I originally applied to work on NGS on a whim, because people told me it was going to be full of opportunities. Little did I know how right everyone was! As an experience it was invaluable and I know way more people personally in the gaming industry than I have any right to otherwise. Looking back, it was probably one of the best decisions I’ve made in life.

Working as a team on a project so long was a good learning experience on discipline. I don’t think I’ve ever been as sick of doing as much as I was with NGS. In the middle of the project, when there were so many different things to do at once, I felt completely overwhelmed (there were 19 international speakers + backups), not going to lie. Thankfully I always had other people to rely on for help and advice. So many things were new to me and being the youngest and greenest in the team certainly wasn’t easy.

The main brunt of the work was scheduling and booking flights. Booking international flights, especially outside of the EU was a completely new thing, having to work on so many new documents and bureaucracy was challenging to say the least. But slowly things started to click and I had a groove going. We had a plan for almost everything that could happen, Murphy’s Law be damned. Even if speakers for the event cancelled at the very last minute (which they did) we had a backup plan ready. And it all worked like a charm. Thankfully I had some experience on scheduling previously and could make effective documents and plans without having trouble every step of the way.

The most difficult hurdle to tackle was by far contacting people. Which is kinda funny, because that’s 90% of the job. Emailing people and working things out with them, sometimes funny stuff happening, sometimes serious mistakes like essentially asking for US people credentials (I didn’t know they are essentially your soul there), but most of the time, just two people conversing towards a mutual goal. It was weird because I was messaging with companies and most importantly people that I admired. It is absolutely nerve wracking to go up, sometimes in person, to someone you look up to as a designer and essentially advertise/shill an event to them. I didn’t know how professional I had to be (I took it very seriously, just to be sure), sometimes to only be replied back with an email that simply had a winky face and nothing more.

Gradually, when the event came closer, the introductions were already made, plans were set in stone and all I had to do was wait for the event to start. Naturally, all hell broke loose, most plans were abandoned immediately, but the aforementioned backups came handy indeed. What ensued was panic-infused, sleep deprived mania that lasted for 5 days. Being present in the parties and helping our speakers to get there was also important. Not a smart move, probably, but still important. Most importantly, everything went relatively smoothly, everyone was happy and got back safely after the event. NGS is a student organized event (not that we advertised it as such), and most of the speakers only learnt about the fact late into the event and were all surprised to hear it. In a good way as well!

I think NGS helped me to learn a lot about myself and gave me confidence in excelling at whatever I set out to do.