Last week saw the official launch of the Inspirefest 2017 Programme in Grand Canal Square, with an array of speakers announced from as far afield as Silicon Valley, New York, the UK, France, Australia and Africa. Gamedevelopers.ie popped along to see what was happening.

Themes this year will vary from Blockchain, Fintech and Medtech, to Infosecurity, A.I., Robotics, and Games as well the Future of Work and STEM pedagogy for a new landscape.

Games – so what might be involved here?.

We know last year Brenda Romero spoke – see her talk here –

 

In fact this year Brenda is back but she is joined in a panel by Rhianna Pratchett, lead writer, Tomb Raider and Eimear Noone, composer and conductor, World of Warcraft. Since she spoke last year of course Brenda has become a BAFTA award winner for her contributions to the games industry and games education.

In non games related talks – Inspirefest will welcome over 50 speakers from 15 countries on July 6th and 7th, with keynote speakers including the President and CTO of Nokia Bell Labs, Marcus Weldon; Silicon Valley icon and venture capital partner Ellen Pao; Games leader, Rhianna Pratchett of Tomb Raider fame; the head of the US National Science Foundation, Dr France Córdova; and Chief Strategy Officer for Accenture, Omar Abbosh.

Another intriguing inclusion will see Other Voices founder Philip King teaming up with engineers from Nokia Bell Labs to create a special performance to close the first day of the conference at the Bord gais Energy Theatre, while Ana Matronic of Scissor Sisters fame will offer her unique view on Robotics.

Inspirefest 2017 will take place from July 6th – 8th 2017, in the Dublin docklands. This unique international conference and festival of technology, science, design and the arts, has diversity and inclusion at its core.

In its third year, each evening the event will be topped off with a Fringe festival of banter, music and culture, hosted in Facebook (Thurs) and Airbnb (Fri), while the popular Family Fringe event returns on Saturday July 8 with exhibitions and workshops from Space exploration to coding and a mini Dublin Maker, at The Dock, Accenture’s multi-disciplinary research and incubation hub at 7 Hanover Quay.

gamedevelopers.ie is also happy to collaborate once again in the fringe event and will be working with partners to run a family friendly games unplugged event which this year will take place in Grand Canal Dock on Sat 8th of July. More soon at http://inspirefest.com/fringe/

*** NO REPRODUCTION FEE *** DUBLIN : 26/5/2017 : Inspirefest 2017 Programme Officially Launches in Dublin’s Grand Canal Square. Last night saw the official launch of the Inspirefest 2017 Programme in Grand Canal Square, with an array of speakers announced from as far afield as Silicon Valley, New York, the UK, France, Australia and Africa. Themes this year will vary from Blockchain, Fintech and Medtech, to Infosecurity, A.I., Robotics, and Games as well the Future of Work and STEM pedagogy for a new landscape. Inspirefest will welcome over 50 speakers from 15 countries on July 6th and 7th, with keynote speakers including the President and CTO of Nokia Bell Labs, Marcus Weldon; Silicon Valley icon and venture capital partner Ellen Pao; Games leader, Rhianna Pratchett of Tomb Raider fame; the head of the US National Science Foundation, Dr France Córdova; and Global Strategy Officer for Accenture, Omar Abbosh. Again this year, the collision of technology and the arts will also be tackled with Other Voices founder Philip King teaming up with engineers from Nokia Bell Labs to create a special performance to close the first day of the conference at the Bord gais Energy Theatre, while Ana Matronic of Scissor Sisters fame will offer her unique view on Robotics. Some 3,000 people are expected over three days, and headline sponsors this year are Accenture and Bank of Ireland, with other organisations involved including Facebook, Dropbox, Intel, Nokia Bell Labs, Deutsche Bank, IDA, EI, SFI, IRC and Dublin City University. Pictured at the launch of Inspirefest 2017 Programme were Michelle Cullen, Managing Director and Head of Diversity at Accenture, Ann O’Dea, Founder of Inspirefest and David Tighe, Head of Innovation at Bank of Ireland. Picture Conor McCabe Photography. MEDIA CONTACT : john@mkc.ie

Pictured at the launch of Inspirefest 2017 Programme were Michelle Cullen, Managing Director and Head of Diversity at Accenture, Ann O’Dea, Founder of Inspirefest and David Tighe, Head of Innovation at Bank of Ireland. Picture Conor McCabe

There are a number of ways to get involved:

Buy a ticket (early bird ends May 31st!)  – http://inspirefest.com/#tickets

Volunteer – http://inspirefest.com/volunteer-application-form/

Are you researching a technology related topic currently? Enter the research communication competition – deadline 2nd of June – https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/researchfest-2017-deadline-extended