Posted on by Jaerder Sousa

Inércia 2023 Party Report

Context

After the first demo party after the successful revival of “Associação Inércia” , the 2023 edition was held from December 1st to December 3rd .

The Associação Inércia was also able to get support from the Almada City Hall, which in turn allows us Associação Inércia to get access to a better location.

This year it was decided to use the term “Festival” to better describe the demo party, since it’s easier to explain to newcomers what the event is about.

A small disclaimer : This year I was more involved with the organization of this year’s edition , from helping with the party setup , design and printing of the trophies, event photos and info desk duty. And the content on this partyreport is my own personal opinion.

Short summary, as part of the organization team (TL;DR)

This year I was more involved on helping setup the party place. From helping setup the carpets, to ethernet cable crimping to table assembly / disassembly and infodesk duty.

Although it was my first time helping, the following can be improved :

  • The power cords used should be pre-labeled with owner info , in order to quickly know who owns what.
  • Issues with network cabling led to lost time due to the need of re-crimping the cables.
    • Redundancy on ethernet cabling should be considered.
  • There was no debriefing before opening doors (mainly due to delays with networking setup for example).
  • The party place was a bit cold during the evening. This is mainly due the size of the party hall and the building itself. There could be some improvement if we can find a way to prevent the drafts that come from the main door through the info desk.
  • Infodesk procedures should be better documented, and information should be on a single spreadsheet, in digital form, instead of discrete paper sheets.
  • The colored wrist strap was good, but it would be better to return to the regular badge to better identify between visitors , speakers and orga staff.
  • Define a “chill out” zone for people to hang out, outside of the main hall.
  • One again I did not finish anything on time to submit to the competitions

What went really well :

  • The infodesk rotation schedule was properly organized and its execution went really well.
  • The party place was an definitive improvement for last year, both in terms of space and facilities (bigger bathrooms, access to restaurant without the need to leave the premises).
  • The organization worked as a team, overcoming the last minute issues we had during setup.
  • The content of the seminars were very interesting!
  • The demo / intro competition had very good entries!
  • The SFIA was extremely supportive.
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Location

The 2023 edition took place at Incrível Almadense , that is property of SFIA (Sociedade Filarmónica Incrível Almadense) an association with 175 years of history.

The space is an upgrade in almost every regard compared to last year’s edition :

  • The main hall is bigger : we can have the big screen and stage and the party hall on the same space.
  • We can have a separate area for the info desk at the entrance.
  • A separate sleeping area , that was set up on the 3rd floor.
  • Access to the restaurant without having to leave the premises

The main drawbacks were the lack space for car parking on the premises and the temperature inside the party hall during the evening.

Food and Drink

The build has direct access to a bar / restaurant where the visitors could have lunch , dinner and coffee without having to leave the party premises.
The 2022 edition was not lacking in that regard, but this was definitely an upgrade compared to last year.

We also had pancakes !
The below pictures were taken by Manuel Correia. Our pankake benefactor was Sara Mena.

Retro corner

This year we had a retro corner, where the attendees of the demo party could see in person and interact with vintage computing hardware.


Competitions and Showcases

This year the organization decided to slim down the number of competitions down to 2, and introduced showcases, where no voting takes place.

The competitions were only for real time executable, under the categories below:

  • Demo / Intro (open to all modern and retro platforms)
  • Fantasy Console 512 byte (dedicated for entries on fantasy console platforms with cart size of maximum 512 bytes)

Competition entries and results can be seen on :

The show cases :

  • Graphics
  • Music
  • Wild

Shader Royale

The shader royale , where we had people all over the world programing shaders on bonzomatic , was accompanied with a live act from Parallel Pulse

The seminars

Inercia always had seminars on topics related to the demo scene.
The youtube links are provided below :

Round Table

This years round table, was focused on how to grow niche communities and the demoscene such as the demo scene.

Live acts, concerts

We also had concerts and several live acts:

Lazy Sunday Jam

On sunday we had a “Lazy sunday Jam“, were several people around the world, including on the party place, were livecoding on the TIC-80 fantasy console. While this was going on, jeenio was playing live.

Final words

When I joined the new and revived Associação Inércia, it was to help ensure that we would have at least one demoparty being held in Portuguese soil.
I can surely say that I’m happy and proud to see how the Inercia Demoparty has grown compared to last year.
This could only be possible thanks to the rest of the organization team, that was worked tirelessly in order to make this edition a reality. And ofcourse, the support of the Almada City Hall and SFIA.

I can’t wait for next year!