Final GamesBeat 2015’s epic agenda features 116 of gaming’s brightest leaders

Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015

8:00 am-9:15 am

Registration & Continental Breakfast

9:15 am – 9:30 am

Opening Remarks by Dean Takahashi

9:30 am-9:40 am

Analyst talk

Speaker: John Koetsier, vice president VB Insight

Title: Mobile user acquisition: what’s working, what’s changing, and where costs are going

Description: 731 mobile developers and 14 billion ads showed us what’s hot and what’s changing in mobile user acquisition. We talk about moving models, current top methods, and why costs are surging.

9:40 am – 10 am

Fireside Chat

Speakers:  Jay Cohen, Wargaming

Moderator: Mike Vorhaus

Title: The spoils of war

Description: Jay Cohen is a seasoned game executive who can talk about the success of Wargaming’s World of Tanks and other titles. We’ll focus on free-to-play monetization, the addition of new platforms, and other expansion plans for Wargaming.

10 am – 10:20 am

Speaker: Jessica Rovello, CEO of Arkadium

Moderator:  Perrin Kaplan, Zebra Partners

Title: You can succeed in gaming despite uncertainty

Description: Making smart choices for growth during great times and surviving during extreme and unexpected down times would break a lot of executives. But Arkadium has adapted. Get the inside peek into its choices, as told by Jessica Rovello, CEO.  From gaming and mobile to the incredible challenge of putting back together a studio blown up by the Crimean war and Russian annexation.

10:20 am – 10:40am

Fireside Chat

Speaker: Amit Khanduja, CEO of Reliance Games

Moderator: Atul Bagga

Title: Unlocking potential of next billion mobile players

Description: The head of India’s top mobile gaming company talks about everything from making branded games to the growth of India’s gaming industry. He’ll also talk about how to localize, regionalize, and monetize games in the new mobile world.

10:40 am – 11 am

Fireside Chat

Speaker: Anatoly Ropotov, CEO of Game Insight

Moderator:  Dean Takahashi

Title: The constant need to reinvent

Description: The games industry, although lush with opportunity, is extremely competitive and requires constant adaptation for survival much less success. This is especially true for independent developers and boutique studios, who are often facing games giants with huge budgets for affiliate programs, Super Bowl advertisements and deep pockets. Anatoly Ropotov will talk about lessons his company has learned in seven years of constant change.

11 am – 11:20 am

Transition Break

11:20am – 12:10 pm

#1 Session  

Title:  Raising money after the game boom is over

Description: Getting money for a game company is no longer impossible. But the path keeps changing. Venture capitalists flooded into games after Zynga’s rise,  but in the wake of its fall, VCs have become gun-shy and have moved on. Only a few specialist investors remain in the U.S. Asian investors stepped up their involvement, but China’s stock market troubles have led to a scaling back on the deal frenzy. So, what’s the right way to raise money now?

Moderator: Eric Goldberg, Crossover Technologies

Panelists:  Mark Stevens, partner at Fenwick & West; Michael Chang, senior vice president of NCSoft, Jay Eum, managing director of Translink Capital; Justin Bailey, CEO of FIG.

#2 Session

Title:  International expansion: Cracking the Asian markets?

Panel Description: Doing business in China, Japan, and South Korea is becoming a must for global gaming companies. But Westerners have had trouble breaking into the market.  What will the Eastern markets embrace next? How do you form the right relationships and get deals done? And what will be the hot markets beyond China? We’ll also address how Asian companies are moving into the West.

Moderator: Jeff Hilbert

Panelists: James Zhang, CEO of Spellgun; Shirley Lin, head of business development for Yeah Mobi; Daniel Cho, chairman of Innospark;  Michael Zhang, CEO of Firefly Games

#3 Session

Title: The emerging esports community

Description: Twitch broadcasters. YouTubers. Professional gamers. We’ll hear what it’s like to be on the edge of the esports as it expands rapidly around the world.

Moderator: Mitch Dyer, esports writer at IGN

Panelists:  Ali Moiz, CEO of Vulcun; Geoff “iNcontrol” Robinson; Martin Klimscha, CEO of Hitbox; Alex Novosad, team manager of the Gankstars

#4 Session

Title: User acquisition in the new age of Facebook mobile ads

Description: Facebook considered making changes to how it handles user data for its mobile ads. After game developers and publishers protested, the social network giant decided to relent and it killed the policy change. But what is the future of the way that user data should be tracked and used to targeting advertising messages? We’ll talk to the experts who have studied the scope of the problem and what companies can do about it.

Moderator: John Koetsier, vice president of research at VB Insight

Panelists: Peli Beeri, CEO of Bidalgo, Charles Manning, CEO of Kochava; Paul Muller, CTO of Adjust, and Nancy Roberts, general manager of Glispa North America

12:10pm – 1:50 pm

Hosted Lunch

1:50 pm 2:40 pm

Breakout sessions

#1 Session  

Title: Diversity in people, perspectives and products

Description: Any studio not catering to diverse audiences is leaving money on the table. The past few years have been a wake-up call for the game industry. The industry has become much more aware of the lack of diversity in leadership and content. How can both genders partner to overcome the challenges and create healthy cultures, thriving employees, new market opportunities and revenue streams?

Moderator: Gordon Bellamy

Panelists: Katy Jo Meyer, Sr. Global Diversity & Inclusion Manager at Microsoft; Megan Gaiser of Contagious Creativity; Justin Hefter, Co-founder & CEO, Bandura Games

#2 Session

Title: Diversity in people, perspectives and products

Panel Description:  Nobody wants to start out making a bad branded game. But duds are still coming out. How do some of the best specialists in branded gaming create high-quality titles that make money and generate attention for a brand? And how will gaming-first brands fare in the broader entertainment world?

Moderator: Jason Wilson, managing editor, GamesBeat

Panelists: Chris Petrovic, SVP at Kabam; Blair Ethington, general manager at Crowdstar; Perry Tam, CEO of Storm8; Andrew Sheppard, chief operating officer at Gree International

#3 Session

Title: The supergeek gaming future
Description: This session is where we get the seers to discuss everything from cloud gaming to the Holodeck. What’s going to wow gamers or make life easier for game developers?

Moderator: Chris Kohler, Wired

panelists: Mystery guest; Seamus Blackley, co-creator of Xbox; Kristan Uccello, developer advocate at Google; Rhys Dekle, senior director of business development at Microsoft Game Studios;

#4 Session

Title: The future of user-generated content
Description:  The evidence is abundant, from Minecraft to MOBA mods, that user-generated content can create a vibrant ecosystem and healthy economy around a game. How do the best companies out there foster a community of users to do their work for them?

Moderator: Mike Minotti, community lead at GamesBeat

panelists: Dave Baszucki, CEO of Roblox; Scott Hartsman, CEO of Trion Worlds; Rahul Sandil, Microsoft; Amy Jo Kim, cofounder of Shufflebrain

2:40 pm – 3:00 pm

Afternoon Coffee Break

3:00 pm – 3:20 pm

Fireside chat

Speaker: Mihai Pohontu, Samsung

Moderator: Greg Short, president IEP

3:20 pm to 3:40

Fireside chat

Speaker: Shintaro Asako, CEO of DeNA West

Moderator: Michael Metzger

Title: Global Growth and Surge of M&A in Mobile Gaming

Description: The mobile gaming market is experiencing explosive growth globally and at the same time is becoming increasingly competitive. Shintaro Asako, CEO of Japanese giant DeNA’s western division, will discuss the company’s mobile gaming strategy including partnerships, the reasons behind an upcoming massive consolidation, and DeNA’s M&A interest.

3:40 pm – 4 pm

Fireside chat
Speaker: Kate Edwards, executive director, IGDA

Moderator: Kat Bailey, senior editor at USgamer

Title: Are Game Developers “Satisfied”?

Description: The game industry is a collective of highly creative individuals who strive to express their visions and perfect their craft. But as an “industry”, game development shares familiar challenges and concerns with any other major industry – creative or otherwise. A cornerstone of good business is ensuring the overall happiness and satisfaction of employees, considering benefits that are both intangible (love of work, joy of creation, etc.) and tangible (compensation, holiday time, etc.). At the IGDA Leadership Summit in Sept. 2015, the IGDA released the results of its 2015 Developer Satisfaction Survey, an annual research tool aimed to gauge the perception of these factors. As the IGDA’s Executive Director, Kate will provide a current glimpse into how developers perceive their work and their broader industry, and how that impacts the future of our craft.

4 pm- 4:20 pm

Fireside Chat

Speaker: Megan Gaiser, CEO of Contagious Creativity and Daniel Bernstein of the Corum Group

Moderator: Dean Takahashi

Title: Creative Leadership to Make Meaning and Money

Description: Opportunities for progressing our industry depend on diverse leadership for meaningful engagement and multidimensional products. Unconscious bias for either gender is the enemy of innovation, groundbreaking products, healthy cultures and sustainable revenues. The fireside chat will discuss the importance of investing in creative leadership to inspire inclusive cultures for diverse people, perspectives and products that create both human and financial capital.

4:20pm to 4:40 pm

Fireside Chat:

Speakers:  Peter Levin, Lionsgate

Moderator: Ian Sherr, executive editor of Cnet

Title: VR Games: How the next platform will deepen the relationship between Hollywood and gaming

Description: VR is in its infancy, but putting together deals is a complicated thing. Peter Levin, president of interactive ventures and games at Lionsgate, will talk about virtual reality projects such as a new John Wick game that brings together the movie studio with Starbreeze, Valve, Grab Games, and WEVR.

4:40 pm to 4:50 pm

Closing Remarks

4:50 pm-6 pm

Day #2 Closing Reception

Thanks to the following industry leaders for supporting GamesBeat 2015: Game Insight as Featured Partner; Microsoft as Platinum Partner; RockYou, AppLovin, and Samsung as Gold Partners; TrialPay as Silver Partner, and PlayPhone, Fuel Powered, Glispa, Utomik, and Bluestacks as Event Partners.

Our GamesBeat 2015 advisory board includes:

• Ophir Lupu, head of video games at United Talent Agency
• Jay Eum, managing director at TransLink Capital
• Phil Sanderson, managing director at IDG Ventures
• Sunny Dhillon, partner at Signia Venture Partners
• Reinout te Brake, CEO of GetSocial
• Mike Vorhaus of Magid Advisors
  

  Above: Peter Levin, Lionsgate’s president of interactive ventures and games, has been booked as a GamesBeat 2015 speaker.

  Image Credit: Michael O'Donnell/VentureBeat