Tandem Events has just announced the first details of the second Develop Conference and Expo. It's back to Brighton for the European games industry this summer, with the event taking place from July 24th – 26th.

Tandem's promising over 70 speakers this year (a figure that rings eerily of last year's line up). Confirmed so far are Peter Molyneux from Lionhead, Media Molecule (developers of LittleBigPlanet), Peter Chiang (Vfx), Rare, Mike Gamble (Instinct Technology), Katie Ellwood (SCEE) and Steve Williams (Blitz Studios). SPOnG's put a call in to Tandem for more details on what to expect from their appearances and will update you as soon as we have them.

Speaking about this year's themes, Advisory Board Chair, Owain Bennallack, said,



As well as 'community' and 'inter-connectivity,' creativity (making games the ‘YouTube’ of tomorrow, apparently) and control (making the most of 'new wave' devices).

Running alongside the Develop Conference will be Develop Mobile (a one day event focused on mobile gaming) and GAMES:EDU, a platform for educators and developers to discuss the educational needs of the gaming community.

Last year's Develop Conference was something of a 'Who’s Who In Game Development' (not to mention SPOnG's only holiday). As the annual Develop 100 just confirmed what we already knew – Britain's a development powerhouse – SPOnG's struggling not to drool on its keyboard.