[In her first post for the GDC weblog, Game Developers Conference event director Meggan Scavio welcomes you to this year's event.]

A new GDC season is upon us, the 23rd to be exact and my 10th. What milestones have we crossed over the last 23 years? Quite a few actually.

Let me take you back to 1987, when we were called the Computer Game Developers Conference and we were in a living room with a few names you might recognize: Don Daglow, Tim Brengle, Chris Crawford and Gordon Walton, to name a few. Fast forward through Milpitas, Santa Clara, Long Beach, and San Jose to our current landing spot: San Francisco.

Over the years, we’ve witnessed the games industry mature into a form of mainstream entertainment through generations of increasingly accessible platforms and innovations.

With maturity and growth comes opportunity, and GDC 2009 hopes to remind you of that. With content that speaks directly to the kinds of new business ideas and development challenges you face, this year’s GDC promises to inspire us all.

I look forward to seeing you in March as well as updating you along the way on exciting GDC developments via the Bosslady blog. Stay tuned for more!

Meggan Scavio
GDC Event Director

[Meggan and her colleagues will be posting regular updates from behind the scenes through the lead-up to next March's Game Developers Conference 2009, including content reveals and other helpful information. You can subscribe individually to the GDC News blog via its RSS feed.]

Posted by at 10:19 AM | Permalink

Game Developers Conference organizer Think Services has opened registration for next year's GDC event, to be held in San Francisco's Moscone Center from March 23 to 27, 2009.

Also announced was the addition of new summits falling under the GDC umbrella. These summits, which take place on the Monday and Tuesday of GDC week, are aimed at providing specialized coverage for various crucial development categories and practices.

In addition, the traditional Wednesday to Friday main conference, including major keynotes and existing Audio, Business, Game Design, Production, Programming, and Visual Arts tracks will continue for 2009.

Newly established Monday-Tuesday summits include the AI Summit and Localization Summit, bringing the total summit count to nine, as follows:

- AI Summit
- Casual Games Summit
- Game Outsourcing Summit
- GDC Mobile
- Independent Games Summit
- IGDA Education Summit
- Localization Summit
- Serious Games Summit
- Worlds in Motion Summit

Longstanding GDC initiatives such as the GDC Career Pavilion, the Independent Games Festival, the Game Developers Choice Awards, and the Game Career Seminar will also continue.

"You can expect more specialized content through our new and existing summits in conjunction with compelling talks in our main conference," said event director Meggan Scavio, a 10-year veteran of the conference.

"The Game Developers Conference prides itself on continually improving the conference experience based on the needs of our attendees and the industry. With the help of feedback from the community, our advisory board, and editorial staff, we've crafted a conference this year that speaks to the changing landscape of the games industry."

More information on next year's GDC line-up, hotel details and registration specifics are available on the official Game Developers Conference 2009 website.

Posted by Staff at 2:53 PM | Permalink