Promoting Professional Geekery #24: Start a Meetup

you've got cons, you've got your video viewings, you've got your midnight runs with your gaming group to get pancakes.  You've got a lot of social events, my progeeks.

So if you want to keep promoting professional geekery, why not make an event just for career geeks like you?

It's easy – you take a coffee shop or cafe, coordinate with various geek groups, and/or throw it up on http://www.meetup.com/.  Then keep doing it until you bloody well help people.

There's a variety of things you can do:

  • Have people swap job search tips.
  • Help the unemployed network.
  • Do workshops.
  • Commiserate and drink alcoholic beverages.
  • Have particular themes.
  • Run oddball documentaries on the history of your industries.

Of course whatever benefits these actions have, it also means that people will A) appreciate the potential of professional geekery, and B) They'll be drawn closer together.

Really it just helps for people to have a place to meet with fellow and future pros, whatever you do.  It's outside of other events so people aren't distracted, but formal enough that you can work together to help each other out.

Or do the drinking thing.  Hey, whatever works. 

Steven Savage

 

Game Career News 2/7/2012

The bad: EA appears to be having layoffs in Vancouver.  It doesn't sound too big, but still bad for those losing their jobs, and it might be worth seeing if this is the start of something bigger.

The good: Ignition games raised $5 million for a realistic driving game.  I'm sure you could help them spend the money, so send a resume.

(Also, is it just me, or do driving games never go out of style no matter what?)

Steven Savage

ACTA Protests All Over

The article shows how people are protesting against it – and more.  Maps, quotes and more will help you get an idea of how incredibly angry people are.

Money Quote: "This is not Hollywood versus Silicon Valley, as oldmedia likes to frame it. This is Hollywood versus The People."

To bring it a bit more into focus for the blog, it appears a lot of businesses who make media have continued to make a lot of enemies who are very aware – and are unifying.  This is big for us who speak to progeekery because you can expect A) some strange last-gasp activities from Big Media, and B) A lot of changes, reactions, overreactions, new ventures, and more to come out of this.

It also means, beyond the great political and economic and ethical discussions, those of us working in media are going to face – one way or another – a vastly different future than we we would have expected years or decades ago.  It's only how the change will be handled that differs.

Steven Savage