D.I.C.E. Summit Registration

AIAS Foundation Golf Outing

Sponsored by Louisiana Economic Development

TopGolf

Sponsored by Louisiana Economic Development

Annual D.I.C.E. Go-Karting Tournament

Happy Hour

Magic: The Gathering Tournament

Co-Sponsored by FIG and Curse

AIAS Foundation Cocktail Reception

Co-Sponsored by AIAS Foundation and ESA Foundation

Annual D.I.C.E. Poker Tournament

D.I.C.E. Women’s Networking Reception

Sponsored by the AIAS Foundation

D.I.C.E. Summit Registration

D.I.C.E. Arcade

Full Breakfast Buffet

Grab and Go Breakfast

Opening Remarks

Meggan Scavio
President
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

Conference Opening Keynote

Phil Spencer
Microsoft
Executive Vice President, Gaming

Building a Living and Learning Company Culture 

Spencer will share his thoughts on how a large company like Microsoft continues to learn and evolve. He’ll explore the importance of a purposeful company culture and how it defines not only the work environment but also how it informs strategy and impacts business growth.

Main Stage Speaker

Lidwine Sauer
Ubisoft's Strategic Innovation Lab
Director of Insights and Trends

Navigate the Rapid currents of Change 

In a time of accelerated disruption and transformation, innovations that originate in one industry can very quickly upend many others.  Unexpected events have almost become the norm. Faced with rapid and regular revolutions, how do you anticipate the opportunities -- and the risks -- that the future holds? How do you drive forward-thinking change in a creative organization?

Coffee Break

Sponsored by New Blood

Main Stage Speaker

Mike Morhaime
President, CEO, and Cofounder
Blizzard Entertainment

Nate Nanzer
Commissioner
Overwatch League

Kim Phan
Director, Esports Operations
Blizzard Entertainment

Moderator – Geoff Keighley

The Future of Esports: Blizzard’s Long Competitive Quest

Blizzard CEO and Cofounder Mike Morhaime, Overwatch League Commissioner Nate Nanzer, and Esports Director of Operations Kim Phan discuss the company’s innovation in esports over two decades, from the original StarCraft all the way through the launch of the Overwatch League in January.

Mainstage Speaker

Kevin Chou
Chairman and Co-owner
KSV

Andy Dinh
CEO
Team SoloMid

Jack Etienne
Co-Founder
Cloud9

Moderator – Geoff Keighley

The Evolution of Esports

Esports is a massive industry that draws huge audiences and seems to be experiencing exponential growth.  Its success is drawing attention and investment from traditional sports organizations looking to get involved in this fast growing industry. This session brings together seasoned and successful team owners to share their thoughts on the evolution of eSports – past, present, and future. 

Lunch

Main Stage Speakers

Neil Druckmann
Creative Director
Naughty Dog

Dan Trachtenberg
Director and Writer

Crafting Narratives for Video Games, Film, and Television

Join Director Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane, Black Mirror“Playtest”) in a conversation with Neil Druckmann (The Last of Us, Uncharted 4) as they discuss the creative process in crafting character-driven experiences for video games, and how it compares to the process in film and television. Neil and Dan will also share their impressions of how video games and film look to each other for inspiration in order to push their respective storytelling boundaries. 

Main Stage Speaker

Maureen Fan
CEO and Co-Founder
Baobab Studios

Emotions in VR

Storytelling is in our DNA and many historians believe it's why Homo Sapiens dominated.  Storytelling's power is getting you to care so much about characters that you want to know what happens to them.  In VR/AR, players can care about these characters even more than in traditional media, so much so that you interact with them because you care, not because you want to win.  Baobab Studios believes VR/AR allows us to create experiences with the empathy of film, agency of games, and motivation of real life.  Instead of passively wondering what you would do if you were a character in that story, you actively live those decisions, because you care about those characters.  Maureen Fan talks about the company’s learnings through their VR/AR experiments.

Coffee Break

Sponsored by New Blood

Main Stage Speaker

Maja Moldenhauer
Executive Producer and Artist
StudioMDHR

The Cuphead Journey: A Four-Year Knockout Indie Success Story 

Executive Producer and Artist Maja Moldenhauer and the Moldenhauer brothers started the Cuphead journey as the original members.  None of them had any traditional game development experience – only a common dream goal to make a really challenging, retro game with a unique hand-drawn art style.  Maja will share a behind the scenes in-depth look at StudioMDHR’s creative process to build the magical Inkwell Isle, a culmination of all the creative influences from their childhood on. In addition, she will share stories of arduous indie development and how they chased a dream, how having a clear vision created unique processes and overcame development challenges, how bucking trends and having unwavering faith in a project can set a game apart, how art for art's sake can bring out the best in a team and why risking it all was worth it.

Main Stage Speaker

Chet Faliszek
Creative Director
Bossa Studios

AI for Storytelling

Faliszek will delve into the use of Artificial Intelligence to create deep, meaningful stories not created by designers, but by the player’s own actions.

Main Stage Speaker

Alex Schwartz
CEO
Owlchemy

Innovation in VR: Developing for New Mediums

Building for entirely new mediums can be risky, terrifying, and prone to failure. In embracing the new medium of VR wholeheartedly and building native content experiences, Owlchemy has proven a successful formula with Job Simulator and Rick and Morty VR -- two top 10 grossing titles of 2017. Alex Schwartz, CEOwl of Owlchemy Labs, discusses building content that can only be experienced in VR and why studios attempting to mitigate VR's risk by building content that dips a toe in may not actually be mitigating their risk at all.

Opening Night Party featuring Quake Tournament

Co-Sponsored by FACEIT + Youtube

D.I.C.E. Summit Registration

D.I.C.E. Arcade

Full Breakfast Buffet

Grab and Go Breakfast

Roundtable Session #1

Workshop #1

Video Game Funding for the Future

Venture Capitalists. Mergers & acquisitions. Crowdsourcing. Publishers.  So many options, and each coming with its own sets of pros, cons and headaches.  These days there really are a surplus of options, but which is the best course for your company?  Meet and chat with a panel of funding experts who have seen it all and put their money where their� gaming system of choice is.  In this candid conversation amongst peers, hear their war stories, near misses and catastrophic failures.  But don’t fear– there will be plenty of stories about a couple happy coincidences and big, million dollar pay-outs too!

• Jennifer Yan of Transcend Ventures
• Justin Bailey of FIG
• Ian Howe of Skybound 

Moderator – Feargus Urquhart of Obsidian Entertainment

Coffee Break

Sponsored by New Blood

Roundtable Session #2

Workshop #2

The New Diversity Frontier

Diversity is the biggest buzzword at the moment, and to be frank it scares a lot of companies and people. Many companies are now citing diversity as a central focus to their mission, but it may not be something that is easily implemented without the right guidance and structure.   For those of you who have the intention of hiring diverse teams but need to know the important ingredients for success, or are not seeing results, or faltered in the process so far – this panel will be your short-cut to building the most important part of your company - diverse humans bringing diverse games for a diverse audience. Join these group of dynamic panelists to get the inside look on what strategies really work, any potential pitfalls and what data points translate to successful diversity hiring. 

• Caryl Shaw of DoubleFine
• Darion Lowenstein of Gamblit Gaming
• Katie Morgan of ISM
• Maureen Fan of Baobab
• Moderator – Caroline Stokes of Forward

Lunch

Roundtable Session #3

Workshop #3

How to Launch Your Game to the Press in 1 Million Easy Steps 

Publishers and studios will often complain about press. Press will often complain about publishers and studios. Do these folks ever talk? Now here’s their chance. Join this group of seasoned professionals to hear what they loved and hated about some of their most memorable game and product launches.  Expect and honest and frank of what to do and what to avoid! 

• Rachel Weber of GamesRadar+
• Stephanie Tinsley of Tinsley PR
• Tom Marks of IGN Entertainment
• Nick Chester of Epic Games
• Moderator – Jamin Warren of Kill Screen

Coffee Break

Sponsored by New Blood

Roundtable Session #4

Pre-D.I.C.E. Awards Reception

21st Annual D.I.C.E. Awards

Live streamed by IGN Entertainment

D.I.C.E. Awards After-Party

Sponsored by Intel