VideoBrains November Post Mortem

Another month, another event, another post mortem to pick over the grisly details. I’m a tiny bit late with this one, but I was in Spain helping PocketGamer with the Big Indie Pitch. I’m sorry, I’m not worthy.

Of course, here is where I mention Patreon. I hate to bring it up,. you hate to hear about it – but until someone wants to pay me a salary for doing this it offsets the cost of running the thing.

What Went Well?

Another great round of talks at #VideoBrains – thanks to all speakers, you were all super interesting and intelligent! See y'all next time.

— Tom Battey (@tombattey) November 25, 2014

On the way home from #videobrains. blown away by the variety and quality of the other talks. Get tix for December: https://t.co/lvC2MJwYF2

— ? Mike Cook ? (@mtrc) November 24, 2014

Lots of awesome talks at #VideoBrains. Was especially impressed by aleatoric games, e.g. created from tweets or flight paths.

— David (@everysum) November 25, 2014

I feel like in terms of everything this was the most successful event. The timing and scheduling felt strong and the talks were good.

I can’t think of a single weak moment, and there were a range of emotions from a hushed reverence to hysterical laughter.

That’s a plus.

Lots of people hung out afterwards to tell me that they were interested in pitching talks and that’s fantastic stuff too. Please do keep pitching, I love to hear your talk ideas and try to bring them to life. I’m at Jake@VideoBrains.co.uk

The atmosphere is getting stronger with every event. The crowd are getting behind every single talk and as a result we’re getting better talks. Better talks means better events which mean bigger (but I must stress this doesn’t necessarily mean better, you’re all great) speakers and a more diverse event.

Good work, chaps.

What Went Badly

I feel like I really screwed up on two levels. I feel like both of these are pretty directly my fault so I’ll shoulder the full blame.

My depression started kicking seven shades out of me this month. It’s always present in the background but I usually keep it away from VB. It meant that marketing and indeed even this retrospective for VB slowed down a lot. It’s like wading through treacle. When you’re carrying the event squarely on your shoulders it’s poor form to slow down even a little. I must do better vend du viagra.

The second was diversity. I’m not a box ticking guy, and I hate that viewpoint. This doesn’t mean I don’t think it’s not good practice to try and split speakers 50/50 across genders, and that’s generally something I aim to do. There’s a whole lot of mid 20’s white dudes involved in videogames (I’m one, hello!) and while this should be their platform as much as anyone elses, it’s great to get different views.

I’d like to say that before I’ve done this pretty well. In this case however some last minute drop outs meant that there was a few more white dudes than normal as I brought some speakers forwards to cover the gap.

VideoBrains was really good! Shame there were so many white men, but you should go to the next one in December: http://t.co/EgphR95QdT

— Alan Hazelden (@Draknek) November 25, 2014

It was noticed.

I feel this was something of a low point, but it’s just a case of finding enough speakers that aren’t white 20something dudes. 50% of my pitches come from that range alone.

Also the lights blew mid event due to a leak above the venue. It made some of the photos and videos come out badly. Charlie’s on the case. We can’t really change the lights blowing but it’s still A BAD THING ™

Things to Consider

People showed up at 7 this time. Fantastic news. We still ran a bit over, but that’s because I talked about Far Cry 4 for way too long. I think we could probably do with trimming down from 7 talks to 6, and adjusting talk slots from 15/30 minutes to 15/25 minutes. It’s a small change, but I think it’ll really help.

Obviously, if I were to go for 6 this wouldn’t come into play until.. February because excitingly I’m basically fully booked until then. As I write this the final prep for ChristmasBrains is underway and I’m intensely regretting agreeing to two separate events within 3 weeks and I know the team are feeling the strain too.

But it’s a good strain. We love you guys.

Thanks

The VB team: Will Blackstock, Emma Sinclair, Charlie Firth and Alan Williamson. 

Our speakers:  Rob Morgan, Christos Reid, Jenni Goodchild, Sean Oxspring, Mike Cook, Gwyn Morfey and Ben Meridith

I’d like to thank Rob Morgan seperately for a few things he’s helped me out with that I’m not ready to announce yet, and Jenni Goodchild, Will Blackstock and Tim Skew but similar thanks for secret things.

Christmas is nearly upon us, the last few paid tickets are still available here: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/videobrains-christmasbrains-tickets-14149173559?aff=erelexporg