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Lionel Berenguier is a 3D Technical Lead at UbiSoft. He's been working in the video game industry for 25 years, mainly developing rendering technology. He worked in particular on Assassin's Creed Shadows, Rainbow6-Extraction, For Honor, Prince Of Persia(2008), Assassin's Creed and Ryzom.

Khris Brown (they/she) has been working in games VO since it began. From Monkey Island to Grim Fandango at Lucasfilm Games/LucasArts and directing ADR for Skywalker Sound, Khris established their client services company (Vox Point LLC) in 1998. Khris founded the Voice Department at Double Fine Productions in 2000 and the Narrative Talent Group at Ubisoft Montreal during the AC: Black Flag era, and their projects have been recognized with Oscar, BAFTA, Peabody, AIAS, VGA, WGA, and many other awards. A lifelong advocate for equity-based, representative, ground-breaking performances, they continue to cast, direct, and mentor projects that pull the industry forward.

Joel Burgess is the Studio Head and a co-founder of Soft Rains. He has previously contributed in studio and design leadership roles for Bethesda Game Studios, Capybara, and Ubisoft Toronto. He has led teams of all sizes, and is well-known for his contributions to open world and level design through articles, lectures, and mentorship.

David Carrasco, CEO and Co-Founder of Vermila Studios and Executive Producer of "Crisol: Theater of Idols", a UE5 first-person survival horror adventure that was launched last February 10th with universal praise and excellent global user reviews. With a career spanning over 25 years, David has worked internationally in major game companies like Nintendo, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and Atari.

Adele Cutting is a BAFTA award-winning audio director, with 25+ years' experience in games as an Audio Director, Casting and Voice/Performance Director, Sound Designer, Music Editor and Producer. In 2011, Adele founded audio production company, Soundcuts Ltd, a team which produces 'all things audio' across games (all formats), TV, installations and audio drama. Before Soundcuts, Adele spent 15 years at EA, working her way up the ranks from Junior Sound Designer to Senior Audio Director, working on blockbuster titles such as the Harry Potter franchise (on which she wore both audio and voice director hats), plus well-known cult classics Populous the Beginning and Theme Park World. Recent titles Adele has worked on include: Ghost Town (Fireproof Games - Voice Director), Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (Rocksteady Games - Voice Director), MoCo and Brawl Stars (Supercell - Voice Director), Koreaboo (Audible - Director and Producer), The Quarry (Supermassive Games - Audio Director), As Dusk Falls (Interior Night - Audio Manager) and Assassin's Creed Odyssey (Ubisoft - Lead Voice Director). Adele is a member of the GDC Advisory Board, Develop Advisory Board and the BAFTA Games Committee, she regularly sits on juries for various sound awards (BAFTA, MAS and the Game Audio Network Guild) and also speaks at Universities and Game Industry events. She was nominated for 'Outstanding Contribution' at the Women in Games' awards 2025.

Joan Da Silva is the Post-Secondary Education Director at Epic Games, where he helps schools and creative industries adopt real-time technologies and Unreal Engine. After founding the pioneering animation and online games studio Artepict in 1997, he worked with major studios including Ubisoft and Rovio (Angry Birds). He later led two of France's top digital arts schools, LISAA Paris and ARTFX Montpellier, before joining Epic Games to bridge the worlds of animation, education, and innovation.

David Daubitz is a Narrative Lead, Headwriter and creative with over 15 years of experience across games, TV, audio, and interactive formats. He has worked with studios like Ubisoft, Bandai Namco, RTL Disney and Audible, and specializes in building story systems that scale across media without losing emotional depth or coherence.

With nearly 15 years in the video game industry, Alexis has contributed to a wide range of games across different platforms, genres, and business models, embracing various aspects of game development, in Production and then in Game Content. At Ubisoft, he worked on Skull & Bones, Rabbids: Legends of the Multiverse, and Valiant Hearts: Coming Home porting. As Game Director for Mac and mobile versions of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Alexis pushed the boundaries of accessibility, integrating mobile features that provided players with enhanced freedom to customize their experience, blending both creative vision and technical expertise.

Born in France, Vincent studied Fine Arts at Émile Cohl, where he graduated with a degree in Concept Art and Draftsmanship. He began his career in the game industry in 2010 at Ubisoft Annecy as an Environment Artist. After relocating to Canada, he contributed to several major titles, including Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Odyssey, and Shadows, as well as For Honor and Immortals: Fenyx Rising. Specializing in environments and materials, Vincent has progressed through roles from Material Artist to Principal Artist. He is currently Senior Lead Content at Gearbox.

Kate Edwards is an award-winning 30+ year veteran of the game industry, and the CEO and principal consultant of Geogrify, a consultancy which innovated game culturalization, as well as the CXO and Co-Founder of SetJetters, a screen tourism app. She is also the former Executive Director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) and the Global Game Jam. Following her 13 years at Microsoft, she has consulted on over 300 game titles for Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, SEGA, Sony, Square Enix, LEGO, and many other companies. In addition to serving in several board and advisory roles, she is a geographer, writer, and corporate strategist. Kate is the recipient of the Game Developers Choice Awards 20th Annual Ambassador Award, and in 2021 she was included in the Forbes' "50 Over 50" Vision List as well as being inducted into the Women in Games Hall of Fame.

Chad Emond is the Lead Character Artist at Compulsion Games. On South of Midnight, he worked as the Principal Character Artist for the project, helping shape the game's characters and creatures while advancing the studio's character pipeline. Chad brings over 15 years of industry experience, including 5 years at Ubisoft Toronto in both Lead and Senior roles, where he contributed to iconic franchises including Splinter Cell, Far Cry, and The Division. His diverse career spans both studio and freelance work, contributing to 13 titles, including Dragon Age 2, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Torchlight 3. Beyond production, Chad serves as a Character Supervisor and Mentor at Think Tank Training Centre, mentoring aspiring character artists in sculpting, modeling, texturing, and preparing them for successful careers in videogame industry.

Tim Friedlander is a voice actor and studio owner based in Los Angeles, known for his talent and advocacy within the industry. Tim is known for his contributions to popular titles such as Hunter x Hunter, One Punch Man, and his portrayal of Long Caster in Ace Combat 7. Additionally, his performance as the English voice of Ares in the Netflix series Record of Ragnarok and as the English Voice of Daigo Dojima in the new Like A Dragon video game series have garnered attention, showcasing his versatility and skill. As founder of the soundBOX:Studio Group, Tim operates out of his studio, soundBOX:LA and continues to bring his work to audiences everywhere with his compelling performances and unwavering commitment to his craft. With 4 locations in the US, the soundBOX Studios have become the go-to location for such clients as Sony, Ubisoft, Nintendo, CBS, Amazon, and Netflix among many others. With a talent-focused approach, soundBOX has become known for their ability to provide the highest quality services to clients and producers while also providing as a safe, comfortable, artist forward environment. Tim has been quoted in such outlets as the LA Times, WIRED, the NY Times, and the BBC. Represented by Atlas Talent in Los Angeles and New York, as well as ACM Talent Management in LA and New York, Tim remains a driving force in the world of voice acting, leaving an indelible mark on the industry with his talent, passion, and dedication.

2005-2011 Senior Engine Engineer, Ubisoft Shanghai 2011-2017 Lead Principal Engineer, Tencent Games 2017-now Director of AIGC Dept., Tencent Games

After completing an engineering degree in computer science and software architecture, Tom Guillermin joined Ubisoft in 2016 as a gameplay programmer through the Graduate Program. He worked in France and then in Sweden on the franchises: The Division, Ghost Recon, and Beyond Good & Evil. It was in Sweden that he met Guillaume Broche and began helping him with what was, at the time, just a personal project using Unreal Engine. In 2020, with the arrival of François Meurisse, they founded the studio Sandfall Interactive together, with Tom taking on the role of Technical Director and leading gameplay programming. The project then became Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Celia Hodent is recognized as a leader in the application of user experience (UX) and cognitive science in the game industry. Celia holds a PhD in psychology and has fifteen years of experience in the development of UX strategy and processes in video game studios. Through her work at Ubisoft, LucasArts, and as Director of UX at Epic Games (Fortnite), she has contributed to many projects across multiple platforms, from PC to consoles, mobile, and VR. Celia is also the founder of the Game UX Summit, advisor for the GDC UX Summit, member of the Foresight Committee at CNIL (National Commission on Informatics and Liberty, an independent French administrative regulatory body). She currently works as an independent consultant, helping studios increase the likelihood of their games to be engaging and successful. Celia also provides guidance on the topics of playful learning, ethics (founder of ethicalgames.org), unconscious bias, and inclusion in tech. Celia is the author of The Gamer's Brain: How Neuroscience and UX can Impact Video Game Design (2017), The Psychology of Video Games (2020), What UX Really Is: Introducing a Mindset to Great Experiences (2021), and co-editor of Game Usability: Advice from the Experts for Advancing UX Strategy and Practice in Videogames (2022).

Sigurlína Ingvarsdóttir is a founding partner at Behold Ventures, a venture capital fund investing in early-stage game industry companies across the Nordics and Europe. With over 15 years of experience in game development, she has played a pivotal role in shaping some of the industry’s most renowned projects.   Before co-founding Behold Ventures, Sigurlína worked as a producer at leading studios, including CCP in Iceland, Ubisoft Massive, and EA DICE in Sweden, where she led the Star Wars Battlefront franchise. At EA Sports in Vancouver, she guided strategy for the globally successful FIFA series, and from 2018 to 2020, she worked at Bonfire Studios in California, contributing to the recently announced game Arkheron.   Sigurlína holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Iceland and combines her technical expertise with a passion for fostering the next generation of game industry innovators.

Katelyn Isaacson is an American sound designer, composer, and vocalist based in Paris, France. She was on the audio team at ArenaNet where she worked on season 4 of Guild Wars 2's Living World before relocating to France to be the studio sound designer at Ubisoft Nadeo for Trackmania. Now freelance, she's sound designing, composing, translating, and directing VO for various European indie studios. As a vocalist, Katelyn started singing in her first choir at the age of 9 and never stopped. Classically trained at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music, she enjoys singing in a variety of genres. She sang backup for Elton John at the 2013 Emmy Awards, in the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra World Tour, and on video games such as Tap My Katamari and Elsinore. She's currently singing soprano in l'Ensemble Vocal Syllepse and Soli Tutti, for a number of lyricists and composers, and regularly performs in cover bands and as a backup singer.

After a few years as Sound Designer, Raphael worked as Music Designer and Supervisor at Ubisoft Montpellier for 5 years. Raphael worked on Beyond Good and Evil 2, and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Since going freelance two years ago, he now shares his time between Sandfall Interactive as Lead Audio and Music Designer, and Fractal Edge Music as Composer.

Leyla (she/her) is a French Tunisian Games Producer who has been in the industry for 7 years, working primarily with AAA art teams. Currently with Santa Monica Studios, she comes from 5 years at Ubisoft San Francisco on XDefiant. In her spare time, Leyla loves to read, write, and create vlog style content for social media. She dedicates her spare time to uplifting margen individuals through her various mentorship roles, and is a member of the board for IGDA LA, helping to serve the greater Los Angeles Game Dev Community.

Simon Landry has been working in the music industry for the last 20 years, as a music supervisor, a music producer and a music composer. Since 2008, as part of Ubisoft Music, he has been delivering industry-leading music supervision, design, production, implementation, and trailer music services for many Ubisoft studios, on AAA videogame franchises such as Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Rainbow Six and Avatar. Simon's main Awards & Recognitions include working on the Grammy-winning Score of Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök by Stephanie Economou, the Grammy-nominated Score of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora by Pinar Toprak, and the BAFTA-winning Score of Far Cry 4 by Cliff Martinez.

Dominik Lazarek is a Senior Engine Programmer working at id Software who focuses primarily on graphics and optimization work. Before joining id Software in 2022, he worked at Ubisoft for eight years where he contributed to Ubisoft's in-house engine 'Snowdrop' as part of the development team behind 'Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora' and 'Star Wars: Outlaws'.

President and Founder of XEODesign Nicole Lazzaro has 30+ years in Player Experience Design and over a decade in XR. Lazzaro's model "The 4 Keys to Fun" has influenced millions of designers on games such as WOW, Halo, and Assassin's Creed. Lazzaro has helped create emotion-driven experiences for giants like Disney, EA, DICE, Meta, and Ubisoft on Myst, The Matrix, Diner Dash, TRIPP, Flow Immersive, and more. From advising LucasArts on Star Wars and Will Wright on The Sims 2, to designing the first iPhone game and being the first to measure facial emotions in games, Lazzaro continues to innovate. In the XR Hall of Fame (for XR Design Language and Spatial Audio Innovation), no one understands XR design better than Nicole. Lazzaro can be spotted on the keynote stage at MWC, AWE, GamesBeat, and GDC. Currently developing (design & code) "Follow the White Rabbit Tales" an episodic XR Mystery Adventure about a Magician whose magic one day suddenly works. Now soft launched on Apple Vision Pro she is fundraising to bring it to new platforms. Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/nicolelazzaro.bsky.social

David has been working professionally in the games industry for over 25 years. He has spent the majority of his career focused on the user experience of game development tools, and works to inspire others via his acclaimed conferences all around the world. David is an Autodesk Master Award recipient and recently completed the second edition of his book "Designing the User Experience of Game Development Tools". He currently holds the position of User Experience Director at Ubisoft Montreal.

Paul is an award-winning executive and creative leader whose career spans the globe, establishing him as a leading figure in innovation and advocacy within the games and interactive entertainment industry. As the President of Arrival, Paul is the driving force behind the company’s global operations, fueling strategy, content development, and creative pipelines across teams in Los Angeles, Seattle, and the UK.   Prior to leading Arrival, Paul served as SVP Interactive Worldwide at Formosa Group and was Senior Audio Director at Xbox Game Studios. He has managed extensive AAA teams and pipelines for industry giants including Activision, EA, SEGA, Ubisoft, PlayStation Studios, Electronic Arts, LucasArts, 2K Games, Nintendo of America, Harmonix, and many more.     His portfolio includes credits on some of the industry’s most successful properties, including the God of War franchise, The Last of Us franchise, Halo, Call of Duty, Genshin Impact, Resident Evil, Fortnite, Borderlands 3, Sunset Overdrive, Forza Motorsport 5, Iron Man 2, and BioShock 2. Paul and his teams have achieved global recognition, winning multiple MPSE Golden Reel Awards, DICE Awards, G.A.N.G. Awards, SXSW Awards, BAFTA Awards, and Golden Joystick Awards. In 2023, Paul was honored with the prestigious Game Audio Network Guild Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Conference.   A passionate advocate for the industry, Paul served a six-year term as President of the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.)—the world’s largest organization of game audio professionals. As an active member of the Board of Directors, he helped originate the industry-first Program Partnership Initiative, the Guild Scholarship Award, and the worldwide advisor network. He was also a founding member of G.A.N.G. 's Pro Branches, including the Interactive Entertainment Sound Developers (IESD) and the Voice Actor Coalition (GVAC).   Paul is also a patent holder, having co-invented a first-of-its-kind Pre-Cognitive Interactive Music System with Microsoft colleague Robert Ridihalgh. An active speaker, he has conducted master classes and panels at MIT, Yale University, Berklee College of Music, Georgia Tech, SIGGRAPH, GDC, and the GRAMMY Soundtables.   Paul holds a BM and MM with summa/highest distinction from the world-renowned New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. A jazz and classical musician of twenty-five years, he has performed and recorded with legends such as Mick Goodrick, John Abercrombie, Clark Terry, George Russell, Cecil McBee, and Bob Moses.

Adrien Logut is a Senior Tools Programmer who has been at Epic Games for almost 4 years now. After 5 years of doing Machine Learning at Ubisoft, he joined Epic Games to work on the PCG plugin.

Stephen MacDonald is the Founder and CEO of Magic Potion Games, where he creates the product vision and long-term company strategy for Imagine Island, a kid-focused virtual world built with safety at its core. With 25 years of experience in the games industry, Stephen has held leadership roles across major entertainment companies including EA, Ubisoft, and Disney, helping build and scale interactive experiences for global audiences. Drawing on deep experience designing social games and online communities for games like Club Penguin, the largest kids virtual world of its time, Stephen brings a clear vision on how to create age-appropriate, playful, engaging virtual worlds for today’s kids without compromising safety or trust. At Magic Potion Games, he leads the studio’s mission to set a new standard for safe online play at a time when families and regulators are demanding safer digital spaces.

Regan Mandryk is a Canada Research Chair in Digital Games and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Victoria, Canada. In her research, she innovates games that offer social connections and emotional benefits for players, and combats what undermines those benefits (e.g., toxicity, obsessive passion). Regan teaches game design and player experience evaluation, and led Canada’s first graduate program on games user research. She regularly gives keynotes and presentations at game and technology conferences. She has consulted with various game companies, (e.g., Electronic Arts, Tencent Games, Ubisoft, Roblox), game incubators (e.g., Execution Labs), and indie studios, as she is passionate about making academic research actionable for players, policymakers, and industry professionals.

Fleur Marty is an Executive Producer at Gearbox Montreal, where she leads a team working on an announced AAA title. Fleur has been a producer for over 20 years and has led teams for big AAA studios like Ubisoft Montreal, WB Games Montreal or Eidos Montreal, working on beloved franchises like Far Cry, Tomb Raider or Deus Ex. While she started her career as a programmer, she quickly got propelled into project and production management because of her ability (and passion) for problem solving and making people come together. Throughout her career, Fleur has had a particular focus on building inclusive teams and maintaining a culture of openness, mutual trust, and respect, allowing creativity to thrive in a safe space. Since 2021, she has been serving as an Ambassador for Women in Games. Originally from Paris, France, Fleur established herself in Montreal, Canada in 2013. Aside from being an avid gamer, she has a passion for CrossFit (and especially Olympic weightlifting), archery and cooking.

Jack Minnetian is a 3D Programmer at Ubisoft, primarily focusing on developing Micropolygon for the Anvil engine. Prior to joining Ubisoft in 2021, he completed a master's thesis on Differentiable Volumetric Rendering under the supervision of Derek Nowrouzezahrai.

Alexandre Moufarek is the Product Lead for the Inception team at Google DeepMind, a team of creatives, designers and engineers working alongside research to explore breakthrough experiences that wouldn't be possible without Al. At Google DeepMind, Alexandre has contributed to frontier research projects such as Project Astra, SIMA, Genie and Gemini. Passionate about gaming and the power of AI to augment people, Alexandre Moufarek has 15+ years of experience spanning casual and AAA games (Ubisoft - Ghost Recon Future Soldier, Watch Dogs), consumer robotics (SoftBank Robotics - Pepper Robot B2C) and AI Research & Development.

Mathieu Nayrolles is an AI and ML architect working at the intersection of real-time systems, game development, and advanced AI. He recently joined Supercell’s AI team, where he contributes to advancing applied AI across production, research, and incubation initiatives. Previously, Mathieu played a central role in bringing AI and ML from research into large-scale, player-facing systems at Amazon Game Studios and Ubisoft. His work spans real-time conversational agents, multimodal AI, and performance-critical tooling used by game teams across multiple studios. Mathieu is an active contributor to the research community, a frequent speaker at international conferences including ICSE, ICPE, and ASE, and a co-organizer of workshops at the intersection of games and software engineering. He focuses on turning advanced AI into practical, creative systems that can ship, scale, and meaningfully impact players and developers.

Joe Newman has spent a decade in the video games industry working on kids' privacy and safety issues. He has worked both as in-house counsel for Electronic Arts and Ubisoft, and in private practice for a variety of clients ranging from indie games to some of the largest video game publishers in the world. In his work, he balances the needs of children's safety with preserving their rights and the privacy and security of their personal information at scale. At k-ID, Joe develops automated compliance solutions for the next generation of online services, seeking to provide meaningful global compliance while empowering children everywhere.

Val is part of the Developer Relations Engineering team at Google Play. Her past experience includes working as software engineer for Google Android XR, primarily as a Unity developer, and as an Animation Programmer at Ubisoft. She's looking forward to great conversations about games and tech!

Aniruddha is an Associate QC Director at Ubisoft with 15 years of experience leading quality teams across multiple titles in Ubisoft's portfolio. Alongside core functionality testing teams, he heads a QC Tech team that's focused on building automation, tools, and AI/ML solutions that empower smarter testing and data-driven decision-making.

Olivier started his career in the video game industry in the 2000s learning his craft as a gameplay programmer on PC game. After joining Ubisoft in 2004 in Montreal, he worked on multiple AAA franchises like R6, Batman Arkham Origins and others. In 2016, he started Ubisoft la Forge in Montreal to experiment new approaches at how R&D could be done inside Ubisoft.

Thomas is a Technical Architect at Ubisoft, specializing in large-scale data engineering, analytics, and AI-driven developer tools. Over the past several years, Thomas has architected the implementation of core data and DevOps infrastructure that powers insights and decision-making across Ubisoft's worldwide studios. Most recently, Thomas was the technical lead on DocGPT—Ubisoft's secure, in-house AI knowledge assistant—bringing generative AI to the heart of the studio's development workflows. From integrating scattered sources like Jira, Confluence, Perforce, and playtest reviews, to deploying highly secure, domain-aware retrieval pipelines, Thomas helped make knowledge more accessible for thousands of game developers every day. Prior to this, Thomas worked on Ubisoft's global analytics and machine learning platform, delivering scalable event-driven architectures and deploying AI-powered features directly inside game engines. A strong advocate of combining DevOps discipline with machine learning and data engineering best practices, Thomas leverages tools like Kubernetes, ArgoCD, Spark, and Databricks to make scalable, production-grade solutions a reality. Thomas holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics from IRRCyN (Nantes) and an engineering degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from Mines de Nantes.

Dan Qiao is an area designer at Obsidian Entertainment, focusing on level and combat system design. She has worked on several AAA games, including The Outer Worlds 2 (Obsidian Entertainment), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Infinity Ward), and XDefiant (Ubisoft). Her expertise covers both multiplayer and narrative-driven single-player games, with strengths in content blocking, scripting, and iterative development.

Andrea Rene is an on-camera host, producer, and veteran moderator with nearly two decades of experience across games media and live industry events. She is the co-founder of What's Good Games and has moderated panels, live shows, and executive-level conversations for major brands and platforms including Xbox, EA, Ubisoft, Square Enix, and Epic Games. Known for her thoughtful facilitation and deep industry knowledge, Rene brings historical perspective and a community-first lens to conversations that connect game developers, players, and the communities that shape the industry.

Paulette is a Principal 3D Environment Artist at Compulsion Games, specializing in texture and material creation. On South of Midnight, she managed the base texture library and contributed to level art of Huggin Molly's Lab. She brings 18 years of industry experience, including 14 years at Ubisoft Montreal, where she worked as a texture artist on titles such as Rainbow Six Extraction, Shaun White Snow Boarding, Michael Jackson: The Experience and the Far Cry Franchise. Her expertise spans environment and character textures, props, vegetation, and cinematic matte paintings. Paulette holds a BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Georgia and a Master's in Animation and Visual Effects from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

Gary Riley is the Lead Character Artist at Raven Software, working on the Call of Duty franchise.  I’ve been in the industry for 17 years and worked for Rare Ltd, Ubisoft, Ninja Theory and now Activision/Microsoft.

Jessica Roache is Senior Manager, Global Corporate Communications at Ubisoft, where she spearheads Ubisoft's global accessibility communications program. Driving this 360-degree initiative led to her recognition in 2023 as winner of the GAConf "MVP Award for Unsung Hero," an award recognizing behind-the-scenes efforts with big impact. Working cross-functionally to embed accessibility in Ubisoft's communications, marketing, and events across its games and services - Jessica's passion is to empower everyone to drive accessibility improvements in their own sphere of influence.

Alexis Rolland is a seasoned technology leader with over 15 years of experience at the intersection of artificial intelligence, game development, and data analytics. As the Director of Ubisoft La Forge in China, he spearheads innovative R&D initiatives that bridge academic research and game development, driving technical prototyping and the adoption of cutting-edge AI solutions. Alexis began his career as a consultant at IBM before transitioning to the gaming industry, where he has played a pivotal role in shaping Ubisoft's AI and data strategy. Over his 13-year tenure at Ubisoft, he has held multiple leadership roles, including Director of Ubisoft China AI & Data Lab, where he managed a diverse team of data scientists, engineers, and product managers to enhance analytics, machine learning, and AI-driven innovation across Ubisoft's projects. A self-taught programmer with a passion for development, Alexis has contributed to numerous groundbreaking AI initiatives, such as Ubisoft's internal generative AI platform, Ghostwriter for narrative dialogue generation, and ZooBuilder, a tool for creating 3D animations from videos. His expertise spans reinforcement learning, computer vision, and generative AI, with his work showcased at major industry events like SIGGRAPH Asia.

Richard Rouse III is a creative director, designer, and writer who has worked on a range of titles from AAA to indie and everything in between. He is the Studio Creative Director at FarBridge currently working on dark new games. Past projects include Homeworld: Vast Reaches, The Suffering, State of Decay, Quantum Break, Drakan: The Ancients' Gates, Damage Incorporated, Odyssey: The Legend of Nemesis and his experimental stealth/narrative game The Church in the Darkness. Previously he was a Design Director/Lead at Microsoft Studios, Ubisoft Montreal, Midway and Surreal Software. Rouse wrote the popular book Game Design: Theory & Practice and is a frequent speaker on game design and interactive storytelling at conferences and universities.

Joshua Rubin is an Interactive Emmy-winning veteran of the entertainment industry, best known as a Lead Writer for video games such as Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed 2, Bungie's Destiny, Telltale's Game of Thrones and Walking Dead, and People Can Fly's Outriders. He was recently a Narrative Director for Techland's Dying Light franchise. He won the Emmy in 2022 for Netflix's branching TV series: You vs. Wild: Out Cold. Rubin has been a pioneer in the XR and Immersive space, constantly exploring the frontiers of narrative and future tech, since his 360˚ sci-fi film The Argos File premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won Best Live Action Experience at the VRLA Proto Awards in 2017. He was Narrative Director for Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son, Sony's VR sequel to the classic Bill Murray film, and Asset 15, an innovative AR thriller from director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity). He recently wrote Netflix's Black Mirror location-based VR experience, and is leading the creation of two new LBVR experiences for Felix & Paul. He is the founder of Strange Land Comics and he regularly speaks on the future of immersive storytelling at conferences like SXSW, AWE and San Diego Comic Con. Most recently, Rubin was the Narrative Director for Orion Drift, the new massively multiplayer VR game from the creators of Gorilla Tag, the first $100million VR game.

Steve Saylor is a blind accessibility consultant and advocate known for his work as the "Blind Gamer" on YouTube where he reviews video games from a visually impaired perspective. With over a decade of experience in the gaming industry, Steve has collaborated with major studios including Ubisoft, PlayStation, and Xbox to improve gaming accessibility in games such as Assassin's Creed Valhalla, The Last Of Us Part 1 and 2, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. He is a frequent speaker at industry events for his accessibility expertise. He continues to help studios implement accessible features through consulting and is passionate about ensuring games can be enjoyed by players of all abilities.

Aaron Scherzinger is a Senior 3D Programmer at Ubisoft Mainz. He received a PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) from the University of Münster, Germany in 2018 for his work on scientific visualization and image processing before joining Ubisoft in 2019. Since 2020, he is part of the Anno team and has been working on the Anno 1800 Console Edition and Anno 117: Pax Romana.

Ben Books Schwartz is a highly nomadic narrative designer and game writer based in LA. Their work history includes games of all kinds, ranging from mobile to indie to AAA. They launched their game career with the breakout mobile narrative title Lifeline, and since then have gone on to work for companies including Studio Drydock, Sony Santa Monica, Possibility Space, CD Projekt, Ubisoft, and Microfun. Before that they spent a decade as a professional larp designer and organizer, running larp summer camps for kids and teens and weekend long destination larps for adults in places like Polish castles.

Sylvain Sechi is a French game designer, producer and creative director with more than 18 years in the gaming industry. He has held key roles at Cyanide, Ubisoft, Eden Games, and co-built Big Bad Wolf Studio. Since 2022 he has been Head of Studio at New Tales, leading the development of a new Action RPG for PC and Consoles.

Jeff began his career as an art intern at MicroProse in 1997. He later joined Mythic Entertainment in 2002 to work on the Dark Age of Camelot series. Following the company’s acquisition from Electronic Arts in 2006 he relocated to Shanghai as an Art Director to build the art team needed for Warhammer Online. Upon returning to the US, Jeff assumed the role of Producer for WAR. In 2014 Jeff joined Ubisoft as a Senior Producer on the Assassin’s Creed franchise. In 2020, Jeff co-founded a new independent studio in Quebec City called Yellow Brick Games where the focus is on creating new innovative gameplay and original IPs starting with their debut title that launched last year, Eternal Strands.

Ashley Sparling is the Character Art Director at K9 Digital, with 18 years of experience in the games industry. Ashley has led character teams at AAA studios including Ubisoft, Splash Damage, and Jagex, and specialises in delivering high-quality character and creature art for games and real-time projects.

After a computer science engineer diploma, Florian joined Ubisoft in 2016. He met at that time Tom Guillermin, one of the co-founders of Sandfall Interactive, and they became friends. Between Montpellier and Singapore, he worked on the weapon system of the Ghost Recon series, the ships of Skull & Bones and the spaceships of Beyond Good and Evil 2. Florian joined Sandfall Interactive in late 2022. Since then, he has worked on all gameplay systems that affect exploration in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

I am the Head of Growth at Photon Engine, focusing on Gaming Developers and Founders. We are the leading multiplayer gaming service for online developers reaching over 1.4B players monthly. Previously, I led Microsoft Azure PlayFab engagement initiatives for game developers and publishers. This role was a continuation of Microsoft's 2018 acquisition of PlayFab, the live game operations and game services cloud for games that I grew in Europe and abroad as a general manager until the acquisition. I built studios for Unity Technologies and Ubisoft and mentored multiple gaming studios, which I love to do. Before joining the gaming industry, I produced and directed many projects for corporations, private and public organizations worldwide. Led departments and pushed the limits for U.N.E.S.C.O., Marketel McCann, Cossette, and others. Won multiple awards for interactive online projects, founded two more companies and worked on some of the most amazing experiences ever put on the web. I am passionate about creating innovations that augment interactions, blending business success with new technologies that enhance creativity.

Roxane Zaim is a Senior Product Director, Quality Engineering, at Ubisoft, where she leads global initiatives at the intersection of quality engineering, AI, and inclusive innovation. With 15 years of experience across France, the UK, and Canada, including transformation roles at IBM and Allianz, Roxane brings a rich background in IT, data, and strategic delivery. She currently drives AI-flagship initiatives such as DocGPT, a GenAI assistant scaling knowledge across Ubisoft's development pipelines. Known for her ability to connect technical rigor with human-centered leadership, Roxane is deeply engaged in AI strategy and innovation culture, and is a respected voice in women-in-tech circles. As a lead of Ubisoft Montréal's Women's ERG, she champions equity and psychological safety through visible action and mentorship. Whether navigating cost optimization, scaling experimental technologies, or shaping inclusive culture through internal events and speaking engagements, Roxane brings clarity, care, and strategic insight to complex transformation. Her work consistently bridges operational reality with visionary execution, making her a sought-after leader in change-ready environments.