trendpreneur

Money’s important, especially in current times (trite, but true). So how do you make it go as far as possible?

One way is to get a free pass into a highly-regarded industry conference, and today’s tip is for anyone in gaming — or who wants to be. The Conference Associate program at GDC (the Game Developers Conference), for those accepted, is basically a free ticket loaded with extras. Having taken part for the 2008 conference, I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Becoming a CA gets you instant membership into a warm, tight-knit ‘family’ of people from all sorts of backgrounds — students, developers, gamers, freelancers, and so on. Not only do you get to wear a brightly coloured t-shirt and feel important (contributing about 20 hours of mainly stewarding work to help the conference run smoothly), you get an all access pass, a great community and plenty of free lunches. Plus, there’s accommodation help so you get to make your first new friends from day one. It’s impossible to stay shy for long as a CA, and although it’s undoubtedly work you can avoid by paying the entry fee, it’s well worth it.

I’ve not seen similar programs for other conferences, and I wish there were more in existence. The networks created by these behind-the-scenes volunteers are as valuable as the money saved in the first place, and those wanting to travel to interesting events on a budget — burgeoning bloggers, startups, and the aforementioned students, at least — get a chance to make life easier for the organisers as well as benefit themselves. Still, if you’re interested in gaming, try the CA program — I’ll hopefully be doing so again next year.

[Flickr photo by Yuan-Ho Chlang.]

Update, November 2009: The CA program registration for 2010 is now open, apply before Jan 14th (applications sent later will be put on the reserve list if accepted). Hot tip straight from Tim and Ian: write a great application essay!