It’s that time of the year when we start hitting a lot of conferences. Dice and GDC are the two to really keep an eye on, as they come along very shortly. While we already know to expect at least one big software announcement from GDC, the full list of speakers and conferences has been listed for Dice. While Dice is traditionally more of a developer’s conference, even more so than GDC, which still has some big media announcements, so expect only small tidbits of information.

Shane Kim might be the best speaker to pay attention to, as he might let something interesting slip for Microsoft’s future. Dice kicks off February 6th:

February 6, 2008 – Wednesday

2:00 PM – 3:30 PM — AutoDesk Presents: Technology Fight Club–Leading game executives square-off.

Round 1, Will Consolidation Kill Innovation and Risk?: Mitch Lasky, game industry executive and now with VC firm Benchmark Capital, squares-off against game veteran Seamus Blackley, head of the games department at Creative Artist Agency.
Round 2, Traditional Publishing vs. Free Distribution: Kelly Flock, industry publishing veteran squares-off against Min Kim, Director of Operations for Nexon America, publishers of Maple Story and Kart Racer.
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM — Conference Opening Remarks and Keynote Speaker Presentation
Gore Verbinski, Director, Pirates of the Caribbean

February 7, 2008 – Thursday

9:15 AM – 10:15 AM — Opening Remarks: Joseph Olin

Team Blizzard: Mike Morhaime, CEO & Co-Founder; Rob Pardo, Senior VP, Game Design; Frank Pearce, Executive VP, Product Development

10:15 AM – 11:00 AM — 20 Questions: Interview with Shane Kim, GM Microsoft Game Studios, interviewed by Seth Scheisel, New York Times

11:15 AM – 12:15 PM — Power Hour: Engaging the Consumer “Designing for Money”: Roger Snow, Senior VP of Products, Shuffle Master Inc., Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Founder Q Entertainment

1:45 PM – 2:45 PM — Breaking the Broken Model!: Jim Ward, President, LucasArts
“The New “Gamer”: Closing Gaps in our Growing Industry”: Michael Gallagher, President, ESA:

2:45 PM – 3:30 PM — “But wait, there’s more!” Lessons learned in creating & selling original IP!: Lorne Lanning, Oddworld

February 8, 2008 – Friday

9:30 AM – 10:15 AM — Charting the Future of Interactive Entertainment: John Riccitiello, CEO Electronic Arts

10:15 AM – 11:00 AM — A Sense of Fun: Anybody Could Be Your Player 1: Masaya Matsuura, CEO NanaOn-Sha, Ryo Watanabe, President Robot Sound, Inc.

11:15 AM – 12:15 PM — Power Hour: Implementing Creativity: Robin Kaminsky, Executive VP Publishing, Activision, Dr. Mark Ollila, Director Strategy & Research, Nokia

1:30 PM – 2:30 PM — Power Tools: The Best Way to Build Tomorrow’s Games: Mike Acton & Brian Burke, Insomniac Games, Michael Capps, CEO Epic Games, Yannis Mallat, CEO Ubisoft Studios Montreal

2:30 PM – 3:15 PM — Understanding Consumers & Entertainment Consumption: Russ Crupnick, VP, Senior Analyst, NPD Research Group