8:00 am
9:00 am

9:00 am
10:00 am

Keynote:  The Evolution of Entertainment, A Toy's Place
Will Wright, Founder and Chief Executive, Stupid Fun Club
Creator of Spore and The Sims
Will Wright's presentation will will look at toys, play, and the product development process from a new perspective going forward. Through his SimCity, The Sims, and Spore game franchises created at Electronic Arts, Will generated over $1 billion dollars of value. At Stupid Fun Club, a design studio Will maintained throughout his career as chief designer at Maxis Studios and Electronic Arts, advanced toy designs are among Will's primary focus. 

10:00 am
10:15 am

10:15 am
11:15 am

Adding A Powerful Online Presence To An Existing Offline Brand
In an industry threatened by the likes of videogames, iPods, the Internet, and other digital diversions, maintaining relevance with your consumer means going where your consumer is going -- and youths today are going online in droves. The long-term viability of your business, brand, and product line therefore depends on migrating at least some of the play experience to the Internet. For your move online to be a success, however, you will need a clear understanding of your goals, and an appreciation of how the experience online is going to enhance the toy experience offline. These subtleties can spell the difference between a measurable return on your investment or an online strategy that fizzles, piling on costs and robbing your employees and investors of profit. This session will get you up to speed on today's online play patterns, introduce options that will let kids engage with your brand even when they don't have a physical product in front of them, and introduce ways of analyzing and assessing costs of going online -- all without losing the brand equity you may have spent a lifetime building in the physical world.
Peter D. Adkison, CEO, Hidden City Games, Bella Sara
Jesse Soleil, Vice President, Emerging Media and Technology, eScholastic
Peter Marx, Vice President of Production & Technology, Mattel
Michael Bellavia, President, Animax Entertainment (moderator)

11:15 am
12:00 pm

The Tactical Perspective:  A Best Practices Checklist
Committing to a presence online often means partnering with specialists with deep backgrounds in technology, creative, and online branding. This session will introduce you to the process of migrating your brand online, including a typical product development roadmap and timeline. A panel of experienced pros will present a going-online checklist -- from determining your online feature set, to assessing the options with virtual currency, communication alternatives, COPPA requirements, moderation, server and infrastructure needs -- and educate attendees to better understand and manage the relationship with your online agency. Get the results to want -- from engaging an audience, building a brand, or driving ROI -- by knowing ahead of time how your hired hands think.
Scott Traylor, CEO and Founder, 360KID (moderator)
Jason Robar, Vice President, The Amazing Society - Gazillion Entertainment Game Studio
Jean-Francois (Jeff) Tremblay, VP Business Development, Frima Studio
Marty Poulin, CEO, ShadyLogic Studios

12:00 pm
1:00 pm  

1:00 pm
2:00 pm

User Generated Online Content for Kids: Freedom vs. Safety
The user-generated content phenomenon prevalent on social networks and web sites like MySpace, Second Life, and YouTube hasn't yet trickled down to kids, but that isn’t because they aren't craving it. From designing clothes and objects, capturing gameplay on video, to designing games inside of virtual worlds, kids and tweens yearn for self-expression and creation the web makes possible – and in many cases are being handed the tools to create. But letting kids take control online is fraught with dangers. Primarily, it is concerns of security, safety and COPPA compliance that toy creators going online and virtual world creators must address. This session will look at how virtual world companies and brands can harness the power of user-generated content -- giving kids as much freedom as possible without putting them at risk.
Joi Podgorny, Director of Community Engagement, Smart Bomb Interactive
George Zaloom, Founder & CEO, FaceChipz distributed by Hooga Loo Toys
Pierre Le Lann, Co-CEO, TribalNova
Tamara Littleton, CEO, eModeration
Additional Speakers to be Announced

3:30 pm
4:30 pm

Developing A Dynamic and Engaging Online Play Strategy On a Budget
Not everyone has the deep pockets of a Mattel or the cross-media promotional options of a Disney or Nickelodeon. But that needn't stop you from moving your brand online and engaging kids where they are spending their time and money. This session will lay bare the options a toy manufacturer, or anyone with a strong offline brand, has when it comes to moving online. From the immersive experience of a virtual world to a more discrete online experience that may involve just a few minutes of interactivity, kids are responding to a range of digital experiences -- so long as it enhances the play experience. This session will introduce you to the economics of taking a brand and moving it online.
Sean F. Kane, Esq., Attorney, Consultant, Kane & Associates LLC (moderator)
Steve Grimes, Chief Digital Officer, The Topps Company, Inc.
Oliver Mitchell, Founder, Robotgalaxy
David Lord, CEO, Knowledge Adventure
James Jones, VP, Creative Production, Digital Media and Gaming, Hasbro

4:30 pm
5:00 pm