VGXPO Forms Advisory Board 'Dream Team'

Event organizers have announced the formation of the advisory board for America’s VideoGame Expo (VGXPO). The board indicated that its role is to not only steer future development of the VGXPO event, but also to help steer industry icons through selecting Life Time Achievement Award recipients and inductees into the VideoGame Hall of Fame. Ed Fleming, Director of the VGXPO, named eight industry veterans as charter members of the board, including Bill Rehbock, director of developer relations at Nvidia; David Perry, founder of Shiny Entertainment and GameConsultants.com; Howard Phillips, design manager at Microsoft; Jamil Moledina, executive director of the Game Developers Conference; and Jo Clowes, producer at Microsoft Games Studios. Other indivisuals named to the board include Joseph Olin, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences; Bill Kunkel (a.k.a. The Game Doctor), co-founder of Electronic Games, game designer, and college professor; and Tommy Tallarico, co-producer of video game television programs Judgment Day and The Electric Playground, founder of Video Games Live, and founder and president of the Game Audio Network Guild. "These folks are at the top of their game and this advisory board is America's VideoGame Expo's 'Dream Team'," stated Fleming. "The key asset each of these people brings to VGXPO is their love of videogames and belief that game players should have an industry event dedicated to them." "It is so important for our industry to have events which help to preserve our history and promote the amazing community of fans," commented Tallarico. "VGXPO does both successfully and I look forward to helping it grow even bigger over the next few years." Now in its second year, VGXPO was created to provide U.S. gamers with consumer-based conventions "on par with similar international game events", such as the Tokyo Game Show, Korea's G-Star convention and the German G|C expo. In 2005, VGXPO attracted 17,000 attendees and over 40 exhibitors. The second annual VGXPO will again take place in Philadelphia, at the Valley Forge convention center from October 27th to 29th.