Very excited about my first time to attend the Game Developers Conference. I flew into San Francisco Sunday afternoon so that I would be able to get up bright and early to hit the ground running for GDC the next morning, even signing in early late Sunday afternoon. Had a light dinner and was in bed early, all access press pass clutched in my hand – ready to hit the ground running bright and early.
I don’t like to plan out these types of events too stringently because something inevitably catches my eye and my plans go out the window. So I woke up, grabbed a sandwich and coffee at Starbucks and was ready to go at 8am. I took a quick glance at the GDC app while at Starbucks and it hit me - nothing really kicks off till 10. Wow!
Actually I take that back, because of all of the several hangout lounges that open at 10 (Intel Hangout Lounge, Xbox Lobby Bar, Xbox Lounge, Playstation Lounge, etc.) the Ubisoft Lounge actually opened at 9:30. All the sessions start at 10 am and the Expo (starts on Wednesday) will open at 10 as well. So my first lesson learned for attending GDC, go ahead and stay out late, sleep late into the morning and ease into the first session that attracts you.
The only thing open early was the official press room, at 8:30 am. So here I am at 8:30 telling you that I have nothing really to tell you so far. The weather is nice, hotel is nice, the layout of GDC is nice. I’m getting ready to hit my first session: Opportunities in Asia: Insights and Strategies for Western Mobile Developers presented by Josh Burns, a mobile gaming industry consultant - should be interesting.