Conference Season Pt 1.

Around this time of the year I always find that there are a lot of great conferences to attend and combining this with meetings across the UK has meant that I’ve not actually spent much time in the office as of late. It seems like every time I come back from a trip something new and exciting has appeared in the office: beanbags, a projector, a Wii, wall stickers and so forth… anyway I digress this post is actually about the conference I have attended so far and I wanted to give you an overview and some of the key points I picked up on. So since the previous posts on the game based learning and Nintendo Wii technical conference I have attended the following:

Apply Serious Games 2009

On 7^th May I attended the Apply Serious Games 2009 forum in London. Organised by one of my mentors Martine Parry, it was a one day forum looking at emerging trends in the serious games industry. An excellent keynote by Lord Puttnam and a strong panel on Growth Sectors for 2009 made this an insightful and informative event for anyone working in the serious games industry.

Thinking Digital

From the 13^th – 15^th May I was in my ‘blue-sky’ element at the Thinking Digital conference in Newcastle. Great minds from across the World came together to discuss stuff – I saw stuff because it’s the only word I can think of to describe such an eclectic mix, try to find the link between Particle Physics (Tara Shears), Interface Technologies (Johnny Chung Lee) and Perfume (Chandler Burr), to name but a few of the great talks. This diversity was a good thing, multiple perspectives are quintessential for creative thinking, and that is something Thinking Digital brings together. People are now calling it the TED of the North East and tickets are already on sale for 2010.

bTween09

I just got back from Liverpool after bTween09 at FACT on the 11^th and 12^th June. I really enjoyed bTween, a true cross media event bringing together the very best of the UK creative industry. Exciting panels included ‘Where’s the Money?’ with Peter Cowley (Endemol), Angel Gambino, Ellen Marzell (In Game Advertising) and Shahid Ahmad (Sony), exploring new business models and ways of generating revenue; and ‘Making A Difference’ with Adam Gee (Channel 4), Lucy Willis (Raw Television), Andy Gibson (School of Everything) and Andy Bell (Mint Digital), providing real examples of creating products which create positive change.

On the final day I had the opportunity to pitch Throwie.net to an expert panel in the ‘Pitching In’ event with Nicole Yershon (Ogilvy), Ewan McIntosh (4iP), Jake Redford (Orange). It was a fantastic opportunity and was streamed lived across the web. Watch the ‘Pitching In’ event below. (Throwie is pitched first).

Click To Play

So that’s it for the first part of conference season still to come: GameHorizon in Newcastle and Showcomotion in Sheffield; hope to see you there.