelessly sell
his product to the audience. How do creeps like that make it into the printed program? Because I was manning the doors
for that session as a Conference Associate, I can verify that the feedback submitted for that session was unanimously
terrible (except for the shill ballots filled out by employees of the speaker's company, who gave him very high
marks).
GDC conference organizers need to do a better job of verifying content quality before anybody's in front of a microphone.
- Duct tape and chewing gum. Here are some examples of the
generally amateur nature of the conference organization. During one very popular session on downloadable content, the
big GDC 2006 poster that covered the front of the lectern simply fell off, exposing the tape that had held it in place.
There were giggles from the audience when this happened, but the poster sat there for approximately 5 to 10 minutes
before anything was done about it (I believe a conference attendee got so fed up with it that he picked it up and
rested it against the lectern).
Another example: the show floor closed at 3:30 PM on Friday afternoon, which was a little early and caught more than a few attendees by surprise, self included. Some of the security guards who were posted at the doors to the exhibit hall were more terse and unfriendly in the way in which they told attendees that the show floor was closed. With proper training and with the right customer service attitude, I'm sure that these security personnel could have put on a happy face and politely informed conference goers that the exhibit hall had closed. Instead: threatening looks, raised voices, and blunt denials of admission. The message was clear: we were no longer valued conference customers but were riff-raff to be bounced from the real work of shutting down the exhibition hall. Simply unprofessional yet so easy to remedy.
- Conference Associates rocked the
house. On a positive note, the legion (260 of them, to be exact) of orange-shirted Conference Associates who
volunteer a week of their time to help run the conference were friendly, helpful, and earnest in their endeavors to
make the conference pleasant. These people were generally motivated by the right customer service attitudes, though
it's a wonder that they managed to remain upbeat, given the lack of healthy food options.
Counterpoint on the CA front: Reader "Codemule" writes in:
"I strongly, strongly disagree on the "conference volunteers were great" tip, especially those who worked the keynote presentations.
The absolutely horrible manner in which people were forced to sit and the rediculous treatment of attendees was inexcusable.
In many cases, these are people who paid $1,400 or more (as I was) to attend this conference. To be yelled at for standing next to a wall (because there were no seats available where anything could be seen) is absolutely retarded.
It's one thing to overbook a hall on attendance (which hopefully won't happen in SF next year), it's completely another to try to rectify the situation by being heavy handed with the people who are trying to get information for business planning purposes first hand."
This is not to say that the conference was worthless. GDC is valuable (and mandatory for anybody that's serious about the industry) but it could be far, far better given the quality of the speakers and the conference attendees. The organizers did not do the games industry proud with this conference.
Finally, a quick aside to establish my basis for comparison. I'm comparing this conference to other conferences that I've attended including: the CFA conference in Denver, CSFB conferences in NYC, an asset-backed bond conference in Bermuda, E3 (in LA), State of Play (NYC), TGS (Tokyo), the Wharton Technology Conference (Philadelphia), and others too numerous (and too small) to list here. I provide this partial list just to establish that I've got some basis for comparison and that I'm comparing the games conference to conferences in other industries.
[Update 1: Included quote from Codemule on the CA issue.]
[Update 2:
minor typo fixed.]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Nick @ Mar 25th 2006 10:58PM
For the price of admission, the quality of the conference should definitely be higher. It sounds like they just need to spend more time on setting everything up and maybe hiring some better caterers. Low tech issues for a high tech conference do strike a cord of irony, to say the least.
I also totally agree that even if something means well, that should not exempt it from any criticisms. Constructive criticism helps drive what we love to a more refined state, improving the quality of what is criticized - if management listens. On that note; if I write an article on areas where Joystiq has some failings, would you post it on the site, get reader feedback, and act on it? I’m being quite serious, no sarcasm here.
Nick
vc @ Mar 25th 2006 11:01PM
Nick -- if it's a good letter I'd love to publish it. By good, I mean well-reasoned and well-written (think Okrent's ombudsman columns for the NYT).
blotar @ Mar 25th 2006 11:53PM
wow, between this post and your previous, it sounds like someone pissed in your cornflakes this morning.
if i may, a point-by-point run through:
sometimes conferences don't pull it all off with aplomb. i've been to plenty of professional conferences that have been lacking in basic amenities. this sounds like a case of a kid who has been to too many mba classes expecting it to be all starbucks and au bon pain (or, as it was called in certain parts of boston, urban pain).
"vegetarian sandwiches that few wanted to eat," perhaps some more gamers could be veg. to.. you know.. mix it up and stuff.. it's not like all of us are omnivores. try it for a week, you can deal, maybe you'll like it.
w/r/t technical glitches, i have yet been to a place where a tech glitch did not happen, be it grad school thhesis presentation, a product pitch, or a conference.
media confusion? while there may have been sessions in which audience members were not allowed to take pictures, it seems that any moments where it was "not allowed" was a fine opportunity for a "journalist" or "press" to either show credentials or be more subversive. if you care enough, it can happen.
quality inconsistency happens wherever you go in conference-land. that's part of what you are paid to "report", to separate the wheat from the chaff. if something doesn't fly your kite, walk out and go to the other roundtable next door. people don't don't bar you inside the room.
per tape and bubblegum : no kidding! that happens? all these conference-type-things are lame. the gloss, spit and shine go to the keynotes (which often fail too). most of it revolves around staff sprinting from place to place trying to get the bare minimum running. to insure a 100% flawless conference, you''re looking at a wto type thing (oh wait, that's not perfect either)
but, i will 100% agree with you on the fact that the people who volunteer and work at hese things are rock solid and they do a fantastic job.
otherwise, your comments seem, to this regular conference goer, like whiny bs.
Brody Brooks @ Mar 25th 2006 11:58PM
Yea, the food situation was a real let down for me, too. And the expo on Friday did end very early and unexpectedly. And microphone inconsistancy and tech issues occasionally...for paying almost $900 for a Classic Pass, they really don't give you real bang for your buck.
But I don't go to industry events until now, having just moved to California from Connecticut, so I didn't have the guts to complain. I'm seeing Will Wright, Lord British, Satoru Iwata, Introversion, and the Plan of Attack team for real, who am I to complain?!
vc @ Mar 26th 2006 12:10AM
In response to blotar's points:
"sometimes conferences don't pull it all off with aplomb."
That's my point too! However, well-run conferences pull it off with aplomb far more frequently and consistently than poorly run conferences. This conference does not have the same overall quality of some conferences I have attended. CMP's got a lock on the Game Development Conference circuit, and I don't think that's healthy for quality.
"perhaps some more gamers could be veg. to."
Point is, dozens of vegetarian sandwiches were thrown out every day while conference goers who did not want to eat those sandwiches went hungry. I saw numerous attendees approach the table, say "only veggie left?" and walk away, disappointed. That this was still happening on Friday (you'd think that the number of vegetarian lunchboxes would be cut down by the last day of the conference) is an indication that nobody was managing catering very closely.
"i have yet been to a place where a tech glitch did not happen,"
Same here. Yet, there are conferences that get it right consistently with only a few glitches. This is not one of those conferences. Setting up audio properly isn't difficult, but it is manually intensive and expensive. My hunch is that CMP views the GDC conference as a major profit opportunity and skimps on technical spending in order to make hay on it.
"it seems that any moments where it was "not allowed" was a fine opportunity for a "journalist" or "press" to either show credentials or be more subversive."
You clearly were not present. Every member of the press had credentials displayed at all times. The problem was that the rules of engagement changed from room to room, day to day. We did take many photographs, despite the lack of consistent communication on this front.
"quality inconsistency happens wherever you go in conference-land"
Quality inconsistency also happens at every restaurant, but the very best restaurants are consistently of higher quality, even on their very worst days. Consistency, in fact, is the hallmark of quality. Reducing variation is the core tenet of Six Sigma quality controls. You know you're dealing with excellence when product consistency is ... well... consistent!
"all these conference-type-things are lame."
Not actually. Some conferences are much, much nicer than this conference. It really depends on the organization running the conference. If every conference you have been to is lame, that does not mean that every conference is lame. To insist that because every conference you have attended is lame therefore means that every conference ever is lame is an error of induction.
"to insure a 100% flawless conference, you''re looking at a wto type thing"
I'm not asking for 100% flawless. I'm asking for a games conference that is at least as professionally run as the marquee conferences that other industries hold. I mentioned the CFA conference in particular, because that one's really well run (as are the CSFB conferences).
Michael @ Mar 26th 2006 12:27AM
Sounds like regardless of the size of the videogame industry nowadays, the whole show was run like a cheap horror house.
Matthew @ Mar 26th 2006 12:39AM
The most important part is the atmosphere anyway. If you live in a home where everything is great except for the people you live with, what good is that? Sure, the food might not taste too well, you might have a water leakage once or twice, but the people that surround you are fun and enjoyable to be with. You don't have to worry since it's temporary anyway. It's like walking into a "perfect" law school, only to find out you signed up for a music school. Make sense? I hope so, for my own good. :p
obo @ Mar 26th 2006 1:04AM
Vlad, you're right. Everyone who attends GDC, you all deserve to be treated better.
That's why, to spare you from the soggy buns and lack of Wi-Fi and duck tape, I'm offering to go to GDC in your place and ghostwrite for you. Same great coverage, none of the hassles, at a minimal expense to you! And you even get the bylines!
It's a sweet deal, man. Gimme a buzz, you know how to get at me dogg.
Codemule @ Mar 26th 2006 1:30AM
I strongly, strongly disagree on the "conference volunteers were great" tip, especially those who worked the keynote presentations.
The absolutely horrible manner in which people were forced to sit and the rediculous treatment of attendees was inexcusable.
In many cases, these are people who paid $1,400 or more (as I was) to attend this conference. To be yelled at for standing next to a wall (because there were no seats available where anything could be seen) is absolutely retarded.
It's one thing to overbook a hall on attendance (which hopefully won't happen in SF next year), it's completely another to try to rectify the situation by being heavy handed with the people who are trying to get information for business planning purposes first hand.
I also agree that the security was very poor in it's demenor.
Food situation was fine. I ate offsite usually... which solves any such problems if you don't like what you find there.
Sloopydrew @ Mar 26th 2006 2:00AM
There's irony to be found in Vladimir complaining about a lack of health food while, at the same time, claiming that there were too many vegetarian sandwiches, and not enough with slabs of unhealthy meat and meat byproducts.
If you can afford $900 - $1,500 passes for a conference about video games, that would also indicate you could probably afford to buy a few pieces of fruit. Maybe even an entire fruit salad!
That said, I enjoyed Joystiq's coverage of the GDC. But your (Vladimir) post seems like sour grapes (of which I'm guessing there wasn't enough of at the convention, either).
Rhine @ Mar 26th 2006 2:15AM
Does the C in GDC already for conference making the "conference" part after it redundent?
JohnnyTruant @ Mar 26th 2006 3:20AM
To Codemule (and the rest):
You should know that the Fire Marshals of the City of San Jose were actively roaming the halls of the convention center en masse and threatening to evacuate rooms and even the entire convention center if capacity and fire code regulations were not consistently satisfied. Now, some may have been pissed off that they were not allowed into the keynotes or that the seating situation was less than ideal, however imagine the sh**storm that would have ensued had the entire civic auditorium been evacuated in the middle of the Iwata keynote. I am sure that we would be seeing a lot fewer copies of Brain Training showing up on eBay.
Also, despite the fact that you spent $1400 to attend, nowhere was it guaranteed that you would be able to sit comfortably in on every session you desire, especially if you arrive 5 or 10 or 45 minutes late to a popular session as was the case in far too many instances. I also strongly suspect that the ridiculous manner in which you were treated closely mirrored the attitude that you gave the volunteer to whom you were speaking. If you were serious about gathering your ‘business planning information’ first hand, then I’m sure that you were also conscientious about arriving to the session on time and being respectful to the people around you helping to facilitate this endeavor.
We will agree that the conference met less than ideal expectations (dots on badges make me wanna kill!), however for the people who diligently volunteer their time to make the conference work, perhaps you should show a little more respect. Feel free to vent your frustrations by throwing around vague accusations and rambling rhetoric, but don’t expect a cheerful reception when approaching the people who are trying to help you with an attitude of arrogant entitlement.
Danny @ Mar 26th 2006 3:21AM
The fact that we were in San Jose to begin with this year was supposedly an error on the part of the conference organizers. San Fransisco, aside from a counterpart to the Fairmont Hotel providing a hub for all involved in GDC, was a superior venue. Apparently, the conference organizers failed to reserve SF in time. Oops. We'll be in SF again for the next 6 years, though.
As far as the CA's go - I was speaking to some of the organizers on the show floor, and we were talking about how awesome they were. Due to the fact that we were in a smaller venue this year, there were problems with overpopulation. Apparently, the fire marshall stopped by, saw numerous rooms exeeding capacity, and threatened to shut down the entire show if issues like capacity and clearing emergency exits were not dealt with immediately. According to the organizers I spoke with, the CA's single handedly fixed the situation by going to each room and fixing the violations, thereby helping to avert what could have been a huge disaster. I understand your frustration, Codemule, and it's possible that the CA's could have dealt with you in a more polite manner, but bear in mind that without them, the show may have been shut down.
JohnnyTruant @ Mar 26th 2006 3:42AM
TO add: the Peter Molyneux talk getting canceled at the last minute really sucked for everyone, conference attendees and volunteers alike. As constructive criticism for CMP: if you know that Peter can't make it (and I know that you knew a week in advance) please, please let everyone know as soon as possible. Not that CMP staff read this or anything, but this may filter through to their QA knoledge banks.
Danny @ Mar 26th 2006 4:03AM
Oops. JohnnyTruant and I posted at about the same time. I didn't see that we were saying similar things.
vc @ Mar 26th 2006 9:12AM
Response to Sloopydrew, who wrote: "If you can afford $900 - $1,500 passes for a conference about video games, that would also indicate you could probably afford to buy a few pieces of fruit. Maybe even an entire fruit salad!"
That's not the point. If a conference is going to provide food, they should provide quality food. Why do *anything* in this world poorly? Conference tickets were sold on the premise that they would include meals. The included meals were severely lacking. Therefore, the conference tickets were sold on a shoddy premise.
Many conferences do food poorly, because it's really not easy to feed that many people. But some conferences do food extremely well.
slow news day @ Mar 26th 2006 9:56AM
"We did take many photographs, despite the lack of consistent communication on this front."
Whare are they?!? I've seen more pics from GDC 2006 on practically every other site BUT Joystiq.
NakedBoB @ Mar 26th 2006 10:03AM
I hafta at least half agree with what Codemule had mentioned. I had three bad run-ins with CAs at GDC. Nothing more irritating then having some kid with an attitude giving you troubles and the only thing you can do is complain to their supervisor, who doesn't really give a poop, either.
On the other hand, there were quite a few nice ones, too. I was running late to a talk and wasn't sure what room it was in and a CA walked (sprinted is probably a better term) me over to it, which was the next hallway over. Hope he didn't get in trouble for leaving his post.
Security was the worst! I too had a problem getting into the Expo Friday after 3:30. Had a 4pm appointment to meet with someone, who probably didn't think security would be so mean or that they would close so early. The general staff was very snobby, too. Tried to grab bottled water during the non-lunch times only to be yelled at by two staff members who were very rude. I had no idea that I wasn't supposed to. I apologized, but they felt they had to continue to give me more grief. They were still complaining and saying crap as I walked away. Sheesh!
Someone told me that press gets looked down on at GDC. At first I had to agree with 'im, but after talking to others maybe the staff hated all attendees in general. A day of proper costumer service training is sorely needed prior to the event.
Fire Marshals scout out all be events like this. GDC is still at fault for not planning the venues better and for not training the employees in what to do in those situations and in proper customer service technique. The CAs should just know better than to give attitude. I've had many jobs dealing with the public that were stressful, but I'd like to think that I was able to maintain my decency when the going got rough. Those kids aren't gonna do so well in the work force when they get out of school if they can't handle a little pressure.
This was my first GDC and I'd hafta give the promoters a D- for their efforts. Hopefully things'll be better next year in SF.
Love,
Naked BoB
Neko Ewen @ Mar 26th 2006 11:58AM
The mediocre food and the lack of wi-fi are just the usual situation for the San Jose Convention Center.
Of course, I don't really get why anyone would eat at the convention center itself when there are a few dozen restaurants within walking distance.
Take Two @ Mar 26th 2006 12:27PM
For all the criticism towards the GDC conference, I have to admit I enjoyed myself. Pulling off an event like this, I have to imagine, is a big undertaking.
There's no way you can please everybody. And all events have their fair share of problems. You deal with them and move on. I'm sure people learn what does or does not work and you take that into consideration the next time around.
On the upside, just be thankful that Microsoft didn't put this on. Otherwise, we'd have a 16 part article on why this conference was annoying. Hahahah...
Kyle @ Mar 26th 2006 5:32PM
Of the complaints, I would have to say that the photo situation was absolutely the highest. I was a CA at the event, and the photo policy changed several times throughout the week. We only found out afterwards that they decided to scrap the whole thing and allow photography all around. Futhermore, they had sheets stating the entire photo policy that just didn't make it out to people. As for the green dots, it turned out that Microsoft was using those for something and it ended up not being valid for photos.
We actually found out last minute that there was to be absolutely NO recording of any manner at the Sony keynote, which was the cause of the confusion that insued.
The ironic thing about the lunches was that the vegetarian sandwiches were actually better than the others. Also note that there was very good food available on the expo floor at certain times, and the lunches provided at the Mariot included fresh fruit (although admittedly not particularly high quality).
Despite its shortcomings, I managed to get everthing I wanted out of the conference and more. Did you?
Bart @ Mar 26th 2006 11:06PM
I agree that the bang for the buck was missing. I paid "only" $295 for an "Academic Expo Pass," which included an all-day event on academic issues and the expo. During the 10 minute break off the all-day event, the coffee urns were guarded by CAs who made sure I didn't get any. There were no commercial vendors open that day, and 10 minutes doesn't get you to the front door and back. I hooked up with a full pass owner for lunch who went through two different lunch lines to get me a lousy free lunch. The all-day session had some interesting speakers, but much of it was pretty bad, esp. the full-of-herself marketroid from EA. (students telling us what they wanted to learn seems like a good idea though) Apparently "game developer" is a pretty loose term which includes not just coders but designers and the rest. I've been to plenty of academic conferences that cost much less and had much higher production values. The full pass to this one is almost $2K! And they used volunteer staff!
simonc @ Mar 27th 2006 1:13AM
Firstly, I work for CMP, but not directly on the conference, apart from the Independent Games Festival, for which I'm Chairman - you may have seen me commenting in the IGF thread earlier this week.
Secondly, I did want people to know that all of these comments will be passed along to the GDC organizers, who, I can assure you, work frickin' hard to make everything as good as they possibly can.
GDC is a massive, incredibly tricky to co-ordinate event, and people worked night and day for the past few months to pull it off. Maybe that's why I'm a little irritated that Vlad has chosen to illustrate his post with a 'Demotivation' picture. If you'd worked with these guys, you'd know that they have absolutely no intention of providing any less than the best quality conf. I'm not saying it was perfect, but I feel you've characterized it in a pretty mean way.
I could rebut a number of the points from anecdotal information, but I suspect it's not my place. I'll pass this on to the GDC Director and see if he can whip something together. But we're listening, and we're trying to make it better, which I would presume is the point of such a post, rather than just being a pointless whine.
vc @ Mar 27th 2006 1:30AM
Simon,
I know that nobody sets out for work in the morning thinking, "I'm going to do a really poor job today." I don't mean to insinuate that anybody dropped the ball ON PURPOSE.
But it's clear from the outcome that the organization itself has dropped the ball on conference attendees. This conference was not as well run as it could or should have been.
Whatever the reasons for that, it's my hope that the organization responsible will take an honest look and do what it takes to make next year's GDC an even better event.
The demotivation picture is really appropriate. Putting up the tower of Pisa was no simple engineering feat, but poor planning resulted in piss poor results. Maybe if the tower of Pisa had been located on different soil it'd still be perfectly upright. I don't think that simply moving GDC to San Francisco is all that's needed to fix the show, however. In that sense, the metaphor fails.
Ninja Girlden @ Mar 28th 2006 2:52PM
As a Conference Associate, I can tell you that most of the rules Codemule is complaining about came from either CMP or the fire department. It was a conference rule that all seats must be filled and only a one-row deep amount of people are allowed against the wall and only the back wall of a room at that. If a CA was rude that is unfortunate and more likely the exception than the rule. At times we were forced to yell over crowds at the more popular keynotes, and as someone who had to continually shout about where the press line was outside the civic center, I can tell you I'd rather not raise my voice but are people orderly and quiet? Not so much.
Paying $1400 guarantees access to specific sessions if you arrive on time and they are not full. It does not guarantee that you are above the rules. If CMP tells us your badge does not grant food privilegs, then we don't let you eat. Yes this includes coffee and water. Is that fun? No. But those are the rules and they are to be enforced by all conference associates or we don't get to attend anything, either.
My advice next year for anyone attending the conference is to be early for anything they really want to see and to find out the audio and photo policy in advance at the info desk if you are interested in recording anything. If you are spending more than a paycheck on a badge, you can probably afford to bring a bottle of water and a snack because there is no guarantee there will be enough food. (I worked 6 hours straight on Thursday and didn't get to eat either, it is no fun.) Also, if you ever feel you were treated rudely by a CA, you can speak to someone at CMP who will relay the message to the CA staff. You will find in most cases that unless you are being unruly and behaving like a child (like one man who was trying to bully a CA into giving him a DS title when he did not attend the keynote) you will be treated with nothing less than the utmost respect.
CAManager @ Mar 28th 2006 4:24PM
By now you have perhaps seen the information about the Fire Marshall and the requirements they placed upon seating at the GDC. Contrary to what was stated earlier, this is the first time ever (since 1988) that the Fire Marshall has visited. I know: I've been to every GDC, including back when it was named the CGDC.
Complaining about people who have a nasty job to do is easy. Don't get me wrong: treating attendees badly is wrong and grounds for losing one's badge and being escorted off the convention site! It is also true that some attendees, when confronted with the rules (in fact in this case, the law), are less than pleased that they aren't allowed to do whatever they want. Filtered through that disappointment, it is not hard to believe that someone who tries to enforce those rules could be seen in a very negative light.
Perhaps you should try satisfying the Fire Marshall and at the same time confronting attendees who must be excluded by law. It is a lot harder than you might think.
In fact, I challenge you to apply to volunteer for next year and show us how it is supposed to be done! Walk a mile in their shoes...
Besides, if you get selected then you get a Giga pass "free" in exchange for all your hard work.
CAManager @ Mar 28th 2006 4:35PM
Hi, Vlad.
I'm sure that you remember what it was like to have to stand between people and what they desire. It isn't easy. And then, like so many service-oriented jobs, the overwhelming feedback you get from those you are serving is negative.
What would it be like if all the people whom you allowed to enter or get a lunch said "Thank you"? How about if just some of them did?
Instead, the ones whom you must stop--for whatever reason--are unhappy about it and are the ones who make the noise. It certainly makes for a tough time doing your job when all you hear are complaints...
vc @ Mar 28th 2006 5:16PM
"My advice next year for anyone attending the conference is to ... find out the audio and photo policy in advance at the info desk if you are interested in recording anything."
I was told one three different stories about the so-called photo policy on three different occasions in the span of 24 hours! Conference organizers dropped the ball on this one.
vc @ Mar 28th 2006 5:18PM
I was a waiter for years. I worked the queues at Universal Studios, Florida. I worked the CA conference. I know exactly what it's like to be a CA/serviceperson.
I'm not complaining about CAs, so not sure why anyone would think that I am.
I'm complaining about the management quality in the rest of the conference.
Jamil Moledina @ Apr 13th 2006 1:54AM
Hi Vladimir,
I’m Jamil Moledina, and as GDC’s executive director, I’m the one you playfully wonder “Who runs GDC?” in another story. I would have replied to this story sooner, but I’ve been on vacation for the two weeks following GDC, and without an Internet connection. For the remaining 50 weeks out of the year though, I visit Joystiq every single day, as it’s my favorite consumer game blog. I am in fact a big fan of yours, and was hoping my PR team could put us in touch this GDC.
Anyway, I’m writing to thank you for your detailed feedback about GDC. I’ve just completed phase one of an internal postmortem, and used a printout of your points among a sheaf of other key developer feedback to review the performance of the show. You may be surprised to know that I actually agree with some of what you point out, with the quality of vegetarian food being a personal sore point, since that’s all I can eat at my own show. Anyway, I take all feedback seriously, especially the negative feedback, since for this year’s show there was surprisingly little of it.
However, I do understand where you’re coming from. As a former journalist myself (I used to run Game Developer magazine), there were a few seemingly improvable factors I noticed when I covered the show. However, actually producing this multi-million-dollar, multi-faceted event is an infinitely more complicated beast than any publication I’ve run or any other conference I’ve run or attended, given the 300+ sessions, overlapping tutorials, spinoffs such as GDC Mobile, Game Connection, and Serious Games Summit, the Independent Games Festival, the Game Developers Choice Awards, and multiple GDC-developed evening events, such as Video Games Live. Certainly there are larger shows like E3, but GDC is relatively unique in the volume of conference sessions and the varied simultaneous experiences that we labor to perfect for our highly valued attendees. In fact, delivering the best possible experience to our attendees is our main goal, with most conventional business goals being secondary (don’t tell my boss!).
As for answering your points, Simon’s right, I could spend some time here responding in detail. I could talk about how food problems were related to a last-minute surge in attendance, that filming policy was hampered by external forces, and so forth, but I’d rather just sit down with you and discuss GDC, games, and the emergent role of game journalism over a gin and tonic.
If you’re interested, let me know how your E3 schedule is shaping up, and we’ll share a good laugh. My direct e-mail address is jmoledina at cmp dot com.
Cheers,
Jamil