Two New 'Serious' Game Conferences Revealed

The Interactive Entertainment Institute (IEI) has announced the speaker/session line-up for the G.A.M.E.S. (Government, Academia, Military, Entertainment and Simulation) Synergy Summit. Top-level speakers will be involved in discussing technologies and techniques that can be used to combine video game style presentation and immersion with areas such as education, homeland security, policy insight, healthcare, simulation and training. The summit is due to take place from January 26th to 28th at the Renaissance Orlando Resort at SeaWorld, Florida. The similarly themed Video Game/Entertainment Industry Technology and Medicine Conference (VEITMC) has also been announced. The conference aims to bring leading doctors from New York and the U.S. Army, video game innovators and Hollywood animators together to demonstrate how video games and movies can help medicine. The conference is sponsored by the US Army's Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) and the Advanced Medical Technology Institute (AMTI) of Beth Israel in New York and will run from December 10th to 11th at the Marina Del Rey Marriott, California. Combined with the Serious Games Summit at Game Developers Conference next March (managed by the CMP Game Group, which also runs this website) there seems to be an increasing interest in using video game styled interactivity and presentation for less frivolous applications. This is particularly interesting since, in many cases, it is other disciplines which are seeking out video game companies, not vice versa.