2011 Keynotes

Nathan Verrill is the co-founder of Natron Baxter Applied Gaming. Natron Baxter’s mission is to thoughtfully and creatively design hard-working games that solve problems, drive real-world action and have a net positive impact on the human condition.

Nathan’s first foray into serious games was in 2008 while consulting with Institute for the Future and collaborating with Jane McGonigal on the Signtific Lab micro-forecasting platform. His career began as a web tinkerer in 1994 while (not) attending class at Case Western Reserve University. Since then he has worked as a strategist, interaction designer, user researcher and user interface developer for both public-facing websites and internal-facing enterprise applications. Past clients include American Express, Anheuser-Busch, BlueCross BlueShield, Institute for the Future, Maritz, Monsanto and United Healthcare, to name a few. He has skied the Himalayas, run with the goats in Iowa and fired the Alludium q36 Pumpkin Modulator.

Natron Baxter’s work includes Urgent EVOKE, which was launched at TED 2010 and was selected by Games4Change as the #1 social impact game of the year; Signtific Lab 2.0, re-branded the Foresight Engine (which also received an award from Games4Change); Stack-It, a collaborative ideation game; and the co-founding of Gameful.org with Matthew Jensen, Jane McGonigal and Kiyash Monsef. Gameful.org is a secret HQ for people who are making games that are making us happier, smarter, stronger, healthier and more collaborative.

Immersive technology opens new opportunities for advancing education and training in a world that is changing both technologically and culturally. In the case of the Department of Defense, the power of immersive technology is that it can be integrated into many systems employed in modern conflict and in the context of recently established Key Mission Areas (KMAs). Most importantly, it is technology that is essential to developing teams of people who are central to all decision making and actions. Whether defending our homeland or supporting a remote operation, people must train and learn collaboratively to prepare for highly complex tasks and problems. Exploiting immersive training requires imagination and experimentation with new business models. That includes the wide deployment of virtual worlds, integration of these worlds with social networking, and the use of mobile internet devices (MIDS).

Michael R. Macedonia (Mike) is a Vice President and Chief Scientist for SAIC’s Analysis, Simulation, System Engineering, and Training Business unit. Prior to joining SAIC, Macedonia was the General Manager for Forterra Federal Systems in Orlando, Florida, which was acquired by SAIC. Forterra was a leading developer of virtual worlds software for enterprise applications. Dr. Macedonia also was a Senior National Intelligence Executive and the Director of the Disruptive Technology Office (now IARPA) for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. DTO was the intelligence community’s centrally funded research activity for advanced technology. Prior to DTO, he was the Chief Technology Officer for the U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation (PEO STRI) in Orlando, FL. At PEO STRI, Macedonia was responsible for developing the technology strategy for the U.S. Army’s lead training technology acquisition organization. He also led the Army’s effort to develop the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California, promoted the adoption of advanced commercial technologies for simulation, and served on the Army Science Board for several years as a government representative. He also served as Vice-president of the Fraunhofer Center for Research in Computer Graphics, Inc. in Providence, Rhode Island, where he led an international research team. He served on the editorial board for IEEE Computer for eight years and was a contributing editor. He is currently the Chair of the Association of Computing Machinery’s SIGGRAPH Pioneers. Dr. Macedonia has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Naval Postgraduate School where he was part of the NPSNET research group. He also has an M.S. in Telecommunications from the University of Pittsburgh and a BS from the United States Military Academy, West Point.

IBM’s Smarter Planet campaign demonstrates how our planet is more interconnected, intelligent and instrumented than ever before. Technical innovations are being leveraged across industry to revolutionize and optimize businesses, cities, and the environment. How can serious games be used to explain the potential of these complex technical innovations? How can serious games personalize the experience and lend to a better understanding via self discovery? Join IBM’s Serious Games program manager Phaedra Boinodiris as she discusses this innovative initiative.

Recognized by the IGDA as one of the top 100 women in the gaming industry for her work founding WomenGamers.com, Phaedra is now currently in a very INTRApreneurial role as Serious Games Producer @ IBM. She is developing a series of games for technical training, marketing, and extending brand reach, releasing 2 full 1-hr+ games and 3- mini sim-style games in the INNOV8 game series teaching Business Process Management and Services Oriented Architecure. She has completed Phase 1 of a completely new genre of game, a city sim called CityOne (http://www.ibm.com/cityone). Her first 3D serious game for academic use is a BPM simulation tool built on an FPS engine, which launched IBM’s very first Serious Games Day in RTP, NC Feb 2009.

Phaedra has been an entrepreneur for 10 years, first with Atlantis Internet Technologies, an IBM business partner focusing on WebSphere technologies, and then with WomenGamers.Com (WG). WG is a C corp started 10 years ago with her sister, which is now a popular women’s gaming portal. Together they launched the first scholarship for women to attain degrees in game design and development within the United States through SMU, launching over a dozen bright young women into careers with companies like EA, Acclaim, and Activision.