MMOSITE.COM: To start, would you care to briefly introduce yourself and Flybug Media?

Jennifer Hannus: My name is Jennifer Hannus and I am the owner of Flybug Media, the company that is putting on the first--ever Mastering the Craft of Online Infrastructure Conference this week.  Flybug Media is a start--up that was created to produce events and conferences.

MMOSITE.COM: The conference is known as Mastering the Craft of Online Gaming Infrastructure. Why did you decide to host such a conference focusing solely on the operation of online games? When did you come to the idea? And when did you begin to prepare for it?

Jennifer Hannus: We noticed that even though there are a lot of conferences that focus on the interactive entertainment industry, there are none that are truly dedicated to the business of running an online game.  In our discussions with game industry executives, it became apparent that many of the challenges they were having were not game development issues, but rather something new ¨C game operation issues.  There was clearly a need for a venue to address these specific operational challenges.  Sure there are things like GDC and E3, etc. but none of those give companies who create and publish online games a forum to really discuss the industry. With the explosion of the online gaming industry we felt it was important for the companies that are part of it to have a place to discuss opportunities, issues, trends and more. 

MMOSITE.COM: What about the conference agenda? How long will this conference be? And who are qualified to attend the conference? What main topics will be discussed?

Jennifer Hannus: This is our first conference and it is a day--long event.  We have some exciting topics to cover including: How to build and maintain an MMO, The changing Landscape of Online Payment Models, Latency, Digital Distribution and more. 

MMOSITE.COM: The conference is somewhat overlapping and complimenting E3 and GDC. What are your goals and expectations for the conference? As you know E3 is downsizing. Do you think the Mastering the Craft conference will become a success?

Jennifer Hannus: We want the people in the online gaming business to have a place where every discussion and topic is pertinent and important to their business.  While GDC and E3 are great for overall interactive entertainment industry business, there are many parts of these conferences that are more dedicated to console and non--online gaming and these are not relevant to companies dedicated to the online gaming space. In addition, we are focusing on operating issues, something other industry conferences only touch upon briefly. 

MMOSITE.COM: So far, how many companies have registered to attend the conference? Are you satisfied with the number and quality of the attendees?

Jennifer Hannus: We are very excited about the response for this very first event and are pleased with the quality of the attendees.  The attendees and participants are the executives and key decision makers from leading game companies, such as Blizzard, Perpetual Entertainment, CCP Games, and Big Fish Games, as well as small start--ups.  In addition, given that this is such a focused event we are very excited that there is a lot of interest from various companies around the globe.

MMOSITE.COM: Glad to hear that there will be many knowledgeable industry experts in the conference. Can you name some of them?

Jennifer Hannus: Yes we have a great lineup of panelists. They come from all walks of online gaming including developers, publishers, security--providers, cash management and more.  Below is a complete list.  

The 27 Guest Speakers and panelists Include:

¡¤ Scott Brown--President and Co-Founder, NetDevil
¡¤ Steve Goldstein--Director of Bus. Development/General Counsel, Flagship Studios
¡¤ David S. Lee--Vice President of Infrastructure & Engineering, K2 Network
¡¤ Shannon Posniewski--Director of Technology, Cryptic Studios
¡¤ Varun Nagaraj, CEO, Net Continuum
¡¤ Jon Hörddal--COO, CCP Games
¡¤ Daniel James--CEO, Three Rings
¡¤ Scott Parcel--Vice President of Engineering & CTO, Cenzic
¡¤ Brad Singer--Executive Vice President, PaymentOne
¡¤ Michael Steele--VP/Evangelist, Emergent Game Technologies
¡¤ Atri Chatterjee--Senior Vice President, Marketing, Secure Computing
¡¤ Vlad Ihora--Head of Gaming Community, Telia Sonera International Carrier
¡¤ Micah Quinn--Senior engineer, Even Balance
¡¤ Steven B. Davis--Chief Executive Officer, IT GlobalSecure
¡¤ Derek Wise--CEO, Global Netoptex, Inc.
¡¤ James Hursthouse--Chief Executive Officer, OGSi
¡¤ George Dolbier--CTO Games & Interactive Entertainment, IBM
¡¤ Shane Happach--VP of Business Development, Global Collect
¡¤ Peter Huang--Senior Director of Web Technology, Trion World Network
¡¤ Brian Taptich, Executive VP, BitTorrent
¡¤ Jerry Godwin, Director of Online Services, Themis-Group
¡¤ Romain Nouzareth, Founder & CEO, Boonty
¡¤ Mark Rizzo, VP, Operations & Platform Engineering, Perpetual Entertainment
¡¤ Mark LeMerle, CEO, Gameplay Holdings
¡¤ Gary Croke, Director of Marketing, Cachelogic
¡¤ Mike Gordon, Co--Founder & Chief Strategist, Limelight Networks
¡¤ Ed Sullivan, CEO & Founder, Aria Systmes

MMOSITE.COM: It must be a monstrous task organizing such a grand conference. How did you deal with the problems you met?

Jennifer Hannus: It is a BIG project!  We started planning this conference back in November 2006.  At that time we just put feelers out to see if this conference was something that online companies thought was important and if it was something they would attend.  After that we started contacting key members of the industry to see if they would agree to be on the panels. We got a great response immediately because people were glad to see a conference dedicated to their business needs.  If this conference goes well, we ll definitely need to add some staff to help plan the future events.