I'll tell you what, I don't envy anyone organising a conference of any type. I got to see a tiny little bit of it during the first Free Play conference, and I have the utmost admiration for the folks that do that kind of job because it really is a whole lot of work. The fee-for-speakers issue which Tony Albrecht brought up in his Seven Degrees of Freedom blog yesterday caused a small bit of uproar, and it looks like it may be getting resolved pretty shortly.
GDAA CEO, Greg Bondar, has been posting in at Kotaku AU and Sumea, and his latest post has a change of heart in the matter of registration costs and upfront paper fees (which are later returned) for speakers...
(Greg) Dear Gamers, Game Developers etc.OK - I am going to propose to the GCAP Committee that ALL speakers be given free and/or concessional regsitration. To err is human to forgive divine. I have been over-zealous. Sorry guys.
The burden of drop-out speakers could probably be better handled in other ways (I'll be offering my knee capping services for cheap), but I think that the change in decision is definitely the right one. I know that Greg Bondar did an immense amount of work for the last Game Connect, and I have the utmost confidence that he'll be doing his best for this years event.
Of course, Tony brought up a whole lot more than just the issue of speaker fees in his blog. He's a bit of a veteran when it comes to the game developer conference here in OZ, having attended one since 1999, and he's mentioned the decline of the local game industry conference before.
His list of areas that need improving are:
Big Name speakers
Call for abstracts early (don't leave the speaker, session details too late)
Don't make the speakers pay
Keep the registration fee as low as possible
Throw a decent party
I agree with all his points, but I think it needs something even more to draw out all industry developers, and all students. C'mon, the Australian games industry is now worth $130 million, there are roughly 2000 of you employed in this industry, and a whole lotta students from various universities and colleges too. This conference should really be triple or more than the size it is. Tom Crago said in the opening of the conference last year that Game Connect really is *your* conference. What would you suggest to make GCAP worth attending for you?