Helsinki hype: 10 reasons why you need to pick up a pass for Pocket Gamer Connects

The most important one is free beer

• 1 Take part in The Very Big Indie Pitch

  The Very Big Indie Pitch your opportunity to get face time with dozens of leading journalists and get your game noticed by those in the know.

  Offering you the chance to pitch to each team of journos for four minutes at a time, this will really help you hone those face to face presentational skills and your journalist mailing list.

  Oh and did we mention that not only could you win a share of $20,000 in advertising, you could even land an App Store feature like a previous pitch winner did? Just make sure you sign up by 30 May via the Pocket Gamer Business Network to be in with a chance of winning.

  
  

• 2 Show your game off in the I Love Indie Showcase

  Sitting alongside the Very Big Indie Pitch is the Indie Showcase. This two-day ticket worth $300 will buy you a conference ticket, a table, two chairs and a power socket to use to show your game off with.

  It’s a great way to get your game noticed by all the big wigs walking around the conference floor. That includes the Pocket Gamer team, who’ll be covering every game featured in the showcase, so it’ll be invaluable for getting you priceless coverage.

  Best of all, we’ll be handing out ten free pitches to developers who enter the Very Big Indie Pitch before our 30 May deadline. Best be heading back up to the link in reason 1 if you didn’t click the first time, eh?

  
  

• 3 Learn from the Indies Heroes Track

  Beyond trying to get that all-important coverage for your game, Pocket Gamer Connects is also going to offer you the chance to get to meet your Indie heroes as well.

  Our two day interactive track will offer you the chance to meet, greet and learn from indie developers who have been there, done that and managed to make enough money to buy the T-Shirt.

  Looking at how to become a creative indie force, ways of running your business and the best tools and methods to develop your games, you’ll learn lots from indie legends of the present (Frogmind, CornFox Bros) and from indies past (Rovio, Lima Sky).

  
  

• 4 Expand your frontiers in our East meets West track

  Ever wondered what it’d be like to launch a successful game in Korea, China or Japan? How about getting a hit in South America after the World Cup has left the region with that party feeling?

  Our East Meets West track will help you learn about the challenges, problems and hurdles in all of these markets and how to clear them like a development version of an Olympic hurdler.

  And don’t worry, you won’t need to wear lycra like an Olympic hurdler to benefit from it…

  
  

• 5 Meet industry legends

  Supercell, Kabam, King, Secret Exit, Digital Chocolate, Grand Cru, Red Lynx, Rovio, Ubisoft and many other developers walked into a Finnish conference hall and the conference delegate said “Blimey, what a collection of the who’s who of the mobile industry”.

  Ok, so the punchline sucked but the point remains: Pocket Gamer Connects is going to be the place to bump into those all important industry heroes and for you to dazzle them with your enthusiasm and snazzy business cards.

  This conference isn’t just about learning from them politely on the conference floor; it’s about getting chatting and making those connections that matter.

  
  

• 6 Meet the media

  Speaking of making great connections, we’ll be pulling out our electronic cattle herder and getting all the journalists from the Steel Media stable out into the open to talk to.

  That’ll mean writers from Pocket Gamer, PocketGamer.biz, App Spy and 148 Apps will be wandering the floor searching for coverage on pain of being made into journalistic steaks, meaning that they’ll be keen to meet you and find out all about your pride and joy.

  And beyond those hallowed publications, there will also be invited journalists from outside to talk to. So whether you head off to be interviewed in our video booth or whether you look to mingle, PG Connects will be a great opportunity to mingle with those of a media mindset.

  
  

• 7 Land yourself a new job

  Maybe you’re on the lookout for a job or a new job? Well luckily for those of that persuasion, PG Connects will have a careers area to help you find that new role and most of the companies there will be on the lookout for new talent.

  Just make sure you get best t-shirt out and get a nice hair cut – it makes all the difference, trust me.

  
  

• 8 Speak your mind in the open mic session

  Beyond all this professional sounding networking, there’ll also be plenty of opportunities to tell the world exactly what you think of it in our open mic unconference session.

  Letting you grasp the mic and seize the limelight, it’ll be your perfect chance to tell the world all about that great thought you had at 4 in the morning after your 26th consecutive Faster Than Light play through. Or, you know, about something else.

  
  

• 9 Pick up your free report worth £250

  Psst! Want some top secret intelligence worth hundreds of quid for free?

  Then you best be getting to Pocket Gamer Connects as our free report into the top trends in mobile gaming across the world is going to be an invaluable business intelligence guide for you to get hold of.

  Just imagine going to your next developer meet up having read up on all of that – you’ll be the toast of your town!

  
  

• 10 Free food and beer

  Most importantly of all though, we’ll have plenty of free food and beer for you to get down your gullet. Throughout both days of the conference, we’ll mother you during proceedings to make sure that you get properly fed throughout your time in Helsinki.

  Then in the evenings, we’ll proceed to behave much more like an irresponsible older brother by inviting you to our Mobile Mixer and Pocket Gamer Party to get you on the beers and making sure that the free food we’ve given you soaks up as much of the alcohol as it can…

  And those are your top ten reasons to turn up to Pocket Gamer Connects as a developer. You can buy a mid term conference ticket for the ludicrously cheap $150 on our PG Connects Eventbrite page right here and we really hope you come on by to join in the ten fold fun. We're going to have a blast and we hope you come along and join in.