Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle has begun, kicking off two days of conferencing and networking with hundreds of industry professionals from around the world.
The first talk of the day is from GameAnalytics’ Ivan Bravo, who is discussing global trends in hyper-casual games. He’ll present fresh benchmarks for the genre, offering a deep dive into retention metrics and emerging trends, along with ideas for retaining and re-engaging high-value players.
More than 120 speakers will be at the show delivering the expertise to attendees. Top speakers include, but are not limited to, 1Up Ventures general partner Ed Fries, Geogrify CEO Kate Edwards, Super Evil Megacorp GM for global publishing Taewon Yun, NetEase VP Ken Li, NBCUniversal EVP for games and digital platforms Chris Heatherly, and Yokozuna Data CEO África Periañez.
They and other speakers will be delivering sessions and panels across 10 tracks, covering everything from hyper-casual, instant games and global publishing to esports, live ops, monetisation and blockchain gaming.
There’s also PC Connects taking place at the same time, dedicated to, you guessed it, the world of PC gaming. Speakers include Private Division’s Kari Toyama, Epic Games’ Christian Allen, Stray Bombay’s Chet Faliszek and many more.
Connect with the industry
Not just filled to the brim with speaker sessions, there are a host of networking opportunities through the free Pitch & Match meeting system.
Then there are fringe events such as Investor Connector, putting together developers and investors face-to-face to discuss potential business opportunities; and SpeedMatch, which gets devs chatting with publishers on possible deals.
The Big Indie Zone gives indie developers the chance to show off their games to attendees, while the Very Big Indie Pitch and PC Indie Pitch offers a place to present their games for feedback in speed-dating-like pitches, as well as the chance to win prizes such as the coveted BIP baseball bat!
There’s also the CGX Mentor Lounge, where industry leaders, speakers and experts will be giving one-on-one advice in all areas of mobile games development across leadership, tech and creative - anything that mentees want to learn more about.
The first day of the show will be rounded off with the Global Connects Party, an opportunity for attendees to network in a more casual atmosphere and party the night away, before it all starts again tomorrow (May 14th).
You can find out more about the event right here. If you're in town but not at the show, you can still buy a ticket.
