Panel discussion
We are proud to announce that PixieCon 13 will play host to a number of prominent international and Maltese guests from the game development industry. These will be sharing their perspectives on "The State of the Digital Games Industry."
Guest speakers
Ms Kate EdwardsExecutive Director, International Game Developers AssociationVisit the IGDA website Kate Edwards is the Executive Director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), appointed in December 2012. She is also the founder and principal consultant of Englobe, a Seattle-based consultancy for content culturalisation, and a unique hybrid of an applied geographer... Read more , writer, and corporate strategist, built upon a passion for global cultures and media technologies. Formerly as Microsoft's first Geopolitical Strategist in the Geopolitical Strategy team she created and managed, Kate was responsible for protecting against political and cultural content risks across all MS products and locales.
In the Microsoft Game Studios, she implemented a "geopolitical quality" review process and was personally responsible for identifying potential issues in all 1st party games between 1995 and 2005. Since leaving Microsoft, she has provided guidance to many companies on a wide range of geopolitical and cultural issues, and she continues to work on games such as Dragon Age 1-3, Modern Warfare 3, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Dance Central 1-3, Mass Effect 3 and Halo 4.
Kate is also the founder and former chair of the IGDA's Game Localization Special Interest Group, the co-organizer of the Game Localization Summit at GDC, and is a regular columnist for MultiLingual Computing magazine.
Mr Andy TouchProduct Evangelist, Unity TechnologiesVisit the Unity Technologies website Since he added physics to a cube and watched it bounce, Andy has been interested in experimenting and playing around with gaming technology. Having specialised in Unity at university, and then going on to teach the engine to higher education students, he is now part of the... Read more Evangelist team at Unity Technologies and helps to spread the word to new users and to show off what it can do! He loves creating interactive 3D art experiments, taking part in game jams & hack days and helping Unity Developers to get the most out of the game engine. When he isn't doing any of these things, he is either marathoning TV shows, playing Dark Souls or challenging everyone to Air Hockey.
Dr Alexiei DingliSenior Lecturer, Faculty of ICT, University of MaltaVisit the Faculty of ICT websiteDr Dingli is a Senior Lecturer of Artificial Intelligence within the Faculty of ICT at the University of Malta. He is also one of the founder members of the ACM student chapter in Malta, founder member of the Web Science Research, founder member of the International Game Developers... Read more Association (IGDA) Malta and of the Gaming group at the same University.
He holds a Ph.D. on the Semantic Web from the University of Sheffield in the UK. There, he worked on various large projects with his major contribution being attributed to the Advanced Knowledge Technologies project, one of the largest Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations (IRC) funded by the Engineering and Physics Research Council (EPSRC). His recent work in Mobile Technology and Smart Cities (2011) was awarded first prize by the European Space Agency and the European Golden Seal of E-Excellence at the prestigious CeBit 2011 conference. He has published several posters, papers, book chapters and a book in the field.
Dr Dingli also holds an MBA from the Grenoble Business School in France specialising in Technology Management.
Mr Nikolai SammutGeneral Manager, Institute of Computer Education MaltaVisit the ICE Malta websiteBS.C (Hons.) graduate and director of studies at the Institute of Computer Education, Malta, Nikolai Sammut has a passion for website development, cutting edge design, UI/UX, and finds great satisfaction in sharing knowledge, inspiring creativity and encouraging students to excel and... Read more reach their career aspirations. Nikolai values education immensely and believes that our islands are full of creative talent waiting to be discovered. As Director of Studies of one of the island's leading ICT institutes, taking care of the day to day running of the school, he gives great priority to giving individuals a unique study experience including practical experience, one to one attention and access to the latest technology.
Mr Neil BaldacchinoPresident, ICT Student Association, University of MaltaVisit the ICTSA websiteNeil Baldacchino is a Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence student at the University of Malta, currently on a research internship at Oxford University in the UK. He is the president of the ICT faculty student association (ICTSA) and is involved in the IEEE local student branch. He has also had... Read more an active part in the organisation of popular local events including Robot Wars, The Million Dollar Idea and the annual ICTSA Programming Competition. Besides game engine technology, his interests also include embedded systems and high performance & distributed computing.
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