Memory Card Special : The FÍS Travelogue : Day Zero

Hi! It’s been a little while, hasn’t it? I’ve been swamped with assignments and various health issues for the last few weeks, so stringing together a sentence, let alone a whole article, hasn’t been possible until recently. However, I recently had the incredible opportunity to attend Ardán's FÍS Games Summit in Galway, Ireland on the 11th of April thanks to a $500 grant from the Trans Journalists’ Association as part of their Level Up Initiative that aimed “to help journalists achieve their career goals”.

Before I go any further, I should outline what this series is. Over the next few days I’m going to release an article covering a day of my trip to and from Galway to keep these breezy to read. If you want to read the whole thing now, you can sign up to my Patreon, where you also get to read my normal articles one day early. That’s right : one day early! Also, even with the grant, travelling to and from Ireland wasn’t cheap and nor is paying for Ghost to host this blog, nor just being alive in the year 2025, frankly. If you’d like to give me money but have commitment issues, you can also send one-time donations through Ko-Fi. With that out of the way, let’s start this journey.

Day Zero

I first heard about FÍS when an Irish person I know shared Xalavier Nelson Jr. 's (Strange Scaffold head and indie game rockstar) announcement that he was attending as a guest speaker. His talk? “Don’t Let The Bastards Win”. This was around the time I was mourning my inability to attend the Game Developers Conference in San Diego, for financial reasons alone. A games event happening on the next island over? I had to find a way to go.

Travelling from England to Ireland and staying at a hotel for the duration was still more out of my price range than I’d have liked, but there was no risk of being thrown in an ICE Detention Centre for my troubles. When I realised that this was exactly the type of thing TJA’s grant, that I’d considered applying to before, could cover, it began to feel possible.

I was still ill and away from my professional email when my application was approved on the 1st of April. It was only on the night of the 7th, mere days away, that I saw their follow-up emails checking if I still wanted to accept it. I kept myself up until 4am that night trying to decide if I had it in me to not only take the trains and planes and coaches to reach the hotel, but also actually network when I got there. 

After talking about it with a friend the next day, I decided to take the leap and accept the grant. Booking plane tickets on a deadline is stressful enough, but arranging transport from the airport to Galway and finding a hotel that would let me check in past 11pm (there was only one flight going to Ireland in time for me to make the event) was a new kind of stress. I’d mapped it all out when I first applied to the grant and bought my free ticket, but that took the edge off the stress at the very best. With everything taken care of, I spent the next day doing some house viewings, sending off some interview requests to people attending and packing what I could in advance of my trip on the 10th.

Tune in tomorrow for the next/first part of my trip to Ireland! If you can't wait, consider signing up on Patreon to read the whole travelogue now and the rest of my writing one day early. Or if you'd rather not subscribe, send a one-time donation through Ko-Fi.