Announcing GameCamp - first barcamp unconference for gamers

And you know what, the overwhelming and resouding response was....silence. No one had ever heard of a BarCamp for games. And so we at TheGuardian have decided to sort that out, with the assistance of Adrianand Dan Hon at Six to Start, Rachel Clarke at Bibrik and TheDaveGreenfrom GameCity (and NTK) - plus kind support from Sony (who're hostingthe event) and Nintendo.
Welcome to GameCamp- a free event, open to all, on Saturday 3 May in trendy East London.Keep reading for more information. And for goodness sake, record yourinterest at Upcoming!
WHAT IS GAMECAMP?
GameCamp is a free, public one-day event for people interested ingaming and play. The objective is simple: to talk informally withlike-minded people and get excited about stuff involving games of allkinds.
We've already confirmed some stellar attendees from across the gamesbiz - from founding fathers to revolutionaries to cogs in the machine.Expect a whole spectrum of games-related people to be there! Plus,Harmonix's Rock Band. Yes, Rock Band.
HOW GAMECAMP WORKS
GameCamp is a communal "unconference" run along the principles of BarCamp.
That means EVERYBODY is encouraged to join in and be ready to give a talk, take part in a discussion or run a session.
We let you decide what the order of the day is: in the morning, onceeveryone has registered, you'll get a chance to add your session to TheGrid - the editable conference schedule that's posted on a wall at thevenue. This cacophony of blu-tac and sheets of A4 paper will list allthe rooms and times that are available for the day, letting everyonesee at a glance which sessions are coming up, and decide on the onesthey're most interested in attending.
The sessions are arranged as half-hour blocks split across severalrooms, with 15 minute breaks between each period. We'll take a 45minute break for lunch at about 1.30pm and will convene at the end ofthe day to wrap things up.
Running a session doesn't mean you need to prepare a speech -remember, the day is meant to be informal and fun - but you should havea good idea of the subjects you are interested in. This is a chance totry things out, to try new ideas, NOT just to run through the samepresentation you've used before.
You might want to talk about something you've been working on, butwe don't necessarily need to know how great your latest game is. Infact, some of the best presentations at BarCamps have avoided pitchesaltogether. Like 'How To Make A World-Class Martini (with tastingsession)'. You might want to organise your session around the bestGuitar Hero techniques, your top Open Source Game picks, or your latesttheory on game design. We like people who are prepared to get stuck in,try new things and bring some fun to proceedings.
THE BASICS
What: One-day event about games and play
When: Saturday May 3, 11am - 5.30pm
Where: 15 Hanbury Street, London, E1 6QR
How: Bring your imagination and something you'd like to talk about
Why: Why not?
How many: There is room for 120 - but there are limited placesavailable. We're opening up the public registration on Monday 21stApril, so add an alarm to your calendar; we're allocating tickets on afirst-come-first-served basis!
Props to Chris Mac Morrison who designed the GameCamp 2008 logo.