I decided to go to the 2008 Women in Games conference, on this week, a while back. Apart from being game related, the organisation was recommended by my GDC mentor Neil Kirby, which I missed a meeting of at GDC due to the clash with the GDC Awards (which of course I’ve never attended). At least once I’d like to visit the majority of the conferences around the world, since there’s a great breadth of knowledge I’d love to take in at them (at the moment, I also have the time to do this! in the future, probably less so).
Anyway, it was relatively cheap and has a great aim. There was, in my year in Computer Science at Loughborough exactly zero girls – an anomaly we were told, but there we go, the percent is rarely double figures. After meeting so many great Develop volunteer and GDC Scholarship girls, it seems a real shame to not see more making games, or doing the technical roles in industry – if in the future I’m in a position to change it, It’d be nice to know now. “Male, Computer Science Graduate” might be not who this is aimed at, but I think it’ll be more interesting then some other conferences I’ve been to.
I’ll post up anything interesting, and see about pictures. At the very least it’ll be something more relaxing then learning C++ right now 🙂
It is my belief that “Male, Computer Science Graduate” might actually be one of the groups the conference aims at…well, perhaps not the computer science part, but still… For the most part, women know about the problems they face and, while getting together and sharing thoughts and experiences is important, it is also important to raise awareness to the current situation and figure out ways of having more women in the industry, and, if I am not mistaken, it doesn’t matter that you are a guy.
And hey, make sure to report on it, okay? I too want to visit conferences around the world but until then all I can count on is other people’s experiences. 🙂
Heh, I’m one of a few students dotted around. The conference is more varied then the specific work question of course. It seems I have wifi here, I’ll upload my notes in bits and pieces depending on my laptop’s battery 🙂