Here are some logistical oriented highlights to help participants prepare for the Leadership Forum:

1 – Check-in process overview
The registration area is located on the second floor of the Marriott (up the escalators past the lobby bar). Registration will be open on the following days/times:

• Wednesday, Nov-12 from 6pm to 8pm
• Thursday, Nov-13 from 8am to 5pm
• Friday, Nov-14 from 8:30am to 4pm

Once you check in, you’ll be given your attendee badge and conference materials. You’ll also get your conference polo shirt (of the size designated on your reg form).

Note, we still have some seating left. So, additional colleagues could register at the conference directly.

2 – Airport shuttle
If you are flying, the San Francisco Airport Marriott is located in close proximity to the San Francisco International Airport (SFO). There is a free shuttle service directly to and from the airport to the Marriott.

3 – Dress code
There is no strict dress code (is there ever at a game industry event ;) Though, we encourage you to NOT come with ripped shorts and a stained t-shirt; we similarly discourage you from wearing a suit+tie. Business casual? Developer casual? Use your best judgement, you’re a leader after all.

4 – Hotel options
The block of rooms we had reserved (with a special rate) at the Marriott have all be sold out. In case you are still sorting your room details, the Westin across the street has stepped in to take our overflow at the same low rate of $119! Call them directly, quoting “IGDA Leadership Forum” to get access to the special rate.

Online registration is now closed. On-site registrations will be accepted beginning Wednesday, November 12th, from 6-8 pm local time at the Marriott. Will still have seating.

After our warning on the hotel rate deadline, we got a bump in registration and folks snapped up all the remaining special rate rooms at the airport Marriott.

The nearby Westin has stepped in to take our overflow at the same low rate of $119! Call them directly, quoting “IGDA Leadership Forum” to get access to the special rate.

Westin-San Francisco Airport
1 Old Bayshore Hwy, Millbrae
1-888-627-8404

Further, feel free to contact the IGDA events team if you are still feeling stuck or need some help/advice: +1-856-423-2990 or meetings at igda.org.

The early bird deadline to register for the IGDA Leadership Forum is Friday, September 5th. Not only does registering early save you $50, it also ensures that you actually get a seat! FYI, last year’s Leadership Form sold out, and we expect the same this year.

So, be sure to register by Friday, September 5th.

The schedule grid for the Leadership Forum program is now live:

Day 1	Day 2

The Leadership Forum is now open for registration! While the event is still a few months away, given the limited seating (around 500) we expect things to fill up fast. (Last year was sold out.)

Pricing is a very reasonable $350 for IGDA members (and $395 for non-members) until the early-bird deadline of September 5th. For those traveling, we have a block of reserved rooms you can book at the amazingly low price of only $119/night (plus applicable taxes/etc) at the conference hotel.

Check out the awesome line up of sessions/speakers for this year, as well as browse content from last year.

Hope to see you there!

We are proud to announce our line-up of keynotes and track sessions. Here are the awesome sessions the Committee put together from the 100+ proposals. Enjoy!

Keynotes

• MVP Leadership – Curt Schilling, 38 Studios / Red Sox
• Production Methodology: Past, Present and Possible Futures – Mark Cerny, Cerny Games
• Studio Heads on the Hotseat – Jen MacLean, IGDA / Mike Capps, Epic Games / Brett Close, 38 Studios / Tobi Saulnier, 1st Playable Productions / Tim Train, Big Huge Games

Personal Leadership Track

The sessions in the Personal Leadership Track cover the personal skills we all need to be successful leaders.

• Truly Tapping Your Strengths – Scott Crabtree, Intel
• Being a Pioneer: Staying Passionate About the Future of Games – Don Daglow, Stormfront Studios
• Book Review Jam – Jason Della Rocca, IGDA
• MBA Lessons, Applied – David Edery, Xbox Live Arcade
• GGD: Getting Games Done – 10 Lifehacking Tips for Producers – Rodney Gibbs, Fizz Factor
• Workshop: Personality Analysis – Kathy Gibson, Threewave Software
• Leadership from the Trenches – Manveer Heir, Raven Software
• Leadership in Conflict: Navigating Through Choppy Waters – Kane Minkus, SomaTone Interactive Audio
• Workshop: Problem Solving and Root-Cause Analysis – Michael Saladino, Pandemic Studios

Project Leadership Track

The sessions in the Project Leadership Track will focus on the nuts and bolts of game production.

• Making Lots of Small Games Without Going Crazy – J.C. Connors, Griptonite Games
• Applying User Testing During Development – Curtis Creamer, Bungie Studios
• Project Management Idea Swap – Jason Della Rocca, IGDA
• Methodology Cases: PMI / Agile / CMM PSP – Heather M. Chandler, Media Sunshine / Karin Groepper Boosman, Aspyr Media / Rich Vogel, BioWare Austin / Tobi Saulnier, 1st Playable Producions
• Level of Detail for Project Planning – Mat Hart, Ninja Theory
• Myths of Scrum – Clinton Keith
• Game Prototyping And New Product Science – Jamie Fristrom, Torpex Games
• Communicating Vision – Tom Smith, THQ
• Working with Licensed IP – Michael Waite, Amaze Entertainment

Management Leadership Track

The sessions in the Management Leadership Track cover broader scale topics that go beyond a single team or project.

• Reducing Turnover: Keeping Teams Intact Through Strong Leadership – Linda Bonanno, Emergent Game Technologies
• Studio Growth Cases – Tim Gerritsen, Big Rooster / Jason Coleman, Big Huge Games / Shaun Himmerick, Midway Newcastle / David Mann, Foundation 9
• Management Idea Swap – Jason Della Rocca, IGDA
• Civic Entrepreneurialism – Rodney Gibbs, Fizz Factor
• The Due Diligence Process Revealed – Michael Heilemann, D2C Games
• Organizational Development as a Game – Richard Hilleman, EA
• Let’s Reboot the Developer/Publisher Relationship – Mike McShaffry
• Training as a Productivity Multiplier – Andrew Oliver, Blitz Games Studios
• Managing an Engineering Community – Stefan Posthuma, EA Black Box

FYI, the Sponsorship Opportunities page has been updated with the final packages and info for those companies interested in reaching the leaders in game development.

Big props to Autodesk, our returning Platinum sponsor, and Hansoft, which returns as the Silver sponsor.

This note is primarily intended for those trying to gain exposure and build goodwill within the dev community. Though, if you are a game developer that knows of a tool/software/service vendor that would benefit from reaching out to a room full of producers, dev leads, and studio directors, please point them over here.

We invite your participation in the second annual IGDA Leadership Forum, focused on advancing the state of the art in game production and management. This event is valuable for producers, discipline leads, project managers, studio directors, and all others seeking to become better leaders, create successful games, and learn from other working professionals in the game industry.

The first IGDA Leadership Forum was a smashing success with top rated sessions by Don Daglow (Stormfront Studios), Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk (BioWare), Tim Schafer (Double-Fine), Mike Capps (Epic Games) and Clinton Keith (ex High Moon Studios). And, we welcomed 300+ delegates from over 15 countries, including the UK, Finland, India and Australia.

The 2008 IGDA Leadership Forum is EXPANDING its session offerings so we can encompass a broad range of leadership topics, including personal leadership, project leadership and management leadership. The sessions will run in parallel tracks and will consist of a mix of lectures, panels, and interactive workshop sessions.

Personal Leadership sessions will cover the skills we all need to be successful leaders, such as:

• effective communication
• entrepreneurialism and taking initiative
• persuasion and making ideas stick
• personality analysis (Myers-Briggs, etc)
• handling challenging situations/conflict
• personal time management and “life hacking”
• career planning
• “personal MBA”

Project Leadership sessions will focus on the nuts and bolts of game production, such as:

• development methodologies and best practices
• risk assessment and analysis
• scheduling and scoping techniques
• pipeline optimization
• pre-production and prototyping
• post-mortems and case studies
• metrics
• outsourcing and remote development

Management Leadership sessions will cover broader scale topics that go beyond a single team or project, such as:

• multi-team/site management
• company culture and sharing a core vision
• motivation and morale
• hiring and retention strategies
• 3rd party relationship management
• studio lifecycle planning and scaling
• HR best practices
• quality of life
• workforce development/training

The Program Committee welcomes session proposals from qualified speakers for all three areas. Please send an informal email proposal, with the topic(s) and format(s) of interest and qualifications, to leadership-forum[at]igda.org by May 1st.

The Committee also welcomes suggestions for session topics and feedback on what would interest prospective attendees.

We appreciate your help in growing the IGDA Leadership Forum for 2008!

- Heather Chandler
Chair, Program Committee
Executive Producer, Media Sunshine