Rick Miller to host and deliver keynote at SERIOUS PLAY 2026 in NC
Posted: July 30, 2026
After blowing attendees away at SERIOUS PLAY 2025 in Rochester, NY, and delivering the opening keynote at SERIOUS PLAY EUROPE 2026, Rick Miller is back in a big way. Duke University (Durham, NC) is hosting SP this year from Aug 5–7, and Rick will not only be hosting and presenting awards, but giving his talk Building the Future Through Play(s), AND delivering the Day 3 keynote: BOOM X, a ROCK-umentary performance.
SERIOUS PLAY, now in its 18th year, is North America’s largest conference dedicated to games and learning, and an internationally recognized event.
Building the Future Through Play(s) is an interactive performance blending storytelling, multimedia, and audience engagement. Drawing on his vast body of work as an interdisciplinary creator, it explores the role of play in human creativity and proposes it as essential to addressing contemporary social and technological challenges.
BOOM X, a ROCK-umentary performance is an adaptation of Miller's hit solo show BOOM X, Part 2 of the BOOM Trilogy, which he’s played over 700 times across Canada, the US, Europe and Asia, including a run Off-Off-Broadway. BOOM X documents the music, politics, and culture that shaped Generation X, through Rick's uniquely personal lens as a multilingual Canadian. It’s a full-throttle embodiment of “Serious Play”, as Miller playfully builds the future he imagines as a young boy.
