Hey hey! We are Liam Esler & Joshua Meadows, the co-founders and organisers of GX Australia — the country’s most inclusive event for video gamers, geeks, and all of their friends. In 2016 we debuted the first GX Australia event in Sydney, giving everyone a weekend-long celebration of everything nerdy & geeky in a space that was inclusive and supportive of everyone. And we mean everyone! If you share our vision that video games are for everybody, and want to make them accessible to as many people as possible, then GX Australia is for you.

We’re coming back to Sydney at the end of April for the second event and couldn’t be more excited to see everyone once again.

GX Australia is set to be a jam-packed weekend, with some inspiring speakers, engaging panels and incrrredible booths.

GX Australia is an all-ages event — if you’re 15 years or older you can attend on your own with just proof of age, or come with a parent/guardian if you’re younger than 15!

We have an awesome list of incredibly cool Bosses of Honour attending GX for the weekend:

• Ken Wong (Lead Designer, Monument Valley)
• Rae Johnston (journalist, TV and radio presenter)
• Tim Cain (creator of Fallout)
• Eve Beauregard (cosplayer, producer and founder of the Medic! charity)
• Jordan Raskopoulos (frontwoman for Axis of Awesome and co-founder of Insert Coin)
• Stephanie ‘Hex’ Bendixsen (Writer and host, Good Game)
• Katherine Cross (acclaimed games critic)
• Felix Kramer (Producer/PR consultant and board member, Feminist Frequency)
• Tanya DePass (founder, #INeedDiverseGames)
• Adam ‘skinnyghost’ Koebel (US-based streamer)
• Casey Conway (equality in sports advocate and model)
• Rami Ismail (world-renowned independent developer and Business Guy at Vlambeer)
• Variable (acclaimed cosplayer and special effects makeup artist)
• Dameyon Bonson (Indigenous Human Rights Award recipient and founding CEO of Black Rainbow)
• Lucy O’Brien (Award winning entertainment editor, IGN)
• Kim Allom (Producer, Defiant Development)

If you’ve been following GX Australia, you know that we’ve recently announced that the 2017 event at the end of April will be our last. It’s been a wild ride and we couldn’t feel more privileged to be able to celebrate with you for two amazing events. We know from so many of you that GX Australia has been a momentous opportunity that meant tons to those who attended it.

We went into details about the decisions to make this one the last in our backer update available here, but the reality of things is that corporate sponsorship has not manifested the way we were assured it would, and it’s become too difficult to make the event sustainable.

Since this will be the last GX Australia event, we’ve decided that there’s no better way to celebrate than to host a special goodbye party with all of you. We got very close to hitting this stretch goal during last year’s campaign, and it was something that we keep getting asked about since that campaign concluded.

We’d always hoped to do a special party to close out GX Australia 2017 anyway, but with our sudden budget problems it looked like it was impossible. However, since we made our last announcement, our awesome community has been in touch asking how they can help — it’s given us an idea.

With your help we’ll be able to host a lovely goodbye celebration capping off the event — and we will also be able to plug some of the budget shortfall that we’ve developed from the lack of corporate sponsorship.

If this campaign is successful, we will announce plans for a special GX Australia Wrap Party on April 30th, 2017 — once GX Australia itself concludes. It will be a chance to hang out with everyone one final time, a chance to meet our special Bosses of Honour, and a chance to say goodbye properly.

We’re planning on booking out a venue (most likely a large pub) around the Sydney Showground. Based on last year’s numbers we issued over eight hundred tickets, so we’re trying to find a venue big enough to hold as many people as possible. Everyone over 18 with a valid GX Australia badge (the party isn’t a separate ticketed event) will be able to attend the party up until we hit whatever capacity we have — we’d absolutely love to make the party all-ages, as GX Australia itself is, but last year only a handful of under-18 tickets were issued and opening the party to minors would introduce incredibly difficult complexities around alcohol sales that we don’t have the budget to mitigate for such a small group.

Pledge any amount between $1 and $49 and you’ll be supporting the event tangibly! We’ll thank you on the GX Australia website & also throw your name up on the awesome Champions Wall on display at the event itself.

Are you a student who wants to attend GX? Your $50 pledge will give you access to GX Australia for both days of the convention as well as access to the wrap party on Sunday, April 30th! Please note that you’ll be required to provide your student ID at collection.

Pledge $60 and you’re in! This will give you access to the full weekend of GX Australia, including our goodbye bash at the end of the event on Sunday, April 30th. You’ll receive a ticket to both days, allowing you access to exciting discussion panels, special guests, and an awesome expo hall.

Can’t be in Sydney for the event? You can also “pay it forward” by purchasing a ticket that goes into our pool which will be provided to those who want to attend GX but can’t afford to buy a ticket themselves.

These tickets are at special early bird prices and will go up at the door, so get in early & save!

Are you an artist who has something to show off? We’ve still got room for exhibitors in our Artist Alley. Your $200 pledge secures you an unpowered 1.5m table in the Artist Alley, plus a ticket for the weekend (including the wrap party on Sunday night!) This is a super-affordable option for artists, and craftspeople to show off their wares.

If one party isn’t enough, why don’t you attend both?! A $250 pledge will give you an awesome VIP Party ticket to the celebration that kicks the entire thing off on Friday, April 28th. You’ll also receive a very limited-edition GX Australia 2017 shirt for collection at the event itself and a ticket for both days of the convention, plus the wrap party on Sunday night!

(Note: this is for the VIP party on Friday, April 28th, not a separate ticket for the GX Australia Wrap Party — that’s not a ticketed event, and every badge-holder will be welcome to attend it!)

Are you an exhibitor who needs more space than the Artist Alley, or a developer who needs access to power to show off their incredible game? A $440 pledge gives you a powered 3x3m booth in the Expo Hall and two tickets to GX Australia 2017 (including access to the wrap party on Sunday night!)

Help make GX Australia 2017 everything we want it to be by sponsoring the event. This pledge will grant you a powered 3x3m booth in the expo hall as well as two VIP tickets and four general exhibitor passes. You will also have highly visible brand integration across the event and website!

If you want to sponsor at a higher tier we’re absolutely happy to accept your help — you’ll get more visible brand integration at the event and draw more attention to your support of what we’re doing. Just send an email to liam@gxaustralia.com for more information about how you can help.

GX Australia has been an incredibly awesome event to run, and we’ve been so blown away by the support it’s received. We know there’s an audience for inclusive, supportive events like this, and we hope that two years of it have helped to show developers and publishers that there’s a customer base that will reward those who create diverse content. While the corporate support hasn’t turned out the way we would have wished, we’re determined to go out with a bang and celebrate all the happiness and good times we’ve had.

Your support once again will allow us to go out on a high. We hope that you’re able to attend our final GX event if you’re able to make it to Sydney — it’s a really special occasion, and we couldn’t have been happier to bring it to you for two years in a row.

See you in April!

– Liam & Joshua