GameCamp May 3, 2008

Announcing GameCamp! Brought to you by the good people at The Guardian, Six to Start, Bibrik Ltd and NTK.

Holy cow - an unconference....about games?! Indeedy - we're importing the BarCamp model to interactive entertainment, and YOU are invited.

There are 120 places up for grabs, so put your name down as 'attending' if you're interested in joining in the fun. NOTE: PUTTING YOUR NAME DOWN HERE DOESN'T GUARANTEE A PLACE. We're opening up the event to the public on Monday 21 April.

We've already confirmed some stellar attendees from across the games biz - from founding fathers to revolutionaries to cogs in the machine. Expect a whole spectrum of games-related people to be there!

THE BASICS
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What: One-day event about games and play
When: Saturday May 3, 11am – 5.30pm
Where: 15 Hanbury Street, London, E1 6QR
How: Bring your imagination and something you’d like to talk about
Why: Why not?

WHAT IS GAMECAMP?
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GameCamp is a free, public one-day event for people interested in gaming and play. The objective is simple: to talk informally with like-minded people and get excited about stuff involving games of all kinds.

WHAT GAMECAMP ISN’T
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GameCamp is NOT a business networking event, and it’s NOT a chance to pitch ideas – although you might meet people you’d like to work with.

HOW GAMECAMP WORKS
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GameCamp is a communal “unconference” run along the principles of BarCamp – visit http://www.barcamp.org for more details.

That means EVERYBODY is encouraged to join in and be ready to give a talk, take part in a discussion or run a session.

We let you decide what the order of the day is: in the morning, once everyone has registered, you’ll get a chance to add your session to The Grid – the editable conference schedule that’s posted on a wall at the venue. This cacophony of blu-tac and sheets of A4 paper will list all the rooms and times that are available for the day, letting everyone see at a glance which sessions are coming up, and decide on the ones they’re most interested in attending.

The sessions are arranged as half-hour blocks split across several rooms, with 15 minute breaks between each period. We’ll take a 45 minute break for lunch at about 1.30pm and will convene at the end of the day to wrap things up.

Running a session doesn’t mean you need to prepare a speech – remember, the day is meant to be informal and fun – but you should have a good idea of the subjects you are interested in. This is a chance to try things out, to try new ideas, NOT just to run through the same presentation you’ve used before.

You might want to talk about something you’ve been working on, but we don’t necessarily need to know how great your latest game is. In fact, some of the best presentations at BarCamps have avoided pitches altogether. Like ‘How To Make A World-Class Martini (with tasting session)’. You might want to organise your session around the best Guitar Hero techniques, your top Open Source Game picks, or your latest theory on game design. We like people who are prepared to get stuck in, try new things and bring some fun to proceedings.

WHO IS GAMECAMP?
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GameCamp’s primary sponsor is the Guardian.

We are also very grateful to Sony, who are hosting the event, and Nintendo for their assistance.

And let’s not forget our crack team of idea ninjas: Bobbie Johnson, Aleks Krotoski, Dan and Adrian Hon, Rachel Clarke and Dave Green. Our logo was designed by Chris Mac Morrison.

IS THERE MORE?
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Full details are available on the Guardian website at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamecamp

Official Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamecamp