Our full press release is after the jump.

GAMES:EDU returns to Brighton, Early Bird Deadline Close

Brighton, May 21st. GAMES:EDU at Develop this year will feature sessions given by TIGA, Sony and Microsoft, with early bird tickets priced at just £25 – but only until June the 10th.

Scheduled to take place as part of the Develop Conference in Brighton on July 14th, GAMES:EDU 09 will focus on the current and future needs of the games industry and games academia, offering a sharing of best practice and open debate amongst some of the key players in the industry as well as the future generation of developers, publishers and industry professionals.

The event will feature keynote speeches and presentations from TIGA, Sony, Microsoft, Skillset, the IGDA, and Blitz Game Studios, and will be supported by some of the UK’s foremost games educators from universities including Abertay and Newport.

This year, after a morning of fast-moving provocative talks and announcements, the afternoon Skillset Sessions will also return with roundtable debates to allow everyone to voice their issues and concerns over industry-academia collaboration.

Richard Wilson, CEO of TIGA said: “One of the key competitive advantages of the UK game development sector is the quality of its workforce. UK game developers typically employ highly qualified, experienced and creative people. At the same time, many game developers report skill shortages when recruiting. Games:EDU is a perfect platform to discuss what steps we need to take at a national and local level to provide the games industry with the skilled workforce that it needs to compete successfully.”

Sarah Lemarié, Academic Liaison for SCEE said: “Games:EDU is an essential event in my calendar, because while I do get to visit many universities in the course of my job, rarely will I find people from so many institutions involved in games development in the same place. Similarly for universities it is a great chance to meet with many contacts in the industry, which is exactly what they need. It was the perfect event for unveiling SCEE’s PSP Academic Development Programme in 2007, and I’m looking forward to speaking there again this year. Any university planning or running a games course at any level should attend Games:EDU.”

The special early bird rate of £25 ends on the 10th of June, whereupon tickets will be the normal £95 price.

Visit www.gamesedu.co.uk to get more information, see updates on the programme, and book your ticket.

—–ends—–

Contacts:
David Hayward
david.hayward [at] pixel-lab.co.uk
07976 216 029

Notes for editors:

• Games:EDU is a part of the Develop Conference

• Games:EDU is organised by Pixel-Lab and Tandem Events.

• Games:EDU is the UK’s leading conference on games education. Bringing together games lecturers, developers, and policy makers, it is at the forefront of dialogue between the videogames industry and universities, helping games courses to be more applicable to commercial development, and helping developers to gain a better understanding of academia.

• Pixel-Lab is a computer games and digital media development agency working across the UK’s computer game and digital media industries. Pixel-Lab advises, develops and delivers strategies to support growth in the games industry from skills development to support infrastructure. Pixel-Lab also works with organisations outside the industry, enabling them to harness the power of games. www.pixel-lab.co.uk

Commissioning Editor, Education
Channel 4

Alice Taylor commissions cross-platform educational content for 14-19 year olds, aiming to get useful, life-helpful information to teens via their most favoured platforms and formats. She specializes in videogames and virtual worlds, and Channel 4 Education’s 2009 slate includes Routes, a cross-platform game tackling DNA and genetic testing, Smokescreen, a cross-platform game on the subject of privacy, online security and surveillance, and 1066 The Game, a web game depicting the events of the battles of 1066. Bow Street Runner, C4 Education’s first game commission, won the Children’s interactive BAFTA in 2008.

Alice was a judge for the 2006 & 2007 Independent Games Festival as well as D&AD 2008 and Dare to be Digital 2008. Alice founded the gamecentric blog Wonderland and writes about gaming for sites and magazines, including The Guardian, New Statesman, and Kotaku.

Dr Richard Wilson is CEO of Tiga. Richard was previously Director of Communications at the Royal Academy of Engineering (2006-2008). Prior to this, Richard was Head of Business Policy at the Institute of Directors (1998 – 2006), one of the UK’s leading business representative bodies. At the Institute of Directors (IoD) Richard played a key part in developing the IoD’s policies and representing the membership vis-a-vis Government, the media and other interested third parties.

Richard has a strong interest in politics. He has taught politics at Reading University and was awarded a PhD for his thesis in political theory.

Richard has served as a non-executive director of Improve, the sector skills council for the food and drink industry (2004-2007). He also served as a non-executive director of the Adult Learning Inspectorate (2005-2007). He was Chair of the Better Payment Practice Group (2004-2006). He has also served as a member of Edexcel’s Qualifications Committee (2006-07).

Head of Interactive Technology, Newport Business School, University of Wales Newport.

Mike is the Games and 3D modelling side of the teaching team for BSc Games Development and Artificial Intelligence, responsible for links with Industry. His research borders on social, ethical as well as technical developments of Future Technology (”Futology”). This work encompasses engineering, computer science, and pedagogical practice, and includes international collaborators, such as NASA’s CoLab Project. His main inspiration in developing the link between learning and situated technology have been Paulo Freire and bell hooks, as well as Vygotsky’s Activity Theory. All of which emphasise the breaking down of traditional educational power structures, and recognition of the role of environment and community in educational practice.

Dr. Reddy studied Maths and Physics at Durham University, then worked as a school teacher in Leeds, before taking a Masters in Computation at the University of Manchester. He became a full time lecturer in 1994. During 12 years at the University of Glamorgan, he taught on a range of innovative courses, including the World’s first BSc in Science Fiction, while on a two year secondment to the internationally recognised Centre for Astronomy and Science Education. During that time, Dr. Reddy visited over a dozen countries, representing the British Council in children’s workshops on Science, Robotics and Global Warming. He is a Science Ambassador for Setpoint Wales, and makes regular appearances on TV, Radio and in print, discussing a wide range of topical education and technology issues and their effect on Society.

Kim Blake joined Blitz Games Studios in 2006. She has worked in the games industry since 1993, starting as a designer and then working as a project manager for various independent development studios, among them Gremlin Interactive, Particle Systems and Argonaut. Amongst her work with Blitz’s various educational activities, Kim is heavily involved in the organisation of the Blitz Games Open Days, which have been a huge success with both students and lecturers since their inception in 2006.

She feels very strongly that training offered to people who want to work in the games industry needs to fit them for that role and also believes that more people would want to work in games if they had a clearer understanding of how games are made.

Sarah joined SCEE in 2002, to support the ‘Linux for PlayStation 2′ development system, which in turn drew interest from universities. Sarah is now responsible for the support sites run by SCEE R&D, but is still heavily involved in lending support to academic courses throughout the UK and Europe, having set up a PSP development scheme for academia. She still acts as the main academic contact point for SCEE, having taken an active part in Skillset’s accreditation scheme, degree course validations, and many visits and talks.

Saint John Walker is the Computer Games, Animation and Facilities Manager at Skillset, and has been brokering new animation and computer games talent at the interface of education and industry for over ten years, joining Skillset from FDMX, the Film and Digital Media Exchange, where he was a founding member of ‘Games Eden‘, the East of England’s games business networking organisation.

Saint writes regularly on New Technology for IMAGINE, the animation professional’s magazine. In 2007 he was nominated for the Times Higher Education Awards in the Widening Participation category and prior to Skillset employment finished terms as external examiner for MA courses at two Skillset academies, the University of Wales (MA Animation) and University of Hertfordshire (MA Film and Media).

Susan Gold recently joined the faculty of Full Sail University’s Graduate Program. Susan’s personal focus is on collaboration in game development, which resulted in the 1st Annual Global Game Jam, an experiment in creativity and innovation with 1650 participants in 53 locations in 23 countries which inspired 370 games.

Professor Gold serves as chairperson of the IGDA Education SIG and sits on a number of university advisory boards worldwide. Susan’s work with the IGDA Ed SIG has created many resources for instructors in game education. Currently, she is leading an outreach campaign to meet the needs of educators worldwide as well as develop tools and resources for educator professional development.

Susan is an artist, teacher, and activist with a specialization in digital art, new media and videogames. Her artwork and writing has been featured in numerous galleries, museums and publications.

Gregor White is Director of Academic Enterprise for the Institute of Arts, Media and Computer Games at University of Abertay Dundee. Gregor joined University of Abertay in 2002. He was appointed as Divisional Leader for Computer Arts and Media in 2004 and Director of Academic Enterprise in 2009. Gregor has led the integration of knowledge transfer and enterprise into the learning environment and is responsible for developing this approach to teaching and learning within the Institute. He has introduced a number of industry related projects including, BBC Prototype and White Space Solutions, and has contributed the the establish the Scottish Centre for Excellence in Computer Games Education and the Skillset Media Academy at Abertay.