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Supercell, Tencent, King, Wargaming, Facebook and more already confirmed to speak at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2020

Two-day B2B games industry event poised for an incredible return in January

Supercell, Tencent, King, Wargaming, Facebook and more already confirmed to speak at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2020

It’s coming home! Pocket Gamer Connects returns to London on January 20th and 21st 2020 - and we are back with a bang!

Following on from last year’s success, Pocket Gamer Connects promises to make an incredible homecoming to England’s capital city, and the speaker line up is already shaping up to be our best ever. The conference has grown exponentially over the history of the Connects international series and that’s all thanks to you.

But without further delay, here are your first speakers for Pocket Gamer Connects London 2020!

L-R: Ian Livingstone, Malte Barth, John Peterson, Sean Lee

We’re thrilled to announce that industry legend Ian Livingstone of Sumo Group makes a welcome return to our stage next year. He takes part in a panel focusing on Venture Capital in games, with LVP’s David Gardner, Crossover Technologies’ Eric Goldberg and BITKRAFT Esports Ventures’ Malte Barth.

Industry legend Ian Livingstone makes a welcome return to our stage next year, taking part in a panel focusing on Venture Capital in games

Continuing the focus on business, mergers and acquisitions play a huge part in the games industry and we invite the very best figures to look at these industry trends. Jam City’s John Peterson, Supercell’s Jaakko Harlas, Wargaming’s Sean Lee, Atomico’s Alexis Bonte, MTGx’s Christopher Bergstresser and Fenwick’s Mark Stevens unite for a panel which analyse and discuss consolidation in the games industry.

Animoca Brands’ Robby Yung features in our conference series once again, this time for a fireside chat with Agnitio Capital’s Shum Singh, providing their industry thoughts to our attendees. Another familiar face for 2020, Jeff Tremblay of Nutaku returns to share his expert analysis and insight based on 20 years of being involved with business development.

And for a look at overseas markets, Langer Lee of Mixi and NCSOFT’s Michael Chang look at new opportunities in diverse Asian territories, while Tencent’s Miley Chen, GAMEVIL’s David Mohr and Glu Mobile’s Chris Akhavan discuss global publishing and some of the business trends in today’s market.

 

L-R: Christopher Bergstresser, Robby Yung, Shum Singh, Jeff Tremblay

Culture, consoles and aspirations

Great games start with great culture, and King’s Sabrina Carmona looks at the culture and production within games companies, while Glu Mobile’s Mark van Ryswyk shares effective strategies for fostering an environment where teams can be bold, stay curious and develop skills to lead.

Zynga’s Jon Lopera will show you some of the best ways to work with press and publishers

Additionally, Geogrify’s Kate Edwards discusses what needs to be done to guarantee a harassment-free company, while Futureplay’s Jami Laes reveals how the company defines its products and culture.

ChilliConnect’s Paul Farley and GamesConsulting.net Nick Murray, with the help of a panel, talk through some of the ways developers and publishers can keep their communities happy.

Chorus Worldwide’s Shintaro Kanaoya will lead a seminar which focuses on publishing on the Nintendo Switch and other consoles. Zynga’s Jon Lopera will show you some of the best ways to work with press and publishers. Whereas Those Awesome Guys’ Christopher Wulf teaches you how to showcase and not waste your money.

Recontact Digital Arts Co’s Simay Dinc showcases a new cinematographic mobile game called Recontact:London. Hilmar Pétursson of CCP puts mobile MMOs in the spotlight with his session, as he dissects this genre of mobile gaming and looks at their design.

What does aspiration look like for outsourcing and external development studios located in hard-to-pronounce places? Zaair Hussain of Frag Games gives a talk about professionalism, pride of work, and the many faces of aspiration, as well as a warning about how short-sighted demand leads to short-sighted suppliers.

L-R: Miley Chen, Sabrina Carmona, Kate Edwards, Jon Lopera

Live ops, Agile development and psychology

Hyper Hippo Productions’ Sam Fisher will reveal how Hyper Hippo’s live ops operations maintain its success in different cultures and locales, a must-see talk for any developer looking to publish their games abroad. Hutch Games’ Iosephina Austen dedicates her session to help you study the impact of your live ops through data analytics, as it is a powerful way to maximise your game’s enjoyability and encourage a lively ecosystem.

Hutch Games’ Iosephina Austen dedicates her session to help you study the impact of your live ops through data analytics

UX is a key to success, learn how a well designed UX can improve monetisation, UA and retention alongside keeping users satisfied with Indie Hutch Digital’s Adam Barker. Pixel Federation’s Michal Grno presents some of the best practices to collect and process data, giving insights for developers, designers and producers.

“Today’s app stores feel like a shark tank, everybody wants to get their share,” says App Radar’s Thomas Kriebernegg as he shows you that building up a sustainable user acquisition strategy that isn’t burning your marketing budget will decide if you can make it or not.

Get valuable insight into how King does quality assurance and how Agile Jenga helps with their processes with Ana Luca. And sticking with Agile development, Joanna Haslam of Snap Finger Click provides tips and tricks for agile design documents in her session. She shares key methods for maintaining an effective and useful GDD that grows with the project and works for the whole team.

Digging Deep’s Rosemary Lokhorst presents a clinical study of playing toward your strength. In recent years, the games industry has truly embraced the use of psychology in digital games. However, what if we used games in psychology? Lokhorst will provide a unique perspective of the successes of Shadow’s Edge, which was designed to build resilience in teens and young adults that face chronic or serious illnesses.

L-R: Christopher Wulf, Simay Dinc, Hilmar Pétursson, Iosephina Austen

The hottest trends: esports, XR and hypercasual

Genvid’s Chris Cataldi makes a welcome return to Pocket Gamer Connects to provide his key thoughts surrounding the esports industry. We also have ESL’s James Dean leading a session which will provide audiences with his analysis of the ever growing industry. Kish Hirani of BAME in Games discusses esports and influencers for indies.

Is esports ready to mature? Mika Kuusisto and David Lee debate with a panel, looking at the professionalisation of esports.

Get an in depth look at the professionalisation of esports through teams, contracts and more with ESP Gaming’s David Lee and ENCE eSports’ Mika Kuusisto as they discuss with a panel whether esports is ready to mature.

Riot Games has had massive success with their hit title League of Legends (LoL), and that success has presented an opportunity to create the UK’s first semi-pro esports league for LoL. Mark Cox shows you how the team has delivered multiple publishing, community and creator initiatives for LoL and their new gamemode, Teamfight Tactics.

With all the buzz and attention about XR technologies, which include AR and VR, where does it fit in today’s business world? Groove Jones’ Dan Ferguson provides real insights into this gaming sphere by presenting real case studies on how brands are connecting with their audiences by using these innovative and progressive platforms.

BrainzVR’s Thomas Tumosa shows you his experimentation on creating a co-location multiplayer game for Oculus Quest. He will walk through the game design and illustrate the thought processes on how he developed some of the VR mechanics. Internet of Elephants’ Jake Manion discusses using AR as a force of good.

Hypercasual games might still be the hot ticket in town, but for how long? ByteDance’s Tom van Dam and Softgames’ Alexander Krug join a panel of experts to discuss what comes after hypercasual. Independent games developer Juan Gril will focus on HTML5 games in his session, too.

L-R: Thomas Kriebernegg, Joanna Haslam, Chris Cataldi, Mark Cox

More is always better!

Pretty impressive stuff, no? We told you we’d be back with a bang!

But our list of speakers doesn’t stop there, as we’re adding more names daily, including:

  • Timur Haussila, Supercell
  • Shanti Bergel, FunPlus
  • Jim Ying, CVCapital
  • Harri Manninen, Play Ventures
  • Casey Dickinson, FTX Games
  • Nathaniel Barker, Kolibri Games

We also have representatives from these amazing companies joining our lineup for January:

  • Libring
  • Wappier
  • Exit Games
  • CloudGames
  • GoGoChart
  • Bunker VFX
  • Pollen VC
  • Avidly
  • GameRefinery
  • Facebook Gaming
  • Facebook Audience Network
  • Fyber

L-R: Dan Ferguson, Thomas Tumosa, Alexander Krug, Juan Gril

You can save up to $350 with our Early Bird prices, so book now!

About Pocket Gamer Connects London 2020

London is the birthplace of the Connects international series of events for the games industry, and it has been our home for many years. Covering mobile, PC, console and blockchain gaming, over 2,500 industry professionals from all around the world will join us once again for two days of jam-packed conference talks, seminars, panels, pitches, networking, showcases and more. You could make key contacts for your business by taking advantage of our online meeting scheduler which is free to all attendees.

Alongside these conference tracks, we run a host of fringe events which are great networking opportunities, such as: Publisher SpeedMatch, Investor Connector, Very Big Indie Pitch, PC Indie Pitch, and our famous Global Connects Party!

Grab your tickets now

Start 2020 off the right way by being a part of Pocket Gamer Connects London in January. You can save up to $350 with our Early Bird prices, so book now!

Call for speakers

We’re inviting anyone interested in speaking at Pocket Gamer Connects London to get in touch. We’re also seeking speakers for our upcoming shows in 2020 at Seattle, Hong Kong and Helsinki. If you’d like to share your expert insight with our industry audience at any of these events, be it a seminar or a panel debate, submit your proposal here. If you have any problems with the form, please email patty.toledo@steelmedianetwork.com.

Events Writer

Charlie is the Events Writer at PocketGamer.biz

You can catch him on Twitter @CharlieScowen_ talking about anything gaming, TV or football related whilst also sharing too many memes.