New Tech Conference Announced: CAPTIVATE

The GDC Online conference decided to move to LA last year leaving a hole that the Fantastic Arcade and SXSW Gaming Expo (impressive events in their own ways) just don't fill. Enter CAPTIVATE, a tech conference geared to indie creatives of all types. Toss in education-oriented programming and you have a grand idea that has until October to nail things down.

Spearheaded by the local chapter of the Independent Game Developers Association, CAPTIVATE's purpose remains slightly elusive. In a press release the fest claims to serve as a connection between the fan-based RTX fest in July and the industry-centric SXSW Interactive in March. How does one bring these two disparate events together? According to CAPTIVATE’s Executive Director Jennifer Bullard in said press release, folks who attend the RTX fest are energized by the creativity of Rooster Teeth's work and are inspired to make something on their own. CAPTIVATE hopes to fan those creative flames with technology-based workshops and introductions to inexpensive tools in an effort to get independent artists turning their visions into reality. From there, hopefully a finished product would manifest in time to showcase when SXSW rolls around. Whether people follow that path or not, we're all for empowering independent artists, so go ahead and sit us down in the CAPTIVATE cheering section.

You can expect standard keynotes, workshops, and expo stuff, naturally, but also more unique fare like an educational series to help high school and college students wrap their heads around the ever-converging technologies of music, film, gaming, etc. A game jam, 48-hour film competition, and music challenge (whatever that is) will totally happen as well.

It's $125 if you want full access for all three days. Students can get into expo and student programming for $50. There are also expo-only options available to those uninterested in the conference.

Our main beef is that they use all caps for a word that isn't an acronym. So, we're going to assume that CAPTIVATE stands for Calling All Peoples Totally Into Videogames and Technology, Excitement!