Last week I was in San Francisco to attend Casual Connect. I’ve never been to San Francisco before, so I made sure to add a few days for sightseeing (and if you’re interested, here are all the pictures I took during my trip).
I’ve attended Casual Connect twice before, when it was held in Seattle. But both of those times I went only for the IGDA Summit, not for the full conference. Last year a friend recommended that I attend the entire conference, so I listened to her advice and got myself a full pass. That pass got me into the IGDA Summit as well, so I was able to sit in on their talks again this year.
I didn’t end up attending many of the talks during the first two days. The first day I spent figuring out the layout of the conference (it was rather maze-like) and talking to people at all the booths. The IGDA Summit started on day 2, but instead of sitting in on the talks I ended up spending a lot of time at the Indie Showcase, playing games and chatting with the developers. While I did sit in on some talks on day 3, I wasn’t able to see everything that interested me; I’m going to catch the ones I missed (from all three days!) once they’re available online.
The one thing I missed was having a dedicated after-hours hangout spot like GDC Online’s Gingerman. I know that the previous Casual Connects I’ve been to didn’t have anything like that either, but it would be really nice if they did. While there was no dedicated place to meet people, there were some great parties put on by the sponsors.
All in all, Casual Connect was a great conference. I hope I’ll be able to go back again next year!
An Acquaintance with Letters 