Hamburg, December 7, 2022: Under the main topic "Invest in Games", the Hamburg Games Conference will bring together participants from the international games industry at the Altonaer Museum in Hamburg on March 1 and 2, 2023. Further talks, keynotes and panel discussions will focus on funding, dev and start-up topics. The first games industry experts contributing to the program with talks and presentations are already confirmed. Tickets for the Hamburg Games Conference are available at a reduced early bird rate until January 12, 2023: https://HGC2023.eventbrite.co.uk. The Call for Speakers for the HGC 2023 runs until January 20, 2023: https://www.gamesconference.com/call-for-papers
For the main conference track "Invest in Games", multiple talks are already confirmed, providing insights and best practices on investments and M&A deals from the perspective of founders as well as investing companies and M&A advisors:
- Janosch Kühn and Daniel Stammler (founders of Kolibri Games / BLN Capital) recap building up their studio and their successful exit in their talk "Kolibri Story - From student dorm to multi-million dollar exit in 4 years".
- Maarten de Koning (Executive Vice President at DDM, an investment consulting firm specializing in games) will outline the most important principles for successful deals in his talk "10 Golden Rules to Avoid Investment and M&A Disasters".
- Arnd Benninghof (Executive Vice President of Gaming at Modern Times Group) will provide insights into MTG's M&A strategy, with which the Swedish company continues to successfully build an international portfolio of investments in the games sector (including for example InnoGames, Kongregate, Hutch and PlaySimple).
- Michael Schade (CEO and Co-Founder of Hamburg-based studio Rockfish Games) looks back on the successful self-financing of Everspace 2 through crowdfunding, early access and licensing deals in his talk "How to Self-fund a 20 Million Euro Space Looter-Shooter".
- Frank Zahn (Delivery Director & Managing Director at the technology consultancy / software company Endava) shares his experiences selling his digital agency Exozet to Endava in his talk "Lessons Learned on Selling my Company".
- Christof Wegmann (Founder & CTO at Exit Games / Photon Engine) will look back on success factors and lessons learned in the development of the mobile hit Stumble Guys in his post-mortem talk "Stumbling into a Global Hit Downloaded 2 Million Times per Day".
First confirmed speakers for the further conference tracks covering funding, dev and start-up topics are:
- Linda Rendel (Production Director and founder of FemDevMeetup) will present her talk "Production Leadership - How to be an authentic lead and build trusting relationships with your team" and share insights as well as tools for authentic leadership in the context of game productions.
- René Habermann (founder and developer at Bippinbits) will share his learnings from the development and successful marketing of the indie hit Dome Keeper, which generated over a million euros in revenue within just one day after its release.
- In a post-mortem talk, Jan and Paul Taaks (founders of Hamburg-based indie studio Overhype Studios) will give insights into the development and marketing of their indie hit Battle Brothers.
Detailed information on all confirmed speakers and their talk topics is available at https://www.gamesconference.com/talks-2023/.
Further contributions sought via Call for Speakers
The organizers of the Hamburg Games Conference, Gamecity Hamburg, GRAEF Rechtsanwälte and Super Crowd Entertainment, are calling for further proposals for English-language conference contributions until January 20. Submissions on the topics of "Invest in Games," Funding and Game Development, as well as Marketing are open at https://www.gamesconference.com/call-for-papers.
Conference tickets available at early bird rate until January 12, 2023
Tickets for the Hamburg Games Conference 2023 are available at https://HGC2023.eventbrite.co.uk. Conference guests can secure discounted early bird tickets at last year's price until January 12, 2023:
The business ticket for 199 euros includes access to the two-day conference program as well as the opportunity to arrange meetings with other conference guests and make valuable new contacts via the digital matchmaking system MeetToMatch.
Start-up tickets are available exclusively for small enterprises and startup companies. They allow participation in the entire conference program as well as use of MeetToMatch at the discounted price of 99 euros.
Students can participate in the conference program for 25 euros.
All current information on the Hamburg Games Conference is available at www.gamesconference.com.
Please find attached: Image material for editorial use
- Key Visual Hamburg Games Conference 2023 (Image credit: Hamburg Games Conference)
- Logo Hamburg Games Conference 2023 (Image credit: Hamburg Games Conference)
- Photo: Impressions from the Hamburg Games Conference 2020 (Photo credit: Stefanie Lampe)
For further information and questions please contact:
Johannes Klockenbring
Gamecity Hamburg
PR Manager
johannes.klockenbring@gamecity-hamburg.de
About the Hamburg Games Conference
Since 2010, the annual Hamburg Games Conference has been a key element of the German and international games industry’s calendar and one of the most important B2B events for the games sector in Europe.
The Hamburg Games Conference is jointly organized by Gamecity Hamburg and GRAEF Rechtsanwälte. The conference is planned and produced by the event agency Super Crowd Entertainment from Hamburg, which specializes in the games industry and who hosted the Indie Arena Booth Online at gamescom 2020 and 2021, for which it was awarded a special prize by the Deutscher Computerspielpreis (German Computer Game Award).
About Gamecity Hamburg
Gamecity Hamburg supports, connects and makes the gaming hub Hamburg visible. The aim is to improve the general conditions for companies and founders of the games value chain in the city, to support them in their further development and to anchor Hamburg in the public perception as one of the leading games locations in Germany. Gamecity Hamburg is the contact point for Hamburg's games funding as well as the Games Lift Incubator and also offers programs, events, and services in close cooperation with the games industry to strengthen local developers. At the same time, the exchange of knowledge within the sector and with other industries is promoted. The promotion of young talent, the development of new formats that activate the strong network of games companies in the city, and internationalization are the focus of the location initiative's activities. Gamecity Hamburg is part of Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft.
About GRAEF Rechtsanwälte
GRAEF Rechtsanwälte, based in Hamburg and Berlin, is one of Germany's leading law firms in the field of media law, entertainment law and intellectual property. The team around Dr. Ralph Oliver Graef and Dr. Christian Rauda represents leading German and international media companies from the complete value chains of the film industry, the games industry, the publishing industry and the live entertainment industry. In addition, the firm represents "creatives" such as authors, directors, actors, photographers, designers, game developers, etc. in the protection of their creative achievements as well as, in the area of crisis communication, companies and celebrities in the protection of their personal rights.
About Super Crowd Entertainment
Super Crowd Entertainment organizes the annual Indie Arena Booth, the world's largest independent developer booth for video games as well as the community convention Polaris in cooperation with Hamburg Messe. With an easy-to-access app, Super Crowd turned the first Polaris Convention in Hamburg into a true community event, where exhibitors, artists and retailers collected points together with visitors to unlock surprises for their heroes. Furthermore, with the Super Crowd Framework, the company also offers a comprehensive yet easy-to-implement solution for digital events for all industries that brings a real trade show feeling to life despite COVID-19. With 3.6 million GSA customers reached and over 100,000 visitors, Super Crowd sets new standards for exciting online events and makes it easy to find your friends again via Super Crowd ID and stay in touch with them.