For the fifth consecutive year, Montreal will host one of the most important meetings of video-game industry professionals on the eastern seaboard.

From Nov. 18-19, Quebec’s digital industry network, Alliance numérique, will unite video-game creators, developers and producers for its Montreal International Game Summit.

‘It’s an educational and networking event,’ says conference organizer Alain Lachapelle.

This year, industry sessions will be divided into six tracks: game design, visual arts, technology, production, business, and serious games.

‘Serious games’ include non-entertainment applications such as flight simulation, explains Lachapelle. Video games are now used to help returning soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq deal with the trauma of being at war, says Lachapelle. ‘They can be used for therapy because they simulate and recreate the conflict context the soldiers experienced.’

Paris-based Ubisoft – which has a Montreal studio that employs l,800 and is the second-largest video-game studio in Canada – has also developed games to help people lose weight and quit smoking, Lachapelle notes. (Vancouver’s Electronic Arts is the largest video-game maker in Canada, with more than 2,000 employees.)

Like much of the audiovisual sector, Lachapelle says the gaming industry is changing, as users switch from playing on consoles such as PlayStation and Xbox to Internet and cellphone games.

‘Even before the recession, we noticed that people were starting to buy more portable consoles,’ he says.

David Braben, founder of Frontier Developments in the U.K., will be one of four keynote speakers. Braben will discuss technological trends and the implementation of new business models, and offer his predictions for sixth-generation consoles in a session entitled Planning for the Future?

Ubisoft’s Dominic Guay will also speak, and Éric Chartrand of EA Montreal will examine how to design better games for a new audience.

‘The new generation of players want to be involved in the game. They want to create characters,’ says Lachapelle.

The summit is funded by Canadian Heritage, the Quebec Ministry for Economic Development, Innovation and Export Trade, and the Quebec Ministry of Culture and Communications. Its corporate partner is High Road Communications.