conferences
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Airbnb's new maps help you find a room during big events
If you enjoy scrambling and then paying a fortune, try waiting until the last minute to book lodging at a convention. Airbnb is helping event-goers and organizers avoid such heartbreak with a new feature called Airbnb for Events. It lets organizers create interactive maps of accommodation listings close to their venues, then embed them onto event websites, much like you can a custom Google Map. That could be handy for, say, planning weddings in places where hotels are sparse, or for convention attendees using Airbnb as a hotel of last resort.
App Developers' Conference dated, call for papers open now
GDC is the Game Developers' Conference that happens every year up in San Francisco, and the company also hosts a number of other GDC events all over the world. Usually, they do GDC Online in Austin, TX every fall, but that conference has recently been changed into two different conferences, both of which are set to take place later this year in Los Angeles. One half of the conference will be called GDC Next, and will focus on the future of gaming development, featuring things like the new Ouya console, cloud gaming, and next generation platforms. And the other half is now called the App Developers' Conference, and will focus on not just game development, but mobile app development as well. Both shows are being held in Los Angeles on November 5-7, 2013, and both shows are now open for submissions for panels and talks. ADC is obviously looking for app makers who can speak on the design, business, and actual programming of apps, so there will undoubtedly be some talented iOS developers there that week. If you have a great idea you'd like to present, you'll need to get your submission in by May 29. It's interesting to note this change. The official GDC itself has also been swinging more towards mobile game development, and away from major studio talks and presentations. This last year at GDC, there was an indie scene like I've never experienced before, and while some of that was driven by major publishers like Sony and Microsoft, much of it has to do with Apple's App Store and other mobile opportunities. As a result, more than ever of GDC is dedicated specifically to smaller mobile developers, and these two new conferences are part of that push.
Jagex CEO hints at why RuneScape hasn't come to consoles
Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard is one of the more quotable head honchos in the gaming business, and he didn't disappoint at the recent Edinburgh Interactive conference. Gerhard spoke in no uncertain terms about the difficulties inherent in bringing Jagex's long-running RuneScape browser MMO to game consoles like the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. The problem according to Gerhard? Microsoft and Sony. "They said 'we cannot let the Microsoft community play with the Sony community,''' he explained, before offering his response and an explanation as to why RuneScape has yet to appear on a console. "We're not going to frame our community into boxes just for a few million more customers. Of course I'd love a few million more customers, but I just wouldn't do it [...] you almost become the disease you're trying to solve."
MacTech Boot Camp revving up for Dallas, coming to Boston, LA and Chicago later this year
Our friends at the MacTech Boot Camp series of conferences for Mac consultants and IT techs are rolling right into 2011. They've got a session planned in Dallas for April 27, and then they're headed up to Boston for another event on May 18. We're told there's still room at the Dallas event, and the usual pricing has been lowered to $395, so you TUAW readers can follow this special discount link to see the show for just $295. Sessions include a packed schedule of panels and demos, lots and lots of networking, and included meals and refreshments -- if you've never been to one of these and do any consulting or IT work with Macs, they're definitely worth seeing. You can even get certified at the events -- Apple Certification Testing is taking place the day before each session, and there's also a proctor-moderated group study session included before that, so you can do some last-minute cramming with your fellow pupils. Testing for MacTech Boot Camp attendees is only $199, which is significantly cheaper than usual. Finally, early bird registration is still underway for the sessions later on this year -- the conference will be in Los Angeles on July 27, and in Chicago on August 31. If you're in either of those cities, definitely consider attending. TUAW is a media sponsor of the MacTech Boot Camp conferences.
5 apps for the conference-goer
Heading off to a conference? Here are five little apps you might want to consider adding to your iPhone before heading off to the airport. They all provide functionality that may come in handy when you're on the go. SpeakerClock ($0.99) provides a bright easy-to-read display showing you exactly how much time you have left to present your paper and take questions. It's a deceptively simple application full of lovely little design touches. I used it at a recent conference and found it an absolutely valuable tool to have around. This app works well both on the iPhone and the iPad -- as a conference organizer, it's really great to use the iPad's larger screen from across the room. As a speaker, the iPhone version works particularly well when placed on a small business card stand on the speaker's podium. Want to easily share your contact information? Contxts offers a simple solution. You can sign up for a free account at contxts.com, where you can enter your details. Anyone with a phone (it doesn't have to be an iPhone) and an SMS plan can text a short phrase (like "demotuaw") to 50500 and they'll receive the information you set up at their website. Their free iPhone app lets you edit that information directly. What's more, when you turn the iPhone on its side, you can display a "HELLO my name is" contact sheet that instructs people how to retrieve your contact data. What's great about Contxts is that it's a solution that works with any group of people, whether they've hopped onto the Apple iPhone train or not (of course, if they have an iPhone or an Android phone, there's always Bump).
LOGIN 2009 online gaming conference speakers announced
Over the past few years, the online gaming conferences put together by Evergreen Events have been rather significant ones in the industry. Evergreen Events are the people who organized the ION Game Conference which we covered extensively last year, and the Online Game Development Conference in 2007. As we announced previously, ION has been renamed as LOGIN for 2009 and they're already announcing some of the conference's speakers. Among the many speakers slated for LOGIN this May are David Ryan Hunt, Senior Game Designer at Flying Lab Software, and Craig Alexander, Turbine's VP of Product Development. Alexander's session will be "Building Online Games for the Console Generation: Challenges and Opportunities" which could certainly prove to be interesting. We'll keep an eye on how the conference is shaping up as we get closer to the four-day event kicking off on May 11th.
Sony keynote at London Games Summit, Games Festival hotting up
This October, the London Games Festival will be hitting the UK's capital with a whole bevy of gaming events. (If you're in the industry, or you want to be, that is.) First up, we have the European answer to GDC, GDC London, for the development types -- sessions range from the excitingly-titled-yet-probably-dull "Combat: The Ninja Way" through to a Molyneux special on design inspiration.More a business sort? The Games Summit is up your street, with buzzword-compliant "hard-hitting business content" for all tastes, from ARGs to -- surprise! -- another Molyneux special, this one on Lionhead. The newly-announced Games Summit keynote will be given by Michael Denny of SCEE, focusing on the networked age and digital distribution, which should provoke some interesting thought.Other events in the Games Festival lineup include the London Game Career Fair and the BAFTA Video Games awards (a British Academy Awards, for games, with more swearing). For those of us interested in playing games, celeb-spotting and the slightly offbeat, events throughout the week of the Festival -- 2-7 October -- will hopefully deliver, with a showcase at HMV's Oxford Street branch and a 'fringe' show which both look to be worth attending.
Xbox Live Vision camera, Racing Wheel, Wireless Headset coming this fall
We've been hearing about the camera for the Xbox 360 for so long, that we almost forgot it still hasn't been released. Well, Microsoft finally came clean about the cam, and gave it an official name at the company's E3 event today. The Xbox Live Vision camera will be available this fall, and will allow users to use their 360 for video-conferencing, video-emails and gamer picture customization. Microsoft also announced the Racing Wheel controller for driving games, and a wireless headset, which presumably will bring joy to parents everywhere. All accessories are expected to be available this fall.Continue on for official pictures.
