News

May’s Beyond Games conference was epic, and there’s more to come…

Our debut event welcomed 700 industry professionals

May’s Beyond Games conference was epic, and there’s more to come…

We love what we do. Connecting the global games industry is our raison d'etre. We're not saying we're the best, but since you ask - our events regularly have more world-class speakers than any other and our online events this past year have typically been attended by more than 1,500 industry professionals from more than 70 countries.

But last week was something different. The first-ever Beyond Games conference united the creative industries and was a complete passion project from start to finish - and a lot of people that attended have told us that they share our enthusiasm.

We firmly believed that now is the time to more closely examine how games cross over with other sectors such as film, TV, music, comics, books and more and it seems our audience agrees.

For a first-time event, talking to diverse new industries, we were delighted to have over 700 attendees taking part, representing 350+ companies and 42 countries. We were doubly delighted that over 70% of those taking part were creatives (game-makers, musicians, artists, fashion designers, film-makers and more).

Industry pioneers

This one wasn't about the numbers. It was about the future. The art. The people. Event organiser Steel Media's CEO Chris James said, "I was totally blown away by the Beyond Games conference, there's no other way to put it.

Bringing together leading fashion designers, film-makers, music industry experts, blockchain entrepreneurs and forward-looking game makers (including metaverse mavens Epic and Roblox), the event delivered everything we aimed for and more.

I am super grateful to our sponsors Genvid, Rovio, Lockwood, Reality Gaming and Arkane Network and all the incredible speakers as well as the awesome Steel Media team for turning this around in such a short space of time. In truth though, we really are just getting started on our journey to the future and frontiers of the games industry, with more events already being discussed and a dedicated site beyondgames.biz launching very soon. We hope you'll join us!"

Welcome to the future

Of course, as Chris says, we really are just getting started here. We'll continue the journey with our brand-new site - BeyondGames.biz - which is due to launch very soon! You'll find the same expert analysis and up-to-the-minute news coverage that you've come to expect from our market-leading industry websites, with a broader remit to look, well… beyond games - and to the future for all creators. Sign up here to receive updates and be the first to know when the site is live.

Ready for more?

Beyond Games will return as a conference track at July's Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #7 - book now at Early Bird prices offering savings up to $423 - and we're frantically flipping the pages of our diaries to see when we can once more host an independent rallying cry for creatives everywhere.

You have not heard the last of Beyond Games…

To find out how you can get involved, please contact our sales team for sponsorship opportunities lisa.bisset@steelmedianetwork.com or enquire about speaking opportunities patty.toledo@steelmedianetwork.com today.

Tags:
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.