SPARKcon, an annual festival in the capital city designed to celebrate the Triangle's creative spirit, is adding the region's growing videogame industry to the mix this year.

Call the new effort GamingSPARK - and it should be fun with games, as well as emerging technology on display.

In addition to music and food along reborn Fayetteville Street, the public can discover in person some of the excitement that is being created globally by companies such as Cary-based Epic Games ("Gears of War", "Unreal Tournament" franchise) and many others.

Megan Wood, business development manager at Themis Media in Durham, is the driving force behind gamingSPARK. The action begins tonight with an emphasis on locally developed games and is capped Saturday by a "Gears of War 2" tournament. "Gears" in both editions is a global hit, selling millions of copies while spawning books, toys, action figures, a movie and more.

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