Jay Cann has been an expert in computer-based games since the early days of computer gaming - designer, critic and consumer. See Jay's profile in C|NET Techno-file .Jay Cann, CTO of Web development firm Macquarium Intelligent Communications. AdWeek and Advertising Age magazines continually rank Macquarium among the nation's "Top Interactive Agencies." The company has been named one of the Best Places to Work in Atlanta by the Atlanta Business Chronicle, is a recipient of the Phoenix Award for its cutting-edge work on enterprise portals, won a Smithsonian Award for its content management innovations, and was recently awarded an International WebAward for its work developing a variety of global sites.
Jay is also a tech leader at Fathom Studios, a computer animation studio, with a mission to produce stunning animated imagery through passion and creativity. Adler leads the company and serves as executive producer for its first animated feature film, Delgo, featuring the voice talents of Jennifer Love Hewitt, Chris Kattan, Val Kilmer, Eric Idle, Michael Clarke Duncan, Kelly Ripa, Burt Reynolds, Malcolm McDowell, Lou Gossett, Jr., Sally Kellerman, and Anne Bancroft.
Erez Goren is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Hi-Rez Studios, established in 2005 to create exceptional online interactive entertainment. Hi-Rez Studios is currently developing a massively multiplayer online game using the Unreal 3 next generation engine. Mr. Goren developed his first computer game while in high school. In 1985, with the crash of the video game industry, he co-founded Radiant Systems and grew that company into a leading provider of systems for managing retail stores. Mr. Goren provided the retail industry with easy to use, video-game like user interfaces for both store operators and consumers. He drove pioneering developments including touch screen graphical point of sale terminals, customer service kiosks, merchandise ordering from gas pumps and automated movie ticketing stations. Under his guidance, Radiant Systems won more Microsoft RAD (Retail Application Development) awards than any other company and revenues grew from $1M in 1992 to $130M in 1999. In 2004, Goren spun-off BlueCube Software, an enterprise software company with solutions installed in over 25,000 sites. This company developed a unique online technology platform, web-based enterprise applications, and international hosting capabilities; technologies and services that are directly applicable to the development, deployment and service challenges of a massively multiplayer online game.
Christopher W. Klaus serves as Chief Executive Officer at Klaus Entertainment, Inc. (KEI). KEI is a leading Internet entertainment company providing a technology platform for gamers, artist, and studios for creating new interactive worlds. KEI is the gaming expert on Massive Multiplayer Online games, one of the newest and fastest growing parts of the overall gaming industry. KEI is headquartered in Atlanta, Ga.Mr. Klaus is also the founder and Chief Security Advisor for Internet Security Systems, Inc. (ISS). He created the company in 1994 to help organizations around the world safeguard critical data from the ever-growing number of network security vulnerabilities and threats.
Mr. Klaus has testified at several U.S. Senate and House of Representative Hearings on issues surrounding cyber security. Most recently, Mr. Klaus was selected to co-chair the Technical Standards and Common Criteria Task Force for the Department of Homeland Security National Cyber Security Summit. Technical Standards and Common Criteria is one of five private sector sponsored task forces to address specific cyber security issues within the President's National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace. The task forces are recommending metrics and action for implementation to the Department of Homeland Security.
Klaus is committed to growing the Atlanta high tech community through his involvement in groups such as: The Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Hands on Atlanta, the Technology Association of Georgia and The Georgia Tech Alumni Association.
Karen Lennon is CEO and Founder of Beyond Z Interactive Media with over 17 years of experience in diverse media, marketing, and business development initiatives including development of design, content and business strategies for interactive/advanced media platforms. Karen formed Beyond Z in April of 2000 and built the company to a leadership position in interactive television and cross-platform production services including User Interface, Information Architecture, and Application Development with an emphasis on gaming interactions. The company recently received the first Primetime Emmy ever awarded for technical excellence in Interactive Television for its work on the enhanced television production of Band of Brothers with HBO. Karen has taken her knowledge of next generation media and is developing branded entertainment strategies that leverage consumer trends in connected media devices. She has work with many blue-chip television and technology brands including HBO, The Scripps Networks, Worldspan, The Weather Channel, PBS, Metabyte, Starcom, and more.Prior to forming Beyond Z, Karen was Vice President, Next Generation Platforms for The Weather Channel, a top 12 cable network. In this position, she was responsible for the business and product direction for emerging interactive platforms. Prior to coming to The Weather Channel, Karen initiated the business to consumer strategy for online travel transaction processing at Worldspan. Today, Worldspan enjoys the majority share of online travel transactions by powering top travel sites including Expedia, Priceline, and Orbitz.
Karen is involved with many industry organizations including serving as Co-Chair of the Interactive Television Alliance, Executive Advisor at Large for the Atlanta Chapter of Women in Cable & Telecommunications, Member of the New Media Peer Group of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and Advisor to the American Film Institute. Karen completed her International Business undergraduate degree in three years in the Honors Program at the University of Georgia. She went on to scholarship graduate study in International Marketing at The Friederich Alexander Universitat in Germany, returning to the US to complete a Masters in Marketing at Georgia State University.
Ken Lightner Ken is the CTO and co-founder of Blue Heat Games. Ken Lightner has over 12 years of experience writing, designing, scheduling, and programming games. Originally, Ken helped found Holistic Design where he worked as a third party developer for leading publishers like Mindscape, Take Two Interactive, Red Storm, Microprose, and Segasoft. His numerous PC credits include Best Buy top ten selling Mall Tycoon, Final Liberation - Epic Warhammer 40K, Emperor of the Fading Suns, and strategy game of the year, Machiavelli the Prince. At Blue Heat Games, he works on most of the company's lineup including MLB Baseball 2004 and Sega Snowboarding. Ken also has credits in the paper game industry including the Noble Armada miniature game and the Real Life Roleplaying line at Holistic, which includes Colombia: d20. His fiction work appeared in the horror anthology, Book of All Flesh, by Eden Studios. Ken received his M.B.A. (4.0) from Georgia State University in 1996.
Clinton Lowe is Chief Executive Officer of C. Allen Lowe & Associates, Llc. Mr. Lowe is a Founder of the Georgia Game Developers' Association (GGDA), a Board Member of the International Game Developers' Association (IGDA) Atlanta Chapter Advisory Board, and a Member of the IGDA Task Force for Chapter Formalization. He is CEO of C. Allen Lowe & Associates, LLC and a Trustee on The James Calhoun Sanderson Trust Board of Trustees. Mr. Lowe is a consultant for World Touch Gaming, Inc., a manufacturer of video games for casinos. Previously, he co-founded Mergato Studios, a video game development studio that won 1st place in an international competition in August 2003. And, he co-founded Advanced Planning Systems, Inc., manufacturer of OptiPlan, a software tool for supply and demand forecasting and logistics planning.
Rick Sanchez is Vice President of Content for GameTap at Turner Broadcasting, overseeing content strategy and acquisition management for Turner Broadcasting's Broadband Entertainment Network - notably GameTap which launches to consumers in October.Most recently, Sanchez served as vice president of publishing at IGN Entertainment, Inc., the leading community-based Internet media and services company for video games. At IGN, Sanchez managed the day-to-day operations for IGN.com, RottenTomatoes.com, GameSpy.com, GameStats.com, the Planet network and the Vault Network, which draw a combined audience of more than 18 million monthly visitors. He also managed the organization's broadband group, developing original content and the delivery strategy.
Previously, Sanchez developed interactive content for Ultra Game Players and Next Generation magazines at Imagine Media. He was also a producer for the Freedom Forum's Newseum, developing interactive and video-based exhibits for the world's first interactive museum of news, which opened in Arlington, Va., in 1997. Sanchez's background also includes stints in television news as a videographer and editor.
Sanchez holds a bachelor of arts degree in English from Boise State University and a master of arts, film and video from The American University. He has been a regular contributor to many leading games and technology publications. His work has appeared in magazines and Web sites such as IGN.com, MacAddict, Maximum PC and PC Gamer.
GameTap, a TBS, Inc. entertainment network, provides subscribers an "all-you-can-play" gaming service on their PC's via broadband connection. To access GameTap, players securely download and install Turner-developed client software from www.gametap.com, the gateway to the GameTap vault. Because games reside securely on the PC, they act just as if they do on the console or at the arcade. GameTap supports navigation and game play using keyboard and mouse, as well as most USB peripherals.
Greg Torre is the Director of the GEORGIA FILM, VIDEO & MUSIC OFFICE. A division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, the office is charged with promoting the motion picture, television and recorded music industries in the state. The six-person office serves as a liaison between production and recording representatives, local film and tape community members and service companies. Recent made-in-Georgia features include Disney's SWEET HOME ALABAMA, Fox's DRUMLINE, Icon Entertainment's WE WERE SOLDIERS, Paramount's THE FIGHTING TEMPTATIONS, Touchstone Pictures' REMEMBER THE TITANS and the recently released BOBBY JONES-STROKE OF GENIUS and THE CLEARING.A seventeen-year veteran of the office, Torre joined the department in 1987 as a field representative/location scout. He served as Project Director and then Assistant Director before being named Director in February 1998. Torre oversees the division's efforts to advance Georgia as an on-location film site to local, national and international film, television and commercial companies as well as promote Georgia's recorded music industry. Before joining the state, he handled a variety of positions as a film industry freelancer in Georgia, South Carolina, Arkansas and New York on projects such as BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS, THE SLUGGER'S WIFE, CHIEFS and THE MOSQUITO COAST. Torre got his humble start in the industry as a set dresser on the cult-classic feature film SWAMP THING filmed in South Carolina in 1982.
Benn Konsynski is the George S. Craft Professor of Business Administration for Decision & Information Analysis at the Goizueta Business School. He arrived at GBS in 1993 following seven years on the faculty at the Harvard Business School. Prior to HBS, he was a professor at the University of Arizona, where he was co-founder of the university's multi-million dollar group decision support laboratory. He was named Baxter Research Fellow at Harvard Business School and Hewlett Fellow at the Carter Center in Atlanta. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Purdue University.