WIGI’S Hot Autumn

Women in Games International has had the busiest summer and fall seasons in the organization’s history! We’re very proud of the new partnerships we have made, the new programs implemented and the re-launch of a vital game industry service. We’ve seen a significant expansion of WIGI’s reach into the game industry as a whole and we’re making strong efforts to affect the industry of the future.

Events and Media Partners

WIGI formed media partnerships with lots of old friends and some new partners. We offered a discount to the New York Games Conferencefrom our old friends at Digital Media Wire. Once again, we were privileged to partner with the Indiecade festival and even had several WIGI principals in attendance at the conference.

For the third year in a row, WIGI has partnered with The Guildhall at SMU for a networking party at GDC Online. We’ve been joined this year by additional sponsors Electronic Arts and Xaviant for our fourth annual event.

For the first time this year, we’re partnering with Digital Hollywood and Kissappgames to create an Indie Games Soiree associated with the conference. The event on October 19^th is open to all, not just conference participants.

WIGI’s media partnership program is on of the awesome ways we provide benefits in the form of information and discounts to major industry conferences while getting the WIGI name and opportunities to an even larger audience. Thanks so much to our media partners! Stay tuned for even more partnerships and discounts and an expanded WIGI reach in 2012.

GameMentorOnline—Re-Launch!

WIGI is outrageously proud to announce the re-launch of the groundbreaking GameMentorOnlineprogram. Please see the article in the Fall 2011 Edition of the WIGI newsletter from program founder Karen Clark for more details.

In a nutshell, GameMentorOnline is open to every professional and student in the game industry. It’s a free online portal that connects experienced mentors with protégés and offers suggestions for goal setting and progress analysis for mentoring pairs.

I myself wasn’t planning on participating as a mentor in GMO (because I’m completely swamped with WIGI’s growth and myriad programs as well as my own work at GameDocs…), but I signed up as the first test mentor as we were testing the system. Since then, I have been approached by a protégé who’s interested in me because of my skills and experience, and I’m excited about the relationship because she has a lot to offer to me as well! She’s got plans in place in areas where I want to grow my career. Her goals and objectives are things that’ll expand my own knowledge and abilities through just talking out what I already know and seeing how it can apply to alternate but similar business models and growth plans.

WIGI is very proud of our association with GMO and the return of founder Karen Clark. This is a valuable, vital service for the game industry and will help move our business forward into a more mature form of collaborative career building and help create relationships between senior and junior folks that are beneficial to both—and therefore the industry as a whole going forward.

GameMentorOnline is proudly sponsored by 3DVIA.

Alliance with the Consulate General of Canada in Los Angeles

WIGI has partnered with the Consulate General of Canada in Los Angeles for a groundbreaking workshop with participants from both the Canadian and U.S. game industry and academia. The workshop will look at the role of women in the game industry, specifically demographics, quality of life issues and other key factors.

The workshop will be a day-long event on October 20 at the Official Residence of the Consul General of Canada in Los Angeles with U.S. and Canadian industry and thought leaders, academics and researchers. This workshop is intended to be the first step in a process that will generate a study on statistical and demographic information on women in the game industry workforce.

Some key outcomes of the workshop will be partnerships between Canadian and U.S. industry representatives and researchers resulting in a study to generate hard data on where the industry is going, why the current workforce imbalances exist and how they can be corrected.

We hope the results of this event will provide long-lasting information to the game industry, academia and others to strengthen the work methods, hiring standards, higher education opportunities and economic strength for a powerful future of interactive media. Stay tuned for news on the results of the event!

This workshop is proudly sponsored by the Consulate General of Canada in Los Angeles, Electronic Arts and Sony Computer Entertainment America.

We have an awesome lineup of professionals and academics:

Canada:

United States (Academics):

United States (Industry)

Others:

Partnership with the Girl Scouts at Girltopia

WIGI is also partnering with the Girls Scouts Los Angeles Conference at their annual extravaganza at the Los Angeles Convention Center,Girltopia! THQ has contributed a very generous sponsorship for the event. WIGI will be hosting a game design workshop as well as the use of the uDraw Game Tablet to get girls’ input on the design of a game design badge for Girl Scouts International created in conjunction with WIGI. Check out the article on Girltopia in the Fall 2011 Edition of the WIGI newsletter by program initiator Amy Allison for more details.

Next WIGI Los Angeles Chapter D-L-C

WIGI’s Los Angeles chapter is planning our next D-L-C—Drinks-Lectures-Community event on the subject of Cloud Computing. Stay tuned for details.

New WIGI Chapters and Revitalization of Existing Chapters

WIGI has been rounding up lots of new Chapter Coordinators in cities near you and there are lots of WAM—Women And Men networking events in the works. Our Seattle chapter is going again with regular networking and educational events. We have a new year-round Austin chapter with regular events planned and several other cities are in the planning stages. Contact [email protected] if you’re interested in starting a chapter in your area.

GDC 2012

Plans are already in the works for GDC 2012. WIGI is planning our fifth annual event and our third event at the wonderful California Historical Society Museum. Save the date! We’ll see you Wednesday, March 7^th, 2012 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm.

We need sponsors for this executive networking party. If you’re interested in becoming involved with WIGI at GDC 2012, please contact [email protected] .

Contents of The Fall 2011 Edition of the WIGI Newsletter

WIGI News

GameMentorOnline: The First-of-its-Kind Mentoring Program in the Gaming Industry Returns

WIGI to Participate in Girl Scouts’ GIRLTOPIA

A Brave New (Anti-Consumer) World: Updated Sony TOS Reflect Supreme Court’s Pro-Corporation View of Arbitration Law

Indie by Default

On Finding Women Speakers for New Game: Your Input

WIGI at E3 2011

LeVar Burton Creating Reading Rainbow iPad App

Creating a Shared Gaming Experience: Fingerprint to Launch Mobile Learning and Play Network for Kids and Grown-Ups

Sponsor News

Develop AND Publish Online 3D Games Affordably…Really

WIGI Events

Indie Games Soiree October 19th

Upcoming WIGI Events: WIGI WAM (Women And Men)