This comes after last year’s conference cancellation — which prompted a half-day miniconference during Develop in Brighton. This year’s conference will focus on career development for women in Europe’s games industry, who are fairly rare — one in 15 people in the industry there are women.

“This year’s Women In Games Conference is aimed at both women in games education and women with firmly established careers in games development and games publishing across Europe,” said David Smith, the founder of WIGJ. “[This event is] a ‘must attend’ event for women seeking to progress their careers in the male dominated games sector.”

WIGJ have also announced their Advisory Board members, listed here in alphabetical order:

Ali Bergstrom-Allen, Production Lead, Sony Computer Entertainment;
Barbara Bernad, Lead Animator, Maverick Media;
Alison Cressey, Open Sauce Marketing  and former European MD, Activision;
Geraldine Cross, HR Manager, Blitz Games;
Jo Goodson, Jo Wood Consultants and former European MD, Broderbund;
Helen Kennedy, University of the West of England and Women in Games;
Clare Maddalena, Maddalena Consulting;
Louise Murray, Head of Fable Franchise, Microsoft Lionhead;
David Smith, Founder, WIGJ;
Fiona Sperry, Studio Director and VP, EA Criterion Games
Giselle Stewart, General Manager, Ubisoft Reflections.

Additional announcements will confirm the speaker lineup as well as the venue.

Morning session:
In the morning session the real standouts were Maria Shriver and Michelle Obama. Maria took the opportunity to reflect on the past 7 conferences. She spoke of her family and the fact that she doesn’t know what will come next. As Arnold’s term comes to end in California, Maria says she feels unsure as to what is coming but is just going to relax and let things happen.

Michelle Obama took the opportunity to talk about community and women helping each other in terms of military families. She spoke of the struggles wives have in terms of continuing education, helping the family adjust during moves and trying to find jobs.

What happens when Women Lead:
This panel started out very low for the volume and so I have more fragmented thoughts from it rather than a real Q&A session. While things are tough in Silicon Valley for women, if an idea is fantastic it doesn’t matter what your gender is. Although there has been recent discussions on TechCrunch about whether or not women do have it difficult in Silicon Valley or if it’s a matter of lack of interest. The most recent Women in Tech panel, turned into a fight instead of anything constructive. The jockeying for position is a major problem in companies and will only stop when there is a more even distribution of genders and races.

Work Life balance always comes up at a women in business talk and this one is no different. This time, however this talk led to solutions. Make sure when you are with family and friends that you are engaged with them. That means put the crackberry down and get off of twitter. Okay maybe you’re allowed to tweet that you are with friends.

Another great piece of advice is to sit with your family and discuss what events you can attend. That way everyone is aware and you have managed expectations. You have to take control of your career and make sure that you tell companies what is important and works for you in term of work life balance.

For the emotional, don’t fret, you can still be a leader. Be a human being as a leader, but remember that problems are just that and are not emotional. Part of leadership is that you don’t wear your emotions on your sleeve. It was suggested that women should act more in business and sometimes that means acting confident even when you aren’t. Which is something I have to do often in my role as CEO of GamingAngels. I get shy, and nervous and then I have to kick my butt in gear and make myself get out there.

Lunch session
Disney Television co-chair Anne Sweeney states that the conference is about finding ways to constantly move forward. Not about empowering but that all of us have the power already and the conference helps us find that. Diane Sawyer leads the talk which is a conversation with The Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg and The Honorable Sandra Day O’Connor. “Every bird flies faster together than they do alone.” Ruth Bader Ginsburg pointed out that women shouldn’t react in anger particularly when a sexist comment is made. React with intellect. Sandra Day O’Conner said to say when you need to say and then shut up.

Eve Ensler gets to the mic to talk about the gift of cancer. She was just here a year ago full of life and performing and this year she arrived with no hair and talking of her illness. Cancer forced Eve to take in love and be cared for and that she now lives with death as a companion. Point that we idolize people that take our money instead of people that serve.

Very interesting talk with Meg Whitman, Jerry Brown and Arnold Schwarzenegger about election and the position of governor. Meg, “the price on inaction is far greater than the price of making a mistake”. Jerry Brown states that everyone knows too much about him. Schwarzenegger did agree with Meg about the state that schools are in. Matt Lauer is taking both of them to the task by asking them both to pledge to get rid of negative ads off the air. To enable some time before the election to have no negativity. Not sure that that should be a focused topic when California is in such dire straits.

In the end, the Women’s Conference provided another great event for women to gather, network and be inspired. I wish that there was a stronger tech presence and that the business discussion was not limited to stories but to talks that encourage action. Business discussions that begin with VCs, maybe host a pitching session. I was very disappointed to hear from the Business session host, that women just needed to start to sell. Instead of really work on their business and protect their brand/IP. No one knows what will happen to the Women’s Conference next year, but these past few years, GamingAngels has covered the Conference and it’s been an honor. Now to get to work on my book, so I can speak at the event next year.

Watch videos from the Women’s Conference here.

One of the most moving parts of the Women’s Conference was the speech from Eve Ensler. Eve created and is known for her work on the Vagina Monologues and also is very active in her work to end violence against women and girls. Just last year Eve was at the Women’s Conference with a cute bob and her normal lively fire. It was shocking to see that in just a year, Eve had found out and been treated for Cancer. Her speech below reminds us all that life is precious and that the fight still goes on. She is now cancer free and I hope that she remains cancer free and continues her work. I felt her inspiring words should go in Angel life because it’s not just a piece on the conference but a piece about life.

Please enjoy and pass on:
The Gift of Cancer
By Eve Ensler

I gave this speech on Tuesday, October 26 at The Women’s Conference in Long Beach, CA.

It happens like this
The doctor walks towards me
His face is ashen
He says we have found something
It does not look good
There is a trap door in the seat of the waiting room
And I am falling
And as I fall I hear
The echo of him saying
Cat scan
As big as a mango
We can’t be sure
This falling goes on for days
Even though I appear to be walking
And giving speeches and riding on airplanes
I am falling
As the new doctor at the new hospital
says it
says CANCER
As I wait to hear where it’s coming from
And where it’s gone
As I get pricked and probed and punctured
I am falling
As they first say it is not in my liver
And then later they can’t be sure
Falling
Until they drug me and wheel me off
For nine hours
And when I wake up
I am in a new country
Nothing is familiar
Because the possibility of not dying
Is gone
Because I am now living in the land of the sick
Turns out my being a vegetarian-sober-nonsmoker-activist has not protected me at all

The surgeon tells me he has done 1,000 operations and he has never seen anything like it
Then he uses the word fistula
And uterus

First thing I think of course is
Congo
I knew from the first time I went to Panzi hospital in Bukavu
I stood in the place that felt like an open barn
In the place where 200 women sat on benches
Their wounded heads
Their canes
Their sweat
The strong smell of pee and shit from their fistulae
From the holes their rapist pierced into their bodies, tearing them apart
I knew from that first moment
When I looked into their faces
And saw the crimes of this century burning in their eyes
500,000 raped women
500,000 vaginas violated
500,000 bodies massacred
500,000 wombs destroyed
I had no way to protect myself
From the hugeness of the atrocity
From the insanity of this disgrace
It rolled over me like a tsunami of pain and took me
Took me took me
I have never come back
And I never will
And I knew those women now owned me
Have me
There is no other place I could ever be
No other fight that is not this fight
It’s in your uterus
The tumor of rape
That is wild across the world
The tumor of rape
That exchanges women’s bodies for the price of a cell phone
Or gold or diamonds
Or anything that can be extracted and stolen from their land

The tumor of rape that began growing in me when I was only five and now has matured into something the size of a mango
That’s what the doctor said
Which of course is the fruit of the Congo
The most delicious in the world

The women of Congo are in my body
First gift I realize — I am not alone
I have imagined what it feels like to lose your uterus or your ovaries
And inside the emptiness of my missing womb
There is space
There is a hunger
To just be still
Cancer stopped me
From running
Striving
Trying to prove my worth
It stopped me
From apologizing for the truth

It made me stay in one place
For 6 months
It brought me back my sister
It allowed me to commune with my friends
It forced me to take in love
And be cared for, which made me human
It took away the privilege of the well
And made me a patient
It taught me a new kind of pain
And now I see even more clearly the sick, the poor, the raped and the oppressed and I know we are family
And the majority
And that what divides us is illusion
Created by our refusal to feel
Maintained and manipulated by those in power
And I know I almost died and that it was only a couple of inches
And a few months that kept me here
And I now live with death as my companion
And sometimes she scares me and sometimes
she comforts me
But mainly she inspires me to be braver
And I no longer have any desire to be invincible
Because it isn’t possible
Or accurate
I am vulnerable and porous
And outraged and crazy-happy and alive
And I know what care is
And what it isn’t
How someone can stick you with a needle
And never see you
Or they can stick you and take the time so it doesn’t hurt
And I fell in love with nurses
And I know that everything is ass-backwards
That we idolize people who steal our money and own everything, rather than those who get paid very little
To serve

And I know that chemo can be a metaphor
As well as a physical treatment
And that the poison is not meant for me
But the cancer
The perpetrators
The rapists
And it’s okay to imagine them dead, mutilated and destroyed
Because we need an outlet for our rage
I know that after I was battered for years by my father and raped by him I held his badness, as if it were my own
And that the surgery finally removed it
And the chemo burned it off
And I know that no one will ever again
Convince me I am bad
Nor will I tolerate being undermined
And undone
I know that the abscess that grew around my wound
After the operation
The 16 ounces of puss
Became the contaminated Gulf of Mexico
And the catheters they shoved into me without proper medication made me scream the way the earth cries out from the drilling

I know that everything is connected
And the scar that runs the length of my torso is the markings of an earthquake
And I am there with the 3 million
Who are living in the streets of Port au Prince
And the fire that burns in me on day 3 through 6 of treatment is the fire that is burning the forests of so much of the world

Cancer made it clear
That time is short

And we must decide
If we devote ourselves to wrestling power inside the crumbling walls of patriarchy
or
If we are ready and brave enough to build the new world

And after searching for so many years to figure out what we are doing here
I finally get that we are being alive
Alive
Alive
And there must be time to linger
And time to enjoy
And time to remember
And time for nothing
And everything is precious
The Indian sari curtains glittering in late summer sun
The man petting his ugly dog in the park
The morning fog
The coconut popsicle

And I know that avoiding suffering is impossible

Stop defending against what is being done
Stop pretending you don’t see the ragged man with his arm outstretched
Or hearing the cries of the earth being slaughtered
Or rationalizing the immoral war being fought in your name
Or finding ways to let famous rapists off the hook
Stop spending 900 billion dollars on unjust wars
While 30 million Americans are unemployed
Or justifying one genocide by another
Or burying your own story because you think you can’t bear how much it hurts

Dying is the only way of being born

My cancer is blessedly gone now
My hair is growing back
I have a scar
A warrior track that runs down
My 57-year-old body
Each time I look at it I am reminded that I was opened up in order to remove the darkness
I was laid bare in order to be free of the pain
I surrendered in order to find my power
Each time I see my scar
I am reminded that I was lucky
That I had insurance
That I could afford the most extraordinary and loving surgeons and doctors
That I was surrounded by an embarrassment of love and friends and family who bought me soup and presents
And rubbed my feet and made me eggs at 6 in the morning when I was ready to throw up
I am reminded that I mattered
And because of that I recovered
I know that every single person deserves this attention
Every single person
And so my scar has become a permanent tattoo
Calling for inclusion and joy

I know that what truly kept me alive is the women of Congo
Whenever I grew despondent
Or sorry for myself
I would think of the women and girls
Who still dance after 6 million
Of their brothers and sisters have perished from the earth

Who still dance even after the international power elite has forsaken them for 13 years
Who dance now knowing that V-Day’s City of Joy will open February 4th
And they will have their place, their fields
Their village to turn their pain to power
And become leaders in their world

How blessed I am to be forever linked with their destiny
I could not die
Simply until they were safe and free and running things

I bow to the women of Congo and thank them for saving my life

Originally published Huffingtonpost

Jones New York is here at the Women’s Conference and they announced the “Empowering your Confidence” messaging. The campaign launched in September and the ambassador is former White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers.

The Empowering your Confidence campaign is created to impact all aspects of the working woman’s life.

Maria Shriver, Chair of The Women’s Conference, said, “We are proud to partner with organizations that support women’s empowerment and look forward to having Jones New York at 2010 The Women’s Conference.”

Stacy Lastrina, Chief Marketing Officer of The Jones Group, said: “Jones New York has been dressing women for success for four decades; the empowerment campaign is all about celebrating our heritage. From her first suit to her first promotion, from graduation to the board room, we have been there helping women achieve their goals both in and outside of the office, and that continues to be our driving purpose. The Women’s Conference is the perfect partner to help us amplify this message, and we are proud to be a part of their ongoing activities to help empower women. ”

Jones New York will be hosting special events for book signings and fashion shows. Make sure to visit the Empowering your Confidence website to learn tips and apply for grants.

Tonight is the third Women’s Conference Night at the Village. GamingAngels has been at all three. During this night, there are inspirational talks on Mind & Body, Hot topics, and an area where all the book writers autograph their books.

This year Maria Shriver walked around the event quite a bit. The Night at the Village, not only has talks, but features various companies. From vendors to informational booths, thousands of women come to Night at the Village to shop, talk and network.

This year’s event was full of amazing events. I came back with two bags of goodies and plenty of information to pass on to you, wonderful readers. But for now, because I have to sleep, you get the best five moments of the day:

• Purchasing the Computer Engineer Barbie – Every year Mattel brings Barbies to sell at the Women’s Conference. This year they celebrated the career choices picked out by an online audience. Computer Engineer Barbie was one of the careers that won. As a Mattel employee informed me, it’s because of women like our readers that voted, we out-voted what young girls wanted which was a News Anchor. The News Anchor was picked next. While our voting had an impact, I would like to think that the impact is to help show young girls that being a computer engineer is cool and that Barbie would consider it for a career.
• Breasts - Breasts are very important at a Women’s conference because we all have them. Information was everywhere ranging from volunteer efforts, fundraising, and detection. I learned about a new ultrasound for women that have dense breasts. Another tip is to get your size measured. I found out that I’m wearing a number size too big and not big enough on the cup size.
• SeaSnax - This is an amazing snack that I’m hoping will replace my craving for chips. It’s a lightly roasted and seasoned piece of seaweed that tastes very much like a chip! The best part is that it’s low in calories! The Calories per snack serving is 16 calories with 40mg sodium.
• Kodak – Kodak is here at the Women’s Conference showing awesome new printing technology. Coming this December, on specific Kodak frames, there is a barcode that you can scan at any Kodak printing station. You know the frames that have different shapes in different spots? The ones that are hard to ever line up your pictures or keep them there. By scanning the barcode, the computer knows what frame you have and then places your pictures in the correct place. You can then re-arrange pictures, but they will always lock in place. It then prints as one sheet and you have a perfectly framed printout! I am super impressed with this technology and can’t wait to use it for my wedding photos.
• Meghan McCain- Meghan McCain was the only speaker I sat in on and she was a pleasure to listen to. Meghan has strong opinions and is not scared to not only voice them but encourage other women to use their voice as well. Meghan stated that women have to stop attacking each other. Which is something we talk about here at GA. We are in contact with her PR and hope to have an interview with Meghan on GamingAngels soon!
• Harmonix and Microsoft- Nintendo may be absent from the conference this year, but Microsoft is here with Kinect and Dance Central! They have a booth and all night women here lining up to eagerly try out the dance game. I spoke to Microsoft reps about being here and they are very excited to show off the Kinect technology to the women here. Welcome Microsoft and I hope you continue to support the event!

That was the Night at the Village. See you tomorrow at the Women’s Conference!

GamingAngels has been a part of the Women’s Conference for the last couple of years. We have been honored to cover the conference and interview the speakers. It’s incredibly humbling and inspirational to attend this event. You will be filled with the most amazing feeling of sisterhood.

This year’s Women’s Conference goes on sale tomorrow (Wednesday, June 23) at 9am PT. This year will feature more than 140 speakers and span over three days. The event starts on Sunday, October 24 – Tuesday, October 26. The lineup includes:

Laila Ali, Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz, Martha Beck, Mary J. Blige, Erin Brockovich, Campbell Brown, Deepak Chopra, Rosario Dawson, Paula Deen, Giada De Laurentiis, Linda Ellerbee, Giselle Fernandez, Sally Field, Jane Fonda, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Gregory, Arianna Huffington, Women for Hire CEO Tory Johnson, Donna Karan, Billie Jean King, New York Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof, Matt Lauer, Omega Institute Co-Founder Elizabeth Lesser, Journalists Laura Ling and Lisa Ling, Jillian Michaels, Former Chairman & CEO, Xerox Corporation Anne Mulcahy, The Honorable Sandra Day O’Connor, Poet Mary Oliver, Suze Orman,Dr. Mehmet Oz, Robert Redford, Tony Robbins, Deborah Roberts, Al Roker, Diane Sawyer, The Episcopal Church’s Presiding Bishop and Primate The Most Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Howard Schultz, Maria Elena Salinas, Jessica Simpson, Anna Deavere Smith, Co-Chair, Disney Media Networks, President, Disney/ABC Television Group Anne Sweeney, “The Cake Boss” Buddy Valastro, Kerry Washington, Ali Wentworth and Oprah Winfrey.

“I am honored to again be hosting what has become the nation’s premier forum for women,” said Shriver. “With this year’s theme of ‘It’s Time,’ we are hoping The Women’s Conference inspires women to see this challenging moment in history as an opportunity to come together and transform ourselves, our communities and our world as Architects of Change.”

Sunday, October 24 is a March on Alzheimer’s and a Night at the Theater event. On Monday, October 25 is a Day of Health, Wellness and Transformation with the Night at the Village starting at 4pm.

On Tuesday, October 26, the Main event takes place all day. The theme is “It’s Time…To Be an Architect of Change”.

Some of the sample breakout conversations are:
· Diane Sawyer will moderate a “once-in-a-lifetime conversation” between The Honorable Sandra Day O’Connor and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg;

· A “kitchen table conversation” between Matt Lauer and Arnold Schwarzenegger where the Governor will reflect on lessons learned from his seven years in office and discuss what’s next;

· Dr. Oz and Lisa Oz will moderate a conversation titled “It’s Time to Talk About Marriage and Relationships: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly” between Al Roker & Deborah Roberts and Hal Rubenstein & David Nickle;

· Campbell Brown will moderate a conversation titled “It’s Time to Talk to Women Who Know Firsthand What It Takes to Lead” between Carol Bartz, Anne Mulcahy, The Most Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori and Anne Sweeney; and

Tickets are available at WomensConference.org website tomorrow at 9am PT. They will sell out, so please visit tonight and determine what tickets you may want. Trust me, if you can attend this event, you should definitely go.

This is my second year covering one of the most inspiring conventions I attend, the Women’s Conference in Long Beach, CA. Maria Shriver has used her time as First Lady to create an event that not only makes an impact on individuals, but has made an impact economically and socially. As part of the Women’s Conference, Maria Shriver has created the WE (describe We program briefly) and the Minverva awards, recognizing women that have (explanation) . The event is a two-day event with an added Day of Transformation this year.

The Day of Transformation is a full day conference to help women learn skills to be a business leader in their community. The night event, Night at the Village, has speakers covering the following topics, cooking, mind, body & soul, and author interviews. The floor has various businesses reaching out to women. Everything from (wine company) who sells bottles of wine to raise money to purchase wigs for chemotherapy-treated women to Wii Fit Plus. That’s right, Nintendo is back for their second year at the Women’s Conference. Instead of showcasing all their holiday titles, Nintendo brought over Wii Fit Plus. It was great and entertaining to see women attempt the new exercises, having fun with their girlfriends trying out a new game.

The talks I did see at the Night at the Village event were Kate Gosselin, from Jon & Kate plus 8, and Cheryl Saban, Ph.D., writer of What’s your Self Worth. Kate did not allow anyone to take pictures as she spoke about her latest book, which is a scrapbook with scripture that she made for her kids. She did state that she has a cookbook in the works as well as a sequel to Multiple Blessings.

Cheryl Saban, PH.D., seemed to not have alot of time to talk. Her friend, Arianna Huffington moderated the post but spoke so much that Cheryl could hardly get a word in. One of the things Cheryl did point out was that women tend to think if we do good enough than we’ll get rewards. But she was quick to point out that we need to be negotiators and go after those rewards ourselves. I will have a review of Cheryl Saban’s book, “What is self-worth?”, up later this week.

I was disappointed in two things that night. The first was that the one author I stood in line to get an autograph from (I just bought her book at the event) never showed. Claire Shipman author of Womenomics, left 10 of us waiting for over thirty minutes before we got word that she wasn’t going to show.

The other disappointment was the lack of technology or addressing technology at the event. Not a single showcased author had a focus on tech or the web. All that was available was the stereotypical self-esteem, makeup and cooking. Like that’s all women are expected to enjoy. I was sorely disappointed to see a lack of any booths from tech companies. Momology was the only website. Windows could have had a Windows 7 or Bing booth. Last year Apple attended but did not renew that support this year.

The second day of the Women’s Conference got off to an early start! 5am to be exact. Media was told to check in by 7am, in order to guarantee press spots for interviews. By 8am the Women’s Conference was kicking off with the National Anthem and Paula Zahn speaking. I missed most of that because I was on the purple carpet, getting interviews. The interview system was new to me this year and I have to say that it was the best part of the event. The next article will showcase the interviews but they were all good and insightful. I loved that the staff was very helpful, letting us know when someone was about to arrive and I think overall they did a great job. Unfortunately, toward the end of the day people just stopped coming by and it seemed that the people in charge had little they could do. Maria Shriver was rumored to come down the purple carpet three times and in the end never showed up. Much of the news media left by 5pm due to the slowdown in interviews. Again, I don’t believe this was the convention organizer’s fault, but hopefully that will be improved on for next year.

Unfortunately for us, media did not get to attend the breakout sessions. Two of the sessions would have been specifically useful to us: Changing the World through the Web and Women in Power: What happens when Women run things. Both of those sounded astounding and had a great lineup. But instead we watched on stream two other sessions: Women who use their Voices to change the World and Once-in-a-Lifetime Conversation (with Dr. Jane Goodall). Both of which were actually pretty good. Just not ones I would have attended.

Here is a quick abstract of things said that are inspiring and useful.

Robin Roberts – “Our path our journey is a series of decisions that we make for ourselves. The more you use it, the stronger you become. Make a decision! Get in the habit of making those choices. “

Sir Richard Branson brought up the idea that companies need to be more flexible to people’s lives and when asked for advice for women wanting to start their own business said, “You’ve got to screw it and just do it. “

Madeline Albright: “Women provide a great deal of the wealth and economic well being. People depend on women power. society is better off if women are economically and politically powered. ”

Katie Curic: “I love the smell of estrogen in the afternoon.”

Maria Shriver did mention one more year of the Women’s Conference. 25,000 women gather together for an incredibly two day event which showcased some of the most amazing women of today. I would recommend watching the Women’s Conference website for when tickets for next year go on sale. This is an event no woman should miss.

Here are pictures I took at the event: