In the midst of manning the fort, so to speak, while Chris and John are busy having an actual life outside of video gaming, I managed to attend an event I had heard about and was eager to attend: Boston Media Makers.
The basic idea of this gathering is to touch base with people involved in various aspects of media production – everything from actors to producers to website writers to, well, me – and spread the word about our projects, get feedback and interest going, and compare notes on where to go with projects. In addition, there’s always good old-fashioned networking – sometimes, you need to get out there and find someone else to help things come together.
It was a great meet-up for several reasons. One, it helped get Beyond Madness & Genius out there more – and the more people hear your name, the more interest you’ll end up producing. Two, it gave me some great ideas on how to develop everything – right down to talking with Kenny Foner, a local high school student, about demographics and usage trends that helped inform the timing of this post. Three, I got to hear about some great projects and even touch base with some people who would be interested in helping out BM&G in the future.
But most of all, what was important was that there’s a community that’s only a #BMM tag on Twitter away that wants to help out, be it simply advice, promotion, or even active donations (thanks to everyone from the meetup who donated on Kickstarter, by the way – we really appreciate it). It’s often easy to forget, when you’re hunched over a keyboard producing code or documentation, that there is a community out there that wants you to join and wants to help you out, even if it’s just a friendly handshake. It pays many times to step away from the keyboard, if even for a few hours, to be social over a free pot of coffee and make the connection. It can give you new connections, new ideas, or sometimes just the moment of relaxation needed to push on ahead with that boss monster you’re trying to put together.