The Game Initiative, the leading producer of conferences for professionals in the computer and video game industry, today announced a stellar roster of conference speakers for the fourth annual Mobile Game Conference taking place July 13-14, 2006 in Seattle. In addition, it was announced that Trip Hawkins, Chairman and CEO, Digital Chocolate and Kosei Ito, Vice President and Producer of Mobile Products, Square Enix North America will deliver keynote addresses.
With speakers from leading operators, developers and publishers worldwide, Mobile Game Conference focuses on three key themes: Design, Construction and Potential. Attendees will walk away having shown, discussed and seen state of the art innovation in the mobile games industry.
Mobile Game Conference Speakers Include:
- Alex Bloom, Vice President, Content and Developer Services, Motricity
- Andrew Stein, Sr. Product Manager, Cingular
- Andre Vahsen, COO, Machineworks NW LLC
- Are Traasdahl, Founder and CEO, Thumbplay
- Chris Early, Studio Manager, Microsoft Casual Games Group
- Eric Goldberg, Managing Director, Crossover Technologies
- Jason A. Ford, Vice President, Strategy & Planning, Namco Networks America Inc.
- Jason Spero , SVP Marketing , Digital Chocolate
- Jill Braff, GM North America & SVP Worldwide Marketing, Glu Mobile
- John Cahill, General Manager, Mobile Games, Yahoo
- John Szeder, CEO, Mofactor
- Julian Corbett, Vice President of Business Development and Brand Partnerships, In-Fusio
- Kanishka Agarwal, Vice President of New Products, Telephia
- Kosei Ito, Vice President and Producer of Mobile Products, Square Enix North America Kris Davis, Games Product Marketing Manger, Sprint
- Kyu Lee, President, GAMEVIL USA, Inc.
- Neil Halder, Vice President Content Programming & Strategy, SkyZone
- Mark Pierce, CEO, Super Happy Fun Fun, Inc.
- Matthew Bellows, General Manager, Floodgate Entertainment
- Mike Yuen, Senior Director, Gaming Group, QUALCOMM
- Misha Lyalin, CEO, Reaxion
- Paul Foster, President/CEO, Pick Up and Play
- Paul Nakayama, Sr. Director, Content Programming, Amp’d Mobile
- Ron Czerny, Founder & CEO, Play Phone
- Randy Shepherd, founder & director of business development, werd interactive inc.
- Scott Edison, Director-Mobile, Oberon
- Seamus McAteer, Chief Product Architect & Senior Analyst, M:Metrics
- Steve Hoffman, North American Studio Head, Infospace, Inc.
- Trip Hawkins, Chairman & CEO, Digital Chocolate
Trip Hawkins is Chairman and CEO of Digital Chocolate, a creator of innovative mobile phone games and social applications. Trip is responsible for the strategic focus, overall direction, and performance of the company. Trip has been a new media pioneer for 30 years. Early in his career, Trip played a key role in defining the personal computer at Apple. He went on to found Electronic Arts and built the company into the industry leader. Trip also founded 3DO, a pioneer in digital video, network gaming, and social communities.
As Vice President and Producer of Mobile Products, Kosei Ito oversees the development and quality assurance of all mobile games under the Square Enix Mobile brand in North America. In 2002, he played an instrumental role as one of the founding members of Square Enix’s mobile business, creating a new division that is currently a $30 million a year business in Japan. Currently, Ito’s projects include the highly anticipated North American mobile title Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII.
LivePitch OnStage at the Mobile Game Conference
A cornerstone of the Mobile Game Conference, LivePitch OnStage, is the chance for game developers, indie game developers and publishers to float their skunkworks projects, their nights-and-weekend designs, in front of a panel of mobile games executives who can bring them to market. Submission details are available at http://www.LivePitch.com
About The Game Initiative
The Mobile Game Conference is produced by The Game Initiative, a leading producer of conferences and events for game industry professionals. Game Initiative, events attracted almost 4,000 game industry professionals from around the world as speakers, attendees, sponsors and exhibitors in 2005. The Game Initiative serves the needs of companies and people involved in producing interactive entertainment software and hardware for video game consoles, handheld devices, personal computers and the Internet. Game Initiative events include the Austin Game Conference, the Mobile Game Conference, the Women’s Game Conference, the Game Writers Conference, the Advertising In Games Forum, the Casual Games Conference, Game Technology Association Meetings and the How to Break into the Game Industry national conference series. More information about The Game Initiative can be found at http://www.GameConferences.com
