The lineup for the IGDA Leadership Forum continues to grow as Laura Fryer, Vice President and General Manager, WB Games Seattle, is tapped as a keynote speaker.
IGDA Foundation Charity Dinner
Published August 22nd, 2010
The IGDA is proud to present the IGDA Foundation Charity Dinner to benefit the Romero Archives.
Register for the Leadership Forum
The Foundation Charity Dinner will be held Friday November 5, 2010. in the Ballroom of the San Francisco Airport Marriott, the final day of the IGDA Leadership Forum conference. The dinner will be preceded by a cocktail reception and will include the video taping of an interview by John Romero of a seminal game designer whose work has helped define the game industry. Proceeds from the dinner will help support the work of the Romero Archives and the other charitable works of the IGDA Foundation.
Join industry leaders and luminaries to honor the seminal designers of our industry and to support the IGDA Foundation and its charitable works.
Cost is $125 for Leadership Forum attendees and IGDA members and one guest each, $150 for general public (group pricing available).
The Romero Archives
The Romero Archives was founded by game designer John Romero and is dedicated to preserving the best of our industry's game designers. The mission of the Romero Archives is five-fold:
- To catalog and preserve the work of game designers.
- To catalog and preserve the design process of game designers.
- To make this work freely accessible to game historians, art historians, new media historians, academics, students of game design and game designers.
- To encourage game developers to archive their design process for future study.
- With the assistance of all the above, to make apparent the validity of game design as an art form.
The IGDA Foundation
The IGDA Foundation exists to further the mission of the International Game Developers Association and enhance the lives of game developers through educational, scientific and charitable works.
For more information, or sponsorship opportunities, please contact info@igda.org.
Laura Fryer Set to Keynote November IGDA Leadership Forum
Published August 12th, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Laura Fryer Set to Keynote November IGDA Leadership Forum
MOUNT ROYAL, NJ (August 6, 2010) – The lineup for the IGDA Leadership Forum continues to grow as Laura Fryer, Vice President and General Manager, WB Games Seattle, is tapped as a keynote speaker. Laura joins Mark Pincus, founder of Zynga, on the list of confirmed keynote speakers for the annual event, scheduled this year for Thursday – Friday, Nov. 4 – 5 at the San Francisco Marriott Hotel.
This year’s IGDA Leadership event will feature 3 tracks – Personal, Project, and Tools. The Forum is aimed at the team leaders, producers, project managers and studio directors within the game development industry who seek to learn and share techniques for leading successful teams and games. The Forum will also feature a Scrum Certification course by Clinton Keith, which will be held November 2 and 3 at the same location. Last year over 20 attendees completed the course and earned the official title of Certified ScrumMaster through the Scrum Alliance.
For more information about the IGDA Leadership Forum please visit, http://www.igda.org/leadership
To register for this year’s event please visit, http://bit.ly/9FxAmY
About Laura Fryer
As Vice President and General Manager for WB Games Seattle, Fryer, an industry veteran, oversees game development for the Washington-based studio, including all work done by Snowblind Studios, which is currently working on "Lord of the Rings: War in the North."
Prior to joining WB Games, Fryer was one of the first members of Microsoft Game Studios, joining in 1995. As Executive Producer for MGS, she was responsible for shipping "Gears of War" and" Gears of War 2." Fryer also was a producer on the classic title, “Crimson Skies” and Microsoft's first massively multiplayer game, “Fighter Ace.” She also conceived and produced Microsoft's first release of Zone.com.
Fryer also spent time within Microsoft in the Xbox Advanced Technology Group, where she was a founding member of the Xbox project. During her tenure as Director of the Group, she cultivated worldwide Xbox Developer Support, launched XNA, created the Xbox Advisory Board and ran Xbox game developer events around the world.
Fryer has been named one of The Hollywood Reporter's “Top 12 Most Influential Women in Gaming,” one of Next Generation's “Game Industry's 100 Most Influential Women,” and Gamasutra’s “Top 20 Women in Games.”
About the IGDA
The International Game Developers Association is the largest non?profit membership organization serving individuals that create video games. The IGDA is committed to advancing the careers and enhancing the lives of game developers by connecting members with their peers, promoting professional development, and advocating on issues that affect the developer community. For more information, please visit: www.igda.org.
Contact: Alexandra Springer
IGDA Meeting Manager
856-423-2990
Mark Pincus Announced as a Keynote for 2010 IGDA Leadership Forum
Published July 28th, 2010
Mark Pincus Announced as a Keynote for 2010 IGDA Leadership Forum
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MT. ROYAL, NJ (July 28, 2010) – The IGDA is proud to announce Mark Pincus, the founder of Zynga, as a keynote for its highly anticipated upcoming Leadership Forum. The massive success of Zynga, the popular social network game developer, has been a testament to the extraordinary leadership abilities of Mark, making his address at this year’s Leadership Forum an exciting addition to the event. The 4th annual Leadership Forum will again be held at the San Francisco Airport Marriott Hotel on November 4th and 5th, 2010. Since its inception in 2007, the IGDA Leadership Forum has quickly grown to become a must-attend industry experience.
This year’s event will feature 3 tracks – Personal, Project, and Tools. The Leadership Forum is aimed at the team leaders, producers, project managers, and studio directors within the game development industry who seek to learn and share techniques for leading successful teams and games. The Leadership Forum will also feature a Scrum Certification course by Clinton Keith, which will be held November 2nd and 3rd at the same location. Last year over 20 attendees completed the course and earned the official title of Certified ScrumMaster through the Scrum Alliance.
For more information about the IGDA Leadership Forum please visit, http://www.igda.org/leadership
To register for this year’s event please visit, http://bit.ly/9FxAmY
About Mark Pincus
Mark is the visionary behind Zynga and Zynga.org. He founded the company in 2007 to enable users to build social connections through games. On his way to Zynga, Mark started three companies. In 2003, he launched Tribe.net, one of the first social networks in the industry. Before that he founded Support.com and built the company into the leading provider of support automation software. In 1995, he launched FreeLoader, the first web-based consumer push company, and sold it a few months later. Mark started his career working in traditional media, financial services, and venture capital before he discovered his calling as a consumer technology entrepreneur.
Mark Graduated summa cum laude from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is an angel investor to multiple Silicon Valley startups and regularly gives lectures to aspiring entrepreneurs.
About IGDA
The International Game Developers Association is the largest non-profit membership organization serving individuals that create video games. The IGDA is committed to advancing the careers and enhancing the lives of game developers by connecting members with their peers, promoting professional development, and advocating on issues that affect the developer community. For more information, please visit: www.igda.org.
Contact: Alexandra Springer IGDA, Meeting Manager aspringer@talley.com 856-423-2990###
Registration Open!
Published July 12th, 2010
Registration for this year’s Leadership Forum is now open, reserve your spot today! If you are in a leadership position within the game development industry and want to expand your leadership abilities then the Leadership Forum is an event you cannot miss. You will hear from industry professionals as they speak on what it takes to be a great leader in the game development industry. Attendees can also attend three tracks – Personal, Project, and Tools; – all focused on advancing the state of the art in game development. For the second straight year we will also be offering a Scrum Certification Course, presented by Clinton Keith.
Our Early Rates End September 10, Register today!
When: November 4-5, 2010 (Scrum Certification November 2-3)
Where: San Francisco Airport Marriott (Enjoy a special rate by booking hotel accommodations here)
More hotel and travel information can be found here, http://www.igda.org/leadership/travel/
Travel Partner: The IGDA is proud to announce a special travel agreement with jetBlue Airways. Leadership Forum attendees will receive a 5% discount off the lowest fair booked online with jetBlue. Flights must arrive at SFO, OAK, or SJC.
Code: IGDA2010
Discount: 5%
Have Questions? Want more info on the Leadership Forum? Email Contact@igda.org or call us at 856-423-2990.
-IGDA Headquarters
Welcome to LF’2010!
Published February 17th, 2010
We invite your participation in the 4th annual IGDA Leadership Forum, focused on advancing the state of the art in game production and management. The 2010 IGDA Leadership Forum is seeking session proposals from speakers with thorough industry experience to offer insightful leadership and production-related sessions. If you share our passion and commitment for better leadership in the game industry, please submit your proposal by 17:30 pm (EST) on 25th of April.
This event will be valuable for producers, team leaders, project managers, studio directors, and all others seeking to learn and share techniques for leading teams in creating successful games. Last year, we welcomed 330+ delegates from over 12 countries, including the UK, Finland, Sweden and Australia.
The 2010 IGDA Leadership Forum will continue the format of three tracks – Personal, Project, and Tools Track – that encompass a broad range of leadership topics. The sessions will run in parallel tracks and will consist of a mix of lectures, panels, and interactive workshop sessions.
The Personal Track will cover general leadership skills as well as more advanced team management and motivation techniques. The Project Track will focus on the nuts and bolts of game production, such as scheduling techniques, post-mortems, and project pipelines. Both tracks will consist of a mix of one-hour lectures, panels, and roundtables.
To ensure full coverage of all topics, the program is being developed by a conference committee of industry veterans. The committee welcomes nominations, and self-nominations, of qualified speakers for both tracks. Please send an informal email proposal, with the topic(s) of interest and qualifications by April 25th 2010.
The committee also welcomes suggestions for presentation topics and feedback on what would interest prospective attendees. Suggested topics for lectures include, but are not limited to:
- development methodologies
- scheduling techniques
- multi-team management
- outsourcing and remote development
- pipeline optimization
- hiring strategies and immigration
- pre-production, prototyping
- personal/team communication
- team/company culture and structure
- motivation and team morale
Please note we are ALWAYS here to help you. If you have ANY questions you think we need to cover on this area of our website, please email Heather Chandler or Toby Allen. The Committee also welcomes suggestions for session topics and feedback on what would interest prospective attendees
We appreciate your help in making the 4th IGDA Leadership Forum a success!
