We’re going to have 82 speakers at our GamesBeat Summit 2018 event. It’s going to be the place to catch up on the important ideas on the future of games.
The event will take place at the secluded The Seminary at Strawberry in Mill Valley, California, north of the Golden Gate Bridge. It will take place on Monday, April 9 (12:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.) and Tuesday April 10 (8 a.m. to 4:25 pm).
You can get your tickets here at 30 percent off our rate using the code DEAN. We’ve also got a new $500 code for indie game developers, IndieVIP, on this link. The event is almost sold out.
Our speakers fit within the larger theme of The Future of Games: Better games, better business. If you could see the future of games before it happens, that would give your business a competitive advantage. Our event will let the hottest game developers, publishers, and investors talk with their peers and business executives about their insights into the future of games. Our emcee will be Andrea Rene, a host, producer, and writer for What’s Good Games.
June 5th: The AI Audit in NYC
Join us next week in NYC to engage with top executive leaders, delving into strategies for auditing AI models to ensure fairness, optimal performance, and ethical compliance across diverse organizations. Secure your attendance for this exclusive invite-only event.
Above: Andrea Rene is cofounder of What’s Good Games.
Here’s the full agenda.
Monday April 9
12:40 p.m.-1:05 p.m.: Opening Gathering
1:05 pm – 1:10 p.m.: Andrea Rene
1:10 p.m.-1:20 p.m.: Introductory remarks with Dean Takahashi, lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat
1:20 p.m.-1:30 p.m.: Analyst Perspective: The Future of Entertainment – with Joost van Dreunen CEO of Superdata Research
1:30 p.m-1:50 p.m.: Fireside Chat: Disrupting the App Stores — with Perrin Kaplan, principal at Zebra Partners; Brian Fargo, founder of Interplay and InXile Entertainment
1:50 p.m – 2:10 p.m.: Fireside Chat: The Future of Technology, as Viewed Through the Prism of Science Fiction and Games – with Eliot Peper, author/editor at Scout; John Hanke, CEO of Niantic and creator of Pokemon Go
2:10 p.m – 2:30 p.m.: Games as Spectacle: Rise of a New Sport – with Kent Wakeford, cofounder of KSV eSports; Dean Takahashi
2:30 p.m – 2:50 p.m.: Fireside Chat: TBD
2:50 p.m – 3:20 p.m.: Panel: The Leisure Economy with Adam Sessler, cofounder of Spiketrap; Jon “Neverdie” Jacobs, CEO of Neverdie Studios; Gio Hunt, executive vice president at Blizzard Entertainment; Philip Rosedale, founder and CEO of High Fidelity; Craig Donato, chief business officer at Roblox
3:20 p.m – 3:45 p.m. Panel: Hollywood and Games 2.0 – with Michael Metzger, partner at Drake Star Partners; Chris Heatherly, executive vice president of worldwide games and digital platforms at NBCUniversal; Aaron Loeb, President of Studios at FoxNext Games
3:45 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Break
4:00 p.m. – 4:20 p.m. Competitive Gaming, Then and Now – with Ping Li, general partner at Accel; Dennis Fong, cofounder and CEO of Plays.tv.
4:20 p.m. – 4:40 p.m. Fireside Chat: Games with Ridiculous Computation – with Bill Roper, chief creative officer of Improbable; Steve Peterson, CEO and founder of StoryPHORCE
4:40 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Fireside Chat: The Future of Performance, Games and Hollywood – with Andrea Rene, on-camera host, producer and writer for What’s Good Games; Janina Gavankar, lead actress in Star Wars Battlefront II
5:00 p.m. – 5:20 p.m. Fireside Chat: Building Triple-A Studios with Dean Takahashi; Jade Raymond, senior vice president and general group manager at Electronic Arts
5:20 p.m. – 5:40 p.m. Solo talk: The User Interfaces of the Future: Leading with Space and Gaming with John Underkoffler, CEO of Oblong Industries and science advisor for Minority Report
5:40 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. How Experiential Games Have Changed; Pioneering a New Platform with Rand Miller, cofounder of Cyan Worlds; Dean Takahashi
6:00 p.m. – 6:05 p.m. Closing remarks with Dean Takahashi
6:05 p.m. – 8 p.m. Reception
Tuesday April 10
Above: The Seminary at Strawberry in Mill Valley.
8:00 a.m. – 9:15 a.m.: Registration and continental breakfast
9:15 a.m. – 9:20 a.m.: Opening remarks with Dean Takahashi
9:20 a.m. – 10 a.m.: Lightning Talks with Royce Disini, founder and President of Mobcrush; Mario Valle, cofounder and managing partner at Altered Ventures; Jeonghee Jin, senior vice president at Pearl Abyss; Dave Miller, Head, Global Publishing and General Manager at Athlon Games; Mike Schwartz, vice president of sales at Scalefast; Rana Sarkar, consul general of Canada in San Francisco; Ammar Zaeem, cofounder and CEO of Caramel Tech Studios; Colin Campbell, senior reporter at Polygon (moderator).
10:00 a.m. – 10:20 a.m.: Fireside Chat: Esports: The Dawn of a New Sport – with Peter Levin, president of Interactive Ventures, Games and Digital Strategy at Lionsgate; Yvette Martinez-Rea, CEO of ESL North America
10:20 a.m. – 10:50 a.m.: Panel: Diversity Then and Now: Moving Toward the Future with Tipatat Chenavasin, general partner, The VR Fund; Rebecca Heineman, CEO, Olde Sküül; Keisha Howard, founder of Sugar Gamers and The BlazeBreakers, Paula Angela Escuadra, GlassLab
Above: Yvette Martinez-Rea of ESL North America
10:50 a.m. – 11:10 a.m.: China’s Global Expansion with Greg Pilarowski, founder of Pillar Legal PC; Billy Hsu, cofounder of SixtyFive02; Michael Zhang, founder and CEO of Firefly Games
11:10 a.m. – 11:40 a.m.: Panel: Skating to Where the Puck is Going to Be: The Games VC Forecast for the Next 12 Months with Eric Goldberg, managing director at Crossover Technologies; Nabeel Hyatt, general partner at Spark Capital; Greg Milken, managing director at March Capital Partners; Gordon Rubenstein, managing partner at Raine Ventures
11:40 a.m. – 12:10 p.m. Fireside Chat: PlayStation Postmortem with Andrew House, former president and global CEO at Sony Interactive Entertainment; Mike Vorhaus, President of Magid Advisors
12:10 p.m. – 12:55 p.m. Breakout Session 1: What’s Next for Monetization? with Steve Peterson, CEO and founder of StoryPHORCE; Greg Bae, general manager, subscriptions and payments at Twitch, Kevin Hennessy, director, digital content at Worldpay; Natalie Portier, chief operating officer of Appodeal; Katie Weinstock, director, business development at AppOnboard
12:10 p.m. – 12:55 p.m. Breakout Session 2: Creativity for Game Designers with Maarten Noyons, founder of International Mobile Gaming Awards; Robin Hunicke, cofounder of Funomena; Amy Jo Kim, CEO of Shufflebrain; David Reichelt, founder of Color Switch
12:10 p.m. – 12:55 p.m. Breakout Session 3: Building Games for the Platforms of Tomorrow with Brian Blau, research vice president at Gartner; Leo Olebe, director, global gaming partnerships at Facebook; Walter Cruttenden, chairman at Acorns and CEO of Blast; Matt Fairchild, cofounder and CEO of Wavedash Games
12:10 p.m. – 12:55 p.m. Breakout Session 4: Games and Blockchain: Sorting the Hype and Reality with Japheth Dillman, managing partner and cofounder of Blockbits Capital; Peter Relan, board member at Discord and Got It; Benny Giang, Fortune Cat at CryptoKitties; James Young, engineering lead for adChain at VidRoll; Gabby Dizon, chairman and cofounder of Alto.io
12:10 p.m. – 12:55 p.m. Breakout Session 5: Connecting Influencers with Advertisers with Adam Sessler, cofounder of Spiketrap; Albert Schwarzmeier, CEO of ad2games; Jiri Kupiainen, cofounder and CEO of Matchmade; Sawyer “Sir Dimetrious” Lewis
Above: Josh Yguado is president and chief operating officer of Jam City.
12:45 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Lunch
2:00 p.m. – 2:20 p.m. Fireside Chat: Leading a Transformation – with Mike Vorhaus, President of Magid Advisors; Nick Earl, CEO of Glu Mobile
2:20 p.m. – 2:40 p.m. Fireside Chat: Making IP Games Work in Mobile – with Michael Blank, head of mobile at Creative Artists Agency; Josh Yguado, president and COO of Jam City
2:40 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Afternoon Break sponsored by Jam City
3:00 p.m. – 3:20 p.m. Fireside Chat: How Will We Power the Games of the Future? – with Ken Moss, CTO at Electronic Arts; Mike Vorhaus, president of Magid Advisors
3:20 p.m. – 3:40 p.m. Fireside Chat: All in on the video game industry: Investing in and launching new IPs with Dean Takahashi; Jon Goldman, Venture Partner at Greycroft
3:40 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Fireside Chat: Where in the World are the Game Jobs? with Dean Takahashi; James Hursthouse, board member at DigiBC
4:00 p.m. – 4:20 p.m. Fireside Chat: Opportunities and Differences Between Chinese and Western Gaming Markets – with Mike Vorhaus, president of Magid Advisors; Randy Lee, Head of Business Development, North America at Tencent
4:20 p.m. – 4:25 p.m. Closing remarks with Dean Takahashi
4:25 p.m. Closing Reception
