[game_edu] Students at GDC

[Ian Schreiber]

>From the GDC website, if you're bringing a group and getting the more expensive 

passes, you can get 10% off (and this bonus stacks with other discounts): 
http://www.gdconf.com/attend/groupregistration.html

That's for developers, mind you, so 25% off for students seems downright 
generous in that context. Additionally, if you're talking about student expo 
passes costing $75 each... umm, have you seen the prices of the other passes? 
$75 is already more than a 60% discount off of the next cheapest pass to begin 
with (and 95% cheaper than an All Access pass), so I have a hard time feeling 
your pain here. Keep in mind this is the largest game dev conference around; if 
your students can't cough up $45 of their own to attend GDC -- we're talking 
about saving up 12.5 cents per day for a year, not exactly an unreachable goal 
-- then what exactly are they going to do when it's time to actually look for 
work? Are they not planning on printing out their own business cards? Do they 
not figure on putting their portfolio on disks or thumbdrives? Printout out 
their resumes on nice-quality paper? A complete job search is going to cost more 
than what it takes them to get a student pass.

Here's what I've told my students since I started teaching in 2006: if you care 
at all about getting into the industry, you will find a way to attend GDC. I 
would argue that in most cases, travel, lodging and an All Access pass are very 
achievable on a student budget... IF this is meaningful enough to them, and if 
they are willing to plan ahead.

Ways to reduce conference pass cost:
* Order early for huge discounts to start with -- early bird FTW. (Bonus: after 
you do this once, you get an alumni discount in subsequent years that stacks 
with all other discounts.)
* Apply for an IGDA scholarship. If you're a student member (and if not, why the 
heck not?) you can apply for free. Winners get, basically, a golden ticket.
* Apply for the CA program. If you get in, you trade 20 hours of your time 
helping your childhood idols find the bathroom, and the rest of the time you've 
got a free pass, plus all kinds of other perks.

Ways to reduce food/lodging costs:
* Especially if you're going in a group, split a hotel room as many ways as you 
can without breaking fire codes. If you've got 6+, consider splitting a suite 
instead.
* There are some low-cost hostels in the area that are even cheaper than hotels; 
quality varies.
* Obviously, if you've got any friends or family in the area, see if you can 
crash on their couch.
* Food can be expensive if you eat out a lot; bring nonperishable items with 
you, or purchase low-cost high-nutrition food at a local CVS or similar. Go to 
lots of parties and eat while you're networking.

Ways to reduce travel costs:
* If you're going in a group, the cost of a road trip is less than a flight. If 
you rotate driving duties every few hours and keep going around the clock, you 
can get there in record time.
* If you have to fly, look for tickets well in advance.

Ways to save money:
* Next time anyone asks you what you want for your birthday or the holidays, say 
"cash". (I've had more than one student whose family paid to upgrade to the 
next-highest pass after seeing their dedication.)
* Get a part-time job to fund your GDC adventure. 10 hours per week x 50 weeks x 
$5/hour = more than enough. Yeah, it's a lot of time; how bad do you want it?
* Get a lower-cost pass. I mean, all-access is great, but it's not like you 
won't get a TON out of the conference with something else. If your hardest 
problem is choosing between the summit/tutorial pass and the main conference 
pass, you've already won.
* If you absolutely can't make GDC this year, see if there are any lower-cost 
regional conferences in your area at other times during the year, and attend 
those first.


Granted, it is too late for most students to do most of these things at this 
point. But it's great to plant the seed now so they will be prepared for next 
year.

And then, of course, there's the issue of prepping the students for GDC so they 
get the most out of it and don't waste their time and money... but that's 
another post. (Or actually a whole series of them, on Darius Kazemi's blog, so 
no need to reproduce that here :-)

As for the other half of your question -- how to get students into SF-area 
studios -- I think when that happens it's usually because the professor knows 
someone on the inside and arranges something in advance; it's not exactly a 
situation where developers routinely open their doors to the public for studio 
tours (although now that I think about it, that could make a great secondary 
revenue stream... ;-). If you don't know anyone, but you're going to GDC, I'd 
say use that time as an instructor to meet developers, get to know them, and 
maybe work with them to set up a tour NEXT year.

- Ian




________________________________
From: Andy <andycox at twcdc.com>
To: game_edu at igda.org
Sent: Wed, January 26, 2011 11:01:27 AM
Subject: [game_edu] Students at GDC

I've been in contact with GDC trying to get a deal to get a group 
of 20 students into GDC at a good discount. In these cash-strapped 
days I only have $30 per student budget. They are unable to offer 
any discount on the $75 student expo pass (the reasoning being 
that this is only available at the do0r) and only 25% off all 
other expo passes. This seems a little ungenerous. Do others agree 
that GDC should be giving a better deal to students? Has anyone 
else managed to wring out of them a better deal for their 
students?

In addition, any ideas on how my students could get industry 
exposure through e.g. visits to game development companies in San 
Francisco, would be much appreciated. The class is considering the 
social impacts of technology through the lens of video games using 
Unity 3D.

Andy Cox
Adjunct Professor
Conceptual and Information Arts
San Francisco Stat University


      
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