Women in Games 2008
RARE Games and the Department of Computer Science are pleased to host the Women in Games Conference 2008. This conference has a history of enabling communication between the Game Development industry and academia in addressing issues pertaining to women - whether as workers in the Game Industry, as game players, and as researchers into social and computational aspects.
Programme and Presentations
09 September 2008
16:00 - 19:00 Early registration
Rootes Social Building (near main reception)
19:00 - 22:00 Informal meet up for early arrivals
The organisers, Nicola Bhalerao, Jane Sinclair and Sara Kalvala will be around for a drink and a chat. Meet in Bar Fusion (upstairs in Rootes Social building, next door to Student Union).
10 September 2008
09:00 - 09:40 Registration
Check-in in the lobby of the Mathematics and Statistics building. With Tea and Coffee
09:40 - 09:45 Conference Start In main lecture hall of the Mathematics and Statistics building.
09:45 - 09:50 Welcome Address (Roland Wilson, Head of Computer Science Department, University of Warwick)
09:50 - 09:55 Introduction from Rare (Michelle Everitt, HR Consultant, Rare Ltd)
09:55 - 10:00 Introduction to Women In Games 2008 (Mark Eyles, Principal Lecturer/Advanced Games Research Group, School of Creative Technologies, University of Portsmouth)
10:00 - 11:00 KEYNOTE : Sara de Freitas Director of Research at the Serious Games Institute at the University of Coventry
11:00 - 11:20 "Hunting for Fun - The Serious Games Challenge" Mary Matthews, Strategy and Business Development Director, TruSim (Blitz)
11:20 - 11:40 Tea and Coffee break
11:40 - 11:55 'Diagetic Media' – Beyond First-Person Shooters" Ana Kronschnabl, CEO, FluffyLogic
11:55 - 12:35 PANEL - "Getting down with the kids!"
Chair : Divinia Knowles, Head Of Operations and Financial Controller, Mind Candy Ltd. Panelists : Toby Barnes, Managing Director, Pixel Lab; Louise Ridgeway, Animation Supervisor, Rare Ltd; Rachel Bardill, Interactive Executive, CBBC
12:35 - 12:50 Workshop Introduction
Introduction to the Pink Wink Workshop to be held after lunch. Fiona French, Course Leader BSc Computer Games, Associate Director; and Barbara Zambrini, Producer : Gamelab London, London Metropolitan University
12:50 - 13:50 Lunch
In the Computer Science Building.
13:50 - 15:20 WORKSHOP - "The Pink Wink Workshop"
Fiona French, Course Leader BSc Computer Games, Associate Director; and Barbara Zambrini, Producer : Gamelab London, London Metropolitan University
Back to the Mathematics and Statistics building for...
15:20 - 15:45 Women in Games: an Iranian Perspective
Faranak Fotouhi-Ghazvini, PhD student, Department of Electronic Imaging and Media Communications, School of Informatics, University of Bradford
15:45 - 16:05 Tea and Coffee break
16:05 - 16:20 "Playing with Constrained Agency: Video Games and the Question of “Choice”"
Juliette M. Ludeker, PhD Student, Rhetoric and Composition, English Dept, Purdue University and Wendy K.Z. Anderson Doctoral Candidate, Rhetorical and New Media Studies, Humanities Dept, Michigan Technological University
16:20 - 16:45 Play In Between: Women Player Identities and the Practice of Skin Making
Hanna Wirman, PhD Student, University of the West of England
16:45 - 17:00 "Mama Ludens: Interviews with women who play" Jessica Enevold, Visiting Assistant Professor, IT University of Copenhagen; Charlotte Hagström, Assistant Professor, Lund University and Espen Aarseth, Associate Professor, IT university of Copenhagen
17:00 - 18:00 KEYNOTE : Paulina Bozek Executive Producer, SingStar, Sony
Development and Play: Do women do it differently?
19:00 - 23:00 Women in Games Quiz Night
Buffet food and quiz in Tempo Lounge, Student Union
11 September 2008
In the Mathematics and Statistics building.
09:15 - 10:15 KEYNOTE : Eileen Brown Evangelism Manager, Microsoft
10:15 - 10:30 Girls and Gadgets: The Future
Alison Brown, Senior Lecturer, School of Computing, University of Teesside
10:30 - 10:50 Girls get EX.I.T.Ed by IT
Helena Pugsley, Software Group IT Service Manager, IBM Hursley Software Development Laboratories
10:50 - 11:15 "Motivating Young Women in Game Development Via the Pixels, Programming, Play and Pedagogy Project"
Scott Leutenegger, Professor and Game Development Program Director, Computer Science Department, University of Denver
11:15 - 11:35 Tea and Coffee break
11:35 - 11:50 Turning girls on to Technology: the Role of Professional Societies
Cornelia Boldyreff, Professor of Software Engineering, Department of Computing and InformaticsUniversity of Lincoln (and member of BCSWomen committee )
11:50 - 12:50 DISCUSSION - "A Vision for Science and Society : influencing the government’s new consultation paper"
Ruth Wilson, Resources and Partnerships Coordinator Services for Women Team, UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology
12:50 - 13:50 Lunch
In the Computer Science Building.
Back to the Mathematics and Statistics building for...
13:50 - 14:50 KEYNOTE : Karen Brennan Graduate student and research assistant at MIT Media Lab in the Lifelong Kindergarten group
14:50 - 15:10 IBM's INNOV8 and PowerUp
Kevin Farrar, Programme Manager, IBM Academic Initiative, NE Europe, IBM Hursley Software Development Laboratories
15:10 - 15:30 Play to learn: Designing games with kids for kids
Hilary Hall, Executive Producer, Illumina Digital Ltd
15:30 - 15:50 "Soft Skills Please! The importance of management training"
John Nash, Art Manager, Blitz Games Studios
15:50 - 16:10 Tea and Coffee break
16:10 - 16:30 Education for games, Games for education
Bev Bush, Senior Lecturer in Games Design, University of Central Lancashire
16:30 - 17:10 PANEL - "From boys' toys to girls' games: attracting more women into games"
Chair : Natasha Angelopoulou, Senior Lecturer in Computer Science, University of Westminster. Panelists : Nick Burton, Senior Software Engineer, Rare Ltd; Cornelia Boldyreff, Professor of Software Engineering, Department of Computing and Informatics, University of Lincoln (and member of BCSWomen committee ); Dr Alexandra Psarrou, Head of AI and Multimedia Department, School of Computer Science, University of Westminster; Aurore Dimopoulos, Student (BSc Computer Games), School of Computer Science, University of Westminster, and QA Tester (TT Games Publishing)
18:45 - 23:30 Warwick Castle - Conference Dinner : Sponsored by Blitz Games Studios (Coach provided to and from Warwick Castle, departing from campus)
12 September 2008
In the Mathematics and Statistics building.
09:30 - 10:30 KEYNOTE : Karen Clark Project Manager, BioWare
10:30 - 10:50 How can a design Wiki serve a game dev team?
Emmeline Dobson, Game Designer, NiK NaK, Kuju
10:50 - 11:05 "Women working in games: developing a model of influences"
Julie Prescott, PhD student, University of Liverpool
11:05 - 11:35 Tea and Coffee break
11:35 - 12:00 "Passion, women and the games industry : influences on women's participation in the Australian Digital Content Industry"
Ruth Christie, Associate Professor, Course Coordinator - Bachelor of Games and Interactive Entertainment, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
12:00 - 12:20 From Italy to the video game industry in the UK
Simona Tassinari, Software Engineer, Rare Ltd
12:20 - 13:00 PANEL - "What are the challenges facing women coming into the industry from outside?"
Chair : Mary Matthews, Strategy and Business Development Director, TruSim (Blitz). Panelists : Kim Blake, Education Liaison Manager, Blitz Games Studios; Simona Tassinari, Software Engineer, Rare Ltd; Helen Grimbly, Software Engineer, Attractive Games
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch
In the Computer Science Building.
Back to the Mathematics and Statistics building for...
14:00 - 15:30 OPEN Meeting - Futures
Open to all – to discuss future direction(s) of Women In Games conference.
15:30 - 15:30 Conference CLOSE
Further Information
The main site for information about the conference is:
10-12 September, 2008
University of Warwick, Coventry
Links
Contact us
Department of Computer ScienceUniversity of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL
