GDC 2016 is here and Latin America will be present!
Next week, thousands of game developers will gather in the most important annual event of the industry: the Game Developers Conference, or GDC.
As every year, the event will take place in the bohemian city of San Francisco, on the west coast of the United States. From March Monday 13th to Friday 17th, both professionals and amateurs will attend lectures, workshops and panel discussions that will be held in the halls of Moscone Center and the surrounding buildings.
Besides academic activities, the GDC Expo runs from Wednesday to Friday: a place where publishers, development studios and technology vendors showcase their products and services to the rest of the industry. There are also business meetings in which development studios seek financing for their projects, while publishers and license owners seek studios to develop their games.
And of course, there are also several social gatherings and meetups which main purpose is to facilitate the networking, allowing industry actors to meet, talk and grow their contacts network.
It is therefore an unmissable appointment for those seeking to emerge and grow in this industry.
Chileans and Latinos at GDC
When I first attended GDC in 2006, I saw few Latinos at the event.
From Chile, for example, I travelled with Carlos Bordeu and Tiburcio de la Cárcova to represent Wanako Games, and I’m not sure if there was another Chilean company there. Esteban Sosnik, the Wanako Games partner that lived in the United States, joined us there. I remember there was a day when we had lunch with a group of Argentinian friends of him who were at the event, but beyond that group, I do not remember meeting more Latinos.
Ten years later, the picture has changed completely.
This year, for example, there are more than twenty Chilean companies in the appointment, in a delegation that surely exceeds fifty people. I also know that there are many companies travelling from Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Uruguay, Mexico and Brazil. Besides, I’m sure there are at least a couple of representatives from each of the other countries in the region where the industry has emerged in recent years.
In addition to attending lectures and academic activities, participating in business meetings and enjoying the parties and social gatherings, some of the Latin American delegations also participate with a booth at the GDC Expo.
In the case of Chile, for the fifth consecutive year, it is ProChile who organizes the presence of local developers in the exhibition, together with the Chilean Developers Association or VG Chile. They will be at Booth #118 showing a variety of national games and giving the opportunity to suppliers and publishers from other regions to know the quality of Chilean products and the talent of Chilean professionals.
Latin American Meetup at GDC
The Latino presence has become so significant that, two years ago, a group of representatives from the Latin American countries decided to organize the first Latin American Meetup at GDC. It was Press Start, a Colombian company with presence in San Francisco, who led the staging of the event, and the result tremendously successful.
Not only the vast majority of Latino developers who were in the city were present, but it was also attended by a lot of Americans, Europeans and Asians who were keen to make commercial and strategic contacts with their Latino peers.
After two successful editions, this year the event will be repeated. On Tuesday 15th at 18:30 in the Swig Bar, the Third Latin American Meetup at GDC will be held, and several hundreds of people related to game development industry are expected to attend.
Whether in the conference, exhibition, business meetings or parties, I’m sure it will be a memorable week for everyone who will attend. I hope they will not only learn a lot and gain professional experience, but also that they forge and strengthen links with other relevant industry players.
Much success to everyone at GDC 2016!
Juan Pablo makes videogames since he was 8 and he is a father since 2004. Today, he has three children and he has worked in more than 20 videogames. He got interested on how paternity and the videogame industry are related and he decided to write about it, founding "Papa Game Dev".
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