The 2011 Colloquium, “Electronic Gaming and Its Impact on Society,” to be held Feb. 18-20, includes gaming, communication, psychology, and media experts. The three recently announced keynote speakers at the event are:

• Gordon Walton has been authoring games and managing game development since 1977; he has personally developed more than 30 games and overseen the development of more than 200 more. He is currently co-studio director at Bioware Austin. Previously, he was VP/Executive Producer and Studio Manager at Sony Online Entertainment in Austin, working on Star Wars Galaxies, and was in the same role for The Sims Online at Electronic Arts and Ultima Online™! for Origin Systems.
• Warren Spector entered the computer game industry in the late '80s for Origin Systems and Looking Glass Studios. He worked on games including Ultima Underworld I and II, System Shock and Dark Camelot, which later became Thief: The Dark Project. Later he founded Ion Storm Inc.'s Austin branch, which went on to develop Deus Ex, Deus Ex: Invisible War, and Thief: Deadly Shadows. Spector has contributed a great deal to video game theory and constantly promotes the importance of proper execution of ideas in video games.
• Richard Garriott is known by most early PC gamers as Lord British. Since 1980, he has produced games such as Ultima, Bioforge, and City of Heroes and founded the game developing companies Origins Systems and Destination Games (which later became NCsoft Austin). After taking time off from game design to travel to the International Space Station as a self-funded tourist, he is now one of the founding members of the Facebook game company Portalarium.

Colloquium 2011 will take place at the Omni Austin Hotel at Southpark in Austin, Texas. This three-day event is made possible, in part, by donations to the Mensa Foundation and will bring together game developers, psychologists, and researchers with Mensa members, students, and the interested public.

The early-bird registration rate (including three meals) is $169 through the end of July. Visit www.colloquium.us.mensa.org for more information and to register.

The Mensa Foundation is pleased to offer a series of free lesson plans created to encourage the intellectual and educational growth of gifted youth. The newest lesson plans include “Kingdom Animalia,” a nine-part plan for 3rd graders, and “Greek Mythology,” an eight-part plan for 7th graders.

These free, downloadable lesson plans are for students from kindergarten through age 12 and are available at www.mensaforkids.org/teachers. The plans are designed to be completed with minimal supervision, so they are easy for busy teachers to integrate into their classrooms, but also allow for parents to use them as enrichment activities or in a homeschooling environment.

New lesson plans will be added periodically; anyone may sign up to receive email updates whenever new lesson plans are posted. Visit www.mensaforkids.org/teachers for details.

Mensans like to talk, and the subjects they explore range from silly to the most serious issues facing humanity. The resulting conversations are always entertaining and informative.

That s why the Mensa Foundation developed its Conversations with Mensa podcast project. Funded by donations to the Mensa Foundation, these podcasts are free to the public and include one-on-one conversations between members and industry leaders, celebrities and experts in anything from Texas Hold ’Em to astronomy.

The latest podcast features the developer of the Music Genome Project and the widely popular Pandora.com streaming music Web site, Tim Westergren, and Mensan Aaron Dai, a founding member of the Claremont Chamber Orchestra and The Chelsea Symphony. In the interview, Westergren and Dai discuss the success, scope and synergy of Westergren's twin music projects.

Visit www.mensafoundation.org/conversations or iTunes to listen to this or any archived Conversation with Mensa.

2010 marks the 50th anniversary of Mensa in North America and we'd like you to help us celebrate!

If you'd like to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Mensa in North America in a special way, why not consider a $50 donation (or more) to the Mensa Foundation? Your donation will honor Mensa by helping foster intelligence around the world. Donations may be made at www.mensafoundation.org/donate.

If you’re interested in staying up-to-date on the latest research related to intelligence, then it’s time you discovered the Mensa Research Journal (MRJ). The MRJ is published a minimum of three times a year and highlights a diverse selection of articles written by nationally and internationally esteemed authors.

This summer’s issue of the MRJ “the Best of the Best.” In honor of the 50th anniversary of Mensa in North America, we went through the MRJ archives and found the best representation of research in the field of human intelligence. This issue will be a showcase of the best articles and studies from the last 25 years and of the researchers who have had the greatest impact on the field. The “Best of the Best” issue will go on sale in July.

To learn more about the MRJ or to subscribe, visit www.mensafoundation.org/MRJ.