A series of short talks interspersed with general networking / drinks to encourage collaboration and communication between local developers, and networking with visiting guests.
We're delighted to announce our keynote speaker for each day is Rami Ismail; Rami is a Dutch-Egyptian industry ambassador & independent games developer with over 20 titles across PC, console, web, and mobile. His development of tools like the industry-standard dopresskit.com, his prolific & popular public speaking, and highly-regarded consultancy and insights have helped shape industry opportunities for game communities & independent game developers of any kind, in any situation, and anywhere.
The in-person speakers are :
- Rami Ismail, indie champion :) (E/D/G)
- Garnett Lee, Game Scout/Producer, publisher Raw Fury (E/D/G)
- Stephen Hey, scout for publisher Merge Games, and Marketing Consultant (E/D/G)
- Anna Mansi, Head of Certification at the British Film Institute (E/D/G)
- Cécile Fléchon, Publishing Coordinator at publisher Focus Home Interactive (E/D/G)
- Imre Jele, co-founder of developer Bossa Studios (E/D/G)
- Ian McGregor, Head of Publishing, Green Man Gaming (E/D/G)
- Mark McCready, Scottish Liaison Officer at British Esports Association (E/D/G)
- Phil Scott, European Director of Developer Relations, chip manufacturer NVIDIA (E/D/G)
- Ken Gordon, Regional Ambassador at the European Space Agency (E/D/G)
- Tom Methven, aka developer Amicable Animal (E/D/G)
- Brian Baglow, Director, Scottish Games Network(E/D/G)
- Ron Ashtiani, founder of art studio Atomhawk and co-founder production house Big Thursday Creative (E)
- Paul Farley, Founder/CEO at publisher Firestoke Games (D)
- Max Scott-Slade, Game Director of developer Glitchers (E/D/G)
- Niamh Loughran, Producer at developer Hyperluminal Games (D)
- Gary McCartan, CEO of developer Pocket Sized Hands (D)
- Kyle Banks, developer of Farewell North (E)
- Simon Meek, director at developer Stacking Chairs (G)
The events run over three days, one in each of Scotland's games hubs of Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow (E/D/G after each speaker signifies if they're speaking at all cities, or just one or two). The dates are:
- Tues 8th March; Edinburgh (4pm till late, at The Liquid Room, 9c Victoria Street, Edinburgh EH1 2HE)
- Weds 9th March; Dundee (4pm till late at Beat Generator, 70 North Lindsay St, Dundee DD1 1PS )
- Thurs 10th March; Glasgow (4pm till late at Revolution, 84 Mitchell St, Glasgow G1 3NA)
The talks will be streamed live on YouTube if you're unable to attend in person; link available by signing up for a (free) livestream ticket, but there aren't hybrid meeting opportunities for those watching virtually.
Some Scottish studios have kindly sponsored the event, in which case all their staff are entitled to a free ticket. Anyone buying a ticket that works for a studio that subsequently sponsors the event can get a full refund.
Each evening will have an array of further speakers from local developers, visiting publishers and others to be announced nearer the time. Speaking sessions will be interspersed with networking breaks to encourage everyone to get to know as many people as possible and foster potential future collaborations.
The golden rule of the event is there should be no recruitment activity - even from companies that are kindly sponsoring / speaking.