In two weeks, Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki Digital 2020goes live on Monday September 14 to Friday September 18.
During the week, we’ll host a whole range of fantastic content for more than 1,500 virtual attendees to explore – including 21 conference tracks where over 250 speakers share their expertise and thoughts on the industry.
The conference schedule has been revealed – which feature some of the biggest names in the games industry, such as Unity, Microsoft, King, Square Enix, Sony, DIVE, Ubisoft, DICE, Jagex and more – but there’s a lot more to offer during our Helsinki conference next month, which you can find out just below:
Pocket Gamer Connects Careers Week
The games industry, by its nature, is always in a state of flux, even more so due to the COVID-19 crisis. In order to support jobseekers during this difficult time, we’re hosting another Pocket Gamer Connects Careers Week to run during Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki Digital 2020. This will include:
- Digital jobs board listing on the main event channel
- A mail-out of key vacancies to all attendees
- A daily ‘recruitment’ hour in the Discord channel where recruiters and jobseekers can gather
- A virtual jobs fair (match-making event where we connect job seekers with recruiters)
- Focused talks, panels and round-table discussions regarding recruitment
- Supporting editorial coverage on PocketGamer.biz
As part of this initiative, we are making a number of jobseeker tickets available free to people currently out of work and looking for a new role. These tickets will not only give you access to the specific recruitment options, but also all other aspects of the Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki Digital 2020 event, including the talks, meeting platform, and more.
We’re also looking to support indie developers during this difficult period, by reserving a selection of free tickets for small studios. If you think you qualify, please apply now.
Investor Connector
The popular investor matchmaking event, the Investor Connector, returns in digital form. This event enables companies – or individuals – to be paired with investors where they can discuss their potential involvement with one another. These short meets aren’t intended for closing a deal, but are designed to enable an initial introduction that can be followed up either during or after the conference.
The deadline for submissions is midnight THIS FRIDAY, September 4th. So if you’re a developer seeking funding on a cool project you’re working on, make sure you sign up now.
Publisher SpeedMatch
Are you a developer looking to get your game to market? Or are you a publisher seeking the finest talent to share with the world? Then sign up to the Publisher SpeedMatch session now!
Alongside this event’s meeting platform, we will also run an additionally curated session pairing developers and publisher in a series of speed-dating style meetings. Like the Investor Connector, these meetings aren’t intended on closing a deal, but can always be followed up at a later point.
So if you’re a developer looking to connect with a publisher, or vice versa, make sure you sign up now!
IGDA Mentor Café
We’re pleased to welcome back our friends at IGDA Finland to Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki Digital 2020 with their IGDA Mentor Café for registered attendees.
In the IGDA Mentor Café games industry leaders will share their knowledge and expertise in short, 15 minute mentoring sessions. After these sessions have finished there’ll be a chance to mingle in a relaxed environment for more conversations.
Experts hand-picked by IGDA Finland regularly share valuable knowledge, skills and advice in these IGDA Mentor Cafés, ‘giving back’ to anyone in the community who is seeking mentorship. Mentees will receive valuable advice and new connections to the industry! Topics can be related to ANYTHING in the games industry.
The virtual IGDA Finland Mentor Café is free to take part, but registration is essential, so sign up here.
The Big Indie Pitch
The Big Indie Pitch returns to the digital realm at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki Digital 2020.
The Big Indie Pitch sees indie developers engage in a speed-dating-styled pitching competition, where our expert judges will decide which indie developer is worthy of the glory (and one of our bespoke promotional packages worth thousands of dollars).
To cater to a wide variety of indie developers, we are running two versions of the Big Indie Pitch. One for mobile developers, and another for PC and console developers.
The Pocket Gamer 2020 Sessions
What happens when you take a talented industry speaker, get them to talk about a topic of their choice but restrict them to 20 slides in a little under seven minutes?
You get the madness of the Pocket Gamer 2020 Sessions, a brilliantly to-the-point fun presentation event to finish off the first day of Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki Digital 2020.
These are super fun sessions to watch and enjoy – the perfect way to round off the first day of PGC Helsinki Digital 2020. Beers are optional/recommended (Bring your own of course)!
The stellar speakers taking up the challenge so far are:
- Tamalaki, Martine Spaans, Owner (Host)
- Genvid Technologies, Katleen Evers, Director of Developer Relations
- Epic LLama, Hernan Lopez, Game Designer
- Carry1st, Lucy Hoffman, Co-founder
- Fundamentally Games, Oscar Clark, Chief of Curiosity
Journalist Bar
If you’re a developer working on a game, one of the most valuable benefits of joining over 1,500 professionals at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki Digital 2020 is the chance to meet the press.
Everyday between 2pm and 3pm (BST), you can meet the editorial team from PocketGamer.com, the longest-running and leading B2C mobile gaming site, at the virtual Journalist Bar (taking place on our Discord channel). If you’re an indie developer working on a game, this could be your chance to get it on the experts’ radar.
Of course, there are no guarantees or promises of any specific coverage following a meeting, but it’s a great way to get an experienced editor or reviewer to check out your game and give instant feedback.
Pocket Jam #5
In collaboration with Pocket Gamer, Finnish Game Jam brings jamming to the mobile game conference Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki Digital 2020!
The Pocket Jam will take place over two days, Monday September 14 and Tuesday September 15, and will task developers with creating bite-sized mobile games during the time allocated, You can choose your own platform and technology. Participants can work on an individual basis or in teams, as long as you are registered and have the space. The social aspect of the jam will take place Pocket Jam Discord server (if you haven’t taken part in previous years, you will receive a link closer to kick-off).
The best games generated during the Pocket Jam sprint will be unveiled on Friday, September 18, during a ceremony over Zoom that takes place in the morning of the conference. There may be prizes and – more importantly – kudos for the top games.
Discord
Whilst not a fringe event, the Pocket Gamer Connects Discord server will run throughout the week at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki Digital 2020. The server features dedicated track channels for all of our great content where you can discuss talks and sessions. Plus other chat channels to talk about everything from development, publishing, investment and shameless plugs.
The Discord server is also the place where you’ll find access to several of the digital fringe events we have already mentioned! A link will be sent via email and also revealed on MeetToMatch to all attendees before the show to the Discord channel.
Book now!
Wow, now that’s a lot going on! All these fringe events are available at no extra charge, but you have to be registered to Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki Digital 2020.
To apply for free entry to the whole event, indie developers should contact us here, while jobseekers should get in touch here.
If you don’t qualify as either, then register your tickets today! If you book a ticket to November’s G-STAR conference while you’re there, you can save an additional 20% too.
