We’re just a week away until our triumphant return to North America for the first time this year! Are you ready for it?

We're returning to Grand Hyatt Seattle, the same popular venue as before, and you won’t want to miss it. Some 1,000 attendees from the games industry will gather to network, discover, pitch and learn from 150 of the world’s leading authorities this May 16th-17th. As well as mobile, the event will cover PC and console, web 3, AI, AR and more, across multiple track rooms. Our speakers and panellists will share their expert insight into design and development, monetisation and growth, life as an indie, new technologies, company culture and loads more. A focus for this conference is diving into new technologies, particularly AI and Web3 and their impact on the games industry, to reflect the most up-and-coming industry trends that you need to know about in 2023. The clock is ticking, and the conference is only a week away now. If you don’t want to miss out, head over and register at our website as soon as you can. 

Not yet sure what to expect at Seattle? Keep on reading for an overview of everything happening next week at the highly anticipated conference.

Connecting you with the games industry at large
As ever, the conference schedule will be packed with our trademark short, sharp seminars. Our speakers get straight down to business. Here are just a few of the fantastic sessions and brilliant speakers you will get to hear next week…

• Scale your IAPs with Purchase Behavior Targeting data insights with Dale Lawrence of Bango
• Mastering Revenue Growth using LiveOps & Contextual Personalization with Sunil Thomas of CleverTap and Greg Lin of Big Fish Games
• New Game Innovation in Free-to-Play Mobile: Fostering Creativity and Results through Cultural and Process Transformation with Carol Miu of PeopleFun
• Playing together is more fun: Is social a must? with Serena Robar of AuthorDigital, Jon Warner of Hyper Hippo Entertainment, Leanne Loombe of Netflix Games, James Mayo of 8 Circuit Studios and Calum Cleary of Kanoapps
• Your new BFF: Data as a game development tool with our very own Charlie Scowen of Steel Media, Shirley Roberson of Hughes Media Law Group and Dale Lawrence of Bango
• Leveraging PR to improve advertisement results with Daff Kjellström of Dimoso
• (Epic) Fortnite Case and More: Time to Level Up Your Gaming Privacy Knowledge with Paul Lanois of Fieldfisher

The event is called Connects because that’s what we help you do; connect with the whole gaming industry, from students and indie studios to the media, international investors and publishers. We offer our MeetToMatch meeting platform free and unlimited to all delegates, so you can find that perfect contact and arrange to meet them in person. If you sign up today, you can get instant early access to this platform and begin scheduling your meetings ahead of time. 

Who’s attending?
So, who exactly will be joining us in Seattle? Our conferences are packed with big names from leading companies both taking the stage and attending. Here are just a few of the attending companies that will be joining us next week…

• Amazon
• Bango
• Big Fish
• Nintendo
• Netflix
• Unity
• TikTok
• The Pokémon Company International

You can view a more detailed list of our attending companies here.

Find your next job opportunity at the Careers Zone
The Career Zone is a dedicated jobs fair running alongside day two of the PG Connects Seattle conference on May 17th. It will feature tables of recruiters from major games studios and publishers in Seattle and nearby cities. The event is free to attend for jobseekers. There will also be a jobs board where companies can post current openings. This Careers Zone will be a recruitment opportunity for companies in the games industry to meet with prospective new employees. Participants will also be able to explore and experience the full PG Connects conference free of charge. In the fast-changing games industry, recruitment fairs are particularly useful for connecting companies that may be hiring with candidates currently seeking new opportunities, especially following the recent period of layoffs.

Studios and publishers of all sizes and from all corners of the industry are joining us at the fair next week. Among our expected recruiters will be…

• The Pokémon Company
• Big Fish
• GG Locators
• Very Very Spaceship
• PerfectDay
• Shrapnel
• Final Strike
• Intrepid

Jobseekers can apply for a free job seeker ticket over at this form. Please note that there are limited numbers of jobseeker tickets available, so the sooner you apply, the better. If you are qualified for participation and receive a jobseeker ticket, it will be valid for you to attend both days of the conference, May 16th-17th, including all the talks and panels and party.

Recruiters interested in participating can email the event organisers directly at support@pgconnects.com.

More opportunities for indies than ever before
Over 70% of our attendees are gamemakers and we pride ourselves on bringing high-value conference content and opportunities for the lifeblood of the games industry: indie developers. Here are the opportunities we have lined up for you at our Seattle show…

• The Big Indie Zone Audience Choice Award - Through the duration of our Seattle show, all PG Connects attendees will have the opportunity to walk through our Big Indie Zone and trial various games from indie developers, then vote to recognise the very best at The Big Indie Zone Audience Choice Award sponsored by ByteBrew. The Big Indie Zone is an expo area of indie developers presenting their latest and greatest creations to fellow Connects delegates and the zone runs for the full duration of the two days. For the first time, in partnership with our sponsor ByteBrew, we will have a ballot box located in this area for attendees to vote on their favourite indie game that is being showcased in the Big Indie Zone. The winner will be revealed by a spokesperson from ByteBrew at the closing ceremony at the end of day two of the conference, so join us then to find out which of the games on display in the area Connects attendees liked best as we celebrate the best in indie talent.
• The Big Indie Pitches - Our Very Big Indie Pitch events are bigger versions of our BIP events, and they’re unmissable opportunities for indie talent to present their games to a panel of industry experts and gain critical feedback in real time. Show off your work and potentially even win prizes and media coverage! We have events available for both PC and console gamemakers and mobile gamemakers.
• Investor Connector - Our Investor Connector fringe event is an incredible opportunity for talented developers and active investors to make first contact and discuss their potential involvement.
• Publisher SpeedMatch - The Publisher SpeedMatch session enables shortlisted developers and publishers to make initial contact during a dedicated one-hour stint of speed-date style meetings.

Your conference ticket includes...

• Entry to all parts of the conference, including access to all content tracks, the expo and the dedicated meeting area on both days
• Access to fringe events such as The Very Big Indie Pitch and Publisher SpeedMatch
• Entry to the Global Connects Party
• Free coffee and tea on both days (and some food for VIPs)
• Personal and company profiles on the MeetToMatch meeting system and unlimited meeting invites
• Access to video recordings of all talks after the event in our Video Vault

Book your ticket before it’s too late!
All of this and more is kicking off next week, and you won’t want to miss it. Hundreds of attendees are already gearing up to join us, and the opportunities to meet incredible potential business partners, take part in career-changing matchmaking events and listen to eye-opening talks by our brilliant speakers are abundant. This is your chance to take your career and your business to the next level. Head over to our website now and book your ticket for Seattle now.