GDC & Gamescom Recap

Posted by deniselu on August 25, 2011 under Company News, Social Games | Be the First to Comment

Last week our CEO, Mike Jaconi, and our Sales & Partnership Manager, Tim Williams, attended the Game Developers Conference and Gamescom trade fair in Cologne, Germany, one of the most respected events in the gaming industry with multitudes in attendance. GDC hosted more than 2,100 game professionals from 57 countries while Gamescom saw a record attendance of 275,000 visitors throughout the week. The events provide great opportunities for us to talk to publishers and designers as well as see the latest updates and features in the gaming industry.

We asked Tim to share some thoughts from his first experience to GDC and Gamescom.

What was your impression of GDC and Gamescom?
GDC was great, though more low-key than I expected. There were approximately 25-30 exhibitors and I was able to get face time with each exhibitor relevant to us. My favorite part of the conference was striking up conversations with fellow attendees, most of whom were publishers or designers. I had some great conversations and was able to get several leads from the event. The venue itself was great, right in the heart of Cologne. Having done quite a bit of travel in my life, I can say Cologne is one of the nicest places I’ve ever visited.
Gamescom was a huge conference. It was unbelievable in terms of its sheer size. There were two different sections, one for business opportunities and the other for consumers. Because we didn’t schedule meetings in advance, I wasn’t able to meet with exhibitors on the business side. On the consumer side, I was quite impressed by the extravagance of some of the exhibits. From Ferraris, to full size jets, to supermodels, each company was trying to outdo the other. The entire event really was quite breathtaking. I would definitely be interested in attending next year.

What was your impression of Cologne?
Cologne is absolutely beautiful! I felt completely comfortable there the entire time and everyone was so friendly and helpful. The people clearly take pride in their city.

What was your most valuable acquisition from attending these events?
The biggest upside I’m taking out of the entire week is learning about how these larger conferences operate. Being my first conference of this nature, I now have a much better understanding of the who, what, why, and how’s of these conferences. These events provide amazing lead generation opportunities – to me the best way to get yourself in front of new people. I now have a deeper understanding of how to maximize our attendance at these conferences. I believe events like this will be very helpful for FreeCause in the future and I look forward to our active participation in events like this going forward.

Click here for more photos from the trip over at our Facebook page