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Welcome to the games world at Hamburg: 50 speakers and 500 conference guests traveled from 26 countries for the 14th Hamburg Games Conference, which took place March 1 and 2. 600 additional guests also visited the conference’s Expo area, which was open to all during the conference. The conference featured 17 presentations, 4 panel discussions and a workshop over the two-day period. There was also a pitch contest. The conference expo was where service providers and development studios presented their products and services to the professional audience. Conference guests organized more than 300 meetings through the Matchmaking platform MeetToMatch. The evening meeting on the first day of the conference was used extensively to network with the international and German games industry.
Hamburg Games Conference’s focus was on “Invest in Games”, which covered major M&A trends in industry, portfolio strategies and practical insights from selling one’s games company. The main track focused not only on the potentials of international markets for games, but also the challenges that studios face in attracting investors and publishers to their projects. The second conference track featured speakers who shared their practical knowledge and insights in the areas of start-up funding, game development, and finance.
A successful return to on-site event and international network platform
“We are thrilled about the conference’s success with many international B2B guests on-site in Hamburg. Hamburg Games Conference has been recognized as not only the premier B2B event on the annual gaming industry calendar but also as an ideal platform for international contacts and initiating business deals,” says Dr. Ralph Oliver Graef (Managing Partner at GRAEF Rechtsanwalte), who co-organized the event.
“Our conference on ‘Invest In Games’ received positive feedback. We were able to provide practical insights and spark discussion, such as about salary transparency or game marketing post-corona,” Dennis Schoubye (Head of Gamecity Hamburg), co-organizer of Hamburg Games Conference.
Many well-known gaming companies are among attendees, contributors, and sponsors
Hamburg-based gaming companies InnoGames and Bigpoint, Exit Games/ Photon Engine and Behaviour Interactive supported the conference with sponsorships. Also, Endava, Wemade, which provides the blockchain platform WEMIX, the Polaris Convention and software service provider Endava were present.
Canada’s Quebec joined the board as a partner area, which enabled for talks between Stephanie Marchand (VP Production at Behaviour Interactive), and Christopher Chancey [CEO ManaVoid Entertainment & Cofounder Indie Asylum], among others.
Humble Games, Assemble Entertainment and 1Up Management were among the conference attendees.