Viva Women In Games Conference

Rare’s Nicola Bhalerao, a programmer on Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise is organizing this year’s Women in Games Conference. Her co-organizers are Jane Sinclair and Sara Kalvala; Associate Professors in Computer Science at Warwick University. The conference runs from September 10-12 at the University of Warwick in Coventry, UK.

As you might guess, the purpose of the conference is to promote the role of women in the games industry and understanding of women gamers.

There is plenty of research going on into why and how women play games, and the way they are portrayed, and this is another aspect of the Women In Games conference that makes it so fascinating. Bringing together academia and industry to discuss all these ideas, and explore ways in which more women can be encouraged to seek careers in games makes for a unique conference.

The conference is open to both women and men in hopes of creating a dialog between the sexes. The deadline for registration is Friday 5th September. Follow this registration link for the Women in Games Conference to get involved.

For all you men out there, I can’t count how many times I’ve had friends tell me they wished they could find a gamer of the female persuasion to play with. Get smart and seek out opportunities like this. As for me; I’ve got a house full of them.