Our grand return to Jordan was bigger and better than even we expected! It was by far our biggest show yet in the region, almost doubling the size of our last conference there in 2019. It was a roaring success in all metrics, and we got to spend two amazing days with 1,400 games industry professionals from all around the globe sharing future-gazing insights and forming hundreds of new connections. To all our attendees: thank you so much for joining us and making our return to Jordan our greatest venture to the MENA region yet! It was a pleasure, and we can’t wait to be back next year.
This live show was the 36th instalment of our Connects conference series and our second PG Connects in Jordan. It took place at an all-new venue: the largest convention centre in Jordan located right on the shore of the Dead Sea on November 12th to 13th. We got to welcome a whopping 1,400 attendees from over 400+ leading companies from both the MENA region and around the world. Over 35 countries were represented, making it an incredibly diverse crowd representing many different corners of the global games industry! This doubles our numbers from our first conference in the region back in 2019 (700+ attendees), and makes PG Connects Jordan one of our most highly attended events and our third biggest conference this year.
Two insights-filled days to remember
Our two days in Jordan were packed full of forward-gazing expert insights, and we couldn’t be prouder to bring our 1,400 attendees our biggest and best conference in Jordan by all metrics! There were more topic tracks than ever before with more speakers and almost double the number of attendees from our last conference in the region. We welcomed attendees from over 400+ leading companies from all around the world, representing 35 different countries. We got to hear from 85 world-class speakers from both the MENA region and the global games industry as a whole, and welcomed a number of attendees from countries we don’t usually see as represented in our European and North American shows, making it one of our most diverse conferences yet.
This was an incredibly triumphant weekend for everyone that attended! The Jordan Gaming Lab App Challenge competition offers students the opportunity to showcase their skills and creativity to a panel of esteemed industry professionals, and the winning teams received $5,000 each to develop a mobile gaming lab at their school. The winners were announced this weekend, and we want to give a massive congratulations to the winning teams: You’re the future of the games industry, thank you for participating!
We also saw the winner of the King Abdullah II Award for Youth Innovation and Achievement (KAAYIA) revealed during the ceremony. The launch of KAAYIA came as part of His Majesty King Abdullah’s support of youth projects, their initiatives and pioneering ideas. The winners received financial support of a whopping $50,000 to develop their community entrepreneurial project. We were honoured to host the ceremony. The talent witnessed was immense! Congratulations to all the finalists and to the pioneering winners.
Thanks to our associates for your support!
A show of this magnitude and incredible success would never be possible without the support of our partners, associates and sponsors! This show was made possible thanks to our phenomenal partners that we worked in association with: The King Abdullah II Fund for Development (KAFD) and the Jordan Gaming Lab. These spectacular, trailblazing organisations are paving the future of the games industry in Jordan, and we couldn’t be happier to have gotten to collaborate with them to bring Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan to life.
A massive thank you to our diamond level sponsors Jawaker and Babil Games, our platinum level sponsors Tamatem and Sandsoft Games and our gold level sponsors GameChangerSF, Xsolla and Freeverse for helping bring PG Connects Jordan to life. Thank you to every other brand that supported us in making this event possible – we couldn’t have put on our biggest event in the MENA region yet without your formidable support.
Our biggest and most successful show in Jordan to date
Steel Media CEO Chris James expressed gratitude for the incredible turnout and emphasised PG Connects’ commitment to increasing the brand’s presence in the region, “I really could not be happier with PGC Jordan 2022 or prouder of everyone involved in making this our biggest and best event in the region….by some margin. In fact we almost doubled attendance from the last pre-Covid event in 2019!”.
He continued, “I am intensely grateful to everyone who made this happen from our incredible sponsors and partners, to our expert speakers and all of our enthusiastic attendees. I must say a special thanks to Maysalward CEO Nour Khrais and Hussein Bino and his amazing team at the King Abdullah II Fund for Development, our event partners, who ensured the venue was every bit as spectacular as this region’s gaming talent deserves! Suffice to say we will return next year! Although it’s not too late to enjoy some spectacular scenery and connect with the cream of the MENA games market as both will be present in our PGC Leaders Summit Riyadh later this month”.
What’s next for PG Connects?
On November 30th to December 1st, we’re returning to the MENA region! We have an unmissable, exclusive opportunity for the global games industry’s top executives to come together and shape the future of the MENA games market. This will take place in the marvellous city of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, and if you’re a member of senior management at your company, you won’t want to miss joining us in the fastest growing region of the games industry and explore the finest food, culture and adventure of Saudi Arabia. You can register now over on the official website!
If you’re looking ahead to 2023 and planning your next adventure, our next Connects conference is just around the corner and it’s a prime opportunity you won’t want to miss. This January 23 to 24, our flagship Connects conference is returning to London once more, and it’s going to be fantastic. Don’t miss signing up to our biggest and most popular conference, we’re featuring all-new track themes and future-gazing business content. Book Early Bird today and you can secure your ticket now and save hundreds!
Want to get involved?
There is no better place than Pocket Gamer Connects events to share your wealth of knowledge with the games community at large, and we would like to extend the invitation for renowned producers, developers, executives and leaders in the space to lead a session on a topic they’re passionate about and have expertise in at our upcoming shows. If you think you might be a fit and this sounds like something you’d love to do at our upcoming conferences, complete our speaker submission form here.
Additionally, if you’re looking to put your brand in front of the global mobile games industry, you can discuss our varied sponsorship opportunities or other ways to get involved with our b2b sales team. Please contact lisa.bisset@steelmedianetwork.com or chris@steelmedia.co.uk for more details.
