Wondering who will be making it to this July's Develop Expo in Brighton? The event's organizers have announced the expected appearance of the developers behind Patapon and Echochrome. Further details on these personalities are available in the full article.

You know the deal. The Year of the Rat comes scurrying by, and every gaming event from here to Timbuktu has cranked the dates on their banners up a notch just to tell you, "We're coming back!" But have they got anything new this time around? Organizer Tandem Events thinks so, and they plan to make Develop Conference and Expo 2008 more than just a European gaming event that sticks to Brighton like shoe-gum. Find out what they've got planned at the full story.

 

Tandem Events recently announced that NCSoft's Richard Garriott and Microsoft XNA Group's Chris Satchell will be keynoting the event at the second Develop Conference & Expo to be held in Brighton, UK this July 24-26. With speakers such as game legends Peter Molyneux to also appear as speakers at the event, the two will tackle issues with creativity and community and the future of the MMO game.

Satchell's main speech will dive into Web 2.0 keeping two of the four key themes of the conference in mind: creativity and community. Using online social phenomena such as YouTube and MySpace as examples, Satchell will expound on how the gaming community drives Web 2.0 direction and development and how it will effect the online gaming scene.

"Lord British" Garriott will share his vision of the future massively multiplayer online game and the possibilities that can be achieved by developing for the medium. Garriott will also share his experiences in developing games and share it with the budding developers of the European community.

The organizers of the event, Tandem Events, have also announced that the conference already has an amazing line up of speakers slated, stating in the official press release that "the speaker line up is already reading like a ‘Who’s Who’ of the video game industry." Event director Andy Lane concluded the announcement, saying:

Develop is still three months away, but already we have a fantastic line up in place – of both speakers and sessions – for conference delegates, who will be travelling to Brighton this summer from all over the world. It goes without saying that we’re delighted to confirm Chris Satchell and Richard Garriott as two of our keynote speakers.

 

From the folks that will be bringing you the Develop Conference and Expo on July 2007, Tandem Events organizes a double event dedicated for the games graduates of UK. GamesGrads is slated to occur on April 24 and April 26, on Manchester and London respectively.

GamesGrads is a full-blown game career fair to be supported by numerous game industry names, including Havok, Microsoft Game Studios, Disney Interactive Studios, Rare, Lionhead, Juice, and Rebellion. They are many more other developer studios that have yet to confirm details on their attendance. Ali Wynn, an organizer at Tandem Events, was proud to say that the developer response to the event was "great." She also added:

We've got some high profile studios actively looking to recruit games graduates taking part and so far hundreds of graduates registered to come along and meet up with them, showcase their work and hopefully secure a career in the games industry.

Game industry students interested in attending GamesGrads should look up the official GamesGrads website and register there. All registrants will be entered into a draw to win an iPod Video and a Super Pass for the Develop Conference and Expo 2007 to take place once again in Brighton.

Tandem Events will be launching a series of career fairs called "Games Grads" for the young gaming talent in the UK. The goal of these events is to introduce the developers and publishers of games to these aspiring game developers. Games Grads are one-day events which will be held in Manchester and London on April 24 and 26 respectively.

The fair will only be open to schools which are currently running the most-respected computer and video games courses in the UK. They have done this to attract hundreds of the finest work-ready graduates. The organizer is expecting a strong turnout from both students and potential employers because of this.

The UK market is a stable one, which according to Andy Lane of Tandem Events, is worth more than £2 billion annually. The recent releases of new consoles open up a lot of positions that need to be filled if they expect the industry to grow. Thus the need for this career fair.

Companies that are interested in exhibiting at Games Grads should contact Andy Lane at Tandem Events on 020-7405-4500.