BARCAMP & PEER-MENTORING

Do you want to learn how to enable effective peer-exchange? Would you like to find out how to organize successful peer-learning sessions? Through this Module you will be handed the keys on organizing two different peer-learning formats: Barcamp & Peer-Mentoring. With these formats you can boost your creatives in their internationalisation activities and allow them to learn from their international peers!

The Module is based on the Pilot “Game Mixer Days”, organized in the spring 2021. The Game Mixer Days was an acceleration program for young generation game developers and studios from the Baltic Sea region countries. The program consisted of two different parts: an international showcase on a virtual platform as well as market information and a peer-learning format. The Learning Module focuses on the two peer-learning formats: Barcamp and Peer-Mentoring. Both formats can be quite valuable especially for start-up entrepreneurs, your generation creatives and other still lacking the experience in internationalisation on their respective field of play.

Barcamp

The Barcamp was aimed to provide an open space to discuss all kinds of game related topics which are important for the participants. Barcamp, also called un-conference, is a format where the participants choose their own topics instead of listening to pre-arranged lectures. This approach gives them the opportunity to organize an event where the people are intrinsically motivated, because they can discuss their own topics which matters most to them. Another advantage is the relevance of the discussed topics. Because you as an organizer don’t need to anticipate which topics could be interesting. Instead of hoping that you have picked the right topics the experts themselves will bring in their most relevant questions.

The mix of different topics with a high relevance to the industry discourse could lead to new ideas and corporations on an international level. In the best case a barcamp can stimulate new innovations and business models. A barcamp typically follows a common structure and adheres to certain rules. The main idea behind the barcamp is that people can join different discussions to self-picked topics in different sessions/rounds. For example you can visit one of five topics in session one, but a different topic in session two and a third topic in session three. In the end you participated in three different discussions on three different topics.

Peer-Mentoring

The peer mentoring session was aimed at enabling international game developers to provide and receive feedback on an idea, a process, or a concrete prototype of a game. Participants were to learn from each other in order to be able to harness the power of collective intelligence. The peer mentoring session was also aimed at fostering international exchange and building networks. During a peer mentoring session, participants can present their challenge, their game or idea and receive feedback from other participants. A peer mentoring can be organized in many different ways - there are no strict guidelines on what a peer mentoring should entail. It should, however, be a safe space in which participants feel comfortable to share their issues or unfinished prototypes - and make themselves vulnerable to critique. The idea is that everyone can benefit from each other’s experience and knowledge, as all participants are experts in different areas but might have struggled with similar issues. Our peer mentoring session was inspired by the physical equivalent “internal showcase”, which is a popular format during “Game Mixer”. The Internal Showcase is a quite low-threshold format, in which game developers show and comment on each other's games.

THE LEARNING MODULE WILL BE PUBLISHED IN THE COURSE OF SEPTEMBER 2021. STAY TUNED!

Hosting Partner: Goethe-Institut