FAQ's

What the heck is this?

Tldr: shuai's hosting a three-day in-person community festival in and around NYC for her 40th birthday, Friday July 11 to Sunday July 13

The long version:

As most of you know, my core values are curiosity, community, creativity, and whimsy. This July, I'm turning 40 and although I hate birthdays, turning 8 times your actual age feels like something one should make a big deal about.

I've had a windy life path, but one thing that always brings me joy is to giving awesome people the opportunity to share the thing that makes them come alive. So this is what I'll be hosting on July 11-13! It'll be an in-person version of my 2020 virtual birthday fest. If you know me from undergrad or grad school, this is kind of like a Splash, except not just education focused. If you know me from SF, this is basically a NOW Festival. If you don't know what either of those are, here's what it is:

I want to coordinate a weekend packed full of events. Events may be suggested and coordinated by anyone (yes even you). Events may range from a 5 minute mini-talk to a 2 hour immersive puzzle experience to a 3 hour discussion on how to combat fascism to a co-working crafternoon to a murder mystery dinner party to a scavenger hunt to an interactive workshop on storytelling to a jam session to a TED talk watch party and discussion to a community wellness and mental health panel to a playtest of something you've been developing to a Disney-songs-only-karaoke -party to a social good hackaton to a board game night to a swing dance lesson to improv games to… the sky's the limit. Anyone can host an event (doesn't have to be a smooth sexy production, can definitely be experimental and rough, as long as you're sharing something that you're passionate about) and anyone can attend the events.

This is my invite: share something you love. Could be something you've been thinking about making, can be something you've already made but haven't gotten as many participants as you want, can be something that's a core part of your business. Just something you love and are inspired and excited to share with others!

How do I contact Shuai with questions?

She can be reached via email (hello@gr8ergoodgames.com), phone (954-562-8577), WhatsApp (954-562-8577), Facebook messenger (scribblegrl), slack (scribblegrl), discord (scribblegrl) ect. Note that emails to other email addresses of Shuai’s that you have, Linkedin messages, telegram messages, and wechats will probably not be read in a timely manner.

Why are you doing this?

Coordinating large scale distributed educational and community events give me joy. Also, I have so many amazing people in my network and I want you guys to meet, share, and play with each other. I can't think of anything else I could do that is such a core part of who I am and the change I want to bring about in the world: educating and sharing knowledge, inspiring creativity and giving creatives an excuse to try out some new stuff, and building authentic connections and community within my own network.

Why now? Why joy?

It's a super shitty time in America right now, and I don't think it'll get better anytime soon. I see you raging against all the inequities and complete trash that's been happening. And that's important work, but I also think it's important work to hold your close ones closer, to build community, to foster joy in the darkness, to connect with one another. I want to create something big, amazing and community focused, all in the spirit of generosity and all about bringing people together for learning, for fun and for connecting. I have a wide network of friends and want you all to meet each other.

I’m interested in hosting something, is it too late?

Nope, just ping Shuai and we can add it to the calendar!

What can I expect as a participant in an event?

You can expect that whoever is hosting your event will be passionate about the event topic and will try their best to host a great experience for you and all the participants. Some event hosts will be event pros, and some may just be dabbling in creating something. Please assume best intent and go into the event with an open mind and a "yes and" attitude.

Anything I should bring to ShuaiFest other than myself?

Bring headphones if you want to do the evening walk social engineering event. If you're interested in the lockpicking workshop, bring your own kit. And the CAD workshop and silly presentations will require a laptop. Sunday events might require a government ID to get to the room we're renting for all the fun, tbd. Also, don't forget your whimsies for the whimsy exchange (not officially scheduled, but obviously it's going to happen all weekend!)! If you have anything else fun you'd like to share (like Jesse is bringing a blobulator all the way from CA), feel free to bring em!

Why the heck are you making me sign up for a bazillion events?

Some events require an accurate headcount. And we hate flakers and want to make sure you actually want to attend all the things you're signing up for. So we're making it slightly hard and annoying to do. Promise I turned off the 500 text message reminders for these events and you'll only be blasted with important info like where we're meeting.

I think this is cool and I want to help organize.

Awesome! Please ping shuai, she will definitely need lots of help!

I know someone who would love this, can I pass it on?

Hells yes! Please do spread this to all your friends! The whole idea is to build authentic connections and share our passions, so if you have friends you want to send this to, please do!

I got sent this by a friend, who are you?

Hi! Welcome! I'm Shuai. My core values are curiosity, community, creativity, and whimsy. What makes me come alive is enabling others to come alive, through discovering and pursuing their passions. I make virtual and in-person games with my company Gr8er Good Games/Patchwork Adventures. Before that I helped coordinate community festivals and was the cofounder of a nonprofit based on the question "how do we create church-like community without religious dogma?" Before that, I was the Executive Director of an arts/education/sustainability nonprofit in SF called Scrap. Before that I studied cancer biology, biology and neuroscience. I'm a nerd, I like games, crafting, silly animals, and food. That's basically my life story :)

I haven't talked to you in like 20 years, but I think this is kinda neat and want to participate.

Amazing! You're more than welcome to come play, either as an event host or as a participant! I know I suck at keeping in touch, but I still love ya! Join us!

I can't do it that weekend, will you be doing this next year?

No, definitely not. Maybe every 5 years, maybe never again. But you are more than welcome to steal this idea and throw up your own birthday festival and I can give you some tips and pointers on the best ways to do this.

But your birthday is on July 8...

yea, but weekdays are hard and I assume everyone's going to have other plans for July 4th weekend. The bday fest will be Friday-Sunday, but other fun things are being coordinated in the discord on the #more-bonus-fun channel

Wait I thought you hated celebrating your birthday?

Yea, birthdays are stupid. I think it's silly to celebrate me when it's my mother who did all the work. I also am not the most comfortable being the center of attention. I like being the coordinator pulling the strings in the background, which is why this seems super fun for me to coordinate. 

I can only come to one thing...
Great! Come! We'd love to have you!

I want to do everything...
You probably can't do eeeeverything, since there's overlapping events. Pick the one that speaks most to you, and if you don't like it, then go to the other one(s). This is not a professional con, we're all just putting our events on for fun, so some things might not be your cup of tea. But please don't sign up for everything and then flake on half the things since some events have a minimum participant number. Also, don't forget you're human and might need some time to obtain and consume food and water, Shuai is a forever optimizer and never leaves enough time to do human things.

More questions, concerns?
Ping Shuai, easiest way is discord @scribblegrl or text (954)562-8577