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IGDA @ GDC 2010 Wrap Up

Another GDC down!

Here is a rundown of what went down this year at GDC.

 

IGDA Annual Meeting

The IGDA held its Annual Meeting Friday the 12th in North Hall.  The gathering including 150+ IGDA Members, the Board of Directors, and IGDA staff.  The Annual meeting is a chance for the IGDA BoD to review the past year and to lay out its plan for the organization going into the next year.  This years Annual Meeting highlighted addition of Joshua Caulfield as Executive Director, taking over after the departure of long time Director Jason Della Rocca.  IGDA also welcomed new board Members Erin Hoffman, Rodney Gibbs, Brian Robbins joining the board in September of 2009.  Joining them by way of the recent election was Wendy Despain, Dave Edery, Darius Kazemi, Jane Pinckard, and Coray Seifert who won his re-election bid. 

Here are some quick facts that were presented during the meeting:

Members: 12,002

Studio Affiliates: 66

Chapters: 79

SIGs: 29

Lifetime Members: 90

Other highlights of 2009 were the addition of a few new programs including Lifetime Membership, a Healthcare Program, newly renovated website, fiscal hardship dues, and a regular webinar series.  The IGDA also began its intiative to formalize its chapters.  With 2009 in the books it was clear that the board was excited about what 2010 has to offer the IGDA.

View the Annual Meeting Slideshow

Here are a few snapshots from the Annual Meeting.

 

IGDA Members Only Party

Each year IGDA holds a special party at GDC for its members.  This year the IGDA Members Only party was held Friday evening at the Jillian's restaurant located in the Metreon.  Over 700 IGDA members braved the rain to attend this years event.  Below are some pictures from this years party.  This years party was made possible by the efforts and support of GameDev.Net. 

IGDA Booth

This year the IGDA booth was located in the South Hall Lobby near the entrance.  The booth was packed for most of the week with various Chapter and SIG gatherings.  We also had several booth signings by Greg Trefry and Eric Lengyel as well as demos by Gamespy and Autodesk.  The booth was also the hub of the Backchatter Game that was put on by Local No. 12 and Arkadium.  IGDA Board members also frequented the booth connecting with existing members and helping sign up new ones.  Overall, the booth was a central meeting spot for IGDA members.  With the Katamari ball growing everyday and all the social get togethers taking place each day the booth was endless fun and always a great place to stop by to take a break from the conference action.

A big thanks goes out to all the conference associates and volunteers who helped out at the booth throughout the week.  Another thanks goes to Victor Hertz and Gayla Dawson of Accredited Language Services for their hard work helping out at the booth and their support of IGDA.

Here are some pictures of the booth from throughout the week.

IGDA Scholars

The IGDA again provided scholarships to a special group of scholars to attend GDC.  This yeras group got the week started off by getting a GDC intro from former IGDA Executive Director Jason Della Rocca.  A GDC veteran, Jason shared his tips and tricks for the scholars to have a great week at the conference.  IGDA volunteer Chris Hood who has played a major role in the re-launch of multiple IGDA Chapters also shared his GDC knowledge with the group. 

The Scholars also took a tour of local studio Three Rings Design.   Three Rings' founder Daniel James led the tour for the second straight year.  Daniel spoke on his journey to where he is today, the success he has had along the way, and also took time for some Q and A with the scholars. 

A big thanks goes out to Daniel and the Three Rings Design folks for their help this year!

2010 GDC Student Scholarship Recipients

  • Sebastian Koenig,  University of Canterbury, New Zealand
  • Andrew Brocker, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA
  • Azedeh Jamalian, Columbia University
  • Walt Destler, Carnegie Mellon University Entertainment Technology Center
  • John Murphy, DePaul University
  • David Milam, Simon Fraser University School of Interactive Arts and Technology
  • Kathrin Maria Gerling,  University of Duisburg-Essen
  • Toby McCall,  The Guildhall at SMU
  • Andre Luis Martins Gomes Universidade de Sao Paulo
  • Zeng Qi, The University of Tokyo
  • James Wiser, The Cleveland Art Institute
  • Laura Bacon, DigiPen Institute of Technology
  • Brianna Lindsay Weaver, Ohio University
  • Daniel Bahamon, Full Sail University
  • Stephanie Bouchard, Universite de Quebec a Montreal
  • Steven Edward Mond, University of Virginia
  • Gabriel Stephen Deyerle,  University of Southern California
  • Christopher Bell, Carnegie Mellon University, Entertainment and Technology Center
  • Gillian Smith, UC Santa Cruz
  • Kyle Perkins, Ohio University
  • Ahmad Jaballah, American University in Dubai
  • Nathanael Newby-Kew, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Look for the scholar reports to be posted in the coming weeks.

IGDA Volunteer Events

Each year the IGDA holds several events to say thanks to its volunteers.  The VIP Luncheon is one of those thank yous.  This year 200 IGDA volunteers gathered at the Jillian's Restaurant in the Metreon.  Each year IGDA recognizes a few volunteers for the hard work they put in throughout the previous year.  This year our VIP award winners were Heather Chandler for her work with the Leadership Forum, Marta Daglow for her work during the Executive Director Search, and Wendy Despain for her efforts with the IGDA Magazine,  leading the writers SIG, publishing her 3rd book, and the assembling of a communications team.  Bob Bates was also honored with a Lifetime achievement award and given a special lifetime membership.

The IGDA Chapter and SIG leaders also met Tuesday Evening for a meal at Jillian's to give them special thanks for their efforts in organizing and running IGDA's various groups at the local level.  These same folks met during the day Wednesday to discuss best practices.  These chapter and SIG workshops prove to be extremely valuable as this is one of the few chances throughout the year that this group can gather.

We hope to see everyone again next year at GDC 2011!

 

Thank you to all of our sponsors this year!