I just thought I'd mention to the community here something I discovered a few years back.  The Game Developers' Conference takes place in San Francisco every Spring.  Normally attendees pay between $200 and $1500 (edit: this year it's $2200!) for varying levels of access to the show, which includes keynotes, lectures on various gaming topics, and an E3-esque expo hall.  However, keeping the conference running smoothly is no simple task, so the organizers came up with the ingenious idea of recruiting eager young volunteers to do everything from guarding doors to checking badges.

The GDC Conference Associate program has been going on for 10+ years, and it's a helluva lot of fun.  The most you'd be asked to "work" at the show is 20 hours over 6 days (so, what, 3 hours a day?), and in exchange you are given an All-Access pass (the $1500 one) and whenever you're not working you can go anywhere and do anything at the show.  (edit: breaking down the $2200 pass you get for volunteering, that's $110 per hour!) I've personally met Peter Molyneux, Chris Taylor, Warren Spector, Gabe Newell and been within spitting distance of Shigeru Miyamoto, Bill Gates and Will Wright.  They have a great career pavilion with tons of game companies, for anyone looking for a job in the industry.  Most importantly though is the awesome network and comraderie built up over the years among the various volunteers.  Several people volunteering currently work for Blizzard, Valve, and Nintendo.  Kim Swift and Dave Kircher, two of the minds behind last year's Portal, were both CAs up until 2006.

Most of all though, it's just a blast from start to finish.  Videogames, videogame concerts, company-sponsored parties, awards shows, witch hunts, it's just great every year.


In 2009 year GDC is being held at the Moscone Center in San Fran from March 23-27.  If you live in the area or can get to it and are even remotely interested in having fun, the application page is available here: http://www.gdconf.com/volunteers/index.html

Drop me a PM if you do apply, since past CAs can recommend people and from what I've heard they carry substantial weight in selection (they typically have to reject like half of the people).

Here are some pics from last year's show:




And here's some online news footage of a Smash Bros. tournament we held last year during after hours in the convention hall just for the volunteers:

I hate you both. You can get into GDC.
The best I can do is get into the EA Sports/Black Box headquarters in Burnaby and watch people make Need For Speed and Skate. They have a fantastic cafeteria there, though. And video game secrets.

I know this topic is about GDC, but two notes:
1) The banner mis-spelled "Moscone" Center. Forgot the 'S'.
2) Veronic Belmont is a dream.

Did anyone besides Blahooligan and I ever apply to this?

Blah, did you get in?  Acceptance letters started going out this week.


Also, the deadline to apply ends tomorrow night, so anyone else who might be interested can still apply!  My fiancee (who at that point will be my wife!) and I are both in and going, read the opening post for all the details!

Giller, imagine your Werewolf game with like 10-50+ people!