The Dubai GameExpo Summit powered by Pocket Gamer Connects has officially begun, kicking off two days of insightful talks, roundtables and networking opportunities.
The show takes place from May 1st to 2nd at the Dubai World Trade Centre (Zabeel Hall 4). The show began with Steel Media CEO Chris James taking the stage to discuss the state of the games industry.
The key trends included the current industry challenges that have impacted everyone working in the sector - but hope for the future, highlighting a record number of platinum games last year, the rise of transmedia seeing more games take to TV and film, and the rise of the games industry in MENA.
Star speakers
Over the next two days, we’ve got a host of stellar speakers, including the likes of Ubisoft VP of global creative Fawzi Mesmar, iDreamSky president and co-founder Jeff Lnydon, GameFounders co-founder Kadri Harma, King senior engagement manager for new games Aida Figuerola, Sandsoft CEO David Fernandez and many more.
We’re expecting over 1,000 representatives from a host of MENA and international games firms, including Epic Games, Devsisters, Gamefam, Google, Hypemasters, Jetsynthesys, Kwalee, Xbox, Moon Active, My.Games, Tamatem, Tencent, Riot Games, Sandsoft, and Niko Partners, amongst a raft of other great companies.
We’ll be reporting live from the show - but don’t forget, if you miss any sessions, we’ll be making a number of top talks available on our the PocketGamer.biz YouTube channel over the next few weeks.
Packed conference
Outside of the sessions and roundtables, attendees - which include developers, publishers, investors, and tools and service providers - there are a plethora of networking opportunities.
We’ve got Investor Connector and Publisher SpeedMatch, bringing together developers together with investors and publishers to pitch their games and businesses with an eye to potential deals. Then there’s The Big Indie PItch, another chance for developers to show off their new games and gain valuable feedback from industry experts - as well as the chance to win the much coveted Big Indie Pitch bat!
And don’t forget to head on over to the Big Indie Zone to get your hands on some games and speak with the developers.
Meanwhile, we’ve also got our big event within the event: the MENA Games Industry Awards 2024. The ceremony, which takes place on day two at 12:10 in the main track room, celebrates the very best of the MENA region. Best of luck to all the finalists!
That not enough? The Futura Advice Pitstop will take place at the show across the two days, offering personal, 25-minute consultations on taxes and legal matters.
Futura Digital is a consulting team from the UAE with vast experience in gaming law - and they’ll be on hand to talk about any issues from personal data, trademark and patents and copyright protection, to fighting game clones, relocating your studio, publishing and investment, and more!
Join us!
If you’re reading this, have yet to purchase a ticket and are thinking you should be here - you can still grab yourself a ticket! You can register on the site right here.
See you at the show!
