Another week, another conference. But hey, who's really complaining? This one's called the Develop Conference and Expo, and takes place in Brighton, England, a seaside town!

The conference starts tomorrow and will see over 1,000 industry professionals from all over the globe come together for three days. Indeed, it's no small thing: over 90 speakers and 60 sessions are planned, covering Audio, Art & Animation, Business, Coding, Game Design, Production and World Vision. Hence, Develop is pegged as 'the ultimate networking and education destination for game developers in Europe.'

But numbers are just numbers on their own. What's the goal here? Well, the entire conference is going to be focused around four new themes: Capitalise, Specialise, Inspire and Enjoy. The last is being taken 'very seriously' by Develop organisers Tandem Events, who believe 'networking is just as important as learning.' Andy Lane, event director at the company had this to say:

“We’re very excited about this year’s conference: the programme content and the calibre of speakers are second to none. But we’re also very privileged that the development community continues to see Develop as the most important event in Europe for meeting, sharing, learning, networking and having a good time."

Judging by the rundown below, it's hard to argue.

• 2008 Develop Conference keynote: BioShock and Awe: Immersing the Gamer in an Alternate World Without Drowning Out the Gameplay, presented by Ken Levine (studio founder and creative director), Nate Wells (lead technical artist), Chris Kline (technical director and lead programmer) and Bill Gardner (level designer) 2K Boston Studio

• Business keynote: The Broadening Imperative, Shannon Loftis, Microsoft

• Design keynote: Why the Future is Brighter than Ever, David Braben, Frontier

• Coding keynote: Halo AI Retrospective: Eight Years of Work on 30 Seconds of Fun, Damian Isla, Bungie Software

• Production keynote: Working Hard and Having Fun: How Naughty Dog Made Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, Richard Lemarchand, Naughty Dog

• Art keynote: Framestore and The Golden Compass: The Tools and Techniques of Visual Effects, Andy Lomas, Framestore



• Monday 28 July
20.00 Have I Got Games News For You
An evening of trivia and booze hosted by Aleks Krotoski and Keith Stuart from The Guardian’s gameblog

• Tuesday 29 July
18.00 Icebreaker Drinks, Bar 106, sponsored by CCP Games
Kick off the conference in style. Everyone's welcome - just bring your conference or expo badge
20.00 Develop Magazine Pub Quiz, Bar 106
A chance to knock back a drink and compete against game developers to find out who the brainiest team in games development really is.
20.00 GamesAid Charity Poker Tournament, Grosvenor Casino

• Wednesday 30 July
18.00 Post Conference Drinks, Bar 106
Unwind from the day’s sessions and catch up with old & new friends.
18:30 - 19:30 Never Mind The Polygons
A topical discussion of the videogames industry with a beer-fuelled panel of developers and industry experts. Come along to see the debate, have a chat, or just heckle.
19.00 Develop Industry Excellence Awards

• Thursday 31 July
20.00 The GamesIndustry.biz Summer Party 2008 (by invitation only)