[arg_discuss] ARG SIG Conference

[Wendy Despain]

Hey Burcu,

We're definitely excited about this idea and hoping for input from
everybody. We spent a lot of time thinking about how this idea impacts
ARGfest, and whether we should try to combine, or not.

Our conclusion (and one of the people on the SIG leadership council is
an ARGfest organizer as well) was that these really should remain two
different conferences.

Unfiction is really a tight-knit community, and ARGfest is really
their opportunity to get together in real life and cement those online
relationships and celebrate ARGs. I've been to ARGfest (sadly, only
once) and it's a great conference, very focused and unique.

But this conference run by the ARG SIG is really reaching for a
broader audience. Everyone from Unfiction is certainly included in
that audience, and we hope they'll attend, for sure. But we're also
hoping to include everyone who is vaguely interested in anything
ARG-like - not just people who have been building relationships on
Unfiction.

We're hoping to make it a meeting between the creative side of ARGs
and the business side. While this may be fascinating to a lot of
Unfiction members - others at Unfiction prefer to remain as players,
not peeking behind the curtain so much. And we want to allow Unfiction
to go on celebrating and growing ARGfest without trying to get too
many cooks in the kitchen and diluting their focus.

Does that make sense? I really think we're talking about two very
different events. ARGfest has a great homey, community vibe. I'm
hoping our SIG conference (whatever it's called) has more of a
professional, business,
my-employer-paid-for-this-trip-so-it-better-be-valuable vibe.

I think ARGfest would lose something if we tried to shoe-horn it into
a conference like that.

And I think our large ARG-related community could really use a meeting
of the minds between television producers, book publishers, ARG
creators, advertising studios, etc. All the people and businesses ARGs
touch, but who may not be as invested in ARGs as the Unfiction
community is.

Does that make sense? I hope so! Like I said, we definitely want to
hear everyone's thoughts on this, but we've already looked at it from
quite a few angles, and we've come to the conclusion that this is the
way to go. If we're wrong, we definitely want to know! But I hope
laying out our reasoning helps to explain where we're coming from on
this.

Wendy Despain
ARG SIG Leadership Council




On Thu, August 6, 2009 12:40 pm, Burcu Bakioglu wrote:

>  Andrea, what a great idea! From my extensive experience in Second

> Life Community Conventions, I recommend that we combine ARGFest and

> the ARG sig conference under one roof so the participation would

> increase on both events. Otherwise people would choose one over the

> other and neither would be too well-atended. It would needlessly

> introduce a separation between acadeic topics and community related

> topics and weaken both events. Right now I am in ohio going back to

> Indiana, but I can write a more extensive email on this upon my

> return tonight. We don't want to weaken ARGFest and undermine

> unfiction. Also this joint venture would bring in more investors and

> make financing easier...

>

> Two cents...

>

> *hugs* to all missed you already :)

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: Andrea Phillips <andrhia at gmail.com>

> Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 2:48 PM

> To: Discussion list of the IGDA ARG SIG <arg_discuss at igda.org>

> Subject: [arg_discuss] ARG SIG Conference

>

> Behind the scenes, your SIG leadership has been hard at work scheming

> up new schemes and plotting new plots for the benefit of all ARGkind.

> Our newest brainwave is this: Let's hold a conference! But we need

> your help in establishing what would be a good time and place for such

> an event.

>

> To that end, could you please spend one minute answering two simple

> questions on this teeny-tiny survey?

>

> http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=YXlKrEov0jt_2bHyY8ZVpuCg_3d_3d

>

> Thanks bunches!

>

> --

> Andrea Phillips

> http://www.aaphillips.com

> AIM: Andrh1a * Skype: Andrhia

> Words * Culture * Interaction

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Wendy Despain
quantumcontent.com