Rami Ismail’s 1ReasonToBe remains uplifting despite visa troubles

Every year at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Rami Ismail‘s panel #1ReasonToBe showcases diverse voices from around the world. This year, the specter of visa rejections hung heavy in the room, a stark reminder that not everyone has access to one of the industry’s most important developer events.

Ismail kicked off the event by showing a map in which GDC’s attendees had placed markers on their countries of origin. The markers told a story about who could actually make it to the event — whether that’s because of how expensive the conference is or because of visa rejections, which made it impossible for several of #1ReasonToBe’s original speakers to attend.