A quick note about an upcoming conference in Pasadena, CA: The Art Center Design Conference 2008: Serious Play. Every two (?) years the Art Center College of Design hosts a conference focused on a central theme relevant to design. Past years have included Radical Craft and Stories from the Source: Design Excursions Out of the Ordinary. Other than the obvious relevance of serious play to our discussion of gaming in the classroom, this conference features hands-on studios for participants (which I think is wicked awesome) and an amazing lineup of speakers, ranging from The Daily Show's John Oliver to LA homicide detective, Will Beall to Second Life creator, Philip Rosedale to the founder of the National Institute of Play, Dr. Stuart Brown. All of the speakers (too many to list here) represent a crazy range of talent, experience, and occupation. The best part is that participants get to work with the speakers in studio settings in addition to hearing talks. Seriously, (no pun intended this time)if this conference wasn't prohibitively expensive for a grad student, I'd start hitching my way to Pasadena now (wait. Pepper--don't have a heart attack. I'll start hitching after CCCCs). So, are you wondering why I'm telling you about this great conference that you probably won't be able to go to? Future reference, my friends. The previous conferences are pretty extensively archived (meaning that post-conference materials may be available) and simply reading the descriptions of (and googling) the different speakers is a learning experience. A further possibility: we actually one day have jobs where they pay for us to go to conferences and learn! Now you know one of the places to go...when work pays for you to play.