ATLANTA (Aug. 25, 2015) — The Southern Interactive Entertainment and Game Expo (SIEGE) today announced its third annual International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Leadership Track. The track, focusing on advancing the state of the art in game production and management, runs as part of the main SIEGE conference Oct. 9 – 11 at the Marriott NW Atlanta at Galleria. The IGDA Leadership Track at SIEGE is the result of a partnership with the IGDA and is an outgrowth of the IGDA’s popular Leadership Summits and Forums.

“The IGDA Leadership Summit is one of the preeminent game development conferences in the world. We are honored to have the IGDA’s leadership-focused content continue at SIEGE,” said SIEGE Conference Director Andrew Greenberg. “The Leadership Track attracts the greatest minds in game production, and the speakers reflect the innovations of the last few years.”

The track, an extension of this year's IGDA Leadership Summit and jointly organized by Keith Fuller of Fuller Game Production and Molly Proffitt of Ker-Chunk Games, features outstanding speakers focusing on current leadership topics in the games industry. This year’s topics include leadership in remote teams, avoiding unconscious bias in design, and a full workshop on the do's and don'ts of start-up leadership. “The 2015 IGDA Leadership Track focuses on ways leaders can cultivate innovation while still providing stability for their studios and their team,” Fuller said. “These are hot topics. Leaders from all studio sizes benefit from this active industry discussion.”

“This year we welcome Erin Hoffman as the IGDA Leadership Track keynote to present on the ‘New Game Team: Leadership in Full-Remote Teams,’” Proffitt said. “With easier access to tools such as Unity and Unreal, resources for independent studios widely available, and team members working together from different locations, discussing remote leadership is important now more than ever. Erin is a huge advocate for quality of life and company culture, so we are excited to have her present on this muchneeded topic.”

Taking place in Atlanta, GA, from Oct. 9 – 11, SIEGE is the largest professional game development conference in the Southern United States. Since 2007, SIEGE has featured leading figures from the industry and has hosted panels reflecting a wide spectrum of the game production industry including artists, programmers, designers, investors, writers, professors and business executives. The event also showcases a College Fair for high school students and a Game Studio Investment Conference.

SIEGE also has presentations on game art, audio, business, design, programming, and serious games by industry innovators. SIEGE offers a wide variety of networking opportunities, an expo hall, a portfolio show, and its famous Game Design Improv.