Here I am, back to the annual Dust or Magic Conference held in Lambertville, NJ, which is on the other side of New Hope, PA across the Delaware River. This is my 3rd time attending this event where industry leaders in the interactive child educational media come together and discuss what was Dust or Magic for the previous year and discuss what may be Dust or Magic for the coming year.

These are the who’s who in game & multi media design from the largest companies in the country. Companies represented include: 360KID, Apple Computer, Animusic, ARS Media, Astronomico di Padova, Baby Einstein, Carstens Studios, Columbia University, Course Crafters, Dana Shields Design, Delta Editora, Disney Interactive, Dolphin Inc, Drexel University, PREL, ETS (Educational Testing Service), Encore Software, Evan-Moor Fablevision, Fisher-Price, Garage Games, Her Interactive, Highlights for Children, Hulabee Entertainment, ImaginEngine, Jersey Cow Software, Kinder Magic Software, Knowledge Adventure/VU Games, LeapFrog, Legacy Interactive, Mattel, Microsoft, Miss Maggie’s Earth Adventures, NBC 10, Noodleworks, Riverdeep, The Learning Company, Scholastic, School Zone Interactive, Sesame Workshop, Sunburst, TERCworks, Terzio, The Markle Foundation, THQ, University of Denver, University of Maryland, USA Today (Education), Viewpoints Research Institute Inc., Vivendi Universal, VTech.  Speakers included Chris Byrne, The Toy Guy and creator of the new Time to Play Magazine (www.timetoplaymag.com), Claire Green, President, Parents’ Choice Foundation; Jim Gray, Ed.D., Leapfrog, Ben Grimley and Jennifer Wells of PBS KIDS PLAY!, Lisa Guernsey, Author, Into the Minds of Babes; Mark William Hansen, The LEGO Group; Kathleen Kremer, Ph.D., Fisher-Price; Debra Lieberman, UC Santa Barbara and Health Games Research; Robin Raskin, Author, Blogger at Yahoo Tech, Scott Traylor, President, 360KID; Roger Wagner, President of Roger Wagner Publishing and creator of HyperStudio; Tanya Van Court, General Manager Noggin and Sr. VP, Parents and Preschool Digital, Nickelodeon & MTVN Kids and Family Group; plus remote presentations by Kimberly Rose of Viewpoints Research, Lane Merrifield and Club Penguin and Mitch Resnick from the Lifelong Learning Group at MIT. Sessions will be facilitated by Warren Buckleitner of Children’s Technology Review and Daren Carstens of Carstens Studios.We had all the toy critics here to tell us why a particular toy was Dust Or Magic. Included in this illustrious group were: Robin Raskin, Chris Byrne, Claire Green, Lisa Guernsey and Renye Rice.    

This is an exciting conference full of very talented and educated people. I can’t wait to come back in ’09.