This event is officially SOLD OUT.

I'm afraid there are no additional seats and we are unable to accommodate our waiting list due to the volume of registrants. Thanks for all your interest!

Just a quick reminder for those that are registered that you may pick up your badges at Red River College - Princess Street Campus on Monday, March 16, at 8:30 am. The event begins at 9 am SHARP.

See you on Monday morning!

Kevin Hnatiuk

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We're getting serious about games folks.

"Serious Games," many of them simulations, are learning and training materials in a game format created to teach and entertain. Serious games are highly focused on the needs of a particular group or niche and can sometimes be developed for not much more than a corporate website. 

On Monday March 16, 2009, Game on Manitoba is hosting a one-day conference that brings together Serious Games presenters from the USA, UK, and Manitoba. Throughout the day our on-site presenters will share strategies for game-based learning projects they've developed for other Corporations, the US Military, Triage Training for Hospitals and New Equipment Installations. This event will be an opportunity for game developers, digital media agencies and Industry Sectors to partner on training projects that can have a significant return on investment.
 
This conference will be especially important to attend if you run a business, or are an educator from the manufacturing sector, life sciences, human resource development, education, and aerospace.

This one-day conference is just $35 and includes breakfast, lunch, refreshments, and a chance to win an iPod. How's that as a start to your return on investment?

You must register online to attend this event.

A detailed lineup of speakers and the day's agenda can be downloaded here

Here's the lineup of some of the awesome presenters you'll hear speak on March 16, 2009:

David Wortley – United Kingdom
Director
Serious Games Institute

Aside from kicking ass at Guitar Hero, David Wortley is the Director of the Serious Games Institute (SGI) at Coventry University. He is responsible for the development of the Institute as a brand new self-financing initiative to establish a centre of excellence for the emerging serious games application area. Working with academics, regional development agencies and leading computer games companies, David aims to make the SGI a thought leader and focal point for games based learning, simulation and immersive 3D virtual environments.

David has spoken at many international conferences on the Information Society, Globalization and the use of technology for sustainable social and economic development. In 2005, David moved to De Montfort University to set up and run the New Technology Initiative (NTI) Creative Industries Centre for Knowledge Exchange. David moved to the Serious Games Institute in November 2006.

Jerry Heneghan – USA
Founder & CEO
Virtual Heroes

Jerry Heneghan is the founder and CEO of Virtual Heroes Inc. Most recently, Jerry served as an Executive Producer for the America's Army Game Project (www.americasarmy.com). Prior to starting Virtual Heroes, Jerry was a Program Manager in the Technology Assisted Learning Division of the Research Triangle Institute (RTI). Before his work at RTI, Jerry was a Game Producer at Tom Clancy's Red Storm Entertainment. Prior to work in the interactive entertainment industry, Jerry served as a U.S. Army Aviator (AH-64 pilot) in assignments all over the world. Jerry holds an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, and a BS in Engineering from the U.S. Military Academy. Jerry is the President and Co-Founder of the North Carolina Advanced Learning Technology Association and Advanced Learning Technology Summit.

Joseph T. Biglin – USA
President
TrainingPort Strategies, LLC

Joseph Biglin is the founder of TrainingPort Strategies, LLC, and works with corporations and organizations to help them better understand the opportunities, and challenges associated with the utilization of "gaming" technology, "virtual worlds" and other technology-driven learning methods to educate their associates. Prior to founding TrainingPort Strategies, LLC, he was a founding partner of BreakAway, Ltd. BreakAway is a leading developer of entertainment games and business simulations that use virtual worlds and game technology to build solutions for real-world problems and deliver game-based tools and experiences to educate and change the way people explore ideas, make decisions and communicate more effectively. Prior to BreakAway, Biglin has spent his career working for major corporations in the Finance, Retail and Transportation industries, in various roles within Training, Organizational Development, Human Resources and Operations Management. Biglin earned a BS from Towson University and a MBA in Finance from Loyola College.

Dr. Reynold Redekopp – Canada (Manitoba)
Faculty of Education
University of Manitoba
 
The use of game-based learning (GBL) and simulations is widely accepted in some sectors as the most efficient way to train people involved in complex tasks such as flying planes.  With the cost of creating and producing GBL and simulations, other sectors can make use of these tools.  This presentation looks at what we know about the use of games as a learning tool.

Dr. Reyn Redekopp is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba. He has been a leader in Manitoba in terms of helping to develop the skill sets of students and teachers with the use of technology.  For the past three years, he has been the coordinator of the Girls in Gaming Program to increase the female voice in the development and creation of video games.

Khaled Shariff - Canada (Manitoba)
CEO
Project Whitecard

Khal Shariff is the CEO of Project Whitecard Inc. in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada. Khal has 12 years of experience in interactive media in Canada, moving in 2000 from Manitoba Telecom to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto, where he was the coding lead for the redesign of CBC.ca, and Hockey Night in Canada's Interactive Television project. Project Whitecard's first client in 2006, cafesonique.com, was the recipient of a Canadian New Media Award. Project Whitecard is focused on Serious Games for Space Exploration, and currently has two projects, one of which is for the Canadian Space Agency, and will be distributed to some 60,000 Canadian classrooms! The other "Project Moonwalk," features the Apollo missions. Khal was an invited speaker at NASA Ames Research Center in January 2008, as part of the Virtual Worlds Workshop, and delivered a paper: Opening the Universe: Virtual Space Exploration Begins!" A member of the executive of CAASTLE and a member of Serious Games Canada, Khal helped organize the Montreal International Games Summit (MIGS) in 2008.