MIGS party was, in fact, awesome

Yes, I went to the party, and yes, I had a great time.

I had made that post Friday at lunchtime after reading about the poster on the IGDA Women's SIG mailing list. I, and perhaps a few other people, wrote to the conference organizers and sponsors to complain about the ad.

When I checked my work mail Monday morning, I found that the Executive Director of the conference had written me back Friday evening, shortly after I left work. Now, having organized conference myself, I know just how crazy those couple of days leading up to the grand event can be! The fact that he put together a well-written response so quickly was really impressive. Here's what he wrote:

Firstly, thank you for taking the time to write us regarding the Official MIGS Party ad. We take these remarks seriously.

We would like to take this occasion to insist on the fact that we had absolutely no intention to offend anyone or to show any disrespect to the professional women working in the video game industry. We are strongly opposed to sexism and are deeply sorry if this ad was perceived as offensive.

Our goal was to take a humoristic approach and make a reference to the stereotypes surrounding parties in the game industry. Our sole target was to show and communicate that it is an inclusive event, where everyone is welcome. We still hope that this event will be fun and inclusive and that we will be able to make it a great celebration after a big day of work for the participants of the Montreal International Game Summit.

We are strong supporters of talented men and women in the videogame industry, both as developers and players.

Thank you again for your comments.

I can understand that they were trying to make light of how things used to be and that they were trying to point out that it's not like that any more. And frankly it's pretty shameful that my first thought, and the first reaction of most of the people I spoke to, was that they would have to hire women to make it seem like a wasn't a sausage fest. It's our own ingrained idea that there aren't going to be enough women. Really quite unfortunate.

The ad was pulled from the MIGS website by Monday morning. And at the conference on Tuesday, while they didn't have time (or money) to reprint the program which featured the ad, they did have flyers for the party on the seats for the first keynote which featured the art with new wording "Mingle with the best in the industry and have fun!

Again, doing that on such short notice is pretty commendable. Putting in the effort to redesign, print, and distribute the new ad in so little time really shows how much they cared about the perceived message.

I also stopped the Executive Director when I saw him running by one time to thank him for his email and the effort they put into making those changes. My email had been a tad harsh, as are most that you send off in a flurry of anger. But his calm and collected response really shamed me.

That all told, I went to the party. The place was PACKED! There were men and women there, all ages, students and professionals, speakers and attendees. It was tons of fun and I met some really great people.