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The GDC Connect tools for arranging meetings with business contacts & mentors at GDC 2020 is now online with significantly expanded access -- so sign up today and start setting up productive meetings!

January 10, 2020

3 Min Read

Every year the global game industry gathers at the Game Developers Conference, making it a premier destination for building connections and meeting with mentors.

GDC offers a whole suite of tools to help you do that via GDC Connect, and today organizers are excited to announce that it's live and features significant changes for 2020 – the tool is now available to all pass holders, including expo passes, and attendee to attendee meetings are now supported.

Once you sign up you can start preparing your schedule using the GDC Connect Meetings & Mentoring tool to identify, contact, and request/receive meetings with GDC exhibitors of all kinds, either in exhibitor booths or the special GDC Connect Lounge, as well as fellow attendees.

Start checking it early and often, because new opportunities and contacts will continue to pour into GDC Connect from now through the start of the show!

Plus, you can take advantage of the new Mentoring toolset (intended to help encourage game development professionals to continue and grow in their personal careers) by logging into the GDC Connect matchmaking tool and selecting a mentoring session type that meets your needs.

Mentors, comprised of seasoned professionals across all sections of the industry, will be matched with you via the system, and meetings will take place on-site in the GDC Mentoring lounge.

Mentoring session formats include:

  • 120 minute one-on-one: This format can be important for certain kinds of feedback. For example, using some of the time to playtest a new game, talking to the devs about their goals and business options, and helping formulate possible plans for the future for the project.

  • 60 minute one-on-one: This format is really effective for slightly broader problem sets - where are you trying to go with your career, what are the business possibilities for this game, let's explore a wider swath of the design of this thing, let's talk about specific level design things, etc.

  • 30 minute one-on-one: This format is really effective for focused, specific things: portfolio/CV reviews, soliciting feedback on a part of a game or on a small mobile game, soliciting advice on a specific business problem.

  • 60 minute Q&A: This is somewhere between a roundtable and a session. It consists of 10-15 mentees, and 1-3 mentors fielding the questions/moderating. These will be set up based around a topic area determined by the expertise represented in our mentor pool and best suited for mentors with strong facilitation/moderator skills.

To allow as many GDC attendees as possible to participate in the program, only one session selection may be made. New sessions will be added each week prior to GDC, so check back regularly for more options!

Continue planning out your GDC 2020 experience via the official GDC 2020 Schedule Builder, which adds new talks every week!

For more details on GDC 2020 visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.

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