Digital Chocolate, PopCap, EA To Headline Casual Connect Seattle

Representatives from The Casual Games Association have released details of speakers set to appear at the Casual Connect Seattle 2008 conference, due to take place from July 23rd to 25th at Benaroya Hall in Seattle. Around 2,000 industry professionals are expected to attend the event, with organizers describing the online and mobile casual games business worldwide as having revenues of $2.25 billion in 2007, with an estimated 200 million people playing casual games online each month. Confirmed speakers include Paul Thelen, CEO of Seattle-based casual games portal and publisher Big Fish Games; Trip Hawkins, founder of Electronic Arts and currently CEO of publisher Digital Chocolate; David Roberts, CEO of PopCap Games; David Williams and Dave Williams, senior vice president and general manager of Nickelodeon Kids and Family Games Group, respectively. Also speaking will be Alex St. John, CEO of WildTangent; Andrew Pedersen, general manager of Electronic Arts Casual Entertainment’s Pogo brand; and Harold Zeitz, senior vice president of RealNetworks’ games division and media & software services. Conference sessions will cover design and development issues, social gaming, consumer marketing, advertising and mobile opportunities. The subject of community gaming and social network sites such as Facebook and MySpace will also be discussed, with sessions led by industry figures such as Craig Sherman, CEO of Gaia Interactive; Mark Pincus, founder and CEO of Zynga; Ranah Edelin, vice president of Electronic Arts’ Sims Internet Group; and Kyra Reppen, senior vice president and general manager of Neopets. Michael Capps, president of Epic Games will also present a session entitled “I Wish I Were A Casual Game Developer”, with the Friday conference day dedicated to casual games, including presentations by Rick Wilcoxen, vice president of sales at Ubisoft North America; Ed Zobrist, president of Sierra Online/Vivendi Games; and Eric Zimmerman, co-Founder and CEO of Gamelab. Other sessions include: Michael Temkin, chief technical officer of Hands-On Mobile on “Guitar Hero III Mobile: Behind the Scenes”; George Kurtyka, global account manager for Nokia’s SNAP Mobile on “Mobile Gaming: The Connected Community”; Chris James, editor and publisher of PocketGamer on “What Makes a Great Mobile Game?”; and an Apple iPhone/iPod Developer Panel. Further information can be found at the official Casual Connect Seattle 2008 website.