Game design pioneer is keynoter at RIT Entrepreneurs Conference Friday

Elan Lee, one of the pioneers of alternate reality game design, will deliver the keynote address at the 2009 RIT Entrepreneurs Conference, scheduled during RIT’s Brick City Homecoming weekend on Friday.

Lee is an advisor to the Picture the Impossible alternate reality game going on now and developed by the Democrat and Chronicle and Rochester Institute of Technology. He has pioneered breakthroughs in the area of entertainment and immersive gaming. He started his career at the Microsoft Game Studio as lead designer for the X-Box launch portfolio.

The co-founder of 42 Entertainment and founder of Fourth Wall Studios will deliver his remarks from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in RIT’s B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences Auditorium.

Participants are invited to a 7:30 a.m. continental breakfast in the Golisano College, followed by concurrent sessions/panels from 9:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. in the Golisano College and the Louise M. Slaughter Building.

A sampling of sessions include: Commercializing Technology, Opportunities in Social Media and What Does it Take to Start a Business, to Entrepreneurship in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Communities.

“Innovative products and services are important, but our conference will help people understand how to create businesses from these innovation products and services,” says Richard DeMartino, associate professor of management in RIT’s E. Philip Saunders College of Business and director of the Albert J. Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

The conference is open to the public, and the cost including a boxed lunch is $75 ($25 for RIT alumni). The event is free for RIT students, faculty and staff—with a lunch fee ranging from $7 to $10. Spaces are limited; online registration is available at http://simonecenter.rit.edu, or call Donna Slavin at (585) 475-2199.