Mardi Gras Conference 2009

Virtual Worlds: New Realms for Culture, Creativity, Commerce, Computation and Communication

February 19-21, 2009

Sheraton Conference Center Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

The LSU Center for Computation & Technology's 16th annual Mardi Gras Conference will bring together individuals working with virtual worlds in diverse areas such as computer science, information systems, accounting, management, psychology, sociology, philosophy, music, mass communication and many others. This conference will mark the first occasion where people working in this broad and far-reaching area will have a chance to collaborate and hear about what others in business and academia are working on. The conference will feature workshops, panel sessions, posters and papers in addition to several invited speakers.

News

Registration is open!

Conference lodging is now open for reservations.

Registration Fees are set: Earlybird student registration (before January 9), $120.00 USD; Earlybird registration (before January 9), $180.00 USD; Late/on-site registration, $280.00 USD; Late/on-site student registration, $180.00 USD.

Keynote Speakers Announced: Noshir Contractor, Tony O'Driscoll, Benjamin Duranske, and Eric Call.

Early-bird registration has been extended to January 16th.

Book your lodging before January 19th to ensure receiving special conference room rate.

Tentative Schedule is now on-line!

Scope

The LSU Center for Computation & Technology , in cooperation with the LSU Arts, Visualization, Advanced Technologies and Research (AVATAR) Initiative , is hosting the 16th annual Mardi Gras Conference, February 19-21, 2009, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Mardi Gras conferences take place annually, concentrating each year on a different computational theme of current relevance. This year's theme will be: “Virtual Worlds: New Realms for Culture, Creativity, Commerce, Computation and Communication.” As always, the conference concludes with an afternoon trip to New Orleans for one of the city’s largest Mardi Gras parades, Endymion.

Although the concept of virtual worlds has deep roots within the world of networked computing, it is only within the past few years that virtual worlds have captured the imagination of so many in such diverse fields as art, music, business, philosophy, psychology, sociology and mass communication. Moreover, there have been very few events that have tried to organize a broad interdisciplinary perspective around virtual worlds, their adoption by various constituencies, and their use by artists, musicians, historians, designers, educators, archivists, computer scientists, gamers, businesses and entrepreneurs.

The 2009 Mardi Gras Conference will bring together individuals working in this broad area in an attempt to foster information exchange, enable community building and project future trends across the multitude of disciplines that have engaged this technology. This event can be seen as a follow-on to the Emory University workshop in February 2008 on “Virtual Worlds and New Realities in Commerce, Politics, and Society.” The 2009 Mardi Gras Conference will feature workshops on the various technologies, panels, posters and papers in addition to several invited keynote speakers.

For more information or questions about the conference, email: mardi_gras_09@cct.lsu.edu