Women in Games Networking Breakfast at GCAP 07
Last Friday was the inaugural Women in Games Networking Breakfast, held at GCAP 07. It was great to see all the familiar faces I recognise from the local development studios, and lovely to meet some new ones too. We had an attendance of 37, with women making up the vast majority, which was great to see, as well as a refreshing change! Most were from development, with a smattering of educators and people from the Victorian Government.
From the outset, it was clear that everyone had a lot to talk about. As part of the breakfast, we had a few questions as discussion starters:
- What issues relating to being a female in the game industry, if any, do you face?
- How is your organisation promoting careers for women in the game industry?
- How can we work as a group to promote careers in the game industry to women?
Several issues came up again and again, such as attitudes of male developers, maternity pay, what games women want to play, marketing and education. Perhaps we should have gone on camp for a couple of weeks, rather than done a breakfast! These issues are all pretty large so they’ll all be covered in their own blog posts later.
Women in Games received a lot of offers to help from everyone there - believing that many hands make light work, our aim with this breakfast was to galvanise support and to create a group that women developers would a) feel comfortable in, and b) have some ownership of, and I think - hope! - that we set the ball rolling.
Many thanks to the AIE for funding the catering, and the GDAA for the use of the room.