With the serious games consultancy it’s experience that matters and we incorporate the very best international experience in the areas that truly matter. We know how to research, develop, manage and apply serious game capabilities. “It’s not what it is, it’s what you do with it that counts“. Not only do we know what we’re talking about, we know what to do with it too.
John G. WELSH
With a history that includes “blowing things up!” John Welsh is the owner and CEO of the serious games consultancy. Based in Brisbane, Queensland the breadth of his experience ranges from project and program management, the provision of Live, Virtual and Constructive simulation solutions for a variety of industries, video game production, and developmental training. Passionate about experiential learning he has been instrumental in defining serious game solutions nationally and internationally, spearheading serious game initiatives and providing consultancy, subject matter expertise, guidance and turnkey solutions. A regular speaker on serious game capabilities John’s previous presentations have supported Games Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP), The Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS), Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC), The Serious Games Institute, Xmedia Labs Beijing, and Asia Pacific’s primary regional simulation industry event SimTecT. An extensive international traveller, John also spent time operating a marina and water sports business in Jamaica, where he was born. John is a very mediocre video games player (but he thinks he’s getting better).
Professor Robert J. STONE
BSc (Hons) MSc CPsychol AFBPsS FErgS EurErg
Professor Bob Stone is the Director of the Human Interface Technologies (HIT) Team at the University of Birmingham. A Chartered Psychologist, Bob joined academia in 2003, after a long and successful career in defence, robotics, surgical simulation and Virtual Reality (VR). He was involved in defence human factors research with British Aerospace for 9 years, including projects for the offshore oil and gas industry, the nuclear industry, NASA and the European Space Agency. In 1989 Bob established the UK’s first industrial VR team at the National Advanced Robotics Research Centre, eventually launched as VR Solutions Ltd in the mid-1990s. Today, as well as his academic positions, Bob is one of the senior researchers within the UK Human Factors Integration Defence Technology Centre, where many of his team’s serious games-based training projects originate, covering human-centred design and evaluation methodologies for projects as varied as close-range weapons training and support for surgical procedures, mental health therapies and rehabilitation to submarine safety and rescue, improvised explosive device search/disposal training and unmanned vehicle control. Bob’s team is also active in non-defence applications of serious games, including heritage and education. His VR, Human Factors and robotics work has received numerous awards, including the 2006/2007 Ergonomics Society’s Sir Frederic Bartlett Award, the highest award given by that Society to an individual, and the MoD Chief Scientific Adviser’s Commendation for contribution to science and technology in defence in 2011. Bob is a member of the UK’s Simulation & Synthetic Environments National Technical Committee, an Academician of the Russian Higher Education Academy of Sciences and an Honorary Cossack!