Serious Fun

Serious Fun
May 3–4, 2011
Chicago, Illinois

DOUG LENAT PREVIEWS THE CONFERENCE
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conference overview
Tomorrow, serious work will be done through serious fun. The combination of work, games, and play is a powerful mix that will shape real-life behavior of individuals and organizations. Smart leaders will know how to use games and gaming approaches to help structure the chaos of creative work.

We're quickly moving past simply connecting and integrating a social fabric into every facet of our digital and analog lives; soon, we'll be able to influence individual employee and consumer behavior. Games invigorate and enrich team building. Multiplayer online games can facilitate training and give employees a platform to develop and practice their skills. Players working collaboratively can develop a rich assortment of new strategies and algorithms, innovate collectively, and problem-solve on the fly. Complex problems will be solved using human-directed computing.

More and more, game dynamics are unobtrusively finding their way into real-world scenarios. Games can strengthen a person's ability to translate sensory information quickly into accurate decisions and can change the way our brains process visual information. Are those who play action games better able to make the right decision when they are under pressure? Meanwhile, does some simulation training reinforce bad habits, and if so, how can we avoid this?

Is there evidence to suggest that games, especially networked games, work better than real life? Future workforces may find more incentive to join organizations with significant virtual and game-based environments. We're entering an era in which games will affect our work (and play) lives in profound and possibly imperceptible ways.

Are we hardwired to play games? In this conference, we'll examine the future of games and serious fun, as well as the organizational benefits we can derive from games and gaming in the workplace. What strategies can we employ to further integrate gaming into the enterprise world and embed games into the culture? We've learned the business value of storytelling; will the integration of "fun" be as beneficial?

Intelligence gathering, analysis, manufacturing, marketing, and management will feel the impact of new games and game dynamics. We’ll look at how to harness unpaid armies of players to get very useful work done. The future of serious fun may result in inspired, motivated individuals and inventive enterprises.

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Partial list of speakers
Mr. Mark Barlet, Founder and President, AbleGamers Foundation
Dr. Ian Bogost, Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology and Founding Partner, Persuasive Games
Mr. Seth Cooper, Co-Founder, FoldIt
Mr. Tim Gallwey, Author, The Inner Game series
Mr. Luke Hohmann, Founder and CEO, The Innovation Games Company
Mr. Joichi Ito, Director, MIT Media Lab
Mr. Gilman Louie, Partner, Alsop Louie Partners
Mr. John McCarter, President and CEO, The Field Museum
Dr. Mitchel Resnick, LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research, MIT Media Lab
Mr. Ben Sawyer, Co-Founder, Digitalmill
Mr. Michael Schrage, Research Fellow, Sloan School of Management Center for Digital Business, MIT
Dr. David Shaffer, Professor of Learning Science, University of Wisconsin
Dr. Julian Togelius, Assistant Professor, Center for Computer Games Research, IT University of Copenhagen
Dr. Nick Yee, Research Scientist, Palo Alto Research Center
Mr. Gabe Zichermann, Chief Executive Officer, Gamification.co

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Conference Schedule
Monday, May 2: 8:30 AM - Workshop
Monday, May 2: 7:00 PM - Welcome Reception / Dinner (Dinner at 7:30 PM)
Tuesday, May 3: 8:30 AM - Conference Begins
Wednesday, May 4: 4:00 PM - Conference Closes

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