For those who don’t know, the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) is a huge annual event held where game developers around the world come together and share ideas and projects they are currently working on. GDC 2008 will be held on

February 18-22 2008 in San Francisco, CA. The full conference pass is pretty expensive (anywhere from $1500 to $2000 USD) BUT if you are a student, which I’m sure most of you are, you can apply to donate 20 hours of your time to be a Conference Associate (i.e. volunteer) at GDC. Once you get accepted, you’ll get the full access pass for free when not on duty! You can find more details here. Although they don’t explicitly specify a deadline by when to apply, it’s probably best to do it ASAP. Probably the best part of it is to have a chance to meet and network with other like-minded students and have a chance to meet people from industry. Note that you’ll still need to pay for your own airfare and hotel accommodations, which may run you up to about $800-$1000, but considering you’re getting a $1500-$2000 pass if accepted, it’s not a bad deal IMO. Not to mention all the swag that you’ll be getting. 😉

I haven’t been to GDC personally (yet), but I’ve volunteered at SIGGRAPH 2007 this summer and it was a blast. I would expect a similar experience at GDC as well. Hope to hear some of you aspiring game developers going there next year!