[casual_games] on the Casual Games Conferences

Wed Nov 23 14:48:08 EST 2005

For PlayFirst, there are several reasons to attend a conference focused
on casual games:

1) Convenient one-stop place to hold meetings with (potential) partners
2) Networking with folks we haven't yet met
3) Participating in the conference sessions for the educational aspect
4) Promoting unity in our space - keeping it small/friendly/personal as
it grows

There are enough conferences of sufficiently diverse focus that we
already attend (GDC, E3, CES, etc.) that the PlayFirst team plans to
attend only one of these Seattle conferences. I suspect many other
leading casual game companies feel the same way. As such, all of the
goals listed above are best accomplished if there is only one
conference. (We are also attending Casuality Europe in Amsterdam in
February because that helps us reach a very different market... But I
wouldn't want to see another casual games conference two weeks later in
Western Europe.)

Jessica Tams has amazing energy, and she has the support of nearly/all
of the key faculty from the Casual Games Conference last year (Juan
Gril, James Gwertzman, etc.). The quality and value of a new conference
follows from the quality and networking power of the faculty - in
addition to the relevance of the sessions, a huge component of the value
is the relevance of the other attendees. Jessica and friends did it
right last year, and from what I can tell I really like the way she is
organizing Casuality Europe and Seattle. These events are professionally
organized but non-profit. They will offer a well-crafted agenda with
most of the key casual game developers, publishers, distributors,
portals, and technology companies participating as faculty to share
their knowledge and experience. She is making these events for and by
the community - I have seen the way she reaches out broadly to solicit
ideas and advice.

As such, you can expect PlayFirst to send a group up to Seattle for the
Casuality conference. I encourage everyone else to do the same.

Another plug: If you are attending Game Developers' Conference in San
Jose, CA in March, please consider putting the Casual Games Summit on
your calendar. It is a full-day tutorial held on Tuesday, March 21,
2006, the second day of the conference. In its fourth year, Summit is a
highly concentrated dose of educational material on casual games. I
expect that there will be good overlap in faculty between the Summit and
the Casuality conferences, but both will be valuable and different
experiences. The Summit faculty will spice things up this year, with a
slightly new format and an emphasis on really digging to the heart of
important issues, perhaps taking a little inspiration from James G.'s
panel at the Seattle conference last year. ;-)

Hope my $0.02 was helpful.

-John W.
________________________

John Welch, President & CEO
PLAY:  www.PlayFirst.com

-----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Will Byrd
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 10:39 AM
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: RE: [casual_games] on the Casual Games Conferences

As this will be my first year at the Casual Game Conference, and I'm
unaware of these issues, what do the rest of you think about this
situation?  Does anyone see a resolution coming?  Are there going to be
two next year?

Thanks,
--=w=--

-----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of James Gwertzman
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2005 11:47 AM
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: RE: [casual_games] on the Casual Games Conferences

Yes, that is the position of PopCap Games. We are supporting the Casual
Games Association and are not supporting the Game Initiative. In our
opinion, Jessica Tams basically put together the Casual Games Conference
last-year single-handedly -- the Game Initiative handled event planning
logistics, but that is easily outsourced -- and therefore the event that
Jessica is planning this year is the true successor to last year's
conference. The Game Initiative holds the trademark to the name 'Casual
Games Conference' however which is why the Casual Games Association
conference is called something generic.

I've asked Chris Sherman to consider releasing his trademark to the
conference - frankly I think this whole thing is fairly silly, that in
an industry of adults we have two competing conferences like this. My
personal suggestion is that the Casual Games Association simply hire the
Game Initiative to run the conference and then everyone might be happy?

--------------------
James Gwertzman
Director of Business Development
PopCap Games
+1-206-256-4210

-----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of James C. Smith
Sent: Sunday, November 13, 2005 11:12 PM
To: 'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'
Subject: RE: [casual_games] on the Casual Games Conferences

I would be very surprised if both casual games conferences in Seattle
were to take place next year. I assume most of the significant players
in the industry will choose one conference to support and the other will
never happen due to lack of speakers and sponsors.  I know of a lot a
key players who are supporting the Casual Games Association and it's
Casuality conferences. I am not aware of any key players in the casual
games industry who are supporting The Game Initiative for 2006 but there
may be a few out there. The Game Initiative doesn't seem to be naming
any names of supporters for 2006 the way the Casual Games Association
is.  The Game Initiative web site just says "2005 Sponsors included".  I
think 2006 will be a very different story.

This is just my personal take on the situation.  

-----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Tom Park
Sent: Sunday, November 13, 2005 2:34 PM
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: [casual_games] on the Casual Games Conferences

Heh, this sorta reminds me of something that happened 10 years ago
involving another Chris in the games industry.

So there'll be two casual games conferences in Seattle next year, one in
mid-July and one at the end of August.... Well, y'all haven't beat the
mobile industry yet -- there's gotta be at least one wireless conference
going on somewhere on the west coast every few weeks!

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