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Industry Luminaries Named Keynotes of Serious Games Conference


Noah Falstein, Chief Game Designer, Google; Trip Hawkins, Founder, Electronic Arts; and Peter Marx, Chief Innovation Technology Officer, City of Los Angeles, will deliver keynote speeches at the fourth annual Serious Play Conference (SPC) taking place Tuesday - Thursday, July 22 - 24, 2014 at USC in Los Angeles.

Falstein will talk about how new technologies will soon revolutionize development of new games for training, health and education. A professional game developer since 1980, Falstein was an early hire at LucasArts, 3DO, and DreamWorks Interactive.  He freelanced for 17 years on entertainment and serious games before joining Google in 2013.

Hawkins will discuss how to architect and develop an effective educational game as well as integrating assessment tools.  Hawkins is now the CEO of If You Can, and has launched an educational adventure game that provides social and emotional learning (SEL).

Marx’s appointment as Chief Innovation Technology Officer for Los Angeles was a precedent-setting move on the part of the city.  Mayor Eric Garcetti has challenged him to create an urban environment where technology in serious games and applications dramatically changes the way people learn and live.

Serious Play Conference is a leadership gathering where senior game designers and stakeholders share their experiences developing Serious Games in the corporate, military, education, museum, and games for good sectors in an effort to push the performance of game-based learning.