The Creative Coast is gearing up for its annual Geekend conference set for October 14-15, 2016 in Savannah, Georgia’s beautiful historic district. The annual entrepreneurship and technology conference, now in its 3rd year with The Creative Coast, has quickly become known for its intentionally interdisciplinary content to connect the brightest designers, coders, innovators, artists, technology mavericks and forward-thinking entrepreneurs. This year’s standout programing includes keynote speakers Dr. Ian Bogost, an author and award-winning game designer, and J. Cornelius, president of Nine Labs, an experience and strategy consultancy based in Atlanta, Ga.

A distinguished chair in Media Studies at Ivan Allen College and professor of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Dr. Bogost is also the founding partner at Persuasive Games, LLC, an independent game studio, and a contributing editor at The Atlantic. People of all industries will find this keynote speaker session full of insights as he discusses his just released book, Play Anything: The Pleasure of Limits, the Uses of Boredom, and the Secret of Games, and describes how filling life with play forges a new path for creativity and joy in our impatient age.

If you think people are important, then J. Cornelius’ session on human centered design and the business advantages of leading with design thinking will be right up your alley. Cornelius’ work focuses on computer/human interaction, user experience, application strategy, technical systems implementation, and process analysis. His experience includes serving as vice president of operations at CoffeeCup Software for 14 years where he helped steer the company from startup to multinational. He is also the president of the Atlanta Web Design Group; founder of the Web Afternoon conference series; and frequent lecturer on topics from software development methodologies to the psychology of customer experience to groups of all sizes at events across the country.

“Geekend is where you, your employees, and your future partners, can go to know what you don’t know and master trends to impact your bottom line,” said Emily McLeod Sulkes, programs manager at The Creative Coast. "It's clear that both technology and entrepreneurship have important roles to play in the economy. The future of technology is important to entrepreneurship and vice versa. Geekend is the perfect opportunity for professional enhancement regardless of industry."

With content-driven presentations, interactive workshops, thought-provoking panels, networking opportunities and undiluted information from top regional, national and international experts covering a variety of intertwined and interdisciplinary topics, Geekend is a perfect opportunity to interact with a diverse set of professionals, future collaborators and leaders on the forefront of the tech and creative industries.

IF YOU GO:  Tickets are on sale now and available online at www.geek-end.com. A special student discount ($39 tickets with your student ID) is also available. A limited number of media passes are available. Please be in touch if you would like to cover.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:  A complete schedule of events and featured speakers can be found at www.geek-end.com/schedule/.

For more information, please contact Emily McLeod Sulkes at [email protected] or [email protected].