Help me find a good gaming conference

May 21, 2012 9:41 AM

Social Gaming Dev Conferences - what are the absolutely can't miss social gaming conferences for developers, start ups and creatives around the U.S.?

My new boss has asked me to find a few conferences taking place anywhere in the U.S. over the next 6 months for he and I to attend in order to:

1) promote our brand and capabilities (brand agency working in social media/gaming)

2) network for the purposes of finding partners and projects/clients

3) stay on top of trends and new developments in the industry

I'm new to this and obviously I can google, however what I can't do yet is know how to separate the wheat from the chaff. There are hundreds of little conferences of varying pedigree and I'd prefer not to waste time at ones that might just be the gaming equivalent of a moonie wedding.

posted by spicynuts to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

The Game Developers Conference in San Fransisco wouldnt be a bad place to start, but Im pretty sure it happened a couple months ago. Also obviously E3 is the industry standard convention, and I think its going to be coming up in a couple months.
posted by KeSetAffinityThread at 12:19 PM on May 21, 2012

You probably don't have enough time for E3, as I think registration is over. GDC in San Francisco is in March, so that's not in the next 6 months. Both are large and attended by everyone, though GDC is more for developers and E3 is more for the press.

I recommend GDC Austin in October, which focuses on online and social gaming. Pretty much everyone of importance in social and online (including MMOs) games will have representatives there and most will have speakers running sessions.
posted by subject_verb_remainder at 2:01 PM on May 21, 2012