GAMES:EDU 09

Brighton, May 21st. GAMES:EDU at Develop this year will feature sessions given by TIGA, Sony and Microsoft, with early bird tickets priced at just £25 – but only until June the 10th.

Scheduled to take place as part of the Develop Conference in Brighton on July 14th, GAMES:EDU 09 will focus on the current and future needs of the games industry and games academia, offering a sharing of best practice and open debate amongst some of the key players in the industry as well as the future generation of developers, publishers and industry professionals.

The event will feature keynote speeches and presentations from TIGA, Sony, Microsoft, Skillset, the IGDA, and Blitz Game Studios, and will be supported by some of the UK's foremost games educators from universities including Abertay and Newport.

This year, after a morning of fast-moving provocative talks and announcements, the afternoon Skillset Sessions will also return with roundtable debates to allow everyone to voice their issues and concerns over industry-academia collaboration.

Richard Wilson, CEO of TIGA said: “One of the key competitive advantages of the UK game development sector is the quality of its workforce. UK game developers typically employ highly qualified, experienced and creative people. At the same time, many game developers report skill shortages when recruiting. Games:EDU is a perfect platform to discuss what steps we need to take at a national and local level to provide the games industry with the skilled workforce that it needs to compete successfully.”

Sarah Lemarié, Academic Liaison for SCEE said: “Games:EDU is an essential event in my calendar, because while I do get to visit many universities in the course of my job, rarely will I find people from so many institutions involved in games development in the same place. Similarly for universities it is a great chance to meet with many contacts in the industry, which is exactly what they need. It was the perfect event for unveiling SCEE's PSP Academic Development Programme in 2007, and I'm looking forward to speaking there again this year. Any university planning or running a games course at any level should attend Games:EDU.”

The special early bird rate of £25 ends on the 10th of June, whereupon tickets will be the normal £95 price.

Visit www.gamesedu.co.uk to get more information, see updates on the programme, and book your ticket.

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Contacts:

David Hayward

david.hayward@pixel-lab.co.uk

07976 216 029

Notes for editors:

• Games:EDU is a part of the Develop Conference

• Games:EDU is organised by Pixel-Lab and Tandem Events.

• Games:EDU is the UK's leading conference on games education. Bringing together games lecturers, developers, and policy makers, it is at the forefront of dialogue between the videogames industry and universities, helping games courses to be more applicable to commercial development, and helping developers to gain a better understanding of academia.

• Pixel-Lab is a computer games and digital media development agency working across the UK’s computer game and digital media industries. Pixel-Lab advises, develops and delivers strategies to support growth in the games industry from skills development to support infrastructure. Pixel-Lab also works with organisations outside the industry, enabling them to harness the power of games. www.pixel-lab.co.uk