UPDATE Aug 1, 2008:

The proposal for a dedicated conference on game-audio has been accepted by the AES Board of Governors. The conference will be held in London in February 2009 (tentatively 11th-13th Feb).

- Tom White

May 23, 2008: Michael Kelly of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has been working with people in the game industry to put together a dedicated AES international conference on Audio for Games. He recently sent out the following request for information to AES Games Technical Committee members, and I thought some of you might want a heads-up about this interesting idea. If you want to know more, just email me and I'll see that you get in touch with Michael.

 

Tom White 

AMP Alliance 

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Proposed Conference Location:

The conference will likely be held in London 2009.  We currently have a growing membership in the US region and a healthy level of activity at US conventions.  Attracting people to larger AES conventions in Europe is more difficult and it appears the European audience would prefer an event more focused on games.  Whilst large conventions such as GDC are able to support dedicated technical tracks for audio, there is nothing that can offer this focus in Europe.  Whilst the conference will be held in Europe, it will still be an international conference and we would encourage participation from all regions.

Proposed Conference Date:

The original date was planned for January 2009.  Unfortunately there have been significant delays in finding the right venue.  Although the AES normally expects proposals to be agreed at least 1 year in advance of the conference, we are now a little behind.  Whilst we are now aiming for February 2009, the AES Board of Governors may prefer we postpone the conference.  We're interested in feedback on alternative dates.  The choice of January was originally to prevent clashes with any other conferences but also at a time when developers may have time to attend following the busy pre-Christmas period.  We still feel this is a very strong reason to arrange the conference early in the year (now early February), but if we are asked to postpone the conference I would to hear your arguments for/against other dates.  Basically, is early February a good date for you?  Which other dates would you consider?

Schedule Conflicts: 

For reference, here is a list of other conferences (large conferences such as GDC as well as local conferences which may clash).  Please feel free to let me know if there are any other events that should be considered in this list.

* January: Netherlands Casual Games Conference (2008)

* March: GDC (23-27 2009, SF)

* April: Nordic GDC, AES (13-16 2009)

* May: AES Europe (17-20 2008), ION Washington (online conference 13-5 2008)

* June: SCEE DevStation (10-11 2008), Game Horizon (18-19 2008)

* July: Develop Brighton (29-31 2008), E3 LA (15-17 2008)

* August: AES (28-30 2009), GCDC Leipzig (20-24 2008), Edinburgh International Games Festival

* September: Austin GDC (15-17 2008), London Games Festival (2007)

* October: AES US (5-8 2008), Audio Mostly (22-23 2008, Sweden), Project BBQ (16-19 2008, Texas), Tokyo game show (9-12 2008)

* Novemember: GC Lyon (5-7 2008)

* December: Christmas & Game Deadlines

Regards 

 -- Michael Kelly, SCEE --