Pocket Gamer Connects London has made a triumphant return to live events at the Brewery in central London, and we hope to see you at London and our future international events, including Seattle, Helsinki, Toronto and more.

Pocket Gamer Connects London digital tickets are available, but if you're not able to join us, a selection of our experts spoke about what they will be discussing at the event – you can click the link for the full pre-event interviews

Walking Squid's Kay Gruenwoldt on the changing face of in-game advertising

Kay Gruenwoldt, founder of Walking Squid Advisory, will be chairing a panel at PG Connects London exploring the future of mobile advertising. The variety of in-game advertising, from audio to disruptive ads, is only matched by the shifting, post-IDFA, privacy rules and parameters.

"I would like to look into the larger trends and get feedback from our highly knowledgable panelists on what they see happening in 2022. My goal is to get us some good insights and hands-on tips that developers and publishers should be aware of this year in regards to ads."

Tencent's Aras Senyuz on the key to PUBG Mobile's localisation

Aras Senyuz, country manager at Tencent, will discuss in his talk, A Global Success Case Study: PUBG Mobile TR, how PUBG Mobile (PUBGM) has become a cultural and social phenomenon in Turkey, including localisation, marketing, esports and the use of dedicated regional and local teams.

"The main focus of my talk is why localisation matters and how local marketing and social media initiatives can drive esports and helped grow the PUBGM community. I will provide examples on the value of working with celebrities and key opinion leaders (KOL) and how such activations are integrated into a 360-degree marketing strategy."

XR Games' Bobby Thandi on raising investment for your studio

Bobby Thandi, founder and CEO of XR Games, will address in his talk, How to Raise Investment Funding for Your Games Studio, his extensive experience raising funding for investment experts and newcomers alike.

"I can give you a sneak peek of three areas: make sure they have your back – you want to know that the potential VC has your back. But how can this be evidenced during the courtship phase? One example could be that as part of the investment round the VC sets aside 10 per cent of the equity pool for Growth Equity. As they want you and your entire team (including future hires) to participate in a future exit. So the investor is diluting themselves to create this Growth Equity as they know it's you and your team that will drive all the value in your business."

Yahaha's Patty Toledo on the metaverse and UGC

Patty Toledo, Developer Relations Lead at Yahaha, will be speaking at PG Connects London with her solo talk, Guerilla Marketing in the Metaverse Era: Networking and Growing your Community with Zero Budget. Toledo will also chair the panel, Power to the People - Will UGCs change the market?

"I believe the most important context for the audience when it comes to UGC and the metaverse is that its success depends on a bottom-up approach: it comes from the community, it is driven by them, and it should always be steered by them. Companies like Yahaha are here to provide the tools and means for creative production but the power is fully in the communities' hands."

Gadsme's Simon Spaull on in-game advertising's untapped potential

Simon Spaull, CRO and co-founder of Gadsme, discusses in his presentation, Why aren’t more brand advertising $$$s being spent in gaming?, the opportunities and misconceptions of in-game advertising, including the core differences between performance marketing and brand marketing.

"There is a common misunderstanding about in-game advertising. There’re two sides of marketing: brand awareness and performance marketing, and it’s the latter of which that 95 per cent of the gaming world utilises to drive player installs and user acquisition. We’ve seen a slight uptick in non-gaming brands adopting this opportunity, but it’s still a long way off from non-gaming or ecommerce brands making the most of this."

Playtra's Dan Bernardo on creating off-trend games

Dan Bernardo, founder of Playtra Games, discusses in his presentation, Off Trend: Creating Mission-first, Trend-second Games, the reasoning, rationale, and profitability of pursuing original games projects.

"Your principles have such a huge impact in everything you do, but people don’t tend to consciously add them to the decision-making process. We also don’t tend to have these kinds of conversations widely – we talk about this with publishers all of the time, and it’s a talk that can come with a lot of frustration and catharsis, almost akin to therapy! So I wanted to be the person to share that conversation with more people."

Wiggin's Isabel Davies on F2P regulations

Isabel Davies, video games and entertainment lawyer at Wiggin LLP, will discuss in her presentation, Regulation of F2P (free-to-play) and what it means for video games, the future of marketing and monetisation of F2P games amidst the increase in political awareness and regulations.

"The theme of the talk is regulation of free-to-play games, particularly in terms of developments in the last year and going into 2022 and their impact on mobile games, digital storefronts, and surrounding material. F2P is something UK regulators have been looking at in earnest since the early 2010s, but various types of monetisation are being observed by regulators and I’ll discuss how that may set the tone going forward and what mobile games may offer consumers.

"It’s a 20-minute talk so it’ll be whistle-stop. But it will be a very useful, high-level summary of what mobile designers, producers, and business leaders need to consider when designing their games and how they want to operate moving forward."