Serious Games -- Conferences and Organizations

Following are few Serious Games Conferences and Organizations, may find your interest.

Angils.org (www.angils.org): The European-based (UK) networking organization Angils brings together corporations, groups, and other organizations with industry, with focus on Serious Games and emerging technologies across digital entertainment, the knowledge industries and the media.

Apply Serious Games (www.applyseriousgames.com): The first ASG-conference was held in London, UK 2006. The goal of the conference was to bring together game developers, learning suppliers, publishers, etc., to explore, for instance, effective immersive learning content, correct application design, commercial viability, and innovation in action across many applications.

The American Society of Trainers and Developers (ASTD) (www.astd.org/astd): ASTD is the largest association dedicated to workplace learning and performance. ASTD provides resources and organizes conferences with a focus on, e.g., e-learning.

Christian Game Developers Conference (www.cgdc.org): The Christian Game Developers
Conference is a gathering with the purpose of encouraging game developers to apply Christian principles to their industry.

Cyber Therapy Conference (www.interactivemediainstitute.com/): The Interactive Media
Institute (IMI) is a non-profit organization working for the application of advanced technologies for patient care. The Institute is actively working with experts in utilizing virtual reality, multimedia, computer-generated avatars, personal robots, and other technologies to treat patients with both mental and physical disorders. The Cyber Therapy Conference, held in Switzerland, brings together researchers, clinicians, and funds to share and discuss the field of Cyber Therapy. Technologies include virtual reality simulations, videogames, telehealth, the Internet, robotics, and noninvasive physiological monitoring devices.

Defense Gaming (www.defencegaming.org): Defense Gaming is an initiative by different
Swedish defense government agencies to study, research, and explore the conjunction of the computer and video games world and the military.

Department of Defense (DoD) Game Developers’ Community (www.dodgamecommunity.com): The aim of DoD Game Developers’ Community is to bring together the community developing games within the US military. The web site, among other things, supply information on most major games developed for the Department of Defense and gives design advice on building games.

Digital Games Research Association (DiGra) (www.digra.org): DiGRA is an association for academics and professionals who research digital games and associated phenomena. DIGRA encourages research on games, and promotes collaboration and dissemination of work by its members. The aim of the annual conference (www.digra.org/digra_conference; www.gamesconference.org/) is to bring together all who can provide insights about digital games, from academia to industry, across a wide range of disciplines and expertise, and so be able to get a greater holistic understanding of games, their impacts, and potential.

Education Arcade, Games in Education Conference (www.educationarcade.org , currently redirected to www.educationarcade.org/node): The conference explores issues in the development, use, and marketing of educational games. The initiative seeks to encourage research and development of educational games.

Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) (www.elspa.com): ELSPA is a UK association, comprising interactive entertainment industry, protecting, promoting, and providing both for its members and for the industry as whole. Activities include, e.g., industry reports and research, and official games charts and analysis.

Futurelab (www.futurelab.org.uk): is a non-profit organization committed to sharing the knowledge and experience learnt from their research and development in order to inform positive change to educational policy and practice.

Future Play (www.futureplay.org): The conference focuses on three themes: a) future game development, which addresses academic research, and emerging industry trends in the area of game technology and game design, b) future game impacts and applications, which includes academic research and emerging industry trends focused on designing games for learning, for gender, for serious purposes, and to impact society, and c) future game talent, which is designed to provide a number of industry and academic perspectives on the knowledge, skills, and attitude it takes to excel in the games industry.

Games for Change (G4C) (www.seriousgames.org/gamesforchange/): G4C is the social change/social issues branch of the Serious Games Initiative. G4C focuses on non-profit organizations and promotes games for societal change. The organization has an annual conference.

Games for Health (www.gamesforhealth.org/): The Serious Games Initiative founded Games for Health to develop a community and platform for games being built for health care applications. The annual conference brings together researchers, medical professionals, and game developers to share information about the impact games and game technologies can have on health care and policy.

Games, Learning, and Society Conference (www.glsconference.org): The conference brings together academics, designers, and educators to discuss how game technologies can enhance learning, culture, and education. One aim of the conference is to prevent the issues of learning and the social role of games from getting lost in the cause of industry building.

G.A.M.E.S. Synergy Summit (www.synergysummit.com): G.A.M.E.S. is an acronym for Government, Academic, Military, Entertainment and Simulation. The conference, which started in 2005 and is expected to be annual, brings together leaders and participants from each of the above sectors.

International Association of Games Education Research (IAGER) (www.iager.org): IAGER is a non-profit member organization dedicated to promoting and improving educational games through educational game research and shared resources. IAGER intends to hold an annual conference. International Simulation and Gaming Association (ISAGA www.isaga.org). ISAGA is an international organization for scientists and practitioners developing and using simulation, gaming, and related methodologies. The main goals include enhancing the development and application of simulation and gaming methodologies in particularly the social, human, and technological domains. ISAGA has an annual conference.

The Inter service/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC)
(www.iitsec.org): The conference promotes cooperation among the Armed Services,
Industry, Academia and various Government agencies in order to improve training and education programs, identify common training issues, and develop multi service programs.

Learning in Video Games (learninginvideogames.com): The website provide news, articles, and other resources on the use of video games for learning and educational purposes. Medicine Meets Virtual Reality (www.nextmed.com/mmvr_virtual_reality.html). The conference is intended to be a forum for, e.g., encouraging and sharing research on virtual reality tools for clinical care and medical education. The intended audience is healthcare professionals and educators, computer technologists, biomedical futurists, and military medicine specialists.

The Serious Game Initiative (www.seriousgames.org): The Serious Games Initiative focus on the use for games in exploring management and leadership challenges facing the public sector. Part of its aim is to help form links between the electronic game industry and projects involving the use of games in education, training, health, and public policy.

The Serious Games Summit D.C. (www.seriousgamessummit.com): The Serious Games
Summit D.C., produced by the CMP Game Group and held in Washington D.C., places focus on exploring new ways to broaden the spectrum addressed by serious games. The core segments of serious games - military, government, healthcare, corporate training and education - play a major role at the conference.

Social Impact Games (www.socialimpactgames.com): Social Impact Games is a web site which catalogues serious games. Currently over 200 serious games are listed.

Visuals and Simulation Technology Conference and Exhibition (ViSTech) (www.halldale.com/vistech/): The first ViSTech conference and exhibition was held in
2005. It aims to bring experts in the visual technologies closer together with professionals in simulation and training. The conference is directed toward commercial and military designers, manufacturers, and users of visual system technology, and covers the use of game technology in military and government applications.