A Journey Toward Harnessing the Power of Video Games for Learning, Social Impact and Profit
What's it all about?
In this talk Alan Gershenfeld will talk about his personal journey from the film industry in Hollywood and China, to running Actvision's game development studio to Chairing the nonprofit Games for Change and now making commercial social impact games at E-Line Media.
Alan will highlight a variety of case studios including Never Alone, a BAFTA award winning game developed with a pioneering Alaska Native tribe and Beyond Blue, a recently released game developed in collaboration BBC Blue Planet 2, leading ocean explorers and scientists and featuring local New Zealand musicians.
This event is supported by the U.S. Embassy, Dunedin Centre of Digital Excellence (CODE) and New Zealand Game Developers Association.
You can drop into this event at any time.
Speakers
Alan is President and Co-Founder of E-Line Media, a leading developer and publisher of games that help players understand and shape the world. Alan has worked on impact game projects with the Gates Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, National Science Foundation, USAID, DARPA, White House OSTP, Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Google, BBC, Sesame Workshop, MIT, ASU and others. Alan was previously a member of the executive team that rebuilt game publisher Activision from bankruptcy into an industry leader. He has spoken on games, learning and social impact throughout the world including the World Economic Forum in Davos and Dalian, China and is co-author of Designing Reality; How to Survive and Thrive in the Third Digital Revolution. Alan currently serves as a Founding Industry Fellow at the Center for Games and Impact at Arizona State University. He is on the Board of FilmAid International and Advisory Board for Joan Ganz Cooney Center (Sesame Workshop). He is former Chairman of Games for Change and Co-Founder of Experimental Design.
