EEIN's Big Hairy Audacious Goal
Jan 10, 2009
"To be the foremost tool of empowerment for our members, facilitate communication and relationships, and encourage excellence and long-term growth of the video game industry."
How do we hope to accomplish this?
By creating a community of active, participatory members who have the interests of the group, and the industry as a whole, at heart. People who understand how fortunate they are to work in the games industry, and who have a long-term commitment to it's success. By locating experienced veterans who can lend their perspective and serve as role-models for early-career folks. By giving everyone tools, encouragement, and incentive to help others regardless of their position.
Immediate and long term goals
1. Grow our ranks
2008 was a great year for EEIN, and we want 2009 to be even better! By the end of the year, we're looking to call 10,000 games industry professionals 'EEIN members'. As of this writing, we're just shy of 3,000 members, so 7k more over 2009 should be achievable. I'll keep everyone posted on our growth. Do you know people who should be members ofEEIN? Please invite them (and tell them to say YOU sent them!)
2. Develop new communication tools
LinkedIn has been a good platform for reaching out to great folks (like you!), and a fine first step in building our community. However, we've reached the point where we need a more robust platform to allow our members to interact and learn from each other. We are currently developing a rich new set of tools to expand the conversation. We're close to an alpha launch - keep an eye open for invites. Also, you may have noticed that we've temporarily suspended our newsletter. Look forward to it resuming soon (new tools coming for this as well!).
3. Looking for EEIN leaders
The long-term success of EEIN will hinge on real leaders (like you) to take the reins of the community. A critical goal for 2009 will be to locate and cultivate exceptional individuals who will have a vested interest in the community's success. Know this is you? E-mail me at rjohnson@internationalfront.com.
4. Grow EEIN offline
While the internet, e-mail, etc. is useful in a myriad of ways, nothing replaces face-to-face meetups. This is especially true of meetups that involve Jägermeister.
Some additional thoughts:
The EEIN is not for everyone.
Our group is exclusively for games industry professionals. We get hundreds of membership requests every month from unqualified applicants, usually people who 'think it would be neat to work on video games.' While new blood is necessary for growth in every industry, our first goal is to serve you, the games industry professional.
Your role in this process (and mine)
I know everyone is busy, especially in an industry like ours, and finding time for active participation might sometimes be tough. Thing is, I believe thisEEIN group will be one of those things where, 'you get more in return than you give.' Of course, I don't have any concrete proof of this - I can only say this is my (and the otherEEIN admins) philosophy, and so far I've felt very fortunate to work for all of you.
Your feedback is essentials
I don't pretend to know exactly how our community will grow and evolve, and we're ALL looking to YOU to help chart our course.
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I welcome any thoughts you have on this mission statement, or anything else related to EEIN and the industry. Please don't hesitate to reach out to me at rjohnson@internationalfront.com
Thanks very much, and here's to a great 2009!
/Ron Johnson
EEIN Administrator
rjohnson@internationalfront.com
P.S As always, all EEIN members are encouraged to LinkIn directly with me!
