Cardiff Design Festival

30 September, 2011 - 09:00

Chapter Arts Centre, Canton, Cardiff [ Get Directions ]

Ticket prices - Full: £30.00
(Lunch is included in the ticket price)

From an early age, play and games are hugely important to our development as people; it is the fundamental mechanism that allows us to learn and understand complex issues and social interactions. Games can bring people together and open new and unique channels of interaction. So why do we stop ‘playing’ in our adult years? Could games be the key to our future development; produce closer connections with our communities, create a more engaging education system and provide a new direction for business?

In playARK’s first ever talks we will be opening up with a series of speakers from across the UK that includes world renowned game designers, producers, commissioners and creators to discuss games in all their facets. From gaming being used within education as creative learning tools, to gaming informing strategy and development within business, through to games being used for social good. We will also look at how story and the developing tastes of people is influencing new ways of developing creativity and improving services in different sectors. Whether you have an interest in gaming or want to look at your business differently or investigate a possible new way of structuring education or even understand how games can pave the way towards social change then come and join us and find out what the possibilities are.

playARK Speakers include:

Matt Locke - Founder of Storythings, a company that experiments with new ways of telling stories, through consultancy and production on major projects. Matt was formerly Head of Multiplatform Commissioning at Channel 4 and also held the Commissioning Editors post for Education at Channel 4. Matt is a regular speaker at industry events, including Guardian Activate, the IPPR Media Convention, C21 Futuremedia conference, Thinking Digital, Sheffield DocFest, Intelligent Factual and MIPTV Cannes. In 2010 he was listed in both Broadcast Magazine’s ‘Hot 100' and Wired Magazine’s ‘Wired 100'.

David Sharp - Dave has a 25 year background within the creative industries both as a developer of video games and with the business side of commercialising and licensing IP. Dave currently now runs a successful games development production company as well as being a board advisor to two investment companies working within the creative sector. Most recently he has been part of the driving force behind one of the UK's most unique and successful digital regeneration projects - 'DigitalCity' located in the North East of England. The project is a multi-million pound project to create new digital and knowledge economy companies and has to date helped establish 60+ new companies in this sector.

Dr Gareth Loudon - A principal lecturer in Product Design and Head of Masters studies for the Cardiff School of Art and Design. He is one of the co-founders of the PAIPR research group and also runs a research project called "Creating New Realities".He has over 20 years experience in academic and industrial research and has taken several research ideas all the way through to commercial products for large companies such as Apple Computer and Ericsson.

Wendy Keay-Bright - An award-winning researcher whose interaction design projects have included Somantics, ReacTickles, and ECHOES. Her work is characterised by simple, elegant design, ease of use, transferability across multiple technology platforms and environments, and the inclusion of end users with learning disabilities in the design process. She works with a dedicated team of software artists to create technology interfaces that are responsive and user-led, designed to encourage play, creativity and expressive communication for some of the most hard to reach individuals in special education, clinical and community settings.

Mark Stevenson - Today he combines two other (more related) careers - one as a successful writer/ comedian (writing for stage, radio and print) and another as a speaker and consultant on future narratives, institutional innovation, engineered serendipity and learning, working with both private and public clients. His writing has appeared in numerous publications including The Daily Telegraph, The New Statesman and The Irish Times. His first book An Optimist’s Tour of the Future continues to receive wide critical acclaim ("Sharp and Fascinating" – The Wall Street Journal) and has been translated into four languages. He has addressed the US Treasury Executive Institute, Google HQ, Microsoft Research, Standard Chartered Bank, The Skoll World Forum and The Economist and regularly appears at festivals and other public fora including The Secret Garden Party, The Henley Festival and Wilderness. He is co-founder and director of the cultural learning agency Flow Associates (working with cultural organisations internationally), the science communication agency ReAgency and special advisor to the African social network BSmrt. Mark is a fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, Nibmaster General at the Ministry of Stories and a founding member of the League of Pragmatic Optimists.

Dan Dixon - Dan Dixon is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Technologies at the University of the West of England where he runs their degree course in Web Design. His research revolves around the way people interact with technology and specifically the space where digital gaming and the real world mix. Currently he is working on a PhD, entitled Playing with Reality, which examines the cultural and aesthetic aspects of the nearly indefinable field of Pervasive Gaming. He is also involved in projects on gamification, augmented reality and location based gaming. Prior to moving to academia he had roles as a senior consultant with social software Headshift, product manager for the BBC’s online communities and production director for new media agency Syzygy.

Tickets: £30/£15 (lunch included)
playARK - games talks is brought to through a great collaboration between thinkARK and CHAPTER Arts Centre. The event is part of the Cardiff Design Festival 2011, and not been possible without the support of The UnLtd Millennium Awards Scheme and further sponsorship by the Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries and Cardiff Council through ECCE Innovation – new markets for Cultural and Creative Industries.

See www.thinkark.co.uk for further information and to book tickets visit http://www.chapter.org/23910.html or call the Chapter Box Office 029 2030 4400