News

Square Enix Montreal, Bandai Namco, ESL and Lockwood Publishing join the roster for Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #1

The speaker lineup is set for next week’s online-only conference to make a spectacular debut

Square Enix Montreal, Bandai Namco, ESL and Lockwood Publishing join the roster for Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #1

Wow, in only four days time, Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #1 will take place! Will you join us from April 6th to 10th?

Taking our conference schedule online, we'll bring you 40+ live-streamed interactive presentations from more than 100 expert speakers across seven insightful tracks. And they will all be available later as video on demand for you to watch at your convenience.

We’ve pulled together an absolute mega list of speakers for you and here are the latest speakers confirmed to take part.

L-R: Sandra Schneider, Paulo Souza, Danielle Cohen, Carlos Estigarribia

ironSource’s VP Strategic Partnerships Sandra Schneider provides the six steps your competitors are taking to grow their games so you don’t fall behind. Supersonic Studios’ GM Nadav Ashkenazy shows you how to use data to make better decisions for your game business, while their Director of Gaming Danielle Cohen discusses with a panel on how to manage your team when going from concept, to development, to launch, to live.

Sandra Schneider provides the six steps your competitors are taking to grow their games so you don’t fall behind.

Unreal Engine’s Evangelist Paulo Souza and Big Karma’s Founder Pascal Clarysse walk through some of the tools for making your games more awesome. Clarysse also appears on a panel with Lockwood Publishing’s GM Brazil & LATAM Carlos Estigarribia and Xsolla’s VP Strategic Planning Justin Berenbaum discussing leadership during COVID-19.

Bidalgo’s CRO Peleg Israeli offers COVID-19 insights for gaming app marketers in order to keep continuity flowing in a crisis. Creadits’ Co-founder Nick Gibbons focuses his session on cutting through the noise with cost effective 3D ads.

With the world where it is due to current events, remote working is a necessity unless absolutely essential. Altitude Games’ Creative Director & Co-founder Luna Javier focuses her session on how to train game designers remotely. Meanwhile, Altitude Games’ CEO & Co-founder Gabby Dizon, Square Enix’s Product Manager Karla Reyes and Altergaze’s CEO & Co-founder Liviu Berechet Antoni look at how to change a centralised company to decentralised working.

L-R: Peleg Israeli, Luna Javier, Gabby Dizon, Karla Reyes

App Annie’s Director, Market Insights Amir Ghodrati shares some of the latest trends and insights to help you win in mobile gaming. Ghodrati also features on a panel alongside Dimoso’s Founder & CEO Jacki Vause as they discuss how to deal with disaster and disruption. IMBA Interactive’s Co-founder Gwen Guo and Voodoo’s Game Lead Sophie Vo discuss with a panel how to create the right company culture for your mix.

Learn how to identify suspicious activity with machine learning powered abuse detection pipelines with Chris Finch

Imperia Online’s Marketing & Business Development Manager Mario Vasilev, Rogue Games’ Director of BD Levi Buchanan and Fyber’s Vice President, Supply North America James Hughes will talk through choosing the right monetisation option for your game. Fyber’s CRO David Simon will also be making an appearance at Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #1 to share the data behind the mistakes publishers make in their monetisation setup.

Protecting your projects is one of the most important aspects in design. Learn how to identify suspicious activity with machine learning powered abuse detection pipelines with AWS’ Senior Game Tech Evangelist Chris Finch. Small Giant Games’ Lead Data Analyst Peitsa Hynninen provides some analytics from a live ops perspective. Boombit’s VP Publishing Jon Hook analyses what midcore games tell us about the future of hyper-casual games.

One Zero Digital’s Founder Joshua Galloway and Supersonic Studios Lead Game Designer Tomer Geller focus on creativity and business, and how to find common ground between the two. Bandai Namco’s Director of Business Development Karim Farghaly and Paladin Studios’ CEO Kay Gruenwoldt, together with a panel, discuss why you should publish on console.

L-R: Amir Ghodrati, Sophie Vo, James Hughes, Gwen Guo

Will 2020 be a boom or bust year for esports? James Dean, Spike Laurie, David Yarnton and Mike Kuusisto discuss

Agnitio Capital’s Managing Director David Bluhm, Consulate General of Finland in Los Angeles Trade Commissioner Zsuzsa James and 1Up Ventures General Partner Ed Fries feature on a panel to discuss the state of investments and what to expect from the market now. Loona Inc’s COO Natalie Portier appears on a separate panel that looks at what investors want and need to see when you’re pitching your project.

Hiro Capital’s Venture Director Spike Laurie, ESL’s MD James Dean, Edge’s Chairman & Co-founder David Yarnton and ENCE Esports’s CEO Mika Kuusisto feature in a roundtable discussion on whether the year 2020 will be a boom or bust year for global competitive play.

And on the opposite side, Magic Leap’s Senior Dev Tech Engineer Josh Naylor, Thoughtfish’s CEO & Co-founder Christina Barleben and Resolution Games’ CEO Tommy Palm discuss whether this is the year that AR and VR break through.

L-R: Chris Finch, Zsuzsa James, Karim Farghaly, Natalie Portier

We have much more in store!

Wow, now that’s a lot of speakers! But much like our live conferences, Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #1 will host a huge variety of panels, webinars, roundtable discussions and solo seminars offering the best insight and exchange of views from every angle. Each speaker will be covering everything from live ops in mobile games, to trends in blockchain, to publishing on PC and console.

Here are some more of the latest amazing speakers confirmed to take part:

  • Atomic, Kris Dahl, Principal
  • Axie Infinity / Sky Mavis, Aleksander Leonard Larsen, COO / Co-Founder
  • Blockchain Game Alliance, Alex Amsel, Co-founder
  • Edge, Adam Whyte, Founder & CEO
  • Fingersoft, Jaakko Kylmaoja, CMO
  • Game Jolt, Yaprak DeCarmine, Co-founder & CEO
  • GSMA, Jawad Abbassi, Head of Middle East & North Africa
  • iEntertainment Network, JW 'Bill' Stealey, President & Chairman
  • Independent, Mike Hines, Developer Expert
  • ironSource, Elad Cohen, Strategic Partnerships Team Leader
  • ironSource, Yuval Lotan, Director of Strategic Partnerships
  • King, Alena Rybik, Senior Producer & Product Owner
  • Mainframe Industries, Thor Gunnarsson, CEO & Co-founder
  • Payload Studios, Russ Clarke, Founder & CEO
  • RocketSnail Games, Lance Priebe, Founder & Game Designer
  • Square Enix Montreal, Estelle Boissier, Live Operations Manager
  • TopOn, Harry Yang, VP of Marketing-Monetization/Publishers
  • Umami Games, Riley Andersen, CEO
  • Unreal Engine, Arran Langmead, Evangelist

L-R: James Dean, David Yarnton, Mika Kuusisto, Christina Barleben

About Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #1

Sitting alongside our live events, Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #1 is our first online-only conference, and will attract 750 industry professionals from all around the world onto the system.

Featuring a brand new purpose-built matchmaking and meeting system, each delegate will be able to organise their meetings completely at any point during the day. From April 6th to 8th, we will be hosting seven tracks where more than 125 of the world’s leading authorities will share their expert insight on everything to do with mobile PC, console, blockchain, XR and more.

Book now and save!

Join us for this exciting digital adventure and connect with the global games industry from the comfort of your office, workspace or home.

Save up to 10% by using the code SAVEONLINEPG10 when you book your tickets.

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.