Women In Games Conference Cancelled Due To 'Low Delegate Numbers'

Organizers for the annual Women In Games Conference have announced that they are cancelling the event for 2010 due to low attendance. The conference was planned for March 25-26 this year in Bradford, UK. The Women In Games Conference website stated, "We are very sorry to announce that this year’s Women in Games Conference has been cancelled due to low delegate numbers." This would have been the conference's seventh year. A press release originally announcing the event said, "Traditionally the games development industry has been dominated by young, white, middle class males. The Women In Games conferences battle to combat this and with this aim the theme for 2010 will be diversity, looking at nationality and ethnicity as well as gender." The event was cancelled despite having a full lineup of speakers from organizations including the Digital Games Research Association, Schell Games, Monumental Games, National University of Ireland Maynooth, TIGA and the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology, among others. UK-based industry website Develop said conference chairs Kaye Elling and Marian Carr will issue refunds for those who've already paid. The organizers added, "Cancelling the event was not an easy decision to make, but our delegate numbers this year were far below the figures needed to break even financially." The statement continued, "The conference team would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support of WIG2010, and hope that you will continue to support Women in Games in any future events."