Registration Opens for 2009 Games for Change Festival

The organizers behind the 2009 Sixth Annual Games for Change Festival announced that early registration has opened for the upcoming event, to be held between May 27th and 29th, 2009, in New York City. The festival will include a number of panels that explore real-world gaming impact, the latest games, and funding strategies. Featured panelists and speakers for this year's Games for Change Festival include Indiana University Learning Sciences Professor Sasha Barab, Persuasive Games CEO Ian Bogost, and NPR journalist Heather Chaplin, among many other industry experts and authors. The opening keynote speech will be delivered by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof. A fireside chat with scholars Jim Gee and Henry Jenkins will be held on May 29th. The Festival will also host working groups, funder meetings, and an Expo Night that highlights playable versions of new "socially-responsible" games that target real-world problems such as poverty, climate change, global conflicts, and human rights. A pre-festival workshop will be held on May 27th. Let the Games Begin: 101 Workshop on Making Social Issue Games targets industry newcomers, and will cover the fundamentals behind the game design, fundraising, and evaluation aspects of serious games. Early bird registration for the event will be available until March 23rd. Late registration will begin on May 18th.