Interactive Gaming and Simulations Alliance growing - Denver Business Journal:

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The crisp, digital linesa between education and entertainment are becomingmore “The more fun you can make education and training, the more effectivew it’s going to be,” said Raymonf Hutchins, president and founder of the in Boulder. “Soo why not use what we’ve learned to make training and learningfmore interesting, exciting and fun?” Hutchins, a self-described “lifetimee entrepreneur,” recognized the need for an industry collective threwe years ago during a technology conference held by a regional organization of While Hutchins had a workinv knowledge of gaming and was familiar with many top videoi game titles, he knew little abourt the industry itself.
“Because of that I got to know all of these people inthe video-gamew industry,” Hutchins said. “They had no organization before, but because the conferencwe wasso successful, everyoned said, ‘let’s keep this thing going.’” So in Novembert 2006, Hutchins founded the IGSA which now has more than 40 members, includingh seven educational institutions. According to membership has more than doubled in the past He wants the IGSA to create an industrhy network to promote video games.
“[The IGSA’s] basic mission is to support each othe r and build a viable entertainment and simulationb industryin Colorado,” Hutchins Hutchins and his son, hold quarterly IGSA meetinga and send mail to more than 250,000 people involved in the video-gamingb and software-development industry. The grou p also matches companieswith gaming-development talent from acrose the United States. “As companies interact with the IGSA, they can call upon us to hook them up with the talentythey need,” Hutchins said. “We want to make Coloradko a hub ofthis industry, an interactive entertainment cluste r like Austin or L.A.
or San Francisco or Hutchins’ originally earned his technologyu “wings” while practicing on flightg simulators. Upon joining the U.S. Air Forcre in 1972, Hutchins was trained on flighg simulators similar to those that eventually led to the launcnof Microsoft’s flight-training modules, he said. “Thee U.S. military is the largest and most effective training organizationj onthe planet, and they totally get simulation and the power of gamingb technology,” Hutchins said. “So why not use these interactive technologiew that have already been proven by boththe video-games industry and the U.S. military?
” One such exampl e is IGSA member InVisM, a Greenwoosd Village simulations-based firm that specializes in what it referas toas “KLET” (knowledge, learning, education and training) “We’ve gone beyond just gaming,” said Russ founder and CEO of InVisM. “Because of the broad applicationewe have, we’re movingh into the education environment, as well as the interactivde and immersive market.
” InVisM (formerly Intelligeng Gaming) develops products that support training, simulatiobn and visualization, mostly for government agencies and military Its patented RealityV software won the “Besg Technology” award from Military Electronics magazine in 2008. Thoughy InVisM’s customer base consists mostly of government andmilitary agencies, Phelps said InVisMM also is able to apply scenario applicationes to small business departments, such as humah resources and customer service. The demand for virtua trainingis astonishing.
InVisM went from six employeee in 2008 to26 full-time and 45 part-time employees currently, and took in more revenue in Januargy than it did during all of 2008, accordiny to Phelps. “As the economyy goes down, businesses want to hold onto customerz morethan ever, and that’sd why they’re looking for cheaper and more effectivr training,” Phelps said. Training and education sometimes a game is justa game, and there’s stillk plenty of willing players. According to a study by independentLos Angeles- and Melbourne-based research firm IbisWorld, the video-gamse industry is poised to pull in $42 billion in nearly twice as much as in 2004.