San Jose, CA - September 11, 2009 - Trip Hawkins, Chairman and CEO of Digital Chocolate and founder of Electronic Arts, will deliver a keynote address at Engage!® Expo's Virtual Goods Conference in San Jose on September 23, 2009. Hawkins will announce and explain a new game service that gives a virtual item "platform power" across a variety of games, networks and devices. "The game industry is undergoing an exciting period of disruption from innovative products," said Trip in advance of his planned announcement.

Engage! Expo is owned and operated by Engage Digital Media, a leading producer of trade events and media that focus on virtual worlds, user engagement and games. The Virtual Goods Conference takes place September 23-24 at the San Jose Convention Center.

Hawkins has been a new media pioneer for 30 years, having held a key role at Apple and founded EA and 3DO. The author of three patents, Trip introduced the use of celebrities and athletes in video games, and his design credits include award-winning best-sellers such as John Madden Football, Army Men, M.U.L.E., Doctor J and Larry Bird Go One on One, and High Heat Baseball. Join us at Engage! for an exclusive look at what is next.

Engage! Expo gives attendees an opportunity to learn from the top social marketers and social app developers. Sessions span all the major platforms and the latest marketing and monetization techniques. Trip is joined by more than 125 speakers that span major brands (Wal-Mart, Intel, Kodak, H&R Block) to major venture capital firms (Lightspeed, Redpoint Ventures) to social networking platforms and apps (Zynga, hi5 Networks, RockYou, SGN) to major virtual goods related companies (Habbo, Gaia, Viximo, Offerpal Media) and more, covering a variety of subject areas at Engage!  View the full schedule here and speakers here.

Additional Keynotes:

Critical Insight From A Venture Capital Point of View - Jeremy Liew, Managing Director, Lightspeed Venture Partners
Join us for critical insight from one of the leading venture capitalists in the space. Jeremy will discuss the current social media and virtual goods landscape, how the venture community views the marketplace and where trends are leading.

An Interview with Mark Pincus, Founder and CEO, Zynga
Zynga, founded in 2007, is the largest social gaming network, and marries his knowledge of social networks with his desire to create the next mass market video game phenomenon. Zynga has received $39 million in funding to date and has 32 million daily active users playing their online social games.

Implementing Best Buy's Social Media Strategy with Gina Debogovich, and Jason Parker of Best Buy Co, Inc.
Best Buy is leveraging social media across the entire corporation, rallying hundreds of employees across the country to engage with consumers online. Find out what's working and why in this broad social media deployment from the major retailer.

Tracks at Engage!

Virtual Goods Conference - Microtransactions have broad implications for businesses, including companies involved in the social networks, mobile industry, virtual worlds and games. Here we will lay out how to maximize virtual goods opportunities for your business. Hear from companies generating revenue from goods today:  Social Gaming Network, Gaia, Habbo and more.

Social Media Strategies - The social media track seeks to help businesses understand the best practices, current trends, and effective strategies of social media and user engagement. Hear from major brands including Wal-Mart, Intel, H&R Block and Kodak.  Plus, join us for experts on using games as marketing tools, building a Viral Metrics Infrastructure and The State of Social Media, Market Size and Key Trends and more.

Digital Law Conference - Here we provide a detailed examination of the legal and business issues raised by games, social media, virtual goods and virtual worlds and offers key insight into where the industry is headed and what the associated legal implications are. 7 credit hours of CLE accreditation has been applied for in MCLE states. More here.

3D Training, Learning and Collaboration - 3D virtual worlds have broad implications for business not the least of which is cost savings and energy conservation. This event will provide the information necessary for 3DLTC implementation in your organization. Speakers include experts from Johnson & Johnson, Cisco, Cornell University, ThinkBalm and more.

Registration Information

Online registration is open until Friday, September 18, 2009. Registration information, conference program and speaker information are available at http://www.engageexpo.com

About Engage Digital Media

Engage! Expo is owned and operated by Engage Digital Media. Engage Digital is a leading producer of trade events and media that focus on social media, virtual worlds, user engagement and games. Events include Engage! Expo, Engage! Expo San Jose, Digital Law Conference, Virtual Goods Conference, and 3D Training Learning and Collaboration (3DTLC) Conference. The company also publishes timely market research and leading industry news blogs www.VirtualWorldsNews.com and www.VirtualGoodsNews.com.  Engage! and Engage! Expo are trademarks of Engage Digital Media. More information can be found at www.EngageDigitalMedia.com. 

Contact:

Tim Williams
Sales and Marketing Director
tim @ engagedigital.com
512-289-8687