Deborah Thomas, the president of Silly Monkey, consults on game-based and traditional learning, mLearning, and eLearning. Among her many honors, Deborah received the 2011 Fun and Serious Games Award for Europe, the 2009 Dugan Laird Award, and the 2009 ASTD Atlanta E-Learning Excellence Award. She has contributed to several books, and has served in leadership roles for the Atlanta Chapter of the Georgia Game Developers Association, ASTD Atlanta, the Technology Association of Georgia Workplace Learning Society, and the North American Simulation and Gaming Association. Deborah earned a BA degree in journalism and education from the University of South Florida and holds numerous training certificates.

David Kelly is the CEO of the Learning Guild. David has been a learning and performance consultant and training director for over 20 years. He is a leading voice exploring how technology can be used to enhance training, education, learning, and organizational performance. David is an active member of the learning community, and can frequently be found speaking at industry events. He has previously contributed to organizations including ATD, eLearn Magazine, LINGOs, and more. He can be found online at his website, davidkelly.me, or on Twitter @LnDDave.

Andrew Hughes is the president of Designing Digitally, Inc. and has over a decade in the strategical planning and development of enterprise custom gamified learning solutions for government and Fortune 500 clients. Andrew is also a professor at the University of Cincinnati and prior to this was a contractor for the US Department of Education, Ohio Board of Regents, and General Electric. Andrew oversees a team of 30 employees and is focused on ensuring the clients’ challenges are met with engaging, educational, and entertaining learning experiences.

Lucas Blair co-founded Little Bird Games, a serious-game development company that specializes in educational and therapeutic games, in 2011. Prior to founding Little Bird Games, Lucas was a lead game designer and co-manager of RETRO Lab at the University of Central Florida. He received an MS in instructional technology from Bloomsburg University and a PhD in modeling and simulation from the University of Central Florida. His doctoral research explored the use of video game achievements to enhance player performance, self-efficacy, and motivation.