Overview
Games for Change (G4C) leads a global community of creators, developers, and innovators using games and immersive media to drive real-world change. It partners with technology and gaming companies, nonprofits, foundations, academic institutions, and government agencies to run a wide array of programming, from world-class events and educational programs, to executive and impact production of best in-class games and XR (VR/AR) projects.
I was brought in as Chief Creative and Strategy Officer to lead the strategy for the organization and the production and marketing/comms departments.
Projects
20th Anniversary Games for Change Festival
2023 marked the 20th Anniversary of Games for Change. To celebrate, it's flagship festival was comprised of 10 events over 8 days spread across multiple locations in New York City. I oversaw the teams that produced the events and all marketing/comms efforts. We welcomed 4,500+ in-person & virtual attendees and over 200 speakers.
Games and SDG Summit at the United Nations
A first of it's kind event to convene the video games industry to meet key UN agencies to discuss how they could collaborate to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Leaders from the games industry, policy, media, and non-profit sectors sparked dialogue, identify strategies, and explored how games and XR (VR/AR) can address important priorities like education, climate action, equality, and justice. The event was produced in collaboration with UNEP, UNDP, UN Women, and UNESCO MGIEP.
Highlights included:
- Talk about Playing for the Planet from Sam Barratt, Chief, Youth, Education and Advocacy at UNEP, and Leslie Quinton, VP of Communications at Ubisoft
- Fireside chat with renowned streamer, DrLupo and Leo Olebe, Head of Global Gaming at YouTube
- Talk about the Power of Play from Cynthia Williams, President of Games at Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro
- A Games and XR Arcade co-curated with UN Women with projects featuring female creators, female founders, and female main characters: Horizon Forbidden West, Fight Back VR, Maya: The Birth, Songs of Cultures, Terra Nil, and World Reborn.
Games for Change Festival + XR for Change Summit
The Games for Change Festival and XR for Change Summit brought together industry leaders and innovators to share and explore the latest games and immersive experiences driving social impact. The 3 days of events featured over 100 talks, panels, demos, and workshops highlighting the best experiences in the last year while unpacking some of the newer opportunities and challenges that are shaping the landscape like, AI, machine learning, nanotechnology, and blockchain.
Highlights included:
- Panel on The Future of Queer Games and the Apocalypse with Bo Ruberg, UC Irvine, Colleen Macklin, Parsons School of Design, Jude Pinto (aka Garden Robot) and Juno Morrow, CUNY Hostos Community College
- Panel about The Future of Creativity, Advertising and Social Change with Samantha G. Wolfe, PitchFWD, Akbar Hamid, People of Crypto Lab, Asha Easton, Innovate UK KTN and Julien Weissenberg, Deep Tech Experts
- Talk about Bridging the Gap: Immersive Environments for Resettlement with Krysti Nellermoe, International Rescue Committee and Milad Hosseini-Mozari, Bridging the Gap
- An XR for Change Immersive Arcade and a VR Arcade curated by ONYX Studios
Next-Gen Summit
The Next-Gen Summit welcomed youth ages 13-18 to come learn, create, and get inspired by industry veterans and mentors. Students were guided through a series of hands-on workshops introducing them to game design in Unity and Minecraft, how to build digital communities, and how to create compelling stories in games. The event was capped off by an esports competition hosted by Vanta. The event was particularly impactful given 50% of the attendees originated from Title 1 Schools and typically don't have access to this type of programming.
Brain Jam Hackathon
Built in partnership Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center, the Brain Jam paired XR developers with researchers to come together to address a specific social issues (climate change, next-gen education, AI and its implications for society). These cross-disciplinary teams were led through a multi-day jam where each one develop a working prototype which were showcased at the XR Immersive Arcade.
Additional Events
A number of smaller gatherings were spread out across the week; from the Games for Change Awards ceremony to a variety of parties. The awards ceremony was particularly powerful in that received over 400 submissions and we had 120 industry experts participated in judging the submissions. You can see the finalist here.
Festival Marketing
I led the marketing and comms efforts for the festival which included PR (with the support of McPherson Strategies and Zebra Partners), social media, outbound marketing, promo videos, and advertising campaigns across NYC (in partnerships with New York City's Summer of Games initiative). We were able to create meaningful hype online through social channels (100%+ YoY growth on LinkedIn and Instagram) and earned media (Forbes, Axios, GamesBeat, Polygon) which led to doubling YoY ticket sales and getting attendance for the festival above pre-pandemic levels.
Strategy
Aside from working on the 20th anniversary festival, I was actively working with senior leadership across the organization on a variety of initiatives. Some of these included:
- Advancing Games for Change's international chapters efforts.
- Exploring how we can support parents when navigating video games with their children
- Scaling G4C Learn's education efforts to different audiences.
These initiatives involved running brainstorming workshops with key stakeholders, creating financial forecast, interviewing key stakeholders and creating presentations.
