Here’s the final agenda for our GamesBeat Summit 2017 event coming on May 1 and May 2 at the historical Claremont resort hotel in Berkeley, California.
The event is GamesBeat Summit 2017: How games, sci-fi, and tech create real-world magic.You can secure your seat here. Use the “Deantak” code at checkout for 20 percent off. We think we’ve built a unique slate of speakers and experience that you won’t find at any other event.
We’re excited that most of the key slots are filled, and we’re in talks with various parties to fill the rest of the slots and bring you a great conference on the inspiration cycle that is happening between science fiction, video games, and real-world technology in Silicon Valley and elsewhere.
We’re going to do an event for the geeks in all of us. It’s about the inspiration cycle that happens between games, real-world technology, and games. It’s like how Neal Stephenson’s 1992 sci-fi novel, Snow Crash, inspired virtual worlds and spawned a thousand game startups, and how people like Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, are still talking about Snow Crash today. I still remember Will Wright telling me, “A dog-eared copy of Snow Crash is the business plan for every startup in Silicon Valley.”
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We’re also going to hear from John Underkoffler, science advisor for Minority Report. He will talk about the gesture-controlled computer that inspired things like the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft’s Kinect. He will also join a panel with John Hanke, CEO of Niantic Labs and creator of Pokemon Go, and Ralph Osterhout, CEO of ODG, maker of augmented reality glasses.
Now we are getting our material from new shows like Westworld, where, as Tony Parisi noted in his recent speech, we will be immersed in a future where we can’t tell what is real and what is not. We’ve also got inspiration from the big screen coming, with the upcoming film Ready Player One, a Steven Spielberg movie based on the book by Ernest Cline.
I explained this idea for a conference to Jamil Moledina of Google Play. He once ran the Game Developers Conference, he’s a science fiction novelist himself, and he immediately got the idea about how people are thirsty for inspiration from across industry lines. That’s why I asked him to be emcee at our GamesBeat Summit.
As a community, we’ll be searching for the next big thing, wondering what will happen in this cycle as real-world technology catches up to the visions of science fiction and games, and figuring out how we’ll move it forward.
If you’re interested in sponsoring, message mike.sly@venturebeat.com. Thanks to our initial sponsors include Samsung, Intel, Gazillion, the Canadian Consulate, MindMaze, Adjust, Wargaming, Concept Art House, and Blackstorm.
Monday, May 1, 2017
Above: John Underkoffler, CEO of Oblong, envisioned the gesture controls in Minority Report.
1 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Registration
2:10 pm to 2:15 pm. Emcee remarks: Jamil Moledina, game strategic lead at Google Play
2:15 p.m. to 2:25 p.m. Welcome Dean Takahashi, lead writer for GamesBeat VentureBeat
2:25 pm to 2:30 p.m. Emcee conference intro
2:30 p.m. to 2:50 p.m. Opening session on the inspiration between games, tech, and sci-fi with Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games; Moderator: Dean Takahashi
2:50 p.m. to 3:10 p.m. Science fiction writer Austin Grossman; moderator: Kim Pallister, VR expert at Intel. “Stranger Than Fiction: What speculative storytelling tells us about the future of VR.”
3:10 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Owen Mahoney, CEO of Nexon; Moderator: Dean Takahashi. “Creating a culture of inspiration and creativity.”
3:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Gary Whitta, screenwriter for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story; Moderator: Jamil Moledina. ” Science fiction and games.”
4:00 p.m. to 4:20 p.m. Thomas Geffroyd of Ubisoft and Violet Blue, columnist. “Behind the Headlines: Real World Hacking and Watch Dogs 2.”
4:20 p.m. to 4:40 p.m. Break
4:40 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Ellyn Lyse Einarsen of the Future Group; moderator: David Jagneaux, games editor at Upload VR. “Blending the real world and the virtual in game shows.”
5:00 pm to 5:30 pm. Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey, cofounders of Sledgehammer Games; moderator: Dean Takahashi. “Sledgehammer Games: Igniting creativity for game making.”
5:30 p.m. to 5:50 p.m. John Underkoffler, science advisor for Minority Report and CEO of Oblong Industries. “Science fiction and games as the prototypes for real world tech.”
5:50 p.m. to 6:10 p.m. Greg Richardson, chairman of Team Dignitas, and Akshay Khanna, vp of strategy at Philadelphia 76ers. “Esports, traditional sports, and big business.”
6:10 pm to 6:30 pm Science fiction writer Rob Reid, founder of Listen.com; Moderator: Adam Gazzaley, neuroscientist at UCSF. “Putting science into science fiction. Literally – and literarily!”
6:20 pm to 8:00 pm Reception/Dinner
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
Above: Tom Cruise in Minority Report inspired lots of tech companies.
8:15 a.m. to 9:10 a.m Breakfast
9:10 a.m. to 9:15 a.m Welcome Jamil Moledina
9:15 a.m. to 9:20 a.m Welcome Dean Takahashi
9:20 a.m. to 9:50 a.m. Lightning talks: Five presentations, five minutes each with Raheel Hasan, CEO of 1app.com; Ravi Belwal of Samsung; Robin Hunicke, CEO of Funomena; Deanna Terzian, president of CurriculaWorks. Justin Bailey, CEO of Fig. Moderator: Tom Emrich, partner at Super Ventures.
9:50 a.m. to 10:10 a.m. Opening fireside chat on Leadership. Ted Price, CEO of Insomniac Games, and Mike Gallagher, CEO of the Entertainment Software Association
10:10 a.m. to 10:40 a.m. Panelists: Asi Burak, Power Play; Megan Gaiser, principal at Contagious Creativity; Rami Ismail, cofounder of Vlambeer; Asra Rasheed, producer at Disney; moderator: Guy Bendov, CEO of Side-Kick Games. “Bucking the Status Quo: Redesigning Leadership for Diverse Talent, Perspectives & Products.”
10:40 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Fireside chat with Eliot Peper, science fiction writer, and Tim Chang, managing director at Mayfield Fund. “Are we living in science fiction?”
11:00 am to 11:30 am. Fireside chat with John Underkoffler, CEO of Oblong Industries; Ralph Osterhout, CEO of Osterhout Design Group. “The future of augmented reality.”
11:30 am to 11:50 am. David Von Dorman, CEO of Gazillion; moderator: Mike Minotti, community manager at GamesBeat. “Gazillion 2.0: Reboot and revive.”
11:50 am to 12:00 pm. Tej Tadi, CEO of MindMaze. “Driving mainstream VR adoption by creating a human experience.”
12:00 pm to 12:15 pm Break
12:15 p.m. to 1:05 p.m.
Above: Ted Price, CEO of Insomniac Games.
LUNCH BREAKOUT SESSIONS:
Intersection of sci-fi, games, and tech. Sebastian Alvarado, cofounder of Thwacke; Eliot Peper, science fiction writer; Austin Grossman, science fiction writer. Moderator: Amy Jo Kim, CEO of Shufflebrain.
Monetization: How to acquire and retain your user base. Kathy Astromoff, VP of developer success at Twitch; Bill Grosso, CEO of Scientific Revenue; James Gwertzman, CEO of PlayFab. Moderator: Game journalist Steve Peterson.
Is the gaming world flat? Albert Lai, CEO of Big Viking Games; Brandon Lee, consul general of Canada; Jerome Solomon, dean at Cogswell College. Moderator: Dean Takahashi.
Deals: Follow the money Michael Chang of NCSoft; Phil Sanderson of IDG Ventures; Sean Lee, chief corporate development officer at Wargaming
Esports and community. Moderator: Amitt Mahajan, managing partner at Presence Capital.
Platforms: Where to place your bets? Ernestine Fu, cofounder of Blackstorm Labs; Bob Gardner, Intel game developer evangelist; Becky Ann Hughes, vice president at Glu; Moderator: Margaret Wallace, CEO of Playmatics.
Esports and building community. Bill Young at Twitch; Bo Daly, founder of Super Evil Megacorp; Andrew Paradise, CEO of Skillz; Moderator: Mike Minotti, community manager at GamesBeat.
1:05 p.m. to 1:20 p.m. BREAK
1:20 p.m. to 1:40 p.m. Rod Chong, chief commercial officer of Slightly Mad Studios, and Laszlo Kishonti, CEO of AImotive. “Of autonomous appliances and virtual vehicles: Racing gaming meets AI driving.”
1:40 pm to 2:00 pm Fireside chat with Zain Jaffer, CEO of Vungle; Moderator: Charles Hudson, venture partner at SoftTech VC. “The future of game monetization and growth.”
2 p.m. to 2:20 p.m. Richard Marks, head of Sony PlayStation Magic Lab, and Lewis Ward, research director for gaming and AR/VR at IDC. “Behind the scenes in PlayStation R&D: Bringing sci-fi to life.”
2:20 p.m. to 2:50 p.m. Panel: Jim Ying, CV Capital; James Zhang, CEO of Concept Art House; Jazy Zhang, former CFO of Giant Interactive; moderator: Lisa Cosmas Hanson, CEO of Niko Partners. “The accelerating expansion of China’s gaming companies.”
2:50 p.m. to 3:10 p.m. Solo talk. Paul Muller, chief technology officer at Adjust. “The future of user acquisition and attribution.”
3:10 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Closing talk Chris Roberts, CEO of Roberts Space Industries, and Rich Hilleman of Amazon Game Studios. “Using infinite computing power to create a universe of endless possibilities.”
3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Akamai closing reception. Grand prize drawing for a Nintendo Switch.
Above: Chris Roberts of Roberts Space Industries.
