We have less than a month to go until Pocket Gamer Connects Toronto kicks off, and anticipation is building for those two days full of networking opportunities, thought-provoking conversations and overall a wonderful time. We’re lifting the veil on a few of the incredible names that you can look forward to hearing share their expertise with us at our Pocket Gamer Connects Toronto conference next month, and they’ve been generous enough to share a few of their insights with us ahead of time.

If you didn’t know, we’re bringing Europe’s leading b2b mobile gaming conference to Toronto for the very first time on July 6-7. It’s the same PG Connects conference you know and love in an all-new city brimming with untapped opportunities – we couldn’t be more excited to welcome you to our first ever Toronto edition of PG Connects. In line with celebrating Toronto as the most diverse city in the world, we’re highlighting the importance of diversity in the games industry, and shedding light on experts’ thoughts on how we can enhance our diversity and inclusion efforts as an industry.

We have a fantastic speaker lineup lined up for you at our conference and today, we’re spotlighting one of the expert superstar speakers we have among the 150 thought leaders that will be joining us in Toronto next month. The immense wisdom and insight that our talented speakers bring to our conference is a major part of what makes ours the number one mobile gaming conference in Europe, and we couldn’t be more thankful to have them joining us and sharing their time and wisdom with us next month.

We recently spoke with Wizards of the Coast’s Executive Producer, John Eberhardt, about the importance of having a wide variety of perspectives in the game-making process. Catch up on our speaker spotlights here.

Next up on our spotlight series, we spoke with Bobby Baird, Vice President of Customer Success at Stream Hatchet. Baird started at Stream Hatchet four years ago and has worked alongside many leading video game publishers and brands to enhance their understanding of go-to-market strategy and how measurement and analytics can fit into the value chain of rev opps.

Previously, Bobby worked at Player 2 Studios, a marketing and strategic consulting agency that specialises in helping non-endemic brands activate around gaming and esports.

Join us at PG Connects Toronto on June 6-7 to hear Baird deliver a session on how you can achieve mainstream success through livestream.

PocketGamer.biz: If you could give other mobile games companies one piece of advice, what would it be?
Bobby Baird: Invest in esports. Some of the top esports events each year are around mobile game titles like Garena Free Fire, Mobile Legends and PUBG Mobile. It’s a significant audience that continues to grow each year.

What leaders/pioneers in games do you find inspiring?
The work Riot Games is doing to grow a competitive audience for mobile gaming in North America is really impressive. Not only are the tournaments incredibly well-produced, but the tournaments have pulled fairly significant viewership (A total of 3M hours this year). The game runs great, highly recommended downloading!

What key trend should we be paying attention to in the next 12 months?
Web 3.0 and Decentralisation. One of the benefits of more publishers adopting Web 3.0 is to help outsource sales to the community. As opposed to dedicating development resources to in-game cosmetics, developers can empower the community to build unique cosmetic items which they tax. This enables the developer to focus all of their efforts on developing and improving the game. All in all, this will be a massive win for the community.

Why do you think it is important to see diversity represented in the games industry?
There are so many different personas of gamers (mobile gamers, couch gamers, watchers, etc.) that it’s important for game publishers and other adjacent businesses to incorporate as many different perspectives as possible to reach the market and maximise audience engagement.

Are there any companies you think are doing a great job at promoting diversity in the games sector?
Evil Geniuses has done an incredible job of not only promoting diversity within all levels of the org, but also empowering employees to reach management positions regardless of their backgrounds.

How do you think the portrayal of diversity in gameplay can be better?
Game publishers need to focus more efforts on creating protagonists of diverse backgrounds. It’s easy to allow for customization of an avatar, it’s another thing to push the player into the mind of a female character, forcing the player to empathise with an individual they typically might not engage with.

Connect with our superstar speakers
Looking to expand your network and include the likes of Bobby Baird and other incredible industry experts? Join us at Pocket Gamer Connects Toronto, there’s no place like it to network to your heart’s content and take your business and network to the next level. Secure your spot now while our Early Bird pricing is still available, prices are rising at midnight tonight and you don’t want to miss your chance to get $350 CAD off your ticket!