The sleeker, sexier GamesBeat roadshow for mobile game devs in New York and Seattle

GamesBeat has recently announced two “roadshow” events on mobile gaming influencers in New York and Seattle in June. And we’re pleased to say today that we’ll be joined by more speakers at our events on June 21 in New York and June 23 in Seattle.

Above: Francisco “TheGameHuntah” Albornoz

Image Credit: TheGameHuntah

At each event, we’ll have a discussion about the rise of influencers and their impact on the $34 billion mobile gaming market. We’ll discuss the best way to approach with influencers and how to work with them. We’ll have several perspectives on the topic, and we’ll welcome audience participation.

Everybody knows that the world of influencers is increasingly important, particularly as the cost of user acquisition has become astronomical. Getting your game in front of the right influencer isn’t easy, but we’ll have some experts who know how to navigate it. We’ve got our own views on the subject in a report dubbed Gaming Culture 2016, by VB’s own Stewart Rogers.

Please save the dates below.

Above: Marco Mereu, cofounder of Roostr.

Image Credit: Roostr

We’ll kick off with an event in New York City at the Breslin at the Ace Hotel on June 21, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Our speakers will include Francisco “TheGameHuntah” Albornoz, who has amassed a big audience on YouTube through more than 1,500 gaming videos and hundreds of livestreams in two languages. He’s a former pro gamer and computer engineer who started creating mobile game video content about a year ago. The GameHuntah took the plunge into doing his influencer videos full-time, and he has gained notoriety among game companies. We’re happy to have him talk about influence from the insider’s view.

He will be joined by Marco Mereu, general manager and cofounder of Roostr, the influencer advertising marketplace that Chartboost recently acquired. Roostr allows influencers to post their interests and the games they play, and it matches them in an automated fashion with game publishers and developers who want to advertise their games. The influencers put sponsored links in their videos of mobile games, and they get paid if players click on the links to download the games. Prior to Roostr, Mereu founded Gameblyr, a mobile game publisher.

Our previously announced speaker for New York included Jesse Divnich, the vice president of product strategy and insights at Tilting Point. New York-based Tilting Point has had hits such as Dino Bash and Tropical Wars. Divnich was previously well-known as the vice president of insights and analytics at EEDAR, one of the leading game industry research firms.

Above: Lou Fasulo of Z2, a King studio.

Image Credit: Z2

We will do the Seattle event at Quality Athletics on June 23, at 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. In Seattle, we will be joined by Lou Fasulo, vice president of Z2, a mobile game studio in Seattle that was acquired by Activision Blizzard’s King division. Fasulo has been at Z2 (formerly called Z2Live) since 2009. The company has created hit games such as Battle Nations, Paradise Bay, and Metalstorm: Online. He’ll talk about influence from a game publisher’s perspective.

Above: Amber Osborne

Image Credit: Amber Osborne

Our other speaker in Seattle will include influencer Amber “Miss Destructo” Osborne, the cofounder and chief marketing officer at Meshfire, an artificial intelligence-driven social media management software in Seattle. Osborne is also the former vice president and cofounder at Head of Lettuce Media, which specializes in social media brand management and consulting.

Currently, her social media software company Meshfire was listed by VentureBeat as the top-ranked social media management software for small and medium-sized businesses. Osborne has been a catalyst in the marketing, business development, product development, community building, and machine learning processes behind Ember (Meshfire’s AI/Machine Learning component) since the company started in 2012. In the last year, Osborne has also successfully switched Meshfire’s marketing vertical with customers primarily in the video game and entertainment industries, such as Sony, Scuf Gaming, Bungie, 3D Realms, Wargaming, and Cyan Worlds.

[Update: We’ve added JC Connors from Amazon as a new speaker].

We’ll have a couple of more speakers for each event soon. I will moderate both the New York and Seattle sessions.

Our events are sponsored by Samsung, which is looking for mobile game developers for its platforms. And I’m scouting around for interesting companies to write about. The price is free, but we’ll be prioritizing mobile game development leaders. We’ve got room for a few dozen at each event. Here’s the link to apply for a spot in New York and a separate link to apply for a spot in Seattle.