Last night, Zango hosted an industry event at its Bellevue, WA headquarters aimed at resurrecting the WSA's Gaming Special Interest Group (SIG). The focus of the evening was on “Insights Into Successful Online Casual Game Strategies” and featured an excellent presentation by Michael Schultzer, CEO, entrepreneur and coach, and most recently senior vice president of RealNetworks’ worldwide games business.

The greater Puget Sound region is a hotbed of digital gaming companies, from industry behemoths Microsoft and Nintendo to online gaming leaders like RealNetworks, WildTangent and PopCap (to name only a few). Zango offers more than 300 casual online games to its base of more than 20 million consumers.

Schultzer’s presentation took an in-depth look at monetization models that have emerged relating to casual games, including an examination into what experiments have failed and what have had success and, more importantly, why various approaches either worked or blew up. He also reviewed current monetization experiments underway in the market today. The session was very interesting and informative and exactly the right topic to kick-off the next generation of Gaming SIGs through the WSA, the state's oldest and largest technology trade organization.

Zango is a WSA member and Keith Smith, CEO, serves on the WSA’s board. Special thanks to the WSA’s gaming committee (comprised of individuals who all also happen to be Zango employees) – York Baur, Cory Wynne and Meghan Issa – for putting together last night’s event. For those interested in joining the committee, send email inquiries here.