Fiona Cherbak is a human resources and staffing specialist with a storied career in the entertainment and games industries. At this year’s Game Developers Conference, she will moderate the panel "Turning the Tide: Hiring and Retaining Women in the Games Industry". In this exclusive preview with Polygamer, Cherbak discusses how and where in the pipeline to effect change in the industry’s gender diversity; how to create work environments that are appealing and safe for women; and whether changing an industry’s gender ratio is "disruptive".
Cherbak is also one of the founders of the annual Boston Festival of Indie Games, or BostonFIG, and shares her motivations to start this event and how it’s grown since its 2012 inception.
Download the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, Mixcloud, acast, or TuneIn. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.
- Fiona Cherbak on Twitter
- GDC panel "Turning the Tide: Hiring and Retaining Women in the Games Industry" (Wednesday, March 4, 2015, 2–3 PM PST, Room 2001, West Hall)
- #TurningTheTidePanel hashtag on Twitter
- Scientific American: "How Diversity Makes Us Smarter"
- Sheri Graner Ray on gender-inclusive game design
- NASA’s Dr. Matt Taylor apologizes for ‘offensive’ shirt
- Darius Kazemi & Brenda Romero resign from IGDA over over female dancers at GDC party
- Boston Festival of Indie Games (BostonFIG)
- Women in Games Boston
- MIT Game Lab
- Boston Indies, Playcrafting Boston & Boston Post Mortem
- Videri String Quartet
- Brian O’Halloran (Dante from Clerks)
- PAX South
- Fantastic Arcade of Austin, Texas
- GDC Vault
Podcast: Download (Duration: 49:43 — 25.8MB) | Embed
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