Join the IGDA Women in Games SIG for a panel on how you can land more speaking engagements at industry and related conferences, such as GDC, SxSW, and more. Hear from veteran speakers as well as those involved in picking speakers as they share tips for getting your voice out there. Attendees will learn the benefits of public speaking, along with how to submit to conferences, reach out to organizers, and give the best speech you can. Part of the WIG SIG’s Speaker Development series.

About Sande Chen

Sande Chen is a writer and game designer whose game credits span over 10 years in the industry. Her writing credits include 1999 Independent Games Festival winner Terminus and the PC RPG of the Year, The Witcher, for which she was nominated for a 2007 Writers Guild Award in Videogame Writing. She is the co-author of Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform and has been a speaker at conferences around the world, including SXSW, GDC, LOGIN, and Serious Games Summit D.C.. In 2006, she was profiled on NextGen’s list of the Game Industry’s 100 Most Influential Women.

About Fiona Cherbak

Fiona Cherbak is a games industry staffing, marketing and events professional, responsible for developing strategies and campaigns for a broad cross-section of game companies and organizations. Fiona has provided HR and recruiting services for leading clients such as Take Two, Activision, Disney, Electronic Arts, LucasArts, NCsoft and Sony. Fiona is currently Senior Staffing Specialist for Certain Affinity, a co-development studio known for their work on the Halo and Call of Duty franchises. She was previously Senior Staffing Specialist for Irrational Games and Senior Talent Acquisition Manager for Tencent Boston.

As a member of the indie games community, Fiona is co-founder and former co-producer of Boston Festival of Indie Games, and has served as promotions advisor to indie game events IndieCade and Fantastic Arcade. She’s former chairperson for IGDA Women in Games SIG, a founding member and producer of Women in Games International, co-creator of GameMentorOnline and partnership advisor for the European Women in Games Conference. She’s been a regular speaker at GDC’s Game Career Seminar series, plus an advisory board member and speaker at SXSW Screenburn/SXSW Interactive.

About Susan Gold

Susan Gold joined the faculty of Northeastern University in September of 2013 as Professor of the Practice and Associate Director of Games. A veteran and leader of the industry, Susan is responsible for developing new degree curricula and creating key partnerships within the video game industry for the growing interdisciplinary program.

Professor Gold’s personal focus is on collaboration, which resulted in the Annual Global Game Jam (GGJ), an experiment in creativity and innovation in game development. The GGJ has grown and so has Susan’s interest in community based projects that bring together the most creative minds. Innovation through collaboration is her mantra.

Susan has been speaking about games and game education since 2003. Her experience in procuring speakers for conferences include running the IGDA Education Summit at GDC in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010; East Coast Games Conference, Academic Track Chair, 2012, 2013, AniGames Columbia 2011, 2012, 2013; DigiWorld Expo – France, 2012, 2013, 2014.

Professor Gold is an artist, teacher, and activist with a specialization in digital art, new media and videogames. Her experience is widely sought and she sits on numerous advisory boards throughout education and Indie game development in South America. Susan got her start and organizational skills as a community activist in Chicago. Her artwork and writing has been featured in numerous galleries, museums and publications.

About Damion Schubert

Bio pending

About Anne Toole

Anne Toole is a writer of games, television, webseries, and short fiction. Her credits include the Emmy-winning webseries The Lissie Bennet Diaries and the WGA-nominated dark fantasy game The Witcher. Due to her transmedia experience, Anne has spoken at the inaugural Nokia OpenLab 2008 as well as about game design at GDC Europe, GDC Online, South by Southwest, the Login Game Conference, and Comic-con International. In addition to her work with the IGDA, she was appointed by the West Hollywood City Council to serve on the city’s Women’s Advisory Board. Anne graduated from Harvard with an ever-so-useful degree in Archaeology and suffers a minor zombie obsession.