Game Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP) is probably the biggest annual event in the country aimed at both seasoned and budding developers. I know I’ll be doing my best to get to Brisbane for the conference, even though it’s not quite the show it used to be. And the warmer climate makes my fingers sweat.
Say you’re an experienced dev. You’d like to go to GCAP and share your hints, tips and valuable advice. Heck, the reason people will be coming to the conference is to hear you, and many others, share your knowledge. Then you find out that, in addition to paying for admission to the conference, you have to pay to speak as well.
Pandemic coder (and part-time console performance judge) Tony Albrecht found himself in this situation. Here’s what he had to say:
So, if I want to speak at this conference, I have to pay full conference registration and I have to pay up front part of that registration for the privilege. Now, I understand that this is to prevent people from dropping out after they’ve committed to speaking, but is this really the right way to do it? Threaten us?
If you want good speakers, provide good benefits. Make people want to donate a considerable amount of their own time in order to present a good session. Yes, it means that you won’t get registration fees from those 20 or so speakers, but if so few people are registering that you really need the fees from those people that actually make the show worth attending, then I think you’ve got greater problems than just financial ones.
I agree – GCAP would be largely pointless without speakers. In fact, the sessions are a highlight!
Albrecht doesn’t finish without providing his own ideas as to how the GDAA can get speakers to come without insulting them. He also throws in a few suggestions as to how the event as a whole can be improved to get attendence numbers up.
What? I have to PAY to speak? [Seven Degree Of Freedom]
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