Speaker Lounge Phase II Resources

Welcome to the Phase II Resources page for the 2027 GDC Festival of Gaming. GDC 2027 takes place March 1-5, 2027 at Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, CA. This webpage provides important information and helpful resources for submitters whose proposals have advanced to Phase II of the GDC submission process.

Phase 2 means that the Advisory Board is interested in your submission as a potential talk, but requires additional detail or clarification before final acceptance can be determined. Your submission has not yet been fully accepted. Completion of Phase 2 and approval by the Advisory Board are required for final acceptance.

As mentioned in your proposal status email, a GDC Advisor has offered to guide you through the Phase II process, communicating the GDC Advisory Board’s feedback and recommendations. Phase II is intended to help fine tune and identify the core takeaways of your presentation content, and ultimately set the speaker(s) up for success on the GDC stage.

The goal of this step is to get a "substantially complete presentation", meaning the advisors are not focused on appealing slides or transitions. They are trying to make sure the presentation is comprehensive and that it builds to a set of identifiable takeaways. The end result is more than an outline, but less than a showable deck.

• Mid-September: Proposal status notification email sent from GDC.
• Mid-September- October 16: Phase II check-in with GDC Advisor and speaker with revisions and feedback.
• October 16, 2026: Requested revisions due to GDC Advisor.
• October 16 – November 6, 2026: GDC Advisors review Phase II revisions. Further feedback may be provided during this time
• Mid-November: Final presentation status determined. Accepted presentations can be finalized leading up to GDC 2027.
• Mid-December: GDC 2027 session schedule details announced.
• March 1-5, 2027: GDC week!

During Phase II, the GDC Advisor working with you will typically ask to see an outline of your presentation within a slide deck.

We ask that speakers use the official GDC Template below for their presentation to provide consistency throughout the event, however, should the presentation's content benefit from a different template, feel free to use what works best (slides must use 16:9 aspect ratio at 1080p native resolution).

Official GDC Festival of Gaming 2027 Templates: Download here

• Important! Please be sure to download and install Figtree font

In addition to finalizing your presentation content, Phase II is also an opportunity to prepare your session and speaker information for acceptance, publication on the GDC website and in promotions leading up to the event.

While specific feedback and criteria for acceptance from the GDC Advisory Board vary from session to session, there are some best practices when preparing your presentation and session information for acceptance and the live presentation. Please see below for tips to consider:

Session Title

• Should clearly and concisely describe the content.
• If based on a game, should reference that game.
• Should be designed to draw an audience.
• If humor is used, should not make the content difficult to understand.

Descriptive Text (description, intended audience, and attendee Takeaway)

• Major points of the talk itself should be clear.
• Should reflect any revisions made in Phase II.
• If a specific game is the focus of the talk, it should be mentioned.
• Should either present a clear, actionable takeaway or make clear it’s mostly an inspirational talk.
• Overall set attendee expectations. 
• Make sure everything is in the 3rd Person—using “he/she/they instead of “I.”
• Avoid using “you,” instead use the term “attendees”.
• Write everything in present tense. Eg. “In this session, Simone teaches the basics of game design” instead of “In this session, Simone will teach the basics of game design.”

Session Duration

• During Phase II, you and your GDC Advisor will have determined the appropriate duration based on your presentation content. Double check that it’s listed as the correct duration.
• The quantity and content should match the pace of the speaker so it doesn’t feel like there are too many slides, or too few. 
• Slides shouldn’t be text heavy. Instead text should be moved to notes for the speaker to reference during the talk. 
• If the speaker isn’t using the GDC slide template, make sure the text/images don’t blend into the background color. 
• Slide content should be large enough to be seen from the back of a large room. 
• Double check that the images/videos used don’t violate the GDC code of conduct. 
• Videos should be embedded into the slides. There will not be a direct connection or reliable wifi on stage. 
• If the talk has multiple speakers, the presentation should be in one file. 

Speaker Information

• Confirm your name, job title, company and bio are accurate, as they will be published on the website.
• Make sure your email is accurate and belongs to you. If the session has multiple speakers, each speaker must have a unique email. GDC uses this email to register speakers for the conference and send important information related to speaker logistics, etc.
• You may add your headshot, pronouns, Twitter/X username, Facebook URL, and/or LinkedIn URL.
• Your contact information, such as email, address and phone number, will be transferred over to your profile/account for the GDC mobile app, however they will remain private unless you choose to share them with a connection.

Speaker Delivery 

• Practice, practice, practice! Rehearse in front of friends/family/colleagues, or record yourself presenting. Your GDC Advisor may ask you to share a recording of a rehearsal, or you can also ask your GDC Advisor to help you rehearse.
• Content should fit within the assigned duration naturally 
• Q&A at the end is optional, but there should be enough time left at the end to accommodate it. We suggest leaving 5-10 minutes for Q&A at the end.
• If you have a 30-min talk and need more time for the meat of the talk, Q&A can be taken in a nearby Wrap Up Area.
• If multiple speakers, the transition between speakers should be well rehearsed/planned out.