That strapline’s a bit of an infodump, but we’re just so excited to share all the good news from Pocket Gamer Connects London 2022 – the incredible return to our live events in over two years (although we did run nine digital conferences, amongst other things in the interim).
The live event, marking the 9th year and 32nd outing of PG Connects in total, was held on February 14-15 at London’s labyrinthine Brewery venue in central London and welcomed over 1,900 attendees, mainly live (but some also joined digitally), representing over 60 countries in total.
As is typical for a PG Connects event, we had a high percentage of game makers in attendance, over 70 per cent in fact, and the busy showfloor was full of companies showcasing their wares.
PG Connects welcomed over 1,900 attendees, representing over 60 countries in total
Matchmakers
The core of PGC events, as the name suggests, lies in connecting people, be they developers, publishers, investors, tool makers, monetisation experts, or media. The 6,000+ meetings made via the official meeting system was an impressive number in itself, but add in the booth stops, coffee chats and incidental meets and that number could easily be doubled again. And that’s before you consider the five focused fringe events.
The two Big Indie Pitches enabled smaller mobile and PC/console devs to connect with press, publishers and platforms, whilst SpeedMatch targeted the more established developers. Investor Connector was all about fund-raising for new projects, whilst Money Maker zoned in on those seeking to squeeze extra revenue from their existing games.
Expo-nential
The two floors of expo showcased the most important companies in the industry (from Amazon to Xsolla), whilst the Big Indie Zone gave upcoming stars, such as SPECTRUM48 and Baltic Explorers, the same platform as industry stalwarts including Amazon Web Services and King their chance to shine. In total, over 900 companies were represented by our exhibitors, speakers, and attendees.
Whilst the show floor buzz was tangible, they were certainly very vocal on social media too, with #PGConnects pulling in over 90,000 impressions every hour across the event (a new record!). Meanwhile, four packed track-rooms offered a relentless feed of knowledge covering all aspects of the industry across 21 distinct tracks.
Naturally this sort of enterprise can’t happen without support, so many plaudits are due to platinum sponsors, Xsolla and Agora, and indeed all of the companies who supported us in making PG Connects happen and allowing an enthusiastic return to live events.
The word from on high
this was a true games industry love-in! The ‘industry family’ vibe we’ve worked so hard to encourage was in force
Steel Media CEO Chris James kicked off the conference with usual gusto announcing it to be ‘the very best time to be in the games industry’ and he was equally as upbeat afterwards. “When we decided to move the event to February 14, Valentine’s Day, we did worry if it would be an issue. But, in the end, it really could not have been more appropriate – this was a true games industry love-in!
"The ‘industry family’ vibe we’ve worked so hard to encourage was in force and it was a true celebration of our amazing games industry and its people, from the indie devs, investors, advertising angels, and tool titans through to the exciting new wave of blockchain boffins and metaverse mavens. Whatever your platform of choice or business model, the streams were crossed, the glasses were raised, and the business connections were made!"
Chris went on to spread the love himself: “We exceeded all our expectations for the return to live, but it was only possible because of the incredible support of our generous sponsors, superb speakers, the dedicated Steel Media team, and of course all the c.1,900 awesome delegates who came from all over the world to connect with the event and each other. Thank you all so very much. We will continue to do our very best to support and celebrate you and your businesses and hopefully we’ll see some of you on our world tour. Live events are back!”
What’s next?
PGC London is still going strong, with our Investor Connector matchmaking event, enabling developers and expert investors to discuss one-on-one the opportunities to collaborate, and three days of digital meetings arranged through the MeetToMatch platform, so there are still opportunities to get together.
But we are raring to go with the next Pocket Gamer Connects event in Seattle on May 9-10 – tickets are now available – and more Connects in Toronto (July), Helsinki (September), and Jordan (November) throughout the year, and we hope you’ll join us there too.
Ahead of all that, we will be out in force at GDC, then back hosting the Mobile Games Awards in association with Game Insight on April 5 – nominations are open now!
Don’t forget to check the 2022 live events calendar, and plan where you will connect with the global games industry, and contact lisa.bisset@steelmedianetwork.com or chris@steelmedia.co.uk for sponsor enquiries or to get involved.
