Speakers

CHRIS AVELLONE
Creative Lead & Co-Owner, Obsidian Entertainment
Chris started his escape from reality by freelancing for a number of pen and paper role-playing game companies in high school before Interplay foolishly hired him as a game designer in 1996. He worked on most if not all of Black Isle’s internally developed projects, including Planescape: Torment (Lead Designer), Fallout 2, the whole Icewind Dale series, and Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, and a number of canceled titles that still make him weep, including Baldur’s Gate 3 and Fallout 3.
Chris was the Lead Designer on Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, moved on to a Senior Design role on Neverwinter Nights 2 and Mask of the Betrayer, worked briefly as the Creative Lead of the Aliens RPG, and then went back to lead design on Alpha Protocol, Obsidian's espionage RPG. He is reported to be non-toxic, and occasionally friendly to others.

DAVID GAIDER
Lead Writer, Bioware
Since 1999 David Gaider has been working as a writer for premier video game developer BioWare, and is a key contributor to creating “the BioWare way” of writing: epic player-based stories, meaningful choices with deep consequences and emotional impact, engaging dialogue, and unique characters.
He has worked on such RPG titles as Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn, Neverwinter Nights and Knights of the Old Republic, for which he was a co-winner of the Game Developer's Choice award for writing in 2004.
Currently he is the lead writer for the upcoming Dragon Age: Origins, due out in the second half of 2009, and became a published author in March of 2009 with the release of the novel “Dragon Age: the Stolen Throne”.

DARREN MACBETH
Managing Director, Sega Australia and New Zealand
Darren Macbeth has worked in the video games industry in Australia for over 15 years. He has worked in various sales and marketing roles with Electronic Arts and GT Interactive and in that time worked with Australian developers to launch EA Sports ARL, EA Sports Cricket and also KKND. He was Managing Director of Ubisoft Australia and New Zealand for 7 years and now is the Managing Director for SEGA Australia and New Zealand, re launching SEGA in the region in 2007. He has been on the Executive committee of the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia for over 4 years.
Darren holds a Masters of Commerce degree from the University of New South Wales in Marketing and Organisational Behaviour.

ANTONY I. GINNANE
President, Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) and President, IFM Films
Antony I. Ginnane is a 38 year veteran of the film and television industry. Since 1970 Ginnane has produced, co-produced and executive produced 60 feature films, TV movies and mini series in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Canada, the Philippines and Eastern Europe including classics such as Patrick, High Tide and The Lighthorsemen, and more recently Screamers, Look @ Me, Ten Dead Men and Screamers 2: The Hunting.
He is currently President of SPAA (Screen Producers Association of Australia), a member of the Producers Guild of America and BAFTA Los Angeles and served on the Board of IFTA from 2004-2008. He is a member of IFTA’s TV, Legal and Export Alliance sub-committees. He has written numerous articles on the motion picture industry and served on many panels relating to film financing, distribution and co-production. His memoir “Reel Life Real Life – Some Scenes Objectionable” is due for publication in 2009. Ginnane is co-founder of SPAA’s digital film festival, DigiSPAA, now in its fifth year.