Do it separately, or some shows will do a virtual event before or afterwards."Ĭorrigan adds that it put a strain on the GDC team, doubling the workload without doubling the resources. You truly have to be there for it, so the recommendation is to focus. "Regardless of what we do with the virtual event, we cannot replicate that in-person experience. Even if they have access to livestreams of every talk, it's hard to escape photos of social media of networking parties and other gatherings, making those at home feel more isolated. She cites research by Explori, a data insights firm specialising in events, which recommends against hybrid events because virtual attendees are likely to feel like they're missing out on the full experience. "2022 was our first year back in person, but this year really feels like the full return of GDC" Ashley Corrigan, Informa "But doing virtual events, it's actually very cost-prohibitive to livestream everything so we realised we really needed to focus GDC 2023 on the in-person audience." "There was a lot of confusion around it, and virtual attendees wanted access to everything," Hawkins explains. But on reflection, this didn't work out quite as well as the team envisaged. ![]() It granted access to livestreams for everything on the main stage, including the keynotes and the awards, as well as a selection of other sessions. Knowing that not everyone was ready to return to large-scale events last year, the GDC 2022 team attempted to cater for those people via a virtual pass. We've got all of our community partners, we've got Day of the Devs, we'll still have Alt Ctrl, and also have the IGF Pavilion."Īttendees this year can also expect a focus on recruitment and accessibility, complete with a section dedicated to the latter at Alt Ctrl. "Everyone was a little wary after COVID, and we had fewer attendees as well. "Last year, we didn't have our community lounges on the show floor, Day of the Devs wasn't able to come, so we were missing some of those partnerships that we normally have," says Hawkins. This year, in addition to bringing GDC back to full strength, they are also keen to facilitate connections between attendees. After former leader Katie Stern departed in April 2022, the responsibility for GDC 2023 fell to Corrigan and director of event production Stephanie Hawkins, supported by other members of the Informa team.Ĭorrigan has been working on GDC for seven years now, originally as a coordinator on the content team, while Hawkins has spent ten years at the event's parent company, working on various events (including GDC) but now focused primarily on the renowned developer conference. We get one shot every year, so it has to be good."Ĭorrigan is one of two people presented as the new faces of GDC. "But as long as we do what we do best and what we're known for, we can build on that and innovate. "Obviously we need to do new things to keep it interesting and fresh, so we do have to strike a balance to ensure we're not biting off more than we can chew. ![]() "2022 was our first year back in person, but this year really feels like the full return of GDC and I want to do what we do really, really well," she tells. ![]() This year, however, senior conference manager Ashley Corrigan is confident the event will be more in line with past years. While there was a contingent of developers happy to return to the Moscone Center last year, it wasn't quite on the scale that has come to be expected of GDC. Plenty of companies and individuals were still wary of travel, especially as outbreaks of COVID-19 were still occurring around some large events. It was the first time the annual developer conference had returned to San Francisco since the pandemic began, and the industry wasn't quite sure what to expect. ![]() Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox
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