New batch of GamesBeat@GDC speakers: Vanedge Capital, Raine Group, AdMob

Once again, we’d like to highlight more stellar speakers we lined up for our upcoming  GamesBeat@GDC executive game conference. The event is set for March 10 in San Francisco at the Game Developers Conference in the Moscone Convention Center. Today we’re announcing the following speakers have been added to our lineup:

Paul Lee, managing general partner at Vanedge Capital Partners. Lee will speak on our opening panel on The Best Disruptive Game Investment Opportunities for 2010 and Beyond. Lee’s Vanedge is a venture capital fund that will focus on opportunities in the interactive digital media space. He is the former president of Electronic Arts and was responsible for the worldwide studio group, managing more than 6,000 employees and $1 billion in annual capital and operating expenses in development studios.

From 1987 – 1989 Lee worked at Chrysler Canada as an Investment Manager for the pension fund and health and welfare benefit plans. He joined Distinctive Software as a principal in 1989, a game developer that was by Electronic Arts in 1991.  Lee currently serves as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council for the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, is a member of the Minister’s Steering Committee for the Vancouver International Financial Institutions Sector, and currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Vancouver Board of Trade.  He is Chair of the Board of Directors of DigiBC, a merger of New Media B.C. and WinBC. Lee is also Chair of the Board of Directors at D-Wave Systems, a company working to build the world’s first commercial quantum computer.

John Salter, partner at the Raine Group. Salter will also speak on the panel on game investments. He is responsible for Raine’s interactive and digital media practice. Prior to Raine, Salter was Global Head of Digital Media at UBS Investment Bank where he had worked for over eight years in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications Group in San Francisco. While at UBS, he worked on advisory and capital raising assignments for leading entertainment and digital companies including Activision Blizzard, Giant Interactive, Infogrames/Atari, Lionhead, Shanda Interactive, Square Enix and THQ, among others. Prior to UBS John worked in the Internet and New Media group at Volpe, Brown, Whelan & Co, a boutique investment bank based in San Francisco.

Aunkur Arya, Director of Business Development at AdMob. Arya will speak on our panel on a Sea of Mobile Devices. He is responsible for AdMob’s iPhone and Android publisher network in North America, with a focus on establishing new partnerships with developers. In this role, he works with the mobile app ecosystem to help developers leverage AdMob to create new revenue streams for their mobile business. Arya has spent the last 10 years creating, commercializing, and marketing innovative mobile and Internet products. Prior to AdMob, Aunkur managed strategic partnerships at July Systems (a mobile commerce platform provider) and partnered with operators and mobile game publishers to create new consumer-facing channels for selling mobile content. Previously, Aunkur has held positions at ComScore Networks and InfoSpace.

Here’s a review of our theme for the conference:

Disruption 2.0. We’ll focus on the next disruptions that will happen in the video game industry. In the past couple of years, social games with virtual goods business models have proved themselves and shaken up the status quo. The iPhone has become a hot platform, and Apple hopes to extend further into games with the iPad. Digital distribution and online games are growing. Will these trends gather more momentum and prove to be sustainable, or will new platforms and business models disrupt the disruptors?

The big game companies and brands are maneuvering into the market, even as successful startups are consolidating their gains and acquiring companies. Are console game makers poised to make a comeback as the recession ends? As growth returns to the industry in 2010, who will be poised to take market share and define the next-generation of games? Game companies that are doing the disrupting, adapting and growing will be speaking at the conference.

Who’s Got Game contest: Our deadline is fast-approaching for the contest for best game startup. We’ll close off applications for the contest at the end of the day, 5 pm Pacific time, on Friday, Feb. 26, so get your entry forms filled out. The top finalists will appear on stage at GamesBeat@GDC before a panel of expert judges. Those judges will select the winner.

For more conference info, check out our GamesBeat 2010 web site and our Facebook Group for GamesBeat@GDC. Our sponsors include the Georgia Department of Economic Development, PlaySpan, AdMob, and hi5.