GDC Bootcamps?

[uberHuber]

First, thanks to everyone who had a hand in anything GDC related. It was a great conference, and as usual the sessions I attended and tech artist roundtables were super motivating. It’s always great to hear what like minded people have to say and learn from others in the industry.

I was curious how the bootcamps are setup and how topics are decided upon? I unfortunately have only had the opportunity to attend the general conference sessions and roundtables, so I may have missed any info related to this during the actual bootcamp.

As someone who has never given a talk at GDC before, the bootcamps seem to be a much more approachable arena for those who really want to share information but quiver at the idea of speaking in front of a huge audience. Something about talking primarily to colleagues as opposed to opening myself up to the entire GDC audience, makes it seem a good avenue to get my feet wet with for a first public talk

[Theodox]

Typically there’s an organizer each year who gets picked by the Jeff Hanna and/or the outgoing organizer. If they are smart they start working their rolodex in the spring to find a few anchor people and then expand the search over the summer. I’m not sure if anybody has formally agreed to take on the bootcamp for next year, but Jeff should know.

[Jeff_Hanna]

If they are smart they run away and don’t volunteer to do a BC Me? I’m almost triple not smart. Steve has to take some of that non-smart since he had to run TA BC #3 when I got snowed in and couldn’t make it to the show.
All kidding aside, I’m going to run it a bit differently for 2016. I’m going to start a forum here for people to post topic ideas. I’d much rather have a bunch of potential topics to choose from than to have to try to track down 5-6 speakers and beg.

[katz]

Not to dissuade you from proposing a bootcamp topic, but the audience was pretty big at all of the bootcamps I attended this year. At least as big as most of the regular conference talks I saw. But as someone who got over the hump and gave my first presentation this year (at the TABC), I have to say just do it and get over that hump! I wish I had done it years ago. It’s invigorated me and I definitely want to do it again.