The First Pocket Gamer and Blockchain Gamer Connects Hong Kong Wows the Crowds
Judy Li Jul 23, 2019 16:00
The temperature outside may have been in the high 30s, but that was nothing compared to the white-hot talks and meetings taking place inside Hong Kong’s awesome Cyberport venue on 17-18 July, at Steel Media’s inaugural Blockchain Gamer Connects and Pocket Gamer Connects in East Asia.
The First Pocket Gamer and Blockchain Gamer Connects Hong Kong wows the crowds: more than 750 delegates from 45 countries attend a new B2B gaming conference!
The temperature outside may have been in the high 30s, but that was nothing compared to the white-hot talks and meetings taking place inside Hong Kong’s awesome Cyberport venue on 17-18 July, at Steel Media’s inaugural Blockchain Gamer Connects and Pocket Gamer Connects in East Asia.
The conference and expo, hosted in association with Animoca Brands and Cyberport, pulled in the great and the good of the games industry from across the region as well as overseas with over 750 delegates registering in total from 45 countries. Less than half of the attendees (48.6%) were from Hong Kong, with 15.5% traveling from mainland China, 6.6% from the United States, 4.4% from Korea, 3.3% Japan and 2.6% hailing from the United Kingdom. The emerging market of South East Asia was well represented too, with attendees from Singapore, Philipines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand (making up over 7.7% of delegates) whilst Russia and mainland Europe collectively brought in 7.8% and the Middle East and Australasia were also represented.
These delegates enjoyed over 55 hours of talks and panels delivered across three packed tracks rooms. Over the span of two days, 131 speakers shared their insight on mobile, esports and blockchain gaming. Highlights included keynotes by Yuichiro Saito (Cygames), Allison Bilas (JoyPac), Sandeep Nailwal (Matic Network), and Huabin Ling (Cocos2dx). The crowd was thrilled by Superstar Sessions on player-owned economies (John Linden, Mythical Games); how gameplay comes first (Kern Zhang, App Annie); scaling Ethereum games (Matt Campbell, Loom Network); and community building (Marguerite deCourcelle, Blockade Games). There were 14 panels, including a lively discussion about the future of instant games, hypercasual and casual games, led by Gamejam’s Christian Calderon.
Making Connections
Outside of the track rooms, attendees used the free meeting system to schedule 280 hours of business one-to-ones. There were also curated sessions (Investor Connector, and Publisher SpeedMatch), which were invitation-only get-togethers that took place smoothly behind the main stage, bringing together studios, publishers, and investors from around the globe.
There were 20 entrants in the Very Big Indie Pitch, the competition that challenges indie developers to pitch their games to panels of experts in speed-dating style quickfire rounds. The ultimate winner was Minidragon, a small company founded in 2013 and are based in Cyberport, Hong Kong. Their game Pixel Petz walked away with the ceremonial baseball bat after impressing the judges with their pitch.
390 companies joined PG and BG Connects Hong Kong 2019 in total. As always at a Connects event, there was a wonderful cross-over of industries, from students to CEOs and top investors. 40% of the registered attendees were C-level.
Sponsors and Supporters
Our platinum sponsors were Cyberport and Animoca Brands, who co-organized the event. The event was also supported by Xsolla, Lab Cave, App Annie (gold); UPLTV, Genvid, JoyPac, Matic Network, PlasmaPlay, Minimob, iMoney, Cocos-BCX, Bino Viz (silver); Bluzelle, Upland and Cocos2d (track and associate sponsors).
“This was our 19th B2B conference overall and our very first one in the Hong Kong region,” commented Steel Media COO Dave Bradley. “We could not have been more pleased with the support we received from the local and international games community. There was an incredible amount of talent on show in both the blockchain and mobile sides of the event. It seems that many new business connections were made. And as always at a Connects event, the vibe was relaxed and friendly, with the party on Tuesday night – with conversations spilling out onto the Cyberport terrace – a particular highlight! We’ll definitely be back in this fascinating city.”
Next Up
The next destination for the international series of events is the sixth edition of Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki on October 1-2 before wrapping up the year with the first-ever Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan on November 2-3. In 2020, the series will start the year by returning home to London on January 20-21. https://www.pgconnects.com/helsinki/
