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Keynotes and Special Events

A brunette woman with bobbed hair holds a game controller out to the camera. she stands in front of a video game style backdrop in shades of purple and blue. The implication is that she is inviting the viewer to take on the role of "player" in the world she inhabits.

Care to Play?: Gaming with Heart and Designing for Compassion

Tuesday, October 13 9:30am - 10:30am
Presented by Dr. Karen (Kat) Schrier

Games show us what kinds of worlds are possible. Are they filled with toxicity, cruelty, and hate, or do they embed support, healing, and care? Drawing from her latest books, NSF research, and UNICEF project on safety in games, Dr. Kat Schrier explores how care might (or might not) be embedded in a game’s rules, mechanics, interfaces, communities, and systems. Through examples of harmful, healing, and transformative play, she will explore the often-invisible design decisions that shape belonging, identity, safety, and connection. We will question how games might be designed to be more caring communities, but also how they might show us how to create a more compassionate world.

Bio

Dr. Karen (Kat) Schrier is Full Professor and Founding Director of the Games & Emerging Media program at Marist University. She is an expert in games, ethics, empathy, and learning, leads the Play Innovation Lab, is working on an NSF grant on ethical AI game creation, and recently completed a Fulbright in Tunisia. Schrier has over 25 years of experience in games, and has worked with organizations like Scholastic, Nickelodeon, BrainPOP, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization (WHO). Dr. Schrier is the founder of PlatyPlay, LLC, and Chief Learning Officer of Dream Interaction Design. See more at: https://www.karenschrier.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/katschrier/.

Matt Chilbert, left, and Kelsey Derringer, right, face the camera. They are both white adults with dark hair. in front of them are two small robot figures.

CodeJoy: Reimagining Educational Media for the Modern American Classroom

Wednesday, October 14, 2026 10:00am - 11:00am
Presented by Kelsey Derringer and Matt Chilbert

From Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood to Sesame Street, classic educational broadcasting proved it's ability to support play as a child’s most serious work—a gentle, high-rigor space where iteration and emotional safety go hand-in-hand. Yet in today’s American classrooms, high-stakes testing and institutional constraints have increasingly squeezed play out of the schedule, leaving low-income and underserved kids with the least permission to experiment, mess up, and explore. Educational media cannot remain a passive window; it must evolve to meet the needs of today's kids and teachers. In this interactive, live, hybrid-broadcast keynote, CodeJoy bridges the warmth and storytelling of puppet-led media with real-time robotics and simple, accessible craft materials. Featuring a live, remote playthrough of one of CodeJoy's Student Shows, we will demonstrate how low-cost supplies lower the barrier to technical confidence, examine why play remains a radical engine for equity, and offer strategies for educators to reclaim the deep, joyful cognitive rigor hidden inside hands-on learning.

Bios:
KELSEY DERRINGER

Kelsey Derringer is the CEO and co-founder of CodeJoy, an educational media company pioneering new methods of interactive, live media to make STEM learning accessible and joyful. Kelsey has spent over 20 years advocating for educational equity and systemic reform, drawing on her experiences as a middle school teacher, non-profit community outreach coordinator, and professional development lead. From Robot Petting Zoos to hands-on Haunted Houses and summer poetry camps, Kelsey has always produced programs that challenge rigid, drill-and-kill schooling. Her team at CodeJoy has impacted hundreds of thousands of students and teachers across the country, co-produced an episode of the show with NASA, and partnered with Digital Promise and the Grable Foundation to bring "Playful AI" to underserved and rural students. An international presenter (ISTE, BETT, FETC), Kelsey leverages low-cost materials and high-tech methods to prove that true cognitive rigor lives directly inside play.

MATT CHILBERT

Matt is the co-founder and COO of CodeJoy, serving as the creative engine that drives their technical innovation. Matt has long positioned himself directly at the intersection of entertainment and education, working for The Jim Henson Company, Sesame Workshop, and The Lawrence Hall of Science. A master craftsman, filmmaker, and educator, Matt brings a unique fusion of physical design and technical vision to CodeJoy’s interactive studio. His work spans studio design and building, artistic direction, robotics, set design, and real-time remote-play mechanics—including co-producing interactive broadcasts with NASA and developing "Playful AI" experiences alongside partners like Digital Promise and the Grable Foundation. Together with Kelsey, Matt co-founded CodeJoy to push the boundaries of participatory media, turning low-cost craft materials, high-tech code, and live storytelling into transformative tools for classroom equity and joyful engagement.

A figure stands on a snowy winter landscape. Their hands are on their hips and they face away from the camera. beyond them is a forest of trees.

Everything You Don't Want to Hear (Or Do You?): The State of the Industry

Thursday, October 15 9:30am - 10:30am
Presented by Dr. Elizabeth LaPensée, Ph.D.

The games industry is having a moment. Constant layoffs, studio closures, shifting expectations due to AI, blurring roles, new tools, impossible budgets... And yet somehow, we're still making games.

Elizabeth LaPensée, Narrative Director at Twin Suns, offers a candid State of the Industry from within today's changing AAA development landscape. While NDAs mean several details have to be left out, insights about how the work itself is changing will be shared, along with an "Ask Me Anything" Q&A.

From keeping up with learning to navigating increasingly interdisciplinary roles, LaPensée considers what students and educators should know about entering game development right now: what’s going on out there, what skills matter, what nobody can really prepare you for, and why to keep on keeping on with games.

Bio

Elizabeth LaPensée, Ph.D. is the Narrative Director at Twin Suns and an award-winning game designer, writer, artist, researcher, and educator. Her work spans AAA, independent, experimental, and academic game development, with a focus on narrative and interdisciplinary design.

At Twin Suns, she works as part of a veteran AAA development team while continuing to expand her technical practice through proprietary development tools and Unreal Engine (finally, after years of trying). She has spent her career moving between indie (real deal no budget indie), industry, and academia, finding herself coming around full circle in unexpected ways.