INplay 2012

1x1 Meetings are now available for sign-up!

1x1 Facilitated Meetings (aka "speed-dating" type meetings) are now available! Included in the roster of amazing INplay speakers you can meet with, are the "LAX: Featured 5" including: Sulake/Stora Lab, Pancake Mountain x2, Fuel Youth Engagement and Eat Your Lunch, coming as part of our LAX: Los Angeles Connexion mission! Of course, this opportunity is only available to those smart-y pants types who have already registered for the event. You too can be smart, by registering today here!

JESSE SCHELL TO DELIVER INPLAY KEYNOTE

We're excited to announce that Jesse Schell, CEO, Schell Games and faculty member at the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University, will be a Keynote speaker at INplay 2012. A much sought after speaker, his past lectures at events such as TED and the DICE Summit have been raved about and in 2004 he was named one of the world's Top 100 Young Innovators by MIT's Technology Review.
He is the author of The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses, and was formerly the Chairman of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) and the Creative Director of the Disney Imagineering Virtual Reality Studio. INplay attendees will have the chance to hear Jesse's insights on intergenerational gaming. This is a "don't miss" event!

MARK SURMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF MOZILLA FOUNDATION TO KEYNOTE AT INPLAY 

A community activist and technology executive of 20+ years, Mark currently serves as the Executive Director at Mozilla, makers of Firefox and one of the largest social enterprises in the world. At Mozilla, he is focused on using the open technology and ethos of the web to transform fields such as education, journalism and filmmaking. Mark has overseen the development of Popcorn.js, which Wired has called the future of online video; the Open Badges initiative, launched by the US Secretary of Education; and the Knight Mozilla News Technology Partnership, which seeks to reinvent the future of digital journalism. Join him & other fantastic speakers at INplay 2012!

INplay is Canada’s premiere kids content conference that focuses squarely on interactive media that is created for kids from Pre-School through to Tween. It is partly an examination of the marketplace, with a lot of time dedicated to innovation, education and public service.
 
Now in it’s third year, INplay will shine a spotlight on:  

• Technology for games and entertainment used in interdisciplinary learning
• New kinds of play, focusing on merging immersive/interactive action-based digital and real-world activities
• Social gaming and co-viewing with a focus on inter-generational play
• Perspectives and insights into successes in the kids interactive industry
• Responsible marketing and privacy issues
• Sustainable business models including self-publishing
• Putting interactive first
• Experimentation
• Curiosity
• The importance of play within companies, plus lots more!

Put yourself into the shoes of your audience to make your IP better, more effective and more fun!
 
The conference will feature 3 major streams each covering a different dimension of working with properties for kids aged 2-12:

 
INplay's research and e-learning stream
Anyone operating in the kids sector needs to understand their audience. How do kids play? What choices do they make regarding engagement? What makes one activity fun over another? This stream will both provide attendees with insights into kids and how they relate to interactive properties, and consider research and cutting edge technology that will shape and direct the future of the sector. Speakers will include both key industry players and academic scholars whose research focus is on kids. The stream hopes to bridge the gap between business and scholarship and between academia and industry.

 
INplay's creativity and content stream
Creativity lies at the heart of the kids interactive industry. If not for wild imagination, crazy ideas and inspired products, we would never be able to reach out to children and connect with their sense of wonder and curiosity. Focused on the creativity and craft behind interactive properties for kids, this stream will draw upon industry leaders whose expertise contributed to the creation of innovative projects, characters, stories, technology and platforms for kids.  The discussions and presentations in this stream will fire the imagination!

 
INplay's business stream
Kids are starting to use interactive digital media at an increasingly young age and in increasing numbers.  This stream will delve into commercial opportunities, discussing what works and what doesn’t in a practical series of panels and debates.
 

Sign up for the Interactive Ontario Newsletter to get the latest news about INPlay and the interactive digital media industry.