Lucca Comics and Games

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

25 ^th October 2010

On Friday 29th and Sunday 31st October, AIOMI, the Italian Association for the Interactive Multimedia – Movement for Videogame Culture, will hold Round Table discussions under the Italian Videogame Developer Conference (IVDC) banner at this year’s Lucca Comics and Games event in Lucca, Tuscany, Italy.

The event is one of the most prestigious Comic and Videogame events in the world and boasts over 150,000 visitors per year. It will showcase the IVDC discussing Italian videogame industry issues prior to the international conference in Rome in December. From the future of the Italian Videogame industry to the Italian government’s ambitious plans for 2011 and beyond, the Round Table event will provide visitors with a unique insight to the history, ambition and innovations emerging from Italy’s videogame community and industry.

The Italian Minister for Youth, Giorgia Meloni, will exclusively announce plans for new videogame technologies and games to be developed to celebrate Italy’s 150 ^th anniversary in 2011. This project, working together with AIOMI and leading Italian videogames developers, is one of many initiatives which Italy is undertaking to build its videogame industry into a world leader.

Marco Accordi Rickards, President of AIOMI said, “To appear at the Lucca Comics and Games event is very important to IVDC as we want to open a clear dialogue to aspiring videogame developers and fans alike. By attending the Round Tables, visitors will hear first-hand the exciting plans we have for the industry overall and we want them to leave inspired!”

The Lucca Comics and Games will run from Friday 29 ^th October – Monday 1 ^st November at the Carducci building and across the city. For more information, please visit www.luccacomicsandgames.com

For more information, please contact Eliana Bentivegna at direzione@aiomi.it or Kristien Wendt at Kristien@charactercomms.com

For more details on the IVDC 2010, visit www.ivdconf.com and follow the conference on www.twitter.com/ivdc2010

-- ends --

Editors notes

IVDC 2010

The Italian Videogame Developers Conference is the first and only conference in Italy for the videogames industy, and is the official annual summit of the IVD (Italian Videogame Developers association). Now in its 3rd year, the IVDC has become the main platform for an increasingly confident Italian games industry to present itself nationally and internationally.

Held on 3rd and 4th of December 2010, the IVDC will take place in the conference hall of the internationally respected LUISS University in Rome. The official langauge of the conference will be English, with translation into Italian optional. This two-day event is totally free to attend.

Dedicated to the progression of Italian and international game development, the IVDC is the ideal place for meetings and exchange of knowledge, tools and techniques among the most important professionals in the field.

The IVDC has been supported and partnered with prominent Italian and international companies in the videogames industry, and the 2010 programme will includes presentations by some of the leading professionals in Italian and international game developing and publishing. The programme and workshops will also be dedicated to independent game development and all the other aspects of the industry.

AIOMI

AIOMI, the Italian Association for the Interactive Multimedia – Movement for the Videogame Culture, was born to promote, diffuse and preserve the videogame culture, intended as a form of art, human cultural expression and excellence product of the industry.

The Videogame is effectively part of the collective imagination, and AIOMI fights to make it recognized, respected, studied and understood. AIOMI will therefore help any initiative to valorize the Videogame and promote its culture through any form and means.

In the same way, the Association will intervene every time videogames are the object of disinformation.

AIOMI has a partnership with the City of Rome for the creation of the Italian Videogame Museum - ViGaMus, which already has the place (about 1.000 square meters), with the Patronization of the Youth Ministry, of the Presidency of the City Council of Rome, of the Councillorship of Culture, of Assoknowledge / Confindustria and of the Faculty of Science of the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”.

AIOMI helped the Italian Videogame Developers to constitute into a group in Assoknowledge / Confindustria Innovative and Technological Services, where the main Italian videogame developing companies are, and represents the 95% of the Italian videogame industry gross income. Raoul Carbone and Marco Accordi Rickards, founders of AIOMI, are the President and Vice President of the Group.

AIOMI organizes every year the most important business event in the videogame field in Italy, the IVDC, the Italian Videogame Developers Conference, which is the official conference of the Italian Videogame Developers.

Marco Accordi Rickards, President and co-founder of AIOMI, teaches Interactive Multimedia Theory and Critics in the Course of Information and Editorial Systems of the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy in Rome, University of “Tor Vergata”.

Raoul Carbone, Vice President and co-founder of AIOMI, is creator and coordinator of the Triennial Course of Virtual Design – CG Animation and Videogame Development in the European Institute of Design in Rome.

For further press information relating to the above companies, please contact:

Mr. Kristien Wendt

Character Communications Ltd.

Tel (Main): +44(0) 1376 322621

Tel (Mobile): +44(0)7876 252811

Email: kristien@charactercomms.com