Welcome to today's episode of Gaming for the Culture I am your host Janae Benet You are now rocking with

the hostess with the Hostess and I have some really really amazing guests And I've spoken to them before Um

the last time we spoke it was over an interview table So if you saw the post that

went out today I said Let's talk beyond the interview table and really get to know them

Uh one of them I've known for longer and I can't wait to get into that because I used

to be A terror a little bit unknowingly not on purpose I used to just anyways I

don't want to give too much away Without further ado I would like to introduce my guests Kat

and Carmen Do you guys want to introduce yourselves So yeah I'm Kat Shields Moon

Um by day I am the senior PR manager at Shell Games Um by night I like horror movies and

bad jokes and puns Um I've been in gaming for about 10 years Uh gosh it's been that long And

um the beginning of my journey is actually when I met Janae so more on that later Um

but yeah I've always had a love for the written word and communications got my

start in journalism when I was in high school at the local newspaper that carried me through college and then

the industry went and there were no more newspaper jobs Uh so I pivoted to public relations working

in a couple of corporate shops before I was like you know what my soul needs

feeding and I went to Atlanta for A graduate program in writing and that led

me into my first role in the gaming industry as a video games journalist So

funny how things come around full circle Um and ever since then I've been bebopping

around different places in gaming So that's taken me from games journalism to community management to eSports to putting together

the big grand e-Sports competitions and conventions and Now I'm chilling in the land of

virtual reality with a headset on my face and a song on my heart so I'm gonna flip it

over to Carmen Thanks Kat Uh so I am Carmen DeMint My pronouns are she

and her and I am the senior TA for those who don't know what that is talent acquisition specialist

at show games as well Wow my trajectory to be in this industry is all over the place

Uh so for those of you who are aspiring to get in it is not a straight shot for some

of us Uh I have worn a lot of hats I'll name off a few Uh

I am a French-trained chef I went to medical school and all through that journey I had a love

of games I go back to the Atari days uh with the understanding that women could not

do this I had no idea that this was a career no idea that you could go to

college uh for such things uh because in my time you had the blue aisle the pink

aisle and home ec Whew that's taking you way back But throughout that career journey I

built the skills around people soft skills uh business biz Dev Which allowed me to integrate myself as a

uh personal representative uh or PR agent for huge names in the industry and I

also work in collaboration like Kat said for conventions and doing tracks Uh I had the privilege of working

uh and supporting the first couple of years of Blurred Con and If You Know You Know Um and

then uh a kind of a full circle moment for me uh Cat dared me to

put an application in it shell games and look at me now so I I really truly love

the studio's uh commitment to DEI being a diversity recruiter a person who is neurodivergent

or neuro-spicy as I like to say and an advocate for opening doors for others

and I've dedicated my career I am excited about this podcast Carmen really quickly this has to

be one of the most unrelated questions but you brought up French cuisine I went to Paris and I didn't

like anything I had What's going on Like like help me to understand that experience like I mean did you

go recently Yeah uh yeah 2023 or 2023 or 2024 December January Yeah I I

really think that classic French cuisine and when I say that everything with cream and butter is where I

was trained has been going out the window in consideration of the healthy way of eating which does not

taste the same to your palate So depending on the entrees that you had the restaurant you went

to and the chef come on It may not have been your cup of tea Now French pastries girl

I will roll out of there weighing 10 more pounds every other day Um but big secret most

of us chefs cannot bake and I'll tell you why cause we want to peek stir and poke Baking

is is not the thing That's interesting because I can agree with the pastries because

I didn't like macaroons until I tried them in France and then I was like OK everyone else is just

wrong Like good to know you know so they're supposed to taste like Yeah you know the like

Welcome to today's episode of Gaming for the Culture I am your host Janae Benet You are now rocking with

the hostess with the Hostess and I have some really really amazing guests And I've spoken to them before Um

the last time we spoke it was over an interview table So if you saw the post that

went out today I said Let's talk beyond the interview table and really get to know them

Uh one of them I've known for longer and I can't wait to get into that because I used

to be A terror a little bit unknowingly not on purpose I used to just anyways I

don't want to give too much away Without further ado I would like to introduce my guests Kat

and Carmen Do you guys want to introduce yourselves So yeah I'm Kat Shields Moon

Um by day I am the senior PR manager at Shell Games Um by night I like horror movies and

bad jokes and puns Um I've been in gaming for about 10 years Uh gosh it's been that long And

um the beginning of my journey is actually when I met Janae so more on that later Um

but yeah I've always had a love for the written word and communications got my

start in journalism when I was in high school at the local newspaper that carried me through college and then

the industry went and there were no more newspaper jobs Uh so I pivoted to public relations working

in a couple of corporate shops before I was like you know what my soul needs

feeding and I went to Atlanta for A graduate program in writing and that led

me into my first role in the gaming industry as a video games journalist So

funny how things come around full circle Um and ever since then I've been bebopping

around different places in gaming So that's taken me from games journalism to community management to eSports to putting together

the big grand e-Sports competitions and conventions and Now I'm chilling in the land of

virtual reality with a headset on my face and a song on my heart so I'm gonna flip it

over to Carmen Thanks Kat Uh so I am Carmen DeMint My pronouns are she

and her and I am the senior TA for those who don't know what that is talent acquisition specialist

at show games as well Wow my trajectory to be in this industry is all over the place

Uh so for those of you who are aspiring to get in it is not a straight shot for some

of us Uh I have worn a lot of hats I'll name off a few Uh

I am a French-trained chef I went to medical school and all through that journey I had a love

of games I go back to the Atari days uh with the understanding that women could not

do this I had no idea that this was a career no idea that you could go to

college uh for such things uh because in my time you had the blue aisle the pink

aisle and home ec Whew that's taking you way back But throughout that career journey I

built the skills around people soft skills uh business biz Dev Which allowed me to integrate myself as a

uh personal representative uh or PR agent for huge names in the industry and I

also work in collaboration like Kat said for conventions and doing tracks Uh I had the privilege of working

uh and supporting the first couple of years of Blurred Con and If You Know You Know Um and

then uh a kind of a full circle moment for me uh Cat dared me to

put an application in it shell games and look at me now so I I really truly love

the studio's uh commitment to DEI being a diversity recruiter a person who is neurodivergent

or neuro-spicy as I like to say and an advocate for opening doors for others

and I've dedicated my career I am excited about this podcast Carmen really quickly this has to

be one of the most unrelated questions but you brought up French cuisine I went to Paris and I didn't

like anything I had What's going on Like like help me to understand that experience like I mean did you

go recently Yeah uh yeah 2023 or 2023 or 2024 December January Yeah I I

really think that classic French cuisine and when I say that everything with cream and butter is where I

was trained has been going out the window in consideration of the healthy way of eating which does not

taste the same to your palate So depending on the entrees that you had the restaurant you went

to and the chef come on It may not have been your cup of tea Now French pastries girl

I will roll out of there weighing 10 more pounds every other day Um but big secret most

of us chefs cannot bake and I'll tell you why cause we want to peek stir and poke Baking

is is not the thing That's interesting because I can agree with the pastries because

I didn't like macaroons until I tried them in France and then I was like OK everyone else is just

wrong Like good to know you know so they're supposed to taste like Yeah you know the like