5. Visit to CERN

Last but not least in this Geneva series of five, I had the chance to visit CERN on a side trip with a handful of the conference delegates (the ones who would meet at 8am on a Saturday morning for a 9am crash course in particle physics, that is.) CERN is often described as the Valhalla for physicists. Just to give you an idea of the place CERN occupies in the public imagination, here's a picture of scientist Tara Shears (one of the Lift speakers) with the key players of the Angels and Demons movie (including Tom Hanks and Ron Howard).

Most prominently:

"The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a gigantic scientific instrument near Geneva, where it spans the border between Switzerland and France about 100 m underground. It is a particle accelerator used by physicists to study the smallest known particles – the fundamental building blocks of all things. It will revolutionise our understanding, from the minuscule world deep within atoms to the vastness of the Universe."

Really, all I could do was let the information wash over me. Our instructor/guide for most of the tour was seriously the most enthusiastic scientist I have ever met. And he had more energy than all of us combined. I began wondering where he was harvesting it from, and that perhaps he himself was an experiment at CERN!



Here are some pictures from what we saw. We weren't able to access the most interesting parts and had a video tour donning 3D glasses (eyeballs only).






After the tour, the remainder of us went for lunch on the Lake and it was a stunning day. Afterwards, I spent my remaining Swiss Francs on some lovely chocolate and took the EuroNight train back from Zürich to Graz and had absolutely no trouble sleeping in the couchette all the way. Definitely the way to go.





Jam-packed with experience, and so many interesting people who do cool things. And yet, still relatively intimate as far as these types of conferences go. I went there to learn, be inspired, and meet some people behind some pretty glorious projects. Mission accomplished.



Nanu nanu.

Speaking at Lift11 in Geneva

It’s T-7 days until Lift11 begins in Geneva, and I’m delighted to have been selected to participate, and also to be selected as a speaker for the open stage, during the Games, beyond Gamification and transmedia session.

Lift11 is a three-day conference about current and emerging usage of digital technologies such as online communities, social media and casual games. Participants come to better understand the challenges and opportunities presented by digital technologies, and meet the people who drive these innovations.

The synopsis of my talk, titled “Localizations of global games: cross-cultural lessons” can be found here on the conference website>>

What happens when global games meet local culture?

In this talk, Florence Chee discusses the idea of games as a medium of communication and how it may look the same or different depending on where in the world you may find yourself. How do factors like culture, social structure, and infrastructure affect how people play online games in different global contexts? Drawing from ethnographic studies of games from all over the map, game designers, engineers, or cultural theorists will be interested in this discussion of the contingent factors that arise from public and private game play that is sometimes not about the game at all.

The whole conference happens at the Geneva International Conference Center (CICG). All talks will be given in English unless specified, and a French translation will be provided. The program is subject to changes.

The entire Lift11 schedule can be found here>>

Geneva. Can I be excited yet?