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Lead Composer and Sound Designer - Walz Music
California

Aaron Walz is no stranger to video games and music; he has enjoyed and studied both since the days of the Atari 2600. Aaron and his team are responsible for the award-winning soundtracks of the Amaranth Games hit series, Aveyond, which pioneered the use of live orchestrated symphonic instrumentation in Casual Games. Walz Music also crafted the music for Hardwood Hearts and Hardwood Spades by Silver Creek Entertainment. Both were nominated for Best Independent Game at the IGF; Hardwood Spades took the award. Walz Music has scored and designed sound for mobile game titles such as Stacks and the Road to Tyre. Among Aaron’s influences are Japanese video game composers Nobuo Uematsu, Noriyuki Iwadare and Koichi Sugiyama. These are the talented minds who brought us the sounds of Final Fantasy, Lunar, Grandia and Dragon Quest. Aaron earned a BA of music from Sonoma State University and is planning to pursue his MA at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In addition to composing, Aaron records with various live and studio projects, performs as a chorister and soloist with ensembles directed by Grammy award winner, Joseph Jennings, and has a passion for teaching. Aaron founded Walz Music with a clear vision in mind: To create music that stands alone as a worthy contribution to art, and to strive for constant musical improvement and understanding internally and throughout the industry. Walz Music can be found online at www.walzmusic.com.

Director of Licensing at Shockwave.com - Shockwave / MTV Networks
California

Vinny Carrella wrote and directed Bad Mojo, the 2004 Adventure Game of the Year and has written and designed award-winning games such as Iron Helix and Space Bunnies Must Die! He is also a fiction writer whose debut novel, Serpent Box is now available. He works at Shockwave.com and can be reached for comment at vinny@shockwave.com.

General Manager - Slingo
New Jersey

Eric Lamendola is a specialist in digital interactive entertainment. With almost 10 years of experience with one of the most successful brands in online games, Eric has been integral in brand development, deployment and licensing for every digital interactive media. Whether it is social networks, interactive communities, social games or bridging television and interactive games, Eric has had repeated success in executing distribution across multiple verticals. He has been integral in the design and development of the entertainment destination (Slingo.com), one of the most successful online communities in casual games. He also has extensive knowledge pertaining to licensing game brands to the online game space, download game space, casino slot machines and table games, lottery, mobile games, interactive television and television game shows. Being with one of the first online game portals to integrate rich media and video advertising, Eric has developed comprehensive strategies to effectively integrate and maximize online advertising. He also has experience in the design and production of over 35 web and downloadable titles including the award winning Slingo Quest™.

CEO - Gogii Games
Canada

George Donovan has had many successes at his young age, his newest company, Gogii Games is a growing game development studio in Moncton with a development team in Prague. His company is able to rapidly develop products, yet still maintain a strong quality bar which has given them 7 #1 titles in the last 14 months. His company launches launches 8-10 titles per year in 10 plus languages, 4-5 times more than other studios with over 50 staff. Since its start in 2006, Gogii Games has produced 26 products. Published titles are available in multiple formats including Online, PC/MAC retail, Nintendo Wii, NDS, Iphone, and Mobile Phones. Gogii have also started licensing their products and brands to fast food chains worldwide that leverage their products in kids packs as well as major billion dollar company brands that want to sponsor a product branded version of the Gogii game to help promote their brand to the hundreds of millions of customers that Gogii have entertained over the last 3 years.

Formerly, George owned Infiknowledge Inc., there he designed and grew Gamefiesta.com and the Toybox Games team and gathered the skill set required to understand the consumer side of casual gaming. In 2001, he sold the company to Traffix Inc a publically traded marketing company. George took Infiknowledge from a team of 3 to nearly 90 in core development specialties for web development, design and hosting and still maintain a strong employee presence in Moncton.

VP Business Development - Playrix Entertainment
Russia

Yuri Labintsev (aka Sean Elliot) is VP of Business Development with Playrix Entertainment, a top-tier casual games developer and publisher. The team behind such hits as Call of Atlantis™, 4 Elements™, Fishdom™, The Rise of Atlantis™, etc. has grown to over 80 talented professionals and significantly expanded its production and publishing operations.

Sean has been with the company since its inception in 2004 and helped grow a startup into what is now a serious casual games developer and publisher with an extensive network of distribution partners, an experienced in-house development team and a number of talented external studio partners. His responsibilities include identifying new business opportunities as well as building key partnerships in publishing and distribution across multiple platforms.

He has a degree with honors in English and German languages and also completed coursework at Michigan State University where he picked up the name Sean Elliot that has been his work alias ever since.

Studio Director & Founder JoJu Games
California

Juan heads the production at Joju Games. Joju produces Casual Games for web, PC downloads, consoles and mobile platforms, and for clients such as RealArcade, MTV Networks, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon. Previously, and as one of the first members of the Yahoo! Games team, Juan was the lead producer for the downloadable games area and community manager of multi player games. In the last year of his tenure at Yahoo!, Juan was the head of Yahoo! Games Studios.

Juan is one of the editors of the IGDA Casual Games White Paper, an advisor at the Casual Games Association, and is a frequent speaker at industry events. Juan holds a BFA in Electronic Media from the University of Illinois.



Managing Director - Crossover Technologies
New York

Eric is a 30-year veteran of the game, consumer online, and wireless data industries, serving in capacities ranging from game designer to executive.

Since 2002, Eric is or has been a board member of, advisor or consultant to AOL, AT&T Wireless, Centerscore, Digital Chocolate, Electronic Arts, Exponential, Gaia Online, HipLogic, In-Fusio, Juice Wireless, Kayak (dba Blaze), Lifetime, LimeLife, Meredith, Mforma (dba Hands-On Mobile), Moloon, Openwave, PaymentOne, PickTeams (fka GoCrossCampus), Playdom (fka YouPlus), PlaySpan, Reaxion, rmbr, RocketOn, Thumbplay, Unplugged, Vindigo, Warner Music, and two US venture capital firms.

Eric was most recently the President and Co-Founder of Unplugged, for which he secured distribution with four of the five largest North American carriers. Previously, he served as President and Founder of Crossover Technologies, one of the first consumer online companies, for which he secured AOL, BMG, Discovery Channel, Intel, Microsoft, Prodigy (IBM/Sears/CBS joint venture), Random House, Sony, Time Warner, and Viacom as clients and distribution partners; and, prior to that, as President of West End Games, the adventure game company for which he published, among 40+ titles, Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Star Trek, and Junta. His award-winning games include Paranoia, Tales of the Arabian Nights, The Tom Peters Business School in a Box, and MadMaze, the first online game to draw one million players. He is a three-time winner of the Origins Award for Best Role-Playing Game and a two-time winner of the Game Designers Guild Select Award.

Eric is a regular speaker at the major North American games, wireless and online conferences, including CTIA, MECCA, Internet World, The Conference Board, DMW, GDC, GDC Mobile, MES, AGC, MGC, LA Games Conference, and E3, and has served as a programs advisor or advisory board member for the latter six conferences. He was previously a board member for the New York New Media Association and New York University's Center for Advanced Digital Applications.



Principal - Norwest Venture Partners
California

Tim brings a combination of operational, technical and international business experience to Norwest Venture Partners. Tim focuses on investments in wireless and digital media as well as business development initiatives in Asia-Pacific. Tim led NVP's investments in and joined the boards of directors of 3Jam, Brite Semiconductor, Lumos Labs and ngmoco. Tim also led NVP's investment in PCH International, a turnkey global supply chain services firm based in Shenzhen. Tim works with the boards of deCarta, Double Fusion and Veveo.

Prior to joining NVP in 2006, Tim was a principal at Gabriel Venture Partners where he was actively involved in over a dozen wireless-related deals and led Gabriel's investments in Iridigm Display Corporation (acquired by Qualcomm), Sequoia Communications, Sandbridge, and Kajeet. He also contributed to the boards of Placeware (acquired by Microsoft) and Arula Systems (acquired by Raritan), TestQuest, NextG Networks, and IPWireless. Tim built Gabriel's wireless sector practice and helped establish business development capabilities through strong, strategic relationships across the wireless value chain, particularly in Asia-Pacific.



Executive Producer - Oberon Media
Washington

Since 1999 David Nixon (davidn@Oberon-Media.com) has dedicated himself to pioneering new ways for our "casual" games to reach new audiences. In 1999, with RealArcade, he was one of the first to see the potential of "try before you buy". In 2000 he was one of the first to attempt "2nd Party" publishing. In 2001 he was looking to Eastern Europe as a source of commercially viable PC games, inspiring game developers around the world to participate in the amazing opportunities this category offered. In 2004 he helped catapult Oberon Media onto the casual games world stage. 2005 found David evangelizing "console casual" games with his central role in the launch of Xbox Live Arcade. Now, in 2009 he works to revitalize the role of “web games” in the casual games sector, expanding the role of online communities in the future of our industry. He currently works as Executive Producer at Oberon Media.



Arcade Producer - Reflexive Entertainment
California

Terri Hardie is the Arcade Producer at Reflexive Entertainment and is responsible for evaluating and accepting all of the games launched in Reflexive’s online game distribution portal. Hired to help manage and grow the Reflexive Arcade, Terri has seen the industry, as well as the Arcade, take off like a rocket with more game submissions than are even feasible to launch. Her passion for games is exceeded only by her desire to bring the best games to the people who matter most, the gamers! Prior to working for Reflexive Entertainment, Terri received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in English from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. She spent too many years in a boring law firm, playing any game she could get her hands on in her free time, until she landed her dream job at Reflexive Entertainment. Now, she plays games for a living and couldn’t be happier!



Washington

Chris Early was most recently the general manager for Windows Gaming Technology at Microsoft. A gaming industry veteran, Chris led development efforts designed to extend game experiences across multiple platforms and grow Microsoft's casual and core gaming audiences. Microsoft's Windows Gaming efforts span Games for Windows - LIVE, MSN Games and Windows Live Messenger Games.

Previously, Chris was Studio Manager for Microsoft Casual Games, overseeing the development of Xbox Live Arcade, the operation of MSN Games and Windows Live Messenger Games, and the internal casual game production studio, Carbonated Games. Prior to joining Microsoft, Chris served as chief operating officer of GameSpy and executive vice president and general manager of Mplayer. Chris holds a BA in Economics and International Management from Claremont Men's College.



Sound Designer- Soundmindz
California

Greg Rahn has been composing music and sound for interactive games since 1994. In the casual games genre, he has provided audio for over 80 titles including such hits as Family Feud Online Party, The Poppit Show, Jewel Quest Solitaire, and Casino Island. Other notable titles include Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks The 80’s, Splinter Cell Double Agent, Carmen Sandiego and Riven: The Sequel To Myst. His soundtracks have been honored with various industry awards.






Managing Partner - SomaTone
California

As the co-founder of SomaTone Interactive Audio, Kane Minkus has produced over 500 soundtracks for games (divided between the console, casual, downloadable, MMOG and handheld industries). Having experienced the position of managing both an outsourced development studio, as well as, outsource teams, Kane has had the unique opportunity to work with hundreds of game professionals on both sides of the equation. The SomaTone Team is currently the number one single provider of original music, sfx and VO for the casual game industry and has worked with 200 developers in 22 different countries. Clients include Big Fish Games, PlayFirst, Oberon, PopCap, Mumbo Jumbo, Sandlot, Ubisoft, EA, Disney, Nickelodeon, Sierra Online, Last Day Of Work, Wild Tangent, Three Rings, Zylom, etc. Their credits include: Mystery Case Files Series, Diner Dash Series, Peggle, Chocolatier Series, Dream Day Series, Virtual Villagers Series, Dream Chronicles, Travelogue Series, Bang! Howdy, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.

Kane holds an Associates Degree in Finance from the University of Illinois, a BM in Music Business and Music Production & Engineering from Berklee College of Music, a Masters in Audio Production from Expressions School for New Media. Masters in Neuro Linguistics, Certification in Movement Analysis and has spent years studying excellence in management leadership with the California Leadership Center, a fortune 500 consulting firm.




Co-Founder - Soundrangers
Washington

Barry Dowsett and Kevin Tone founded Soundrangers in 1998. Soundrangers was the first to pioneer the online delivery of sound effects and music built specifically for video games, having developed a web based system that allows game developers the ability to search, preview and download sound effects and music created by Soundrangers. They currently actively maintain this library of audio content which is optimized and licensable for game development.

As a game audio development company, Soundrangers provides original music and sound design services for casual and console games. Recent titles completed for Eidos, Activision, Nickelodeon, Electronic Arts, Microsoft Game Studios, and Cartoon Network. Their work covers a wide array of game platforms including Wii, PSP, Flash, XBLA, Web, Pc, iPhone and Xbox.




V.P. Business Development - Arkadium
NYC

Neal Sinno has been in the casual game industry since 2005 when he joined Game Trust.

Neal Sinno has over 10+ years experience in Business Development, Product Development, and Sales. He has extensive knowledge in web-based applications, platforms and technology services. A seasoned sales and e-business product specialist, Neal has also held key leadership roles at LivePerson, Mellon Financial, The New York Times and Lucent Technologies. Neal graduated from Castleton College and is pursuing his MBA at Fordham University.




CEO - FreezeTag
California

In addition to serving as Marketing Director for the Casual Games Association, Mr. Holland is CEO and co-founder of casual games publisher Freeze Tag, where he leads all creative and business development activities. Prior to Freeze Tag, he founded and sold two companies: Thumbworks, a mobile game publisher and Nine Dots, an interactive marketing firm. As CEO of Thumbworks, Mr. Holland drove the organization`s strategic direction, overseeing carrier relations, business development and licensing initiatives. He has established partnerships with some of the world`s leading brands including Scholastic, Etch A Sketch, NBCUniversal, Nickelodeon, Suzuki, and Paramount Pictures. He holds an MBA in Marketing from USC and BA in English from UCLA.




Marketing Communications and PR Director - Alawar Entertainment, Inc.
Russia

Tatiana Chernova joined Alawar Entertainment in September 2004. In the beginning, she was responsible for game localizations and translations. Since 2006, she's served as public relations manager for the company. Today, she holds the position of Director of Marketing Communications and PR. Her responsibilities include soliciting coverage of the company's projects through the mass media and the strategic planning of PR campaigns. Additional duties include the planning and organization of Alawar’s participation in exhibitions, conferences and other events. Moreover, Ms. Chernova serves as PR Advisor of the Casual Games Association (CGA). She's also responsible for coverage of CGA activity in East European mass media and an adviser of Casual Connect Kyiv — the first specialized conference in Eastern Europe dedicated to the casual games industry. Tatiana holds a Master’s Degree in Linguistics from Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University and a second Master’s Degree in Economics and Management from Novosibirsk State University. Before coming to Alawar, she worked as a TV journalist and the host of a program featuring notable stories about city life in Russia.