UK-based Rare, along with the University of Warwick's computer science department, are co-organizing a September 2008 Women in Games conference aimed at promoting careers for women in the game industry, and have just announced the ladies who'll be delivering keynote speeches.

BioWare product manager Karen Clark; Sony's Paulina Bozek, director of SingStar, research director Dr. Sara de Freitas of the Serious Games institute, Karen Brennan of MIT's Media Lab, and Microsoft technical evangelist Eileen Brown will all be headlining the event.

That's Bozek in the photo, by the way, holding the BAFTA award she won for her role in SingStar.

The full schedule has yet to be determined, as the event organizers are still accepting submissions for talks. Further info after the jump.

Women in Games Conference

University of Warwick, UK

10-12th September 2008

Keynotes announced and Speaker Submission Deadline Extended

The Women In Games conference encourages research and seeks to promote careers for women within the games industry. If games are to become a true sibling medium to music and cinema, the industry needs greater balance in its audience and its workforce. The Women In Games conference welcomes participants from both industry and academia, providing a forum for presentation and discussion of issues relating to all aspects of women's involvement in games, including game development, game playing and women as portrayed within games.

Although this conference is concerned with women and games please note that men are also very welcome to participate! The industry needs a meaningful dialogue between the sexes as it moves forward.

This year?s conference is co-organised by games company Rare Ltd (www.rare.co.uk) and the Computer Science Department at the University of Warwick (www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk)

Further details of the conference and this year's themes are available at the conference website: www.womeningames.com

The Speaker Submission deadline has moved to Monday 23rd June 2008

Thinking of submitting a talk, or offering to participate in a panel, but thought you were too late? Think again! We have extended the deadline to Monday 23rd June to allow you some more time.

We are keen to have more offers on the themes, ?Dressing up Programming? and ?Technology in Schools? in particular, but submissions on any of the themes still welcome.

For more details on how to submit, please check out www.womeningames.com

Keynotes Announced

I am pleased to announce our Keynote speakers for this year?s Women In Games conference:-

Karen Brennan (Scratch, MIT)

Sara de Freitus (Serious Games)

Eileen Brown (Microsoft)

Karen Clark (Bioware)

Paulina Bozek (Sony)