Creating a video games industry event in NYC

March 16, 2007 9:15 AM

"Video game meetup in NYC" or "Help me not get fired from the coolest job ever."

Okay, so I recently got an incredible dream job covering the video game industry for a financial research firm. While most aspects of it are going great the one area I am not getting much traction in is finding people in the city to actually talk to about video games. What I would really like is have a monthly meetup/party/event with people who work in the space such as developers and journalists and analysts and such to drink and hang out and talk about what's going on. People who are into games in general would also of course be welcome, but I'd like to keep some focus and also avoid having people who are scarily obsessed with video games or are just looking for an open bar.

My limited google-fu has failed to show me anything like this going on currently. Does anyone know of anything like this already happening? If not, anyone have any suggestions on how to get something like this going? Kotaku had an event like that at Barcade in Brooklyn a few months ago, but of course they had a popular blog/news site to announce the event from. I could probably get money to cover a fairly chunky bar tab from my company, but I'm not exactly looking to invest in advertising. Also, I've never really hosted any party/events before so any suggestions would be appreciated, though if they were more slanted toward this specific situation they would of course be more helpful.

posted by frieze to sports, hobbies, & recreation (11 comments total)

I would think meetup.com would be a good place to start, and I'd be surprised if they didn't have a healthy gaming group already going. That wouldn't necessarily bring you a group full of developers, but it would probably give you a number of intelligent people that know what they're talking about.

Also, adholes.com is a networking thing for marketing/design types - I'm sure you could find developers on there. Otherwise, look around for message boards that focus on the things you're talking about. You'll always find people that are eager to get a group together over drinks, especially in New York.
posted by empty commercial spaces at 9:39 AM on March 16, 2007

Well that was easy. I should have just put my new question wording into google. I am not smart.
posted by frieze at 9:44 AM on March 16, 2007

Also, I'd love to come - contact info in my profile.
posted by empty commercial spaces at 9:50 AM on March 16, 2007

I'm part of a group called nextNY (http://www.nextny.org) which consists of up and coming entrepreneurs, engineers, investors, strategists, bloggers, designers… all sorts of people in NYC’s tech and digital media industry.

We organize various types panels, events, and social meetups for people interested in digital media and technology inh New York City. We haven't done any video games industry events yet but that would definitely be something a lot of people would be excited about.

If you need help setting up your event, the members of nextNY would be a great resource. Anyone can run an event and the group generally pitches in to find space, speakers, etc. There are instructions on running an event here:
http://www.nextny.org/wiki/show/Welcome
posted by lsemel at 10:05 AM on March 16, 2007

As far as advertising goes, Meetup.com will be a good part of that, but you could also target area bloggers and journalists for a little note. They may not have the traffic of Kotaku, but every little bit helps. Might try sending out a small blurb of a release to a few companies as well.

I have a video games blog in a state of development, and my boyfriend is in video games journalism (mostly volunteer and freelance until the real break comes, but he's been published on IGN and runs a site section on a certain network). We're local. I'm sure you can find lots of good people through word of mouth and a few notices. Gaming people tend to know each other, especially in NY as it's on a much smaller scale than over in CA.

Good luck.
posted by cmgonzalez at 10:15 AM on March 16, 2007

http://www.igda.org/nyc/

These guys have meetings several times a year. There's one coming up soon, actually.
posted by Mikey-San at 10:34 AM on March 16, 2007

You can always try to work out something with the P-A guys, maybe you'll get some traction there.
posted by iamabot at 10:35 AM on March 16, 2007

Ah, correction:

The IDGA NY chapter isn't meeting soon, but the IDGA-announce list mentioned a similar meetup happening soon.

http://www.largeanimal.com/wigi/
posted by Mikey-San at 10:36 AM on March 16, 2007

Have you company donate $X dollars to Child's Play Charity and ask the Penny Arcade Guys to mention what you are trying to accomplish. You will be shortly overrun.
posted by Ynoxas at 12:05 PM on March 16, 2007

Seconding the IGDA.
posted by Joh at 2:32 PM on March 16, 2007

You might also try looking for larger LAN parties in your area. smaller ones will most likely be just a group of people playing games, but larger LAN's are sponsored and will have company reps attending, might be a good place to stop by for a day and see who you can meet.
posted by efalk at 3:37 PM on March 16, 2007