Preview: Develop 2010

It's always difficult to single out people, but if we start with the Evolve programme on the Tuesday, we have Louis Castle from InstantAction, there's David Helgason from Unity, we've got speakers from Google, ngmoco, PopCap, BigPoint... a really broad range of people there.

If we then look at the Wednesday, the first day of the main conference if you will, there's the BioWare founders - Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk - we're delighted they're going to be making the trip over, they don't often make it outside of North America.

We've also got Tim Schafer - another industry legend who's going to be making the trip over to speak in Brighton. And if we start to look at the six individual tracks, there's Mark Gerhard from Jagex who'll be providing the business keynote. He'll be talking about why you should focus on gameplay and enjoyment over profit - a talk from a company that shows the concept works.

There's George Andreas from Rare, the creative director, doing a design talk - plus with the Doctor Who game coming out we've got the key people involved in that. We've got Charles Cecil from Revolution, Simon Nelson from the BBC and Simon Millard from Sumo.

They'll all be looking at how you take a property like Doctor Who, use the BBC scriptwriters and the stories they have, and turn them into an immersive episodic game. There's a lot to be learned from that - but also how the BBC views the future of games and gaming.

So we've really got some heavyweight speakers, as well as all of the other sessions that sit alongside them.

It's a combination of things - experience, being close to the industry and understanding what the trends and developments are, and the way in which the markets are moving. Clearly we need to keep our fingers on the pulse.

But we also work closely with the advisory board - they'll help to shape the event as much as possible too.

I think this year more than ever it will be about what the future holds in terms of the games market and how it will develop. How much digital distribution will impact, and what the opportunities that offers, as much as the challenges they'll face.

The last 12 months have been tough times for the industry as a whole, but along with tough times there have also been new technologies coming out and developing which throw up opportunities.

If we're looking at the marketplace now there's a far greater number of micro-studios that are out there now, compared to twelve months ago - some of the topics we've got are actually looking at those newly-formed, smaller independent developers and asking how they can take advantage of the current opportunities to make sure those businesses can flourish in the future.

One of the new things we're introducing this time around is actually some free sessions, which we're looking at targeting specifically at micro-studios - or for people that are thinking of branching down that road.

The Expo has always been free for people to attend, but we also wanted to offer some content so that people could come along to Brighton, take in some of the free sessions, and go away having gotten a sense of where the industry is - and how they can move forward with it.

Absolutely - there's a lot that goes on in Brighton outside of the 9am-6pm of the sessions that we offer. The After Hours activities, from the networking drinks to parties to the awards - and that's a key part of what makes the event such a success. There are elements that people can come along to, make great contacts, and really enjoy.