The Casual Games Conference provides developers, publishers and distributors insight into the current business and design considerations required to succeed in this rapidly growing game industry segment. The 2005 Casual Games Conference was attended by nearly 500 industry professionals responsible for many of today's top web, downloadable and mobile games, with executives coming from as far away as the U.K., Norway, India, Korea, China and Australia. Sponsorship was provided by industry leaders Microsoft Casual Games Group, Real Networks, Nokia, Sandlot Games, Game Trust, shockwave.com, Trymedia, Game Instinct and DigiPen. Casual Games are platform agnostic and can be easy to learn but hard to master. With their small size, casual games provide a fantastic venue for explorative gameplay, according to the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), the leading game industry professional organization. Casual games can be produced with smaller development teams, shorter development cycles and with lower development costs than console and PC games. As a revenue-producing section of the industry, web and downloadable games are increasing in popularity. According to research firm IDC, the U.S. market for casual downloadable games will grow to more than $760 million in 2007. Conference details and registration information are available at www.CasualGamesConference.com.

The 2nd Annual Future TV Show 2007 in Oslo, Norway is where broadcasters, telcos, production companies and new platform owners come together to discuss the future of television. Taking place on 22-23 May, this event will cover all forms of future TV including VOD, IPTV, User-Generated Content, Mobile TV, Advertising Models and Quadplay. For more information, visit www.futuretvshow.com.

KidScreen Summit is the only event that brings together executives from all spectrums of the kids & tweens industries, providing you with the tools and contacts to turn your kids entertainment property into a total brand experience. Designed to provide inspiration, information and incredible networking for
executives in the following industries: programming, licensing, consumer products, production & distribution, marketing, brand management,
publishing, animation, IP development and retail.

NEW FOR 2003

- "30 Minutes with..." sessions

The Game Initiative, a leading producer of conferences and events for professionals in the computer and video game industry, will be hosting the Women's Game Conference (WGC). Women's Game Conference focuses on women in the computer and videogame industry, gender inclusive game design and women and girls as consumers of games. Women's Game Conference 2005 conference sessions include: Quality of Life Issues, Recruiting and Retention of Women in the Game Industry, Team Building, Design of Female Avatars in MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games) , Women and the Casual Games Market, Marketing to Women and Research on Women and Video Games. Qualified industry professionals interested in speaking on a panel should visit the Women's Game Conference web site at http://www.WomensGameConference.com and contact WGC conference director Suzanne Freyjadis-Chuberka. Proposals for consideration for panel participation are due by July 15, 2005. The conference website is www.WomensGameConference.com.

The China Cartoon Industry Forum focuses on the market, integrating the multi-industry resources and bringing in financial investment to China

The 2nd. edition of the main event in M

Following the success of the inaugural International Conference on Technology, Knowledge and Society held at the University of California Berkeley, the second conference will be held in one of the emerging IT center of the world, Hyderabad. The conference will take a broad and cross-disciplinary approach to technology in society. With a particular focus on digital information and communications technologies, the interests addressed by the conference include: human usability, technologies for citizenship and community participation, and learning technologies. Participants will include researchers, teachers and practitioners whose interests are either technical or humanistic, or whose work crosses over between the applied technological and social sciences. As well as an impressive lineup of international main speakers, the conference will also include numerous paper, workshop and colloquium presentations. More information can be found at www.Technology-Conference.com.

Due to the unprecedented success of the first SMS (short message service) meets TV seminar held recently in Amsterdam, Van Dusseldorp & Partners in cooperation with DISCOP will be holding a second SMS meets TV seminar. The marriage of SMS and TV programming is one of the latest success stories of media convergence. SMS is now creating value of its own and quickly becoming the focus around which original programming concepts are designed and developed. This seminar will build on the proceedings of the successful first SMS meets TV event and will provide a more in-depth examination of this exciting market place. Some questions and issues to be addressed will include: developments of new content formats and revenue generation from users, the evolution of SMS entertainment markets, new directions by dynamic concept developers, ways SMS has driven the creation of television offerings and more. Whether you attended the initial SMS meets TV event in Amsterdam or you are simply a newcomer, this event is not to be missed!

This seminar is to be hosted as part of DISCOP Formats Europe 2003 taking place February 5-7, 2003, and it will build on the proceedings of the recent Amsterdam based SMS Meets TV event and provide a more in-depth examination of this exciting marketplace. Exactly how are broadcasters, mobile operators and SMS application developers working together to develop new content formats and generate revenue from SMS users? How will the SMS entertainment market evolve to incoporate MMS, downloadable games and the potential offered via mobile based marketing? SMS TV is becoming more than voting, games and chat: in what directions are the more dynamic concept developers heading? What progress has been made in addressing key industry issues including: interoperability of services across Europe, premium rate billing and revenue sharing arrangements?

Combining successful case studies from Southern European players together with high level input from leading international broadcasters, production houses, concept creators and mobile operators, this is an event not to be missed!

Register now for only 450 Euros (until 13th December and after that for only 550 Euros) under http://www.smsmeetstv.com and you will receive a free copy of the research report 'SMS-TV: Interactive TV Reinvented.'

The 2nd World Film Festival is the annual festival held from 15 - 24 October 2004 at EGV Metropolis Bangkok Thailand. More than 80 films worldwide is participating and the competition is for the Harvest of talents awards in Best Picture, Best Script, Best Art Direction, Special Jury Prize Award and People Choice. Pls. visit www.worldfilmbkk.com