Mary Margaret to speak at Serious Games Summit
by Kit

Friday, October 8 2004

CEO of recruiting company will be featured speaker.

Mary-Margaret.com is pleased to announce that company CEO and co-founder Mary Margaret Walker will be a featured speaker at the Serious Games Summit in Washington D.C., October 18-19. The Serious Games Summit, produced by CMP Media, has been designed to attract leaders in game development and the public and private sectors in order to forge links between the traditional game industry and the international business community.

From 10 am to 11 am on Tuesday, October 19, Mary Margaret Walker, CEO of Mary-Margaret.com, will participate in the featured Serious Games Summit panel, “Game Developer isn't Listed in the Yellow Pages: Finding The Right Help!” Moderated by Chris Weaver (CEO of Media Technology Ltd. and founder of Bethesda Softworks), Mary Margaret will be joining a panel of industry experts comprised of Stephen Jacobs (Assistant Professor, RIT), Chris Weaver (CEO Media Technology, Ltd.), Bob Bates, (Studio Head, Legend Entertainment) and Eric Marcoullier (Senior Producer, Cyberlore Studios).

Serious games are applications of interactive technology that extend far beyond the traditional videogame market, including: training, policy exploration, analytics, visualization, simulation, education, health and therapy. While games are a $10 billion industry, most people have an extremely tough time locating the right talent to work on their serious games projects.

This panel of game-industry experts will provide feedback on these issues, plus insight into the critical talent available today, including independent studios, recruiters, freelancers and university-based development resources. Attendees from other industries will learn how to find and evaluate the right developers and how to work with them. Panelists will cover pricing and salaries levels for game studios, and what to look for when asking game developers to step into the serious games arena.

Walker states, “The Serious Games Summit acknowledges that government, military and corporate industries are interested in connecting with professionals from the game industry. These business sectors want to make use of the communications advances and business applications that are available in traditional gaming. We recognize that providing our expertise on staffing and hiring will contribute to the inevitable growth that can benefit all industries and entities involved.”

Ben Sawyer, executive producer of the Serious Games Summit, offers, "Most organizations that want to build serious games try to find a commercial game developer by looking at companies on the boxes shelved at the local game store. The problem is that most of those names are publishers and they aren't the right people to call. As a result, projects fail to get off the ground. This panel will fix that misconception in a hurry. It's designed to show people interested in hiring talent in the game industry how to do it successfully."

The Serious Games Summit will be held at the Loews L'Enfant Plaza Hotel at 480 L'Enfant Plaza in Washington D.C. Attendance to the Serious Games Summit costs $695 and includes access to all conference sessions. To register online, visit http://www.seriousgamessummit.com/register/.

--- Kit