Women In Games Conference 2008

Nicola Bhalero is a senior software engineer at Rare Ltd. Being one of only a relatively small number of professional game programmers, Bhalero was interested in encouraging school-age girls to consider a career in the industry. So she did what any self-respecting trade type would do. She organized a conference.

From September 10th through the 12th at Warwick University in England, Bahlero and company are hosting the second annual Women in Games conference. Featuring keynotes from professionals in all aspects of gaming, the conference aims to come up with ways to get more women excited about a career making games:

There is plenty of research going on into why and how women play games, and the way they are portrayed, and this is another aspect of the Women In Games conference that makes it so fascinating. Bringing together academia and industry to discuss all these ideas, and explore ways in which more women can be encouraged to seek careers in games makes for a unique conference.

Keynoters include Sara de Freitas, Director of Research at the Serious Games Institute; Karen Brennan, research assistant at MIT's MediaLab; Paulina Bozek, producer and director of Sony's SingStar series; Karen Clark of Bioware; and Eileen Brown from Microsoft.

On her tech blog, Brown goes into more detail about the motivation for this year's conference:

Sign up rates of students studying Computer Science have fallen in recent years and women are very much in the minority. This is why Jane and Sara wanted to get involved in the conference. Computing in games is one career choice available to Computer Science graduates, though not always obvious to all, but a very attractive and creative industry to be in.

As a result, the impact of the conference extends beyond games. Rather than dwelling on the notion of 'gamer girls' as just another target consumer, Bhalero and the Women In Games conference are using games as a touchpoint to a larger concern. The conference looks to be an inspiring example of how game culture is using its influence to address wider issues.

[via Gaming Today]