GDC events family now "complete" - Scavio
Conference director doesn't anticipate further show locations in the near future
The current line-up of GDC events looks set to continue for the foreseeable future as-is, with no plans to add new locations to the business calendar on top of the San Francisco, Europe, Online, Canada and China brands that currently exist.
That's according to GDC 2010 conference director Meggan Scavio, who told GamesIndustry.biz that while she constantly receives requests for events in new cities or countries around the world, she felt that the current line-up represented the industry effectively - and that future changes would need to be led by changing trends.
"I see it as complete," she explained. "I get a message a week from somebody who wants a GDC here, or a GDC there - they want it in Boston, England, Korea, Italy, South America... frankly there are these pocket communities, but I'm not sure it's beneficial to follow them everywhere.
And responding to a question on whether or not an emerging market - such as South America - might grow enough to make a GDC event viable there in the future, she was clear that new events wouldn't be created for the sake of it.
"Yes - but we have to wait for those communities to grow before we go there," she said. "GDC Europe and GDC in San Francisco are very similar in format and track set-up. GDC Online and GDC China are truly separate - maybe there'll be some other segment that pops up, maybe GDC Social some day, but we really follow what the industry dictates.
"Right now it represents the industry, and it needs to represent the industry. It started as CGDC, which was the Computer Game Developers Conference, and at some point around 1998-99 the Computer part was dropped, because there were all these consoles...
"So the role is to follow the trends, and you can even see that in our advisory board. They're not all working for giant publishers or studios any more, they're all going independent, social, online... it should always stay true to what's happening."
The full interview with Scavio, in which she discusses the highlights for the event in San Francisco next week and predicts what the key topic of conversation on the show floor will be, is available now.