PRACTICE makes perfect?

In a couple of weeks I'm heading to Manhattan for PRACTICE: Game Design In Detail. I had never heard of this before, but it sounds like it could be really interesting, and seeing as how I'm trying to hone, improve, and leverage my design skills, it certainly sounds like an opportunity I ought to check out!

I don't really know what to expect. Several of the time blocks on the schedule are merely labeled "Lecture" - I don't know who will be lecturing, or on what topic, but I'm curious to see what they have to say anyway. All of the speakers are well known designers in various gaming realms. Two of the units are labeled:

• Panel: State of the Art Techniques
  
• Panel: Game Design vs. Programming

I'm not sure how useful "Game Design vs Programming" will be for me personally, it sounds (just by the title) as if it's geared toward people who are trying to get into video game design, and might not understand the difference between designing a game system, and programming a computer to govern that system. I don't do any programming (nor do I care to), but perhaps that panel will give me some insight on what it takes to get a digital version of a board game going.

"State of the Art Techniques" however could be interesting. Like the other panel though, I'm not sure if they're referring to techniques in Game Design, or techniques in programming a video game... State of the Art can easily refer to technology.

I do hope this trip doesn't turn out to be a waste of time. There's a lot of crossover between video game design and board game design, so I think even if some of the lectures and panels are geared toward video games, the information and insight could still be useful for me. I'm tentative, but curious, and I look forward to the trip.

If you've ever been to PRACTICE, or know anything about it, please leave a comment!