A new year brings all kinds of resolutions. For us at Sandbox Summit, 2012 means creating an even better Summit than last year – more inclusive of all kinds of media, more interactive with our audience, more thought provoking, and more network-friendly. At the risk of sounding like an ad (but DO check out sandboxsummit.org), we think our lineup of speakers and topics raises our own already high bar.

The April event at MIT will address today’s anywhere/everywhere state of play. We believe that the global mobile revolution has not only changed the tools of play; it’s changed the rules. From toddlers to tweens to twenty-somethings, life has become an eBook, ready to download. Kids can – and do – connect and communicate 24/7. The kind of device they own is secondary; a keyboard and fingers are really all they need. The rest is just i-candy.

Sandbox Summit@MIT will make sense of what this real-time technology is teaching our kids. And what their usage is teaching us.  Our keynote speakers are Callaway Digital Arts’ Rex Ishibashi and Colleen Macklin from Parsons The New School of Design. Highlights include new research from Nickelodeon, a trend report from IG, words from the trenches of Disney Publishing Worldwide, Microsoft, and Flickerlab, and a can’t-miss collaborative presentation from Ian Bogost and Eric Zimmerman. Small workshops each afternoon focus on more specific areas of interest.

However, in addition to a great agenda, what really makes each Sandbox Summit special is the interaction of the attendees. We deliberately keep the event small; in that way every person who comes to the Summit adds to the vibe. (We’ve also heard that everyone who leaves takes away more than they brought.) When we say we want to hear from you, we’re not kidding! We hope you’ll join the discussion in April.

If you have any questions, email me at wendy@sandboxsummit.org.

The next Sandbox Summit@MIT focuses on the mobile revolution.