The DeanBeat: Women in Gaming breakfast kicks off a diverse lineup at GamesBeat Summit 2022

GamesBeat Summit 2022 returns with its biggest event for gaming leaders on April 26-28. Reserve your spot here!

I’m glad we’ve finished recruiting our 124 speakers for our 55 sessions at the GamesBeat Summit 2022 event on April 26-28. And I’m even happier that our fourth Women in Gaming breakfast will include a real breakfast. That’s because this is the first time we’ve done this in a physical location – at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. (You can sign up here with a 50% discount code Dean.)

Andrea Rene of What’s Good Games will lead the day, and she will moderate an off-the-record session over breakfast on ‘Engineering Inclusivity’. This will take place on April 26 from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. The session is about how to make inclusivity an advantage and spread it across an entire workplace.

The panel includes Tanya Watson, COO of Bad Robot; Christina Heller, CEO of Metastage; Francisca F. Phillips, global head of connectivity and growth at Jam City; and Margaret Wallace, games and metaverse lead in Prasaga. I am very happy that Prasaga sponsored the breakfast. You can sign up for the Women in Gaming breakfast here.

Andrea Rene is co-founder of What’s Good Games.

While the entire event celebrates the core gaming industry, GamesBeat Summit 2022 will address issues of diversity, mental health and inclusion. About 50.4% of our 125 speakers come from different backgrounds. We have achieved that diversity goal for our past three conferences.

Women in voice acting in video games

Jennifer Hale spoke the voice of Commander Shepard in Mass Effect.

Our sessions include explorations of diversity in different parts of the industry. We will have a panel (online session on April 27 at 1:15 PM) on the evolution of video game acting from the female perspective – discussing the representation and inclusion of women in games and how the roles have evolved over the years. have been changed and improved.

Julia Bianco Schoeffling will moderate this panel and will consist of Cissy Jones (Firewatch’s Delilah), Jennifer Hale (Mass Effect’s Commander Shepard) and Anjali Bhimani (Overwatch’s Symmetra).

Building the Mindful Metaverse

Nanea Reeves, CEO of Tripp.

Nanea Reeves is no stranger to both the practice of mindfulness and meditation and the technological advancements that have spawned the metaverse. As Tripp’s CEO, she helped create the Tripp virtual reality app, designed to create feelings of calm and awe.

In her talk (April 26 at 1:30 p.m.), she will discuss the future of how metaverse technology can be applied to meditation practices with the goal of creating an environment of thoughtful well-being by not just embracing technology to get there, but by leading the way. and leveraging progress to play an important role in personal growth.

Our Visionary Awards

Tammy McDonald of Axis Game Factory/Griffin Gaming Partners.

The GamesBeat Visionary Awards will air on April 27 at 4:35 PM. We started this award in 2018 as a way to honor game industry leaders who have shown a real vision for the future. We’ve added the Up and Comer award to honor someone whose achievements lie ahead of them.

Last year’s Visionary Award winner went to Laura Miele, the chief studios officer at Electronic Arts; and the Up and Comer Award went to Natasha “ZombaeKillz” Zinda, a content creator and streamer.

Tammy McDonald van, Axis Game Factory/Griffin Gaming Partners will once again host our awards. We have a special prize this year and have chosen two very special people for the ceremony. We had a panel of experts from across the industry – including three past winners – chose the winners.

Virtual reception

Meetaverse will host a GamesBeat reception on April 27 from 5-7pm.

In partnership with Ivan Lobo’s Meetaverse, the game industry’s VR social hub, GamesBeat will provide a virtual reception where our attendees can interact “face to face” in VR with other game industry peers.

This immersive social event takes place in a brand new venue created especially for the GamesBeat Summit in AltspaceVR. Attendees will enjoy a program of activities, including a tour of the “Architects Drawing Video Games” cultural exhibit, created by Arquia Foundation in partnership with Meetaverse; and a panel discussion on the potential of games as social networks, featuring the avatars of Dean Takahashi (GamesBeat), Aleissia Laidaker (advisor at The Mill and former director of experience at Magic Leap), and Philip Rosedale, founder of Linden Lab, creator of Second Life. We will also have other special guests.

If you want to participate, please make sure you have a working AltspaceVR account before the event and that you have registered your professional information and AltspaceVR username in the RSVP link here before April 26, 2022. And don’t forget to add your avatars dress .

Games designed for women

Ariella Lehrer is CEO of Legacy Games.

Taking place on April 28 at 12:20 PM, this session will highlight a rapidly growing area of ​​gaming. Games designed for women have been a disadvantaged market for much of gaming history.

But times have changed. Free-to-play games have introduced 10 times more people to gaming, while casual games have become more important as mobile games continue to thrive. More women than ever play games every day. More game studios are targeting female audiences – or at least paying more attention to the fact that women make up a large part of the mainstream gaming audience. Some of these studios were founded by women.

Wanda Meloni of M2 Research will moderate a panel with Jill Wilson, CEO of Robin Games; Susan Cummings, CEO of Tiny Rebel Games; Julia Palatovska, CEO of Dorian; and Ariella Lehrer, CEO of Legacy Games.

Tencent/Level Infinite and the Global Games Market

Michelle Liu is a CEO of Tencent Global Games.

Our session (April 27 at 4:05 PM) features one of the most powerful women in the gaming industry — and one who hasn’t had a high profile in the industry.

Michelle Liu, Tencent Games Global CEO, joins GamesBeat for the first time to discuss her role in managing Tencent’s games publishing company and its new Level Infinite brand. She will delve into Tencent’s thoughts on games as a whole, the company’s approach to global publishing, how it works with its diverse group of studios and developer teams, and much more. Andrea Rene of What’s Good Games will moderate a conversation with her about Tencent’s role in the global gaming business and its new publishing brand Level Infinite.

Shame! Shame! Personal reflections on DEI, #MeToo and the future of games

Jane Chung Hoffacker is CEO of Incredible Dream.

Jane Chung Hoffacker helped us come up with this off-the-record, in-person roundtable on April 26 at noon. Women leaders will share their perspective on four years after the #MeToo movement began in games. What has changed?

What has been effective in bringing about greater diversity, equality and inclusion? What has changed on a personal level? How do we increase investment in women and minorities in gaming? And how does shame play a role in making us vulnerable and bringing about change? GamesBeat reporter Rachel Kaser will moderate this session with Jane Chung Hoffacker, CEO of Incredible Dream; Kamini Tiwari, vice president of social impact at Humble Bundle; Shail Mehta, CEO of The Last Gameboard; and Namrata Gandhi, chief financial officer of Amazon Games Studio.

Africa’s growing game industry

Kate Kallot is head of emerging territories at Nvidia.

This upbeat panel (online session on April 28 at 3pm) will examine the state of gaming and game development in Africa as viewed by some of the region’s most visible game makers. About 60% of the continent’s population is under the age of 25 and disposable income is rising. High-speed internet connections are increasing rapidly and Africa will have more than 680 million mobile phone users by 2025. We’ll talk about the frontier of gaming from people driving growth.

Kate Kallot, head of emerging areas at Nvidia, will lead the session with Cordel Robbin-Coker, co-founder and CEO of Carry1st, who raised a $20 million round led by Andreessen Horowitz; Jay Shapiro of Usiku Games; and Lual Mayen, CEO of Junub Games/Lual Mayen Foundation.

How leaders can change systems to improve mental health

Swatee Surve is CEO of Litesprite.

And I’m happy to invite to this off-the-record roundtable (11:50 a.m. on April 28) about encouraging industry leaders to do more for mental health.

For a long time, the solution to mental health challenges came down to recommending that employees administer ‘self-care’. But that doesn’t always work and companies can be more proactive in providing care. Is it time for a chief wellness officer at companies? And what else can we do to better support our employees? This roundtable discussion will discuss ideas for game companies to do better.

Litesprite CEO Swatee Surve will moderate the session with the participation of Mark Chandler, founder of The International Games Summit on Mental Health Awareness; and Raffael “Dr. B” Boccamazzo, clinical director of Take This. These are some very wise people who believe we can improve our safety net in gaming.

Building diversity and fairness in the gaming industry through university

This session at 11:50 am on April 28 will highlight a different path to diversity. Just as filmmaking is much more than optics and lightning, game making is not limited to coding and animation. Slowly, game developer learning programs are expanding beyond traditional technical skills to integrate diversity and inclusivity as essential creative tools. How are these values ​​taught? How can learning institutions contribute effectively to a more diverse industry?

Gonzalo Frasca, chief evangelist officer at DragonBox (Kahoot!), will moderate this session. Attendees include Gina Jackson OBE, Founder, GameDev Bootcamps; Carolina Cruz-Neira, Professor of Computer Science University of Central Florida; and Jim Huntley, professor of the games program at USC Games. Go Trojans.

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This post The DeanBeat: Women in Gaming breakfast kicks off a diverse lineup at GamesBeat Summit 2022

was original published at “https://venturebeat.com/2022/04/15/the-deanbeat-women-in-gaming-breakfast-and-more-at-gamesbeat-summit-2022/”