Here's a top-level summary of how we ask Mentors to work with AIAS and Intel Scholars at GDC. 

Once you have been matched with a Scholar, we hope that you will either communicate via email or talk via phone prior to the start of GDC.

As early in the week as you can, please meet your Scholar in person at or near GDC to sit down and help them plan their experience. Meeting later in the week means they miss the chance to leverage your wisdom in how they spend their time at the conference.

There will be a reception for Mentors and Scholars near Moscone on Wednesday night. Attendance is not required but it should be a great chance to mentor both with Scholars and with other industry Mentors. I'll pass you the details via email.

Apart from these initial discussions, how a Mentor and Scholar collaborate professionally at GDC is up to each individual team.

Key issues to discuss:

-- Recommendations on tracks, sessions etc. you think would benefit the Scholar. Some Scholars arrive focused more on networking than on attending sessions, not realizing that this is one of the very best networking opportunities at GDC.

-- How best to balance their time at GDC

-- How to differentiate a purely social party from an event that offers real networking opportunities.

-- Career planning advice. We try our best to match Mentors and Scholars with similar interests, although the nature of our volunteer system means that sometimes a love of games and game development will be the primary common ground. In cases where your specific fields differ you may have more general industry advice. 

-- Some Mentors and Scholars who are planning to attend the same session will go together and sit together, while others will have schedules that do not overlap. Again, it's up to you.

-- If you have the chance and it's appropriate, introduce your Scholar to your professional contacts whom you may encounter together.

Mentors and Scholars have the option to meet more than once during GDC, but we leave that up to each Mentor-Scholar team.

Ideally these relationships will continue after GDC, and Scholars may check in periodically with their Mentors. Mentors and Scholars will both be teamed with different people over time, so you'll have the chance to develop multiple professional relationships.

Our program runs in parallel to the (excellent) GDC Ambassadors program organized by the IGDA Foundation, where I am honored to have served many times as a Mentor.

If you have any questions, please email me!