Games for Change Press Kit

The 2024 Games for Change Festival will take place Thursday, June 27 to Friday June, 28 in New York City. This year’s Festival theme, “The 2030 Marker: A Catalyst for Global Change,” draws inspiration from the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Last year’s Festival was a landmark event, bringing together almost 4,500 people in person and virtually to celebrate the Festival’s 20th anniversary. Building on this momentum, the 2024 Festival will continue to serve as a hub for thought leaders, innovators, and change-makers in the gaming and XR industries.

Games for Change is the leading advocate of games for social impact. Games for Change hosts a multitude of programs and events throughout the year, including a dynamic G4C Learn program, which includes the G4C Student Challenge (a game design program and competition which bridges students’ passion for video games with civic engagement by focusing on issues affecting their communities) and Game Exchange (a virtual exchange program for teens in the United States, Bahrain, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates around game design).

Regular-priced tickets will be available until June 9th on the Games for Change Festival website.

To register for a press pass, please fill out this form.

Games for Change Festival 2024

G4C Festival 2024 Logos

G4C Festival 2024 Announcements

Diverse Voices, New Stories Challenge Winners 06-27

G4C 2024 Award Winners Collages

Games for Change Festival – Day 1

G4C 2024 Award Finalists Collages

G4C 2024 Best Board Game or Tabletop Game for Impact Award Finalists

G4C 2024 – Speakers Headshots

Ava Volandes, Director of Social Impact, Minecraft

Shuli Gilutz, PhD, Programme Officer (Childs Rights & Digital Business), UNICEF

Corinne Dey, Director of Technology (Games), PBS Kids

Cameron Kostopoulos, Founder and CEO, Kost

Tristan Marra, Vice President of Research & Reports at the GLAAD Media Institute, GLAAD

Dr. Walter Greenleaf, Neuroscientist, Virtual Reality, and Digital Health Expert at Stanford University Virtual Human Interaction Lab

Melanie Harke, Interactive Producer for Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood and Donkey Hodie, Fred Rogers Productions

Rebecca Kantar, Vice President of Education, Roblox

Poulomi Basu, Artist, Filmmaker, Author, Activist at Just Another Production Company

Leanne Loombe, Vice President, External Games, Netflix

Jessica Lindl, Vice President and Global Head of Social Impact / Education at Unity Technologies

Tanya Thompson, Senior Director Inventor Relations, Hasbro

G4C 2024 – First Round of Speakers Collages – 03/14

About Games for Change

Founded in 2004, Games for Change is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that empowers game creators and social innovators to drive real-world impact through games and immersive media. We convene industry experts through our annual Games for Change Festival, inspire youth to explore civic issues and STEAM skills through our Student Challenge, and showcase leading impact-focused games and immersive experiences through live Arcades for the public. G4C brings together organizations and individuals to grow the field of impact games, incubate new projects, and provide venues for the exchange of ideas and resources.

High Resolution Games for Change logo (Red)

Susanna Pollack, President, Games for Change

Susanna Pollack is the President of Games for Change, the leading global advocate for the power of games and immersive media as drivers of social impact. In her role there, she produces the annual Games for Change Festival, the largest industry-facing gaming event in New York, dubbed by national media as “the Sundance of video games.” The event attracts industry leaders across game design, emerging technology, media, foundations, government agencies, academia, and brands. In 2017, Susanna launched XR for Change to focus on building a community of practice around how immersive technologies are offering radical new ways to improve lives.

Susanna works also closely with organizations that are actively pursuing digital games and immersive media to further their public or CSR mission. For clients, including American Express, Verizon, Princeton University, AT&T, United Nations, Carnegie Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Ad Council, and Smithsonian Museum, she has initiated dozens of programs to advance the games and immersive media for good sector. As an Executive Producer, Susanna spearheads impact media projects, bringing together award-winning creators with mission oriented organizations. Current projects include 38 Minutes a partnership with renowned studios Archer’s Mark and Atlas V and Princeton University’s Science and Global Security Department, Oculus and MacArthur Foundation. The VR experience highlights the issue of nuclear security risk through immersive storytelling.

With a commitment to learning and education, Susanna also developed a portfolio of programs that advance the use of games and immersive media in learning. She launched the G4C Student Challenge with the NYC Department of Education in 2015 which now a national program that reaches 10,000 students annually. The program has attracted world-class partners including the New York Times, NYC Mayors Office, ACLU, General Motors, Truth Initiative, National Geographic to offer a games design challenge to underserved middle and high school students across the country. For Verizon, she led the development of an XR Hackathon program that is currently being rolled out to 20 Verizon Innovation Schools over the next 2 years.

Prior to Games for Change Susanna worked across both the commercial and public sector. Over a 14 year period, Susanna held various senior level positions at BBC Worldwide Americas, including SVP of the US television distribution division where she led a team of 20 to raise $50m annually from coproduction and sales of BBC’s award winning documentaries and scripted content. She was also SVP of BBC Worldwide’s Children’s where she led the strategy of all youth related initiatives in the US including channel and IP development.

Games for Change – Social

Media Contact

Amiekay Richcrick – amiekay@zebrapartners.net