I was raised in the USA and never learned a 2nd language. Now that I look back on my formative years at school I realize what a mistake. Luckily as a Professor and starting the Global Game Jam has granted me entré to many opportunities and thankfully, games translate universally, no language lessons needed. But most excitedly, when I travel it is easy to find fans of the Global Game Jam. I am now transitioning to be the GGJ International Ambassador after having served as President of the organization for the past two years. I will be traveling all over the world, attending conferences, speaking and talking to everyone about the Global Game Jam and our new initiatives. Please contact me if you would like me to be a speaker at an upcoming event. I am super excited and look forward to meeting the thousands of people that make up the GGJ.
My most recent trip took me to Argentina and the MICSur Conference which was held in the resort city of Mar del Plata. As a guest of the conference and the Minister of Culture, Teresa Parodi, I was a part of numerous meetings and saw how much the country wants to internally develop their game community. I had an amazing time getting to know many of our organizers of GGJ in South America, most notably Alejandro Iparraguirre. He and his team made sure I had an incredible visit, scheduling time for me to meet with just about anyone making games in the country. For me, the most exciting part was to meet the people that work so hard at making the Global Game Jam come to life for thousands of people in the Southern Hemisphere. As MICSur brought together 10 countries in South America, I got to meet game developers from all over the continent. There is so much talent in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela and so thankful that they all have locations for the Global Game Jam. Now we need to find a way to get GGJ locations in Ecuador and Paraguay and we will have covered most of the population of the South America.
Susan Gold