SPEAKERS
Peter Anderson, Big Fish Games
Peter Anderson has 15 years of experience in Human Resources & Recruiting specializing in high-growth technology environments. Since 2006, Peter has led the HR and Recruiting initiatives for Big Fish Games as the company has grown from 100 to 350+ employees and expanded internationally into Canada and Ireland.
Brenda Bailey, Deep Fried Entertainment
With 15 years management of leading not-for-profit organizations, Brenda co-founded Deep Fried Entertainment, a Nintendo Wii, DS and PSP developer based in Vancouver, Canada. Brenda’s interests include exploring alternative content delivery models, which allow for greater creativity and diversity in the gaming experience. She is also a leading spokeswomen on Women and Games.
Mark Baxter, Fit Brains
Mark Baxter is VP Product and Co-founder of Fit Brains, an online platform offering casual brain games. He also founded Gnosis Games, an independent casual games studio. Mark has been in the Games / New Media Industry for 10+ years, working on top casual, serious, AAA, and multiplayer games.
Lani Blazier, NCSoft
Lani has held Producer positions at Threewave Software, Inc and Real Networks. She was recently promoted from Community Manager to Associate Producer at NCsoft, where she continues to manage the Community Team for the MMORPG "AION". Lani was also the Captain of Canada's first fully-sponsored female "Half-life: Counterstrike" team.
Brittney Buchan, RealGames
Brittney Buchan explores and executes new business models for RealGames as their Senior Manager of Business Development at RealGames. Previously, she managed licensing and business development at Sandlot Games, while extending Sandlot's properties across new distribution channels. She also worked on a global entry strategy at PlayFirst. Brittney holds an MBA in international business.
Carolyn Carnes, Flash Fire Communications
Carolyn Carnes is founder of Flash Fire Communications, a boutique marketing and PR agency exclusively serving the games industry. With 10 years of marketing experience and over 20 years as a hardcore gamer, Carolyn has launched titles across all current platforms, ranging from hardcore retail to licensed IP to downloadable casual and episodic games.
Ada Chen, Mochi Media
Ada Chen is Sr. Product Marketing Manager at Mochi Media, a company providing monetization, distribution and analytics tools and services for Flash game developers, reaching 100+ million unique users each month. Previously, she was on Microsoft's adCenter team working with premium clients across retail, consumer packaged goods, education and insurance verticals.
Dennis Chenard, Centre for Digital Media
Dennis Chenard is the Director of Industry Relations at the Centre for Digital Media in Vancouver. Dennis’ international experience includes teaching in Germany and at the University of Copenhagen, directing international partnering forums, leading trade missions to the US and China, and overseeing a variety of digital media projects and international trade events.
Dora Cheng, Big Fish Games
Dora Cheng began her career in the game industry at Electronic Arts Canada, where she was a Development Manager. Having discovered casual games, she later joined Big Fish Games as a project manager and game programmer. Her current project is a new game from Big Fish's Vancouver Studio.
Adrian Crook
Adrian Crook is a game consultant based in Vancouver, BC. With over 14 years experience, Adrian designs and produces social, casual and AAA games for a variety of clients. He has spoken on the subject of free-to-play games at GDC and SXSW and often authors articles for trade publications.
Sherry Floyd, Monolith/Warner Brothers
Sherry’s art career spans 18 years to where she is now an Art Development Director at Monolith Productions. Previous positions include Art Producer/Outsource Manager( Sony Online Entertainment ) and Graphic Designer to Art Director at Wizards of the Coast. Sherry has also represented artists and provided creative services to high-profile game companies.
Krissie Franco, Hydrogen Whiskey
Krissie Franco is Co-founder and Exe. V.P. of Production at Hydrogen Whiskey Studios. Founding, promoting, and overseeing day-to-day management of an art, animation and audio production studio for 15 years, Krissie has a broad perspective and understanding of the ever-changing demands in the game industry.
Megan Gaiser, Her Interactive
Led by President and CEO, Megan Gaiser, Her Interactive has acheived sales of more than seven million units worldwide for its pioneering Nancy Drew PC game franchise. The series has garnered 17 consecutive Parents’ Choice Awards for excellence and has been the #1 PC adventure franchise in the US. Megan was also named one of the "Game Industry's 100 Most Influential Women" by Next Generation.
Sheri Graner Ray, Schell Games
Sheri Graner Ray, a Senior Designer with Schell Games (Austin), has been in the game industry since 1989. She has worked for Electronic Arts, Origin Systems, Sony Online Entertainment, CCP, FreshGames, Kraft Foods, Cartoon Network and others. Sheri wrote the book “Gender Inclusive Game Design-Expanding the Market” and is serves as the chair of Women In Games International.
Dana Hanna, Microsoft
Dana has been lurking in the depths of the game industry for the better part of twenty years as a producer, designer, and writer. She’s never met a game genre or platform she didn’t like. Her projects include MMOs, console shooters and fighters, downloadable casual games, PC adventure games, and one memorable foray into motion software for robot dogs. Dana is currently working on Project Natal. It is widely believed that she enjoys nachos.
Noelle Hunt Bennett, Big Fish Games
Noelle founded NH Northwest Consulting in 2000, to provide HR, recruiting, and project services for digital media companies. For 2 years, she’s brought in top talent to casual games industry-leader Big Fish Games, Inc. Noelle also sits on the steering committee of the Women In Games International organization, and the Board of Directors for Blue Marble Games, Inc.
Naomi Kawase
Naomi is currently a user experience consultant. She began her career in gaming as a specialized producer/designer and the first to introduce the field of usability to Electronic Arts Canada back in 2000. She went on to teach functional user interface design in the Game Design Program at Vancouver Film School, and was most recently Senior User Experience Designer at Nexon Vancouver.
Dierdra Kiai, Hothead Games
Deirdra Kiai is a game programmer and designer with an interest in interactive storytelling. She has several years of experience in independent game development, and is currently employed at Hothead Games working on DeathSpank, Ron Gilbert's upcoming RPG adventure.
Charmie Kim, Big Park
Charmie Kim is a Game Designer at BigPark, a Microsoft Game Studios company, where she is hard at work on the XBox Live Arcade title Joy Ride. Joy Ride is a free to play driving game that aims to be fun for both new and entrenched XBox360 users.
Nicole Lazzaro, XEODesign
Nicole Lazzaro has eighteen years of expertise in Player Experience Design for mass-market entertainment products. Nicole’s design and research has improved over 40 million player experiences, including several popular franchises for casual audiences. Nicole was also voted one of Gamasutra’s Top 20 women working in video games, in 2007.
Ariella J. Lehrer, Legacy Interactive
As Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and President, Dr. Lehrer has over 25 years of management experience in the interactive entertainment industry and since 1998, has capitalized on that experience to make Legacy a leader in mass market games, including pet, puzzle, and TV-licensed games.
Paige Meekison, No Robots Interactive
Paige's leadership experience began when she was an officer in the Canadian Navy, later using that learning when she led the development of a persistent online game world as a hobby project. She refined that experience as a professional in the industry managing projects at Backbone Entertainment and Nexon North America. Currently Paige is a Producer at No Robots Interactive Entertainment, a company started by industry veteran Steve Rechtschaffner, developing mobile games and applications.
Tina Merry, Electronic Arts Canada
Tina Merry is a Franchise Development Director and has been with Electronic Arts Canada since 2003. She is currently working on FIFA 10 Wii and has a passion for sports and fitness activities. Tina provides ongoing peer mentoring and career development coaching to various individuals both within and outside EA.
Dell Monson, Hidden City Games
Dell Monson oversees the marketing and customer division at Hidden City Games, Inc. publishers of Bella Sara™. With more than 10 years of marketing experience, Mrs. Monson brings a depth of knowledge in the development of consumer-centric integrated marketing programs.
Tara Mustapha
Tara has worked as a Designer on a variety of games, including Death Jr. and the Science Fair of Doom (DS), Monster Lab (Wii, DS), Skate 2 (360, PS3), and various other unreleased and in-production titles. Her passion for designing and playing games of all types continues to this day.
Chris Oltyan, Zeitgeist Games
Chris Oltyan is a serial entrepreneur who has started and sold over 5 companies in the past 10 years. He has built virtual worlds and games for various platforms and is currently at Zeitgeist Games where he is the Director of Product Development and Operations. He also makes a mean glass of kool-aid.
Michelle Parent, Big Hadron Games
Michelle is a Founder of Big Hadron Games, which develops experimental games for the web and iphone. Prior to completing her masters degree in digital media, Michelle earned a bachelors of visual fine arts from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design.
Lee Pederson, Hellbent Games
Lee began her career in games leading QA at Radical Entertainment, working on titles such as Independence Day and Pro Boarder before moving into product/project management in the online world. At Hellbent Games since 2007, Lee has produced Supreme Commander for the XBox 360, and recently completed LEGO Battles for the Nintendo DS.
Tami Quiring, Village Gamer
A journalist and promotional writer for over 20 years, Tami has 10 years' experience in both building and participating in online communities. A proponent for the Canadian video game industry, Tami is constantly seeking new and interesting ways to promote all aspects of the industry from gamer to developer.
Asra Rasheed
Asra is a successful entrepreneur who creates and executes specialized business strategies. Previously, She was Partner at GCube Ventures, an investment firm focused on interactive entertainment. Also, as President, COO and then CEO at publicly-held Gottaplay Interactive, Inc., a videogame rental service, she was instrumental in its management and growth.
Su Skerl, artery.ca
Susannah brings 12 years of game development, teaching and community building experience, with her lifelong passion for art, technology and nerd culture. Her credits include artistic direction and production management for console, PC, Mac and wireless devices. She has trained and mentored students in project management and production, illustration, game design, prototyping, portfolio creation and career preparation.
Sandy Spangler, A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. Games
Sandy is a game designer with roots in art and animation. She has been a part of the games industry for 15 years and brings with her a wide range of development experience including art direction, character creation, storyboarding, scriptwriting, voice acting, and camera-based game design.
Vicky Tamaru, Plexipixel
Vicky cofounded Plexipixel, a full-service interactive agency responsible for strategy through execution of digital advertising and marketing plans for some of the biggest brands like Adidas, and Volvo. Microsoft Advertising considers an advergame created by Plexipixel as “one of the top five most successful online games in the world”.
Sarah Thomson, IUGO Mobile Entertainment
Sarah is an emerging leader in the mobile games industry. Her background holds deep experience in business management, personal relations, public relations, marketing and promotions.. A strong belief in bringing innovation and quality to mobile games drives Sarah to cultivate success and recognition for IUGO as a high-end mobile games developer.
Belinda Van Sickle, Game Docs
Belinda started her game career in 1996 at Activision. In 1999, she became a founding employee at an agency specializing in game advertising. In 2005, she started GameDocs and has built a client roster of both large and small publishers. Belinda spearheads the WIGI LinkedIn network and organizes WIGI community mixers.
Tracy Williams, Activision
Tracy is a seasoned marketing professional with a background in entertainment software and high tech consumer products. While at THQ, she grew the WWE franchise to a $250MM annual business and helped to launch their UFC brand. She recently moved to Activision and launched Prototype, a highly successful new IP for the company.
Strong leaders and engaged employees are what make the games industry successful. So, before digesting the latest business models and development tricks at Casual Connect Seattle 2009, take this opportunity to focus on YOUR personal development. You are the industry's best kept secret!
The Leadership Development Forum, held the day before Casual Connect Seattle, is a special one-day event organized by Women in Games International, Women in Games Vancouver and the IGDA Women in Games and is focused on personal development.
All registered attendees to Casual Connect Seattle 2009 have access to the LeadershipDevelopment Forum. If you will not be attending Casual Connect Seattle, development professionals may [click here] to purchase a special one-day pass for $25. One-day pass is only available to artists, producers, designers and programmers.