St. John Fisher University is hosting the Serious Play Conference this August.
The event explores how play and games are transforming education and other fields — but it also looks at how they can shape society at large.
“Many of the games or interventions that are being presented on are being used for some type of social good,” Paul Darvasi, executive director of the Serious Play Conference said. “Whether it's sort of creating more awareness around environmental issues, thinking more deeply about treating people in a better way through some kind of a game or initiative focusing on social and emotional learning,”
One of the draws to bring the conference to Rochester is the Strong National Museum of Play, but it's not the only reason. Darvasi said the city is making a name for itself in the world of gaming.
“What we found is there's lots of these pockets around the Rochester area where games are being used in a really interesting way,” he said.
Things like building relationships between youths and law enforcement through gaming competitions at the library, he said, and other initiatives that serve as more than mere entertainment.
“I think we even need more play because of the play poverty that I'm seeing in the world,” St. John Fisher University professor Ozge Kantas said, citing conflicts, confusion and burnout. “People are ... losing their spontaneity, their well-being, their vitality, and they're still trying to push themselves further. So ... they're losing contact with their human essence and their joy,”
Kantas, who teaches psychology and business, is one of more than 120 speakers scheduled to present at the three-day event. Her background working in kindergarten classrooms informs her approach to the field of play.
“We utilize those childlike skills of expanding, building and broadening ... our capabilities through play, and interact (with) each other through play, that playfulness gets the core of everything, of productivity, innovation, peace, building,” she said. "Whether it is two little kids playing in a playground and fighting over a toy, or whether it is two nations fighting over the land, it is the same games that we play, whether we make peace or whether we make war with each other.”
The conference includes after-hours access to the Strong National Museum of Play, and an inaugural Serious Play Esports Summit at the Rochester Institute of Technology’s MAGIC Spell Studios. The goal of the summit is to explore the evolving landscape of esports in education and competitive gaming, according to organizers.
