Ben Sawyer, the director of Games For Health, passed along a note to remind everyone that the 8th Annual Games for Health Conference in Boston, MA at the Hyatt Harboside Hotel is coming up fast. Online registration for the event that takes place June 12-14 closes at the end of the day on Friday, June 8. You can register for the event here until that time.

Sony is on the fence about having a major presence at the popular European gaming event Gamescom later this year. Sony Computer Entertainment's German communications director Guido Alt told the German arm of GamesIndustry International that a decision has yet to be made on Gamescom and that they are still negotiating terms with the event's organizers.

Engage Digital has issued a call for speakers for the second annual App Conference on October 18-19, 2012 in Santa Clara, CA. Those interested in sharing their expertise with the app development and business community can submit their pitches here.

The deadline is June 11. The event caters to app developers on various platforms including game developers.

As part of Episode 5 of the Super Podcast Action Committee we sat down with Matt Conn, the founder and key organizer of GaymerCon – the first of its kind fan-focused gaming event that caterw to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) community.

Troubled UK retailer GAME announced via Twitter today that it has canceled its GAMEfest event this year.

"I'm afraid #GAMEfest won't be happening this year - but we do have some cool things in the works! Stay tuned," the company said to several consumers who enquired about the event.

In a subsequent tweet the company said that "by the way - this doesn't mean it won't happen next year. *wink*"

GamesBeat 2012, VentureBeat's fourth annual conference on "disruption in the video game market," has already lined up a number of major players in the video game industry who will either give keynotes or participate in discussions during the event.

Valve Software's director of business development, Jason Holtman, will deliver the opening keynote for the Evolve conference this summer at Develop in Brighton. His keynote address, "Everyone's Business is Business" will explore how companies and organizations can lay a foundation for making better business decisions and creating better products by nurturing a system where creative content and traditional business functions are not separated.

This year's Games for Change Festival is set for June 18-20 in New York City. The event dedicated to promoting social change through video games will offer plenty of activities this year including case studies, roundtables, lectures, demos, and more. Featured speakers for this year's event include Jane McGonigal, New York Times bestselling author (Grand Theft Childhood) and co-founder of SuperBetter Labs; leading researcher, Dr.

Registration is open for the eighth annual Games for Health Conference, set to take place June 12-14 at the Hyatt Harboside Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. Organizers of the event have scheduled over 80 talks covering various topics related to merging video games and video game technologies with health and healthcare.

Organizers of the East Coast Game Conference (ECGC) revealed the full line-up of speakers and sessions planned for this year’s event April 25-26 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Along with exploring this year's core topic of “content > platforms,” game industry professionals from around the country will give a variety of speeches and lead panels about various game development-related topics..

At a recent Google-sponsored Big Tent event in Mountainview, Jennifer Pahlka, the founder of and executive director of Code for America, participated in a "fire side" chat with Google's SVP, David Drummond, about her various initiatives related to using technology to solve public sector problems and civic life in general.

We like the work that the fine folks at Gamers Outreach does for the benefit of U.S. military personnel deployed overseas, so it makes sense that we share a recent TEDx EMU talk delivered by Zach Wigal entitled "Video Games - Helping Others Level Up." Zach writes about his experience delivering the presentation on his web site.

Epic Games and Train2Game announced over the weekend that Commando Kiwi is the winner of the Make Something Unreal Live competition, with its iOS game The Warlock of Firetop Mountain: Lost Chapters. The winner of the competition was revealed during the Gadget Show Live. Four teams presented their new iOS games based on individual books in the Fighting Fantasy series to franchise creators Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone OBE, who selected the winner. 

The organizers of Classic Gaming Expo announced today that the 2012 Classic Gaming Expo will be held August 11 - 12 at the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. The show’s historic ties with Las Vegas, and the Plaza Hotel, made it the obvious choice to play host to this year’s convention, according to organizers.

Epic Games will bring its Unreal University series of educational talks and workshops related to developing games using the Unreal Engine to the East Coast Game Conference April 25-26 in Raleigh, NC. Unreal University is an academic initiative sponsored by Epic Games that offers "hands-on" instruction and guidance to those interested in using Unreal Engine 3 (UE3) technology - including the Unreal Development Kit (UDK) - to develop games and other software.

Activision's VP of Art and Technology Joby Otero will discuss using toys with technology and gaming in a presentation about the company's popular Skylanders franchise at the 6th annual Digital Kids Conference. The Digital Kids Conference takes place at the Pasadena Convention Center on April 25. Otero, who also serves as creative director for product and brand at Skylanders, will discusses the magic of transmedia and inter-connected play with ShadyLogic Founder and CEO Marty Poulin.

For the first time, The AbleGamers Foundation will have a booth at a public gaming event. The organization dedicated to supporting technology and games that offer accessibility to the disabled will be at the Penny Arcade Expo East (PAX-E 2012). The nonprofit will have a booth on the main floor of the Expo (North Hallway) displaying some of the best technologies available to those with disabilities who want to get into gaming.

Epic Games and Train2Game announced a who's who of judges to decide the winners of the Make Something Unreal Live competition. The game development competition comes to the Gadget Show Live on April 10-15, 2012 at the NEC in Birmingham, UK. Complementing the Make Something Unreal Live advisory board and Train2Game directors, the new judges will review the program’s new Fighting Fantasy iOS games and coach start-up teams.

Leaders from BioWare and Zynga are just some of the speakers lined up for the East Coast Games Conference set to take place in Raleigh, North Carolina April 25–26. The annual event put together by the Triangle Gaming Initiative (TGI) is a gathering for game developers, publishers and other industry professionals that call the East Coast home. BioWare Senior Creative Director Paul Barnett and Zynga East Coast Executive Producer Paul Stephanouk will each deliver keynotes on their specific areas of expertise and discuss the current and future state of the industry as they see it.

Sony Online Entertainment has changed the name of its annual fan event to SOE LIVE. The freshly rebranded fan event is scheduled to take place at Bally's in Las Vegas, October 18-21, 2012. The annual SOE-sponsored event will allow the company to offer broader support for all of its various titles including DC Universe Online, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Free Realms, Magic: The Gathering - Tactics, PlanetSide 2, Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.

At the Association of American Publishers annual meeting this morning, leaders from the MPAA, RIAA, AAP, Business Software Alliance and other groups got together to talk about what went wrong in their fight for SOPA and PIPA, and what the industry can do to get their points across in the future.

Wizard101 creators Todd Coleman and Josef Hall of KingsIsle Entertainment will be the keynote speakers at the sixth annual Digital Kids Conference, a two-day event that purports to provide companies with "the critical information they need to reach digital kids and connected youth through online and mobile technologies." Speakers from the NFL, Spin Master, Cartoon Network, Ubisoft, SOE, Cookie Jar, and many others will also deliver talks April 25-26, 2012 in Los Angeles.

GamesBeat's Dean Takahashi has revealed some of the speakers participating in the fourth annual GamesBeat event in July.

iam8bit's inaugural leetUP event is only days away, so organizers thought it might be a great time to reveal some of the "experiential zones" they have been hinting at for the last month. The leetUp will be hosted by Kevin Pereira (host of G4's Attack of the Show), with live podcasts featuring  Kevin Smith, Chris Hardwick, Doug Benson, Felicia Day, Greg Fitzsimmons, Jimmy Pardo, Alex Albrecht, Epic Meal Time and Ask A Ninja also taking place. There will also be stage performances by VJ Mike Relm and DJ R-Rated.

PAX East will keep Boston as its home until 2023, thanks to a new deal with the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority. Organizers will also donate $325,000 ($25,00 annually) to Becker College's Massachusetts Digital Games Institute. PAX East has been hosted in Boston since its launch two years ago.

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) announced more speakers taking part in the 2012 D.I.C.E. Summit, which will kick off February 8 at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas and run until February 10. The latest speaker list reveals a special panel starring members from Epic, Insomniac and Blizzard. Mike Capps of Epic Games, Ted Price of Insomniac Games, and Frank Pearce of Blizzard will take part in a session to discuss "what it takes to survive for 20+ years in the game industry while maintaining growth and original content." 

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) announced three debates to take place at the 2012 D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit. The event will be held at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, February 8-10, 2012, and feature a line-up of industry leaders, decision makers and visionaries. Kicking off the conference on February 8 (prior to the Keynote Opener) will be the three "Hot Topics" sessions co-moderated by Adam Sessler, host of G4’s X-Play and Perrin Kaplan, Zebra Partners.

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) announced today that Todd Howard, Game Director and Executive Producer at Bethesda Game Studios, will be its opening keynote speaker at the 2012 D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate and Entertain) Summit at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas on Wednesday, February 8. Howard will discuss game development and the player experience, in the keynote session titled "Why We Create, Why We Play."

Mark Methenitis of the Law of the Game Blog updated the site with news that he will be hosting a panel at Game::Business::Law 2012 called "Paying and Playing." The panel will take place on the afternoon of the second day (January 25). Details on the panel are forthcoming. You can read about all of the panels and discussions that will take place at the annual event here.

The folks over at Good Old Games (GOG.com) are getting into the holiday spirit, offering discounts of up to 50 percent on almost all their games beginning on Monday.

In a note to readers, the site also detailed how people can get a free copy of The Witcher and Empire Earth: Gold Edition.