Breakout Group Lunches

During this lunch block, attendees will have a chance to join small groups of new friends to lunch with! Lunch will be provided. Artists will lead small group conversations including:

IndieCade Roundtable: Showcases & Festivals
Roundtable discussion with Celia Pearce, co-founder of IndieCade, and four former finalists discussing festival, showcase and exhibition opportunities, their benefits and challenges. One of the challenges with interactive theatre is getting the work seen. IndieCade has long embraced these works, given several awards, and has even added specific categories tailored to this constituency. What other exhibition opportunities are out there? What are some of the advantages and challenges of participation? Is there a need for additional or alternative venues that cater to these new genres?

Limits are your medium—engaging with emerging tech with Alex Coulombe
This discussion session is an invitation to view emerging tech through a different lens – one where limitations are not setbacks, but sources of inspiration. While working with new technologies can be a mix of excitement and frustration, we as artists have a unique role in highlighting and utilizing these imperfections. We will explore how technical shortcomings can evoke specific feelings and narratives, transforming them into integral elements of our artistic expression. This session aims to reframe technical challenges as creative fuel, demonstrating how every moment spent wrestling with new tech can add value and depth to our artistic projects.

Marketing Mind Meld with Siobhán O'Loughlin
Hey girl, you tryna sell tickets? In this session, independent solo artist Siobhán O'Loughlin (who has no press team, representation or current partnerships to speak of) will host a group think tank on approaches to how humans find their way to our various immersive experiences. What are some practices you've developed in getting your work out there that you feel good about? What are some strategies you've tried, but have failed? We'll take this moment to learn from each other and to dream and scheme support systems as work towards a more sustainable approach to achieving sold out audiences at all of our incredible events.

Actual Play and Performance with Nick Ruizorvis
Tabletop roleplaying games frequently involve performance, but this is most clear in the rise of "actual play" shows like Critical Role, Dimension 20, and The Adventure Zone (and many others!). This lunch is an open forum to discuss how these performances work. In what ways are they actual play, and how are they different from unobserved play? What impact have they had on the TTRPG industry? And what can creators (especially of theater and other performance-driven media) learn from the art form?