Speakers
Amy Jo Kim, CEO, ShuffleBrain
Amy Jo is an internationally-known designer of social games and online communities. Her clients include AOL, BBC, Digital Chocolate, Disney, Electronic Arts, eBay, MTV, Nokia, Square/Enix and Yahoo! She's also the author of Community Building on the Web, a design handbook for networked communities that's available in 7 languages (English, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese) and has become required reading in game design studios and universities around the globe. Amy Jo holds a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of Washington, and a BS in Experimental Psych from UC San Diego. She is also an adjunct professor in the USC Film School, where she teaches Game Design.
Blake Commagere, Founder and VP of Engineering, Mogad
Blake is a Founder, VP of Engineering and CMO at Mogad.com. Blake is also the creator of the superviral Zombies, Vampires, and Werewolves games on Facebook. Prior, he led the development of the Causes on Facebook application. Blake was also an early engineer on Plaxo's client team and a founding engineer at BuildForge (acquired by IBM). He has a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Rice University.
Brandon Sheffield, Senior Editor, Game Developer Magazine;
Senior Contributing Editor, Gamasutra
Brandon is senior editor of Game Developer magazine, and senior contributing editor to Gamasutra.com, print and web publications dedicated to the art and science of video game development. He has spoken at conferences such as the Game Developers Conference, PR for Games conference, and Game Career Summit, and moderated a panel for the IGDA. He likes his social gaming up close and personal.
Cary Rosenzweig, President and CEO, IMVU
Cary began serving as the President and CEO of IMVU Inc. in November, 2007. Previously, he served as either CEO or Chief Marketing Officer at four other technology startups, including mySimon.com (acquired by CNET) and Autoweb.com (acquired by Autobytel). Cary was VP and General Manager at Intuit, responsible for QuickBooks Payroll, which he grew from $100 million to $200 million over a three-year period (2003-2006). Cary began his career in marketing and brand management at Procter & Gamble, where he was Tide Brand Manager. He then went to Clorox, where he rose up the marketing ranks before becoming General Manager of the Clorox Pet Products Company. Cary earned his A.B. from Stanford University and his M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. When he isn't working, Cary dreams of diving again with the beautiful Napoleon wrasses at Blue Corner in Palau and with the enormous Manta rays at Goofnuw Channel in Yap.
Craig Sherman, CEO, Gaia Online
Craig is CEO of Gaia Online, the largest online hangout for teens. Craig leads the company's strategic planning, management, and technology development with a focus on maintaining Gaia's rapid growth as a company and one of the most popular online destinations for teens. Prior to joining Gaia Online, Craig served as an Entrepreneur in Residence for Benchmark Capital. Craig was also COO of MyFamily.com, where he helped grow the company from $23 Million to $150 Million in sales. During his tenure, Craig helped re-focus the company on its consumer subscription business and grew that from 200,000 to over 2 million subscribers, taking the company from significant losses to profitability.
Daniel James, CEO, Three Rings
Daniel is the founder and CEO of Three Rings, a San Francisco developer and operator of massively multi-player online games for the mass-market casual audience. Puzzle Pirates, Bang! Howdy and Whirled are Three Rings' titles. Prior to Three Rings Daniel consulted on game design, toiled for many years on Middle-earth Online, and co-founded two profitable UK internet startups, Avalon and Sense Internet.
Dave Williams, SVP, Shockwave and AddictingGames
Dave is the Senior Vice President of Shockwave and AddictingGames. He joined Atom Entertainment in 2005 as CMO and General Manager and was named to his current position following Atom Entertainment's 2006 acquisition by MTV Networks. During his tenure with the company he has overseen annual growth rates of over 50 and 100%, respectively, for Shockwave and AddictingGames. Both sites attract audiences of 20+ million users per month, and host hundreds of the web's most popular online and downloadable games and creativity applications. Prior to Atom, Dave led the design and development of the Rhapsody music service as VP of product management at Listen.com and then served as General Manager of music products at Real Networks, following Real's acquisition of Listen.com. Rhapsody broke ground in digital music as the first fully licensed music subscription service on the web and went on to become the largest service of its kind with hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Dave also held senior product and marketing roles at online pioneers, CitySearch and DoubleClick in the mid to late 90's. He began his career at ad agency DDB Needham following graduation from Colgate University, and also spent several years in product management at beverage company Cadbury Schweppes before jumping into the web business in 1996.
David Perry, CCO, Acclaim
David is a 26-year video game industry veteran. He launched his professional career at just 15 years of age by writing video game programming books in his native Northern Ireland. Since then, David (or his studio Shiny Entertainment) has developed numerous games including The Terminator, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mc Donald's Global Gladiators, 7-Up's Cool Spot, Disney's Aladdin, Earthworm Jim, MDK, Sacrifice, The Matrix, and more. He's had multiple #1 hits and his games have sold over 1 billion dollars at retail. After selling Shiny to Atari in 2002, David is now the Chief Creative Officer and co-founder of Acclaim Games, the largest American free-to-play game publisher. He also is building GameInvestors.com, the only dedicated marketplace for Investors/Publishers & Developers to do business deals. David sits on the Advisory Boards of the Game Developers Conference, the Hollywood and Games Conference, the Gamers Expo & Westwood College. He's a regular speaker at key industry events and is probably the tallest person in the industry.
Dean Takahashi, Writer, Venture Beat
Dean is a writer for VentureBeat. Prior to his currrent job, he was the Tech Talk Columnist at the San Jose Mercury News, where he wrote gadget reviews and opinion pieces on technology in Silicon Valley. He also wrote the Dean & Nooch on Gaming and Tech Talk blogs and did a regular video podcast on gaming. He has been a journalist for 20 years, most of it covering technology business news. Before he joined the Mercury News in 2002, he was a senior writer at the Red Herring magazine from 2000 to 2002. Before that, he was a staff writer in the San Francisco office of the Wall Street Journal from 1996 to 2000. His first job at the Mercury News was as a chip industry reporter from 1994 to 1996. Before that, he worked at the Los Angeles Times Orange County Edition, the Orange County Register, and the Dallas Times Herald. He has a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University (1987) and a bachelor's degree in English from UC Berkeley (1986). He is the author of two books, "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked" published in 2006 and "Opening the Xbox" published in 2002. He lives in the suburbs of San Jose and is an avid gamer. His favorite game is Halo.
Erik Bethke, CEO, Go Pets
Erik is the CEO of GoPets, Ltd, which he founded in 2004. GoPets innovatively synthesizes the creative expression and caretaking of virtual pet simulators with the connective power of online social networking software, leading the virtual world and casual games industries with what partner MSN calls the "first virtual dog park". Erik has been developing games for over twelve years, producing titles including the highly accoladed Starfleet Command series, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, PlanetNET, and Caesars Palace Windows 95. He is frequently an invited speaker at numerous venues in the international game development community, including World Cyber Games 2002 & 2003, Korea Game Developers Conference, and Game Developers Conference; in 2007 he delivered the keynote address at the Online Game Developers Conference, and he is considered an international authority on game development in the high-growth Asian games market. He serves on the advisory boards of multiple online game development companies in the US and Asia. In 2003 Erik authored the book _Game Development and Production_, now regularly used in university game development curricula. He is currently pioneering advancement in the future vision of virtual worlds with the BetterEULA Project and corresponding _Settlers of the New Virtual Worlds_ essay collection addressing digital user rights and the next breakthrough in the growth of online worlds. Erik grew up in southern California and currently lives in Seoul with his wife and two sons.
Dr. Ian Bogost, Founding Partner, Persuasive Games
Dr. Ian Bogost is a videogame designer, critic, and researcher. He is Associate Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Founding Partner at Persuasive Games LLC. His research and writing considers videogames as an expressive medium, and his creative practice focuses on games about social and political issues. Bogost is author of Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism (MIT Press 2006), recently listed among "50 books for everyone in the game industry," and of Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames (MIT Press 2007), along with several other books and many other writings. He is a popular speaker and widely considered an influential thinker and doer in the videogame industry and research community. Bogost's videogames about social and political issues cover topics as varied as airport security, disaffected workers, the petroleum industry, suburban errands, and tort reform. His games have been played by millions of people and exhibited internationally at venues including Laboral Centro de Arte (Madrid), Fournos Centre for Digital Culture (Athens), Eyebeam Center (New York), Slamdance Guerilla Game Festival (Park City), the Israeli Center for Digital Art (Holon) and The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (Melbourne). Bogost is currently co-authoring a book on the Atari 2600 along with a number of new videogames for that platform. He is also completing a game about the politics of nutrition, commissioned by PBS and the iTVS, and designing editorial "newsgames" in a groundbreaking game publishing relationship with the New York Times. Bogost holds a Bachelors degree in Philosophy and Comparative Literature from the University of Southern California, and a Masters and Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UCLA. He lives in Atlanta with his wife and two children.
Jeremy Liew, Managing Director, Lightspeed Venture Partners
Jeremy is a Managing Director at Lightspeed Venture Partners. Jeremy invests primarily in the Internet and mobile sectors, with a particular interest in social media, commerce, and methods for increasing monetization. He joined Lightspeed in early 2006. Previously, Jeremy was with AOL, first as SVP of Corporate Development and Chief of Staff to the CEO and then as General Manager of Netscape. Jeremy joined AOL from InterActiveCorp (originally USA Networks), where he was VP of Strategic Planning. While there, he was responsible for acquisitions, divestitures and investments in TV Networks, consumer Internet companies, and online travel companies. Jeremy started working in the consumer Internet industry as an early employee of CitySearch in 1996, where he held a variety of sales management, operational, and business development roles. He was also a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. Jeremy holds an MBA from Stanford and a BA/BSc from the Australian National University in Linguistics and Pure Mathematics. Jeremy is a frequent contributor to the Lightspeed blog at http://lsvp.wordpress.com.
Jameson Hsu, Co-Founder and CEO, Mochi Media
Jameson Hsu is CEO and co-founder of Mochi Media, a platform providing monetization via ads, analytics and distribution tools to the online game development community. Prior to founding Mochi Media, Jameson co-founded the award winning interactive design firm WDDG
Jeremy Monroe, Director of Business Development, Sports & Entertainment, North America, Sulake Inc.
As director of business development and a senior management team member of North America, Sulake Inc., Jeremy is instrumental in building unique and beneficial partnerships in the professional sports and media entertainment industries. Jeremy is responsible for defining new branded products, traffic strategies and revenue generating opportunities for SulakeÕs top property, Habbo, the world's largest and fastest growing virtual world and social networking service for teenagers. Preceding his current role, he was head of production for Sulake. With extensive knowledge in the online gaming landscape, Monroe holds an impressive 10 year background as a project manager and software development producer for several prestigious international firms including Accenture, Nortel Networks, Vodafone, CFC, Disney Interactive and Activision, prior to joining Sulake. Jeremy is based in Sulake's North American headquarters in Santa Monica, Calif.
Jim Greer, CEO, Kongregate
Jim is the founder and CEO of Kongregate, a startup aiming to become the leading user-generated web games community. Jim has been in the games industry since 1991 and his credits include Ultima 7-8 (Origin) and NetStorm: Islands at War (Activision). In 2000, he started his web games career at Shockwave.com and moved to Electronic Arts in 2001, where he remained until founding Kongregate in 2006. As Technical Director for Pogo, he led the game and web development teams for both the free and subscription service, as well as launching development of connected downloadable titles. Jim has spoken at both casual and core game conferences, and contributed to Game Programming Gems III. He holds a BA in Computer Science from Princeton University.
John Welch, Co-Founder, President and CEO, PlayFirst
John is a co-founder and the President and CEO of PlayFirst, the leading publisher focused on exclusively on casual games. Committed to building shared casual game experiences around lasting original brands, PlayFirst games are rich in gameplay, story and character. PlayFirst works with talented internal and external developers to bring mass market games to multiple platforms, including PC, Mac, mobile, handheld and console. The company's portfolio includes the world-renowned Diner Dash franchise, as well as top-selling games such as Wedding Dash, Chocolatier, and Dream Chronicles. One of the most visible figures in the casual games industry today, John is responsible for the strategic direction of the company. Prior to forming PlayFirst, John spent five years at Shockwave.com (now owned by Viacom) as the company's Vice President of Games and Product where he drove the product strategy and acquisitions for the site. John helped build Shockwave.com into one of the Internet's top games portals and discovered some of the top independent game developers in the world. Before Shockwave, John worked at SEGA where he led the specification effort for the Sega Dreamcast Network. He has also served as a steering committee member of the International Game Developers Association's (IGDA) Online Games and Casual Games groups. John launched his career as a systems integration consultant at Andersen Consulting, then co-founded his own firm which specialized in enterprise solutions. John holds a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics with Computer Science from MIT and a Master's Degree in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts.
Joey Seiler, Editor, Virtual Worlds News
Joey is the editor of Virtual Worlds News, the leading source for daily news, insight, interviews, and research on the virtual worlds industry. His research on youth worlds has been cited by numerous sources, including the BBC and New York Times. Virtual Worlds News is the news arm of Virtual Worlds Management, the leading virtual worlds trade media company. Joey is also a member of the executive committee producing the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo event series. Virtual Worlds Management provides focused trade events, media, research and online services for media and technology professionals.
Kyra E. Reppen, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Neopets
Kyra is Senior Vice President and General Manager of Neopets, the world's leading youth community and online virtual world. Reppen leads and manages all day-to-day operations, creative direction and business strategy for Neopets, which is based in Los Angeles, Calif. Prior to her tenure at Neopets, Reppen was Vice President and General Manager of Nickjr.com, a division of Nickelodeon and MTVN Kids and Family Digital Group, where she oversaw strategy, creative and editorial. After assuming that position in 2000, Reppen repositioned Nickjr.com from a television promotional site to the number one parenting website for parents of young children. Reppen was also the architect behind ParentsConnect, a Nickelodeon-owned online community designed exclusively for parents and can be credited with spearheading the acquisition of GoCityKids, the leading local online resource for parents and winner of a 2006 Webby Award for best family/parenting website. In addition, Reppen created and launched Nick Jr. ParentsTV, made-for-the-web broadband video for parents; produced the first-ever 3D online games for preschoolers and led the networks' preschool introduction to wireless, interactive TV and innovative online gaming experiences. Reppen began her career at Viacom, the parent company of Nickelodeon, in 1996 as Corporate Counsel, MTV Networks Law and Business Affairs. In 1998, she was named Senior Counsel, Nickelodeon Law and Business Affairs, where she counseled the online, consumer products and digital TV businesses.. In 1999, she was part of the launch team for Nickelodeon Online and, as VP, Business Development and Operations, she was responsible for structuring and negotiating deals with strategic partners, creating business plans and developing growth strategies for this new and burgeoning division of the company. Prior to joining Viacom, Reppen was a corporate associate in several law firms, including Dewey Ballantine and Schulte Roth & Zabel. Reppen is a graduate of Wellesley College and holds a J.D. degree from the University of California Hastings College of Law. With more than 40 million global memberships registered, Neopets is the largest global youth-focused virtual world. Neopets has created a strong connection with its audience through its characters and stories, which extend into merchandise, publishing, wireless and other venues. Neopets creates new content daily in 11 languages and reaches nearly 12 million monthly unique visitors. With over 200 games, daily and weekly contests, discussion boards, quests and thousands of virtual items to collect, Neopets members are as passionate about the site as they are about their virtual pets. Neopets is part of the Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group community of sites, which includes Nicktropolis, Nick.com/metv, Nick.com, Nickjr.com, Nick Arcade, Nick-at-nite.com, Quizilla, The-N.com, Noggin.com, Neopets, ParentsConnect, GoCityKids, AddictingGames and Shockwave. Neopets is a division of MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom International Inc., one of the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms.
Mark Pincus, Founder and CEO, Zynga Game Network
Mark is a leading Internet entrepreneur, having founded and established four successful companies. His latest venture, Zynga Game Network, the largest social gaming network, marries his knowledge of social networks with his desire to create the next mass market video game phenomenon. With a visionary eye, Mark foreshadowed the popularity of social networks when he founded Tribe Networks (tribe.net) in 2003, one of the first online communities and social networking sites. Tribe partnered with major local newspapers and was funded by The Washington Post, Knight Ridder Digital and Mayfield Venture Capital. Four years later, Cisco purchased the core tribe.net assets to provide an initial platform for its digital media services group. Prior to Tribe, Mark co-founded SupportSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SPRT), originally known as Support.com, a provider of service and support automation software. Mark served as chairman and CEO and led the company through its successful IPO to become one of the world's leading publicly traded enterprise software companies. Mark's initial Internet success began with Freeloader, the first web-based consumer push information service. Freeloader was acquired seven months after launch by Individual, Inc. for $38 million. Prior to Freeloader, Mark worked in various capacities in venture capital, business development and financial services. Mark earned his BS from University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business and an MBA from Harvard Business School. A native of Chicago, Mark has lived in several cities across U.S. including Philadelphia, Boston, Washington DC and Denver and currently resides in San Francisco.
Matt Mihaly, CEO and Creative Director, Sparkplay Media
Matt was the founder of Iron Realms Entertainment and CEO from 1996 to early 2008. He launched four successful text MUDs while at Iron Realms and pioneered the virtual goods business model in 1998 with its first MUD - Achaea, Dreams of Divine Lands - leading to 10 consecutive years of growth. Iron Realms spun off Sparkplay Media in late 2007 to develop casual MMOs and social media games, and has its first game - Earth Eternal - under development. Matt now serves as Sparkplay's CEO and Creative Director.
Mattias Miksche, CEO, Stardoll
Mattias has been an entrepreneur in the online space since 1998. Prior to Stardoll.com, Mattias was the CEO & Founder of online DVD rental company Boxman.com and merged it with U.K-based Lovefilm to form Europe's largest DVD rental and movie download company in 2005. Prior to Boxman.com, Mattias was one of the original European founders of E*TRADE Financial from 1998 to 2002, leaving as the CEO of E*TRADE Bank in Germany. Before E*TRADE, Mattias held several executive positions with media and broadcasting companies at the Kinnevik/Modern Times Group between 1995-1998. Mattias holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from the Stockholm School of Economics and attended The Anderson School of Management at UCLA.
Mike Sego, Developer, (fluff)Friends
Mike is the developer of the popular (fluff)Friends application on Facebook, where users adopt and interact with virtual pets. (fluff)Friends has been recognized in Business 2.0 and numerous websites as one of the top applications. Mike is also a Software Engineer on the Gmail Frontend team at Google, and previously worked at Electronic Arts on The Sims Online. He received his B.S. and M.S. from Stanford in Computer Science, with a focus on Human Computer Interaction and Graphics.
Min Kim, Vice President of Marketing, Nexon America
As Vice President of Nexon America, Min is responsible for business development initiatives and game operations of Nexon published titles in the U.S. His current professional and personal goal is the successful introduction and adoption of the microtransaction business model in the US. Prior to joining Nexon America, Min operated the successful launch of the Global Edition of MapleStory as the Vice President of Global Business Development at Wizet Corp. Today, MapleStory remains one of world's top online games supported by a microtransaction business model. Min started his career in video games as a senior associate of business development at Nexon Corporation pursuing new business opportunities such as a social networking service, a board game business, and online game licensing. Before joining the online games space, Min was an investment banking analyst in the media group of Salomon Smith Barney in New York. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics-Statistics from Columbia College.
Nicole Lazarro, President, XEODesign, Inc.
Nicole, founder and president of XEODesign, Inc., is an award-winning designer and an authority on emotion and games. Clients including Sony, EA, Ubisoft, Sega, PlayFirst, The Cartoon Network, LeapFrog, Mattel, Monolith, Xfire, D.I.C.E, Leap Frog, The Learning Company, Broderbund, Roxio, and Maxis. She has a degree in Psychology from Stanford University where she also studied film making and computer programming. A frequent speaker at industry events she consults extensively on games and why people play them. She has spent more than 18 years designing successful experiences for all levels of players and users, from novice to expert, in many game genres. Her work on the emotional and cultural content of play has improved the player experiences for more than 40 million people and helped expand the game industry's emotional palette beyond the stereotypical range of anger, frustration, and fear.
Patrick Ford, VP of Marketing & Community Development, K2 Network
Patrick is Vice President of Marketing and Community Development at K2 Network, an international leading publisher of online multiplayer games. Prior to joining K2 he served as Director of Video Game Products at Yahoo following their acquisition of All-Seeing Eye, Inc. where he was President. The All-Seeing Eye was the world's most popular online multiplayer matchmaking tool with over 12 million installations. Patrick has also served both as VP of Product Development and VP of Marketing at GameSpy Industries, as well as VP of the Game Studio at Fujitsu Interactive. He also co-founded Splash Studios, developer of award winning children's edutainment products for CD-ROM and online and spent four years at Microsoft in the multimedia systems and interactive television groups.
Shervin Pishevar, CEO and Co-Founder, Social Gaming Network
Shervin is the CEO and co-founder of Social Gaming Network (SGN), which he helped incubate from within Webs.com Inc. Since its inception in September 2007, SGN has grown to more than a billion page views per month and more than 15 million users (www.socialgn.com). Named "Bill Gates' Worst Nightmare" by the Financial Times, Shervin is a visionary technology entrepreneur, published researcher and technology incubation expert, best known for helping usher in the on demand web computing era and the visionary behind the first web operating system with his first startup, WebOS. Shervin has an extensive track record for technology innovation and his achievements have been highlighted by the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, LA Times, CNN and CNBC and Slashdot.
Siqi Chen, Founder, Serious Business (Friends for Sale)
Siqi is a founder of a YCombinator-funded startup in the Facebook space and a top ranked developer on the Facebook platform. He was previously a product manager at video sharing site Veoh and a software engineer at the semantic search startup Powerset.
Ted Rheingold, Founder, Dogster and Catster
Ted founded Dogster and Catster, thriving and financially profitable online social networks with over half a million members. At Dogster, Inc., Ted sets the company's strategic direction and growth, though he's still a designer and coder at heart. Now an authority in building sustainable start-ups and "passion-centric" online communities, Ted has spoken at numerous technology conferences and companies including Google, The Future of Web Apps, South by Southwest, Reboot, Web2.0 Expo, and CommunityNext.
