Women in Games 2008 Themes

Here they are, hot off the presses, the Women in Games 2008 conference themes!
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/* 0001 Dressing up programming - is this the way to go? ———————————- */
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Initiatives have been launched to encourage people (read girls) to do programming without realising that they are doing anything ‘hard’, and then they perhaps appreciate that it wasn’t as hard as they thought.
What initiatives are out there? Do these work? Do they have credence? Do they hide the realities of what programming is?
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/* 0010 Perception of Games Industry - what is it like to work in games? —————— */
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Working in the games industry is more mature than many people might imagine, and does involve a lot of hard work. It requires people to work together as a team and communicate effectively.
How does this compare with the outside world’s perception? How does it compare to other creative industries of film or music? How can we change that perception if it is wrong?
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/* 0011 Technology in schools - why do girls get turned off? —————————— */
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Encouraging girls to study technology is fundamental to increasing the number of women in the games industry. What is happening in schools to result in very few girls coming out of school with Computer Science, fewer still studying at degree level, before finally only a trickle of women are attracted to working in the games industry? How does this compare with other countries?
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/* 0100 Development and Play - do women do it differently? ——————————– */
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What are the different perspectives that women bring to both playing and the design and development of games? How much is it just more of the same; what are the differences in how they play, what they produce and how they go about it?
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/* 0101 Education for Games, Games for Education —————————————— */
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What skills are needed to work in the games industry? Are they provided by higher education, and are they options taken up by women?
How are games used in education? What is the current state of play? Is this approach (and the types of games used) equally attractive and educationally beneficial to men and women?
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/* 0110 Seriously applying games for fun and profit ————————————— */
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How is the growth of the serious games sector impacting industry and research? What does the future hold for game powered applications and will they still be fun? How are women expressing themselves in this space? In what ways are games pervading our culture and what implications does this have for the future?
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