No event without team effort! The love that keeps the servers running.

I wrote this on the occasion of a worldwide pandemic and us as event business wanting to run gamesweekberlin - the carrying pillar of Booster Space. tl;dr - it's the people that count: “High five, team! Let’s gather in the meeting room and pop a bottle to this milestone!” - that’s what we did a couple of times in 2019 and were just filling up the fridge for the sprint on gamesweekberlin in April 2020. Then GDC SF was canceled. Ever since nothing has been the same. Suddenly, there was an excruciating uncertainty about everything that lay ahead. As Lena put it in an interview for GamesMarkt: “The biggest challenge is the ability to plan - which basically does not exist.” From leading a team and operating according to plan, we all went into permanent “reaction mode”. Decisions we took a week before were overthrown a couple of days later - by governmental decisions, by emotional outbreaks, by moves and changes in the international event space. Hence, it becomes more and more important to play thoughts and reasons openly with the team so that these changes remain comprehensible and do not seem too arbitrary which would always lead to feelings of frustration and powerlessness. Reacting is different than acting. It causes us to abandon well-proven concepts whereby emotional pressure is not only increased on oneself but the whole team and ultimately reaching out into the entire surrounding. I am pretty sure you all had similar experiences in the past months. It all multiplied and added up to a dominance of uncertainty. This had to change. We needed to get back into the driver's seat. 

Dev Booster

So what can be done? Talk with the team and brainstorm a new idea. Something we can do together and learn from. The idea to run a new event format, the first edition of gamesweekdigital: Dev Booster, was born. The alternative would have been to let people off or apply short-time work compensation (Kurzarbeitergeld). We, as a team, did not want that*. So we pulled all our efforts together and started running - or rather typing, calling and ferociously videoconferencing until we achieved that goal. Thanks to the cooperation with LVL Global in Berlin we even could pop a bottle together. And that’s how the gamesweekdigital: Dev Booster helped to lead the way to this year’s, fully digital, gamesweekberlin PRO X which you are a part of now.

Why am I telling this story? Because it is not a matter of course. The team started with the goal to bring people together, to throw parties, to cater for the best experience in Berlin, for speakers, attendees, exhibitors, sponsors and partners. To work with hundreds of people to make the PRO, PLAY and ART X happening. Instead they were tied to their home’s screens. Finally, the complete framework of the structural work which had to be done shifted from physical to virtual world. This not only feels different, it also has a massive impact on the skills applied, on the division of labor and on the areas of responsibility within the team. Many things had to be reconsidered and restructured - a huge challenge. Especially when budgets fall and time flies faster than ever before. 

Made with Love in Berlin

So with this story I want to share an acknowledgement, an appreciation, a sign of gratitude for the team of Booster Space and all people behind gamesweekberlin 2020. Even though on the frontend it may seem to be just a website, just a platform or a kit of tools and videos but no this unique digital edition of gamesweekberlin is 100% made by people - with love! 

Enjoy your stay! Have a look: