The 16th annual Games for Change (G4C) Festival will take place June 17 – 19, 2019. The Festival will feature the most exciting new games, ideas, partnerships and business models for digital games that drive positive social impact and inspire learning and engagement.

G4C invites individuals to propose session ideas that celebrate the past and explore the future for the games for change community. Accepted speakers will receive complimentary passes to the G4C Festival in New York City. There is no fee for submissions.

The festival is a platform for all voices and backgrounds, and provides an opportunity to celebrate and reinforce G4C’s core values: diverse perspectives, creative and progressive thinking, respectful dialogue, and collaboration across industries and sectors. As such, festival curators will strive to highlight the work and achievements from underrepresented communities.

This year, festival talks and panels will focus on four areas:

• Games for Learning Summit: Games for learning attract growing levels of investment and interest, but also face evolving challenges to long-term success. This track features diverse perspectives from developers and experts committed to helping learning games reach their full potential. Join us in exploring revolutionary models for distribution, sustainability and discoverability through inspirational talks, workshops and practical discussions.
• Health & Wellness: Seeking games, demos, talks or panels around interactive experiences that aim to improve our brains, bodies and public health in general. We’d like to explore the use of novel interfaces and effective use of games in disability assistance, improving cognitive skills, augmenting mindfullness, and more. Strong research and evaluation studies will have a priority in the review process.
• Civics & Social Impact: The ability of games and play to facilitate understanding and promote engagement with sociopolitical issues and lived experiences is more important than ever. This track highlights how games can bridge the gaps between different opinions and call for action in a time when rapid shifts in the political sphere demand that citizens come to grips with the complex systems that govern our lives.
• XR for Change Summit: The XR for Change Summit on June 17th is a full day dedicated to exploring how immersive technologies are used to address real-world challenges, create empathy and drive social change. The Summit will explore a range of ways augmented, virtual, and mixed realities can have meaningful impact in journalism, health, education, issue advocacy, training, and provide a new frontier for social research.

Submit your session proposal by January 21 using the G4C submission form.