GAME ON - nDreams' Commitment to Events Safety
At nDreams, our teams love participating in industry events. They're a great way to connect with our peers in gaming, meet new people, get players hands-on with our games, and much more. But heartbreaking stories of harassment, unprofessionalism, and even assault that have emerged from recent events did not go unnoticed.
In May, we raised this as a subject for discussion with Athena – our employee resource group for marginalised genders – and quicky realised just how many of our nDreamers feel that discrimination and harassment are very real threats while attending events. These issues are so often unreported.
With GAME ON, we are committing to doing more to ensure that everyone can attend events with the awareness and security that there are people looking out for them, and to provide clear and signposted avenues for support if they feel unsafe.
As we developed GAME ON and its areas of focus, we were aware of Develop: Brighton on the horizon, where we have many staff on-site, a stand at the expo, and even our own networking event. We decided that this would be a great opportunity to try some new ideas to help our employees feel more secure when attending.
We sent out an event safety document that had an overview on what we are aiming to do, some general advice on attending events and some more specific details for attending Develop. Some of these include:
- Page of 'Key Info' that staff can download on their phone, with contact details on who to go to for help, and Develop's code of conduct.
- Who is working on the nDreams Expo stand and when, with information on how the stand will work to ensure everyone stays healthy and happy.
- Options for safe networking and meeting opportunities that Develop have available.
- Advice on how to call out a co-worker or friend, if you notice them saying or doing something wrong.
We are excited to trial our initial work at Develop: Brighton, who share the same passion for safety at events. We hope that by communicating with our team more, and sharing guidance and education we can create an environment where everyone feels comfortable and welcome.
By collaborating with numerous charities, professionals and events organisers, we are forging our long-term goals to educate on unacceptable behaviour and remove toxicity within our industry. We want to ensure that we are bringing many into the conversation, to gather a large variety of thoughts and opinions. While our initial task is to provide our staff with more information, education and guidance, we will be developing a comprehensive guide to share to the world, for any employer, events organiser or attendee to use for their needs.
GAME ON is in its early days, but we are proud of the work that's been done already and the collaborators we have worked with so far. Special thanks go out to Into Games, Limit Break, Out Making Games and UN Women UK. We will be sharing more information on this initiative later in the year, so stay tuned!
If you can't wait for the next update and would like to get involved, contact us at game.on@ndreams.com.
Here you can find a document to use as a guide for your own events safety work. It is based on what we distributed to staff ahead of Develop:Brighton but includes best practices that can be applied to any event.
