Background

The Game Developers Conference is the largest professional gathering in the game development industry, held annually in San Francisco. As president of the Illinois Tech chapter of the International Game Developers Association, I wanted to find a way to get Illinois Tech students there.

Planning the Trip

The Idea

Getting students to GDC is not as simple as booking flights. It required making the case to the university that this was worth funding, coordinating travel and logistics for a group, and working with Illinois Tech's administrative systems to make it official. I started the planning process months in advance to give ourselves enough runway to actually pull it off.

Funding

The biggest hurdle was securing funding. I put together and submitted a formal funding request to the university, making the case for why sponsoring students' attendance at GDC was a worthwhile investment in Illinois Tech's game development community. Getting that approved was a key milestone and one I'm proud of.

Concur

All university travel at Illinois Tech runs through Concur, the university's travel management program. Navigating that system for a group trip, coordinating approvals, and making sure everything was properly documented added a layer of administrative complexity to the planning process. It was a good lesson in how institutional travel actually works.

Faculty Sponsorship

Assistant Professor of Experiential Media and Design Bo Rodda served as faculty chaperone for the trip, which was essential for getting university approval and providing support on the ground in San Francisco. It was fantastic having Bo Rodda lead us on the trip!

The Trip

GDC is a unique experience. The sessions, the expo floor, the networking, and being surrounded by thousands of people who work in game development full-time is hard to replicate anywhere else. For students who are still building toward careers in the industry, getting to be in that environment is genuinely valuable.

Reflection

Pioneering this trip was one of the more involved things I took on as IGDA president, but it was worth every month of planning. Seeing Illinois Tech students at GDC, representing our chapter and our program on that stage, made the effort pay off. My goal was to build something the chapter could point to and repeat in future years, and I hope this trip becomes a recurring tradition.

This trip was part of a broader year for IGDA IIT, which also included gamebIITes 2025, our annual juried student game showcase at the Kaplan Institute.

Contact igda@illinoistech.edu to get involved with IGDA IIT.