The 2023 Play Make Learn Conference has reached venue capacity. We hope to see you next year!
OUR STORY
The Play Make Learn Conference promotes high-quality learning opportunities for educators, researchers, developers, designers, foundation leaders, policy makers, museum and library professionals, and school leaders who are dedicated to promoting making, gaming, and playful learning. We aim to engage our audience in cutting-edge learning science ideas and experiences; communicate state-of-the-art design, education, and research; demonstrate new and upcoming games and technology; and network to spark new projects in the following themes:
Playful
Learning
Games for learning and positive social impact
Making and
makerspaces
STEAM
education
Arts integration in formal and informal spaces
Research/practitioner
partnership
REGISTRATION
*NEW! We’re excited to announce Pre-Conference Sessions taking place July 19, 2023. Each session is $50 or use code PCBUNDLE23 at checkout to get $25 off for registering for a morning and afternoon session. Session descriptions are available on the schedule page.
KEYNOTES
July 20, 2023 Keynote: Kishonna Gray
Kishonna Gray is an Associate Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, & Digital Studies and Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky. She is also a faculty associate at the Berkman-Klein Center at Harvard University. Dr. Gray is the author or co-editor of numerous books and articles including her foundational 2014 work Race, Gender, & Deviance in Xbox Live: Theoretical Perspectives from the Virtual Margins, 2018’s edited collections Woke Gaming and Feminism in Play (from our very own University of Washington press) and most recently Intersectional Tech: Black Users in Digital Gaming. She also has a book currently under contract with NYU Press entitled Black Game Studies. She’s a highly sought after speaker and regularly addresses both academic and industry audiences such as at the Game Developers Conference. She is the winner of a number of awards over the years including The Evelyn Gilbert Unsung Hero Award and the Blacks in Gaming Educator Award.
July 21, 2023 Keynote: Margaret Huettl
Margaret Huettl, a descendant of Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibweg, Assyrian refugees, and European settlers, is the Director of the Indigenous Studies Certificate at UW-Oshkosh. She is a scholar of Native American history and North American Wests, and her research examines the continuities of Ojibwe sovereignty in the context of settler colonialism in both the United States and Canada, centering Ojibwe ways of knowing.
THANK YOU TO OUR 2023 SPONSORS!
This year’s DPI support was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
THANK YOU TO OUR 2023 COLLABORATORS!
Mike Cook and David Wells
Instrument Making Experience
SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE
Here's an overview of what's happening at the event. See the Schedule page for session details and the Conference Activities page for other happenings you won't want to miss!
- 8:30 AM - 12:30 PMPre-Conference Sessions
- 1:30 PM - 5:30 PMPre-Conference Sessions
- 5:00 PM - 8:00 PMPre-Conference Reception at Madison Children’s Museum
- 8:30 AM - 9:45 AMWelcome and Keynote
- 10:00 AM - 11:30 AMSessions
- 11:30 AM - 12:30 PMLunch
- 12:30 PM - 4:40 PMSessions
- 4:45 PM - 5:30 PMPoster Reception
- 8:30 AM - 9:45 AMKeynote
- 10:00 AM - 11:30 AMSessions
- 11:30 AM - 12:30 PMLunch
- 12:30 PM - 2:00 PMSessions
- 2:00 PM - 2:45 PMClosing Session
LODGING
Play Make Learn has reserved a select number of rooms for attendees at the following hotels. Rates will be available until the cut-off date or until the block is filled, whichever comes first. If the blocks are full for your travel dates, there are many local Madison hotels near campus.
Hotel: Graduate Madison
Address: 601 Langdon St | Madison, WI 53703
Distance from Venue: 0.3 Miles
Rate: $169.00/night + tax
Cut off Date: The cut off date has passed. Please contact the hotel directly for rates and availability.
Hotel: Madison Concourse Hotel
Address: 1 West Dayton St | Madison, WI 53703
Distance from Venue: 0.9 Miles; airport shuttle available
Rate: $159.00/night +tax
Cut off Date: The cut off date has passed. Please contact the hotel directly for rates and availability.
AUDIENCE
Our conference keeps growing! We continue to see the demographics of our audience expand, both in the fields they represent and how far they travel.
Attendees and presenters have joined us from across the United States and five other countries, including Canada, Germany, Taiwan, Kingdom of Bahrain, and India.
STAY CONNECTED
