GamesBeat speaker spotlight: VCs Tim Chang and Bing Gordon to talk on gaming's future

We’re pleased to announce that Tim Chang, managing director at Mayfield Fund, and Bing Gordon, a partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, will speak together in a joint fireside chat at our GamesBeat 2013 conference on Oct. 29-Oct. 30 in Redwood City, Calif.

Above: Tim Chang, the managing director at Mayfield Fund.

Image Credit: Mayfield

I will moderate the talk, “The view from the balcony: What’s hot or not? Trends and predictions.” Both Chang and Gordon are among the most visible investors in disruptive game companies. They have co-invested in companies such as Ngmoco and Ouya.

Gaming runs deep in their blood, as Gordon was at Electronic Arts for 25 years and he was a major early investor in Zynga. Chang has invested in companies like Playdom and Lumosity. Chang is looking closely at gamification, or applying game mechanics to nongame applications in fields such as health. Gordon is also looking at the lessons from traditional games and the new territory of social and mobile. We’ll ask them what they think is hot or not in games, and their predictions for its future.

Here are the rest of the speakers we have announced for the proceedings:

• Mike Gallagher, president and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association
• Victor Kislyi, CEO of Wargaming
• Julie Uhrman, CEO of Ouya
• John Riccitiello, an active game investor and former CEO of Electronic Arts
• Tony Bartel, president of GameStop
• Simon Khalaf, the CEO of Flurry
• Owen Mahoney, the chief financial officer and chief administrative officer at Nexon
• Brendan Iribe, the CEO of Oculus VR
• Frank Gibeau, the president of EA Labels at Electronic Arts
• Robin Hunicke, the cofounder of Funomena
• Wim Stocks, the executive vice president at Virgin Gaming
• Mark Donovan, the president of Xfire
• Gabriel Leydon, the CEO of Machine Zone
• Geoff Keighley, the host of Spike TV’s GTTV
• Adam Sessler, the executive producer of Revision3 Games
• Martin Rae, the president of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
• Clive Downie, the CEO of DeNA West
• Kevin Chou, CEO of Kabam
• Tim Merel, the managing director at Digi-Capital
• Sunny Dhillon, an early stage investor at Signia Venture Partners
• Brock Pierce, the managing director of Clearstone Global Fund

Our theme for the conference is the “Battle Royal,” where all companies compete across platforms, territories, digital and physical markets, and categories of games.

We’ve entered an era where many firms are vying for gamers’ time in the same space. Apple and Google want to get in the living room and are waging war against Nintendo and Sony. Microsoft already has an edge in living room entertainment with its Xbox Live service, but it wants a piece of mobile as well. It’s a confusing time for game makers. Where should they take their titles? Which platforms will provide the best experiences? Who will make them the most money?

Register here.

We’ll roll out a steady drumbeat of speakers as we get closer to GamesBeat 2013′s October date. We expect to have more than 80 of the gaming industry’s best lined up for our fifth annual event.

Each year, GamesBeat follows a big trend. In 2009, we focused on how “All The World’s a Game,” with the explosion of games on the global stage. In 2010, GamesBeat@GDC focused on “Disruption 2.0.” In 2011, our theme was “Mobile Games Level Up,” investigating the busy intersection of games and mobile technology. In 2012, we explored “The Crossover Era,” the time when so many big game companies and startups were transforming themselves by expanding from one market to the next.

As companies adapt to change, we’re witnessing disruption, adaptation, consolidation, innovation, and the arrival of big money. We’re talking billions of dollars that are at stake. We’re expecting 400 notables from throughout the game industry — social, mobile, online, and console. Please join us.

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Thanks to the following industry leaders for supporting GamesBeat 2013 as sponsors: Ad2Games, AppLift, Games Analytics, NativeX, Renren Games, and Tapjoy as Gold Sponsors; Flurry, Kontagent, Playnomics, Storm8, and LifeStreet Media as Silver Sponsors; AppFlood, Twitch and Slashdot as Event Sponsors; Akamon Entertainment, Arkadium and OnLive as contributing sponsors. If you’d like to become a sponsor, please send a message to sponsors@venturebeat.com.