Program

WN Berlin

Europe/Berlin (UTC+2)

Day 1 - Berlin

07.Feb.2022

Day 2 - Berlin

08.Feb.2022

08:30 - 10:00: Welcome Coffee

Sponsored by Appodeal

10:00 - 10:30: From Concept to Launch: A Data-Driven Approach to Success

Tyler Long

Market Lead of Games, Newzoo

In a dynamic and crowded market, taking a data-enriched approach at each key stage of a game’s life cycle can help minimize risk and maximize success. Learn some of the techniques to how data can help guide key decisions during the concept and greenlighting, game launch, and post-launch phases of a game.

Concept & Greenlighting: How to spot trends, select the right game concept and elements, and forecast a title.

Game Launch: How to identify and reach the right audience.

Live Ops: How to identify and benchmark against competitors

10:30 - 11:00: How to Merge Science and Game on the Goodville example - Emotional Well-Being Farm

Andrew Sokol

Associate Professor, MD, PhD, department of human anatomy, science advisor at Goodville, Total Games

Andrew will highlight such an important topic as emotional well-being and discuss whence games are not only a tool for earning money for developers and fun for players. We will try to reveal the topic of emotional distress in half of our players and tell you how to conduct tests and put hypotheses correctly on the data obtained from the project.

11:00 - 12:00: Panel Discussion: How to Get a Deal — How Developers Make a Good Impression on Publishers and What Publishers Want to Know from Them

Moderator Mehdi Benkirane

VP Business Development, i3D.net – A Ubisoft Company

Stefan Kreutzer

Head of Business Development, Europe, Behaviour Interactive

Julia Kenny

Content & Partnerships Manager, SEGA Europe

Jan Halwe

Head of Licensing, gamigo group

Just like developers, publishers come in all shapes and forms focusing on diverse markets, platforms, and genres. Whilst practices can vary, developers are to remember that all publishers share the same core business: investing resources (financial and human) in a game so as to generate a return on their investment to thus generate revenue for both developers and themselves. It is consequently essential for developers to adhere to certain standards when trying to position their game, their vision, and team so as to help publishers establish full confidence into their game.

The panel will explore the key elements for which publishers are on the lookout and the various faux-pas developers should avoid at all costs.

12:00 - 12:30: Community Power — How UGC will Influence the Future of Game Development

Patty Toledo

Head of Creative Community, PLAYSENSE

Community is essential to the games industry. An audience that is active, follows, engages, and creates is incredibly powerful. These champions are passionate about a game, and are key to its success. Being part of a gaming community creates a sense of belonging, and user-generated content (UGC) presents a unique opportunity for studios and developers to take the power of its community even further. Connections are made, communities are built, all thanks to UGC.

Patty Toledo, Director of Developer Relations at YAHAHA, discusses how UGC is changing the gaming industry, from user acquisition to marketing. The future is becoming a reality and all game developers need to stay on top of the UGC trend before it's too late.

12:30 - 13:30: Lunch break

Sponsored by Appodeal

13:30 - 14:00: 10 Life Hacks for Mobile App Ads Monetization

Oleg Shlyamovych

CEO, Clever Ads Solutions

89% of mobile app developers use an ineffective model of ad monetization. Modern programmatic advertising mediation platforms create competition between ad networks. This allows a platform to increase developers` income by 50-150%. How to set up an effective ad monetization, you can learn from Oleg's lecture.

14:15 - 14:45: The Next Step in Ecosystem Collaboration

Mateusz Bochenczak

Senior Account Executive, AppsFlyer

The new AppsFlyer Privacy Cloud will be introduced - where they maximize customer experience and privacy through ecosystem collaboration.

15:00 - 15:30: Why Influencer Marketing is a Bad Idea as a User Acquisition Channel

Jiri Kupiainen

CEO, Matchmade

Growing your game with influencer marketing was a good idea in 2020. Learn how to leverage mid-size creators as part of a repeatable user acquisition strategy that results in profitable campaigns.

15:30 - 16:00: Happy Hour

Sponsored by Xsolla

16:00 - 17:00: Panel Discussion: Fast Forward 15 Years - What Will Our Industry Look Like?

Moderator Paul Le Bas

VP Marketing, Kolibri Games

Caglar Eger

CEO, exmox

Tony Deane

Senior Manager, Business Development, AppLovin

Behfar Iranmanesh

Founder & CEO, Chrono Games

Mikhail Isidorov

Operations Director, MGVC

Teut Weidemann

Creative Director, Stratosphere Games

The industry faces a lot of changes (privacy, consolidation, web 3, etc.) and since we tend to overestimate the short term impact and underestimate the long term impact, let’s discuss what our industry will look like in 15 years from now in terms of content, tools, usage, monetization, User Acquisition, etc.

17:00 - 17:30: Yandex: Cutting Edge Technologies in App Monetization

Yaroslav Gubanov

Head of App Network Business Development & Publisher Relations, Yandex

App advertising mediation has come a long way: from simple queries to Smart Waterfalls and Bidding technologies. Yandex not only uses the latest technology, but also applies machine learning to it. It will be explained how Yandex technologies and solutions can help you make money easier. New partners and ad networks are always welcome at Yandex. Advertising formats in their ad network and their performance will be covered.

08:30 - 10:00: Welcome Coffee

Sponsored by Appodeal

10:00 - 10:30: How to Get Your Game Noticed if it's Not a Hit?

Victoria Beliaeva

Head of Business Development & PR, AppQuantum

The mobile market is a tough one and publishers are constantly seeking for new games. If your game has potential it will get noticed minutes after you upload it to the store. But what if you didn't get any email? How to get publishers interested?

10:30 - 11:00: How to Get Noticed by a Medium-Sized Indie Publisher

Christian Bliss

Games Acquisitions Manager, Curve Games

A guide for indie developers on what to do (and definitely not do) when submitting your game to a publisher.

11:00 - 11:30: Fireside Chat: Mission Climate Change — Heroes of the Games Industry Unite

Moderator Maria Wagner

Initiator & GM, GamesForest.Club

David Mohr

Co-Founder and Managing Director / Managing Director, Out Of The Park / Com2Us Europe

Maximilian Maulwurf

New Business Lead, GamerLegion

Antonin Vial

Director of Partnerships, Matchmade

The games industry has all it takes to create an impactful shift in terms of carbon absorption, protection of biodiversity, and a sustainable lifestyle. Together with decision-makers, tech nerds, creatives, and all the lovely people of our industry, gamesforest.club defines effective and fun tools to conquer climate change and save forests. Dive into the stories of heroes and take on this global mission.

11:30 - 12:00: Powering Real Economies in Virtual Worlds

Ben Cousens

Head of Business Development, ZEBEDEE

An introduction to bringing programmable money and payments directly into video game environments, and an exploration of the possibilities it unlocks for games developers.

12:00 - 12:30: The Virtuous Cycle of UA and Monetization

Paul Le Bas

VP Marketing, Kolibri Games

How do we segment our marketing efforts in order to better monetize a game? Cross-channel marketing approaches to better deliver messages to various audience segments. Case studies based on previous marketing campaigns, along with KPIs which we apply to assess their effectiveness.

12:30 - 13:30: Lunch Break

Sponsored by Appodeal

13:30 - 14:30: Panel Discussion: The Secret to a Successful Game Launch: Bringing Marketing and Development Together

Moderator Bastian Winterkemper

Regional Lead DACH, Liftoff + Vungle

Sergey Grytsuk

CMO, Zephyr

Erno Kiiski

Chief Game Analyst - Managed Services, GameRefinery

Nate Barker

Independent

Tobias Edl

Head of New Business Relations, Whow Games

Successfully launching a new game is now more challenging than ever before. How can you make sure your game attracts your target audience? How do you give them the best possible experience? And how do you make it stand out from the crowd?

In the ‘perfect studio’, Game Development and Marketing work together to answer these questions - sharing audience insights, market research and design concepts at each stage of the launch. Join our panel of mobile gaming app developers and marketing experts as they bring details from the front lines on how their brands go about planning a launch.

14:30 - 15:00: M&A: Finding the Right Buyer/Partner for Your Business

Christopher Bergstresser

Board Member, Mogul Games Group

If you have been thinking about securing investment or finding the right buyer for your company, there are some things you should think about and prepare for. A crash course in preparing your company for the world of M&A.

15:00 - 15:30: MILEs as a Bridge to the Metaverse

Christopher Hamilton

Director of Developer Relations, Genvid

This talk will cover MILEs (Massive Interactive Live Events). MILEs are engaging, instant, always-on, highly accessible, live streamed experiences that allow thousands of users to participate in a meaningful way. They bring together the best of lean in gaming, lean back TV, and the thrill of live entertainment. Case studies will include Pac-Man Community and Rival Peak.

15:30 - 16:00: Coffee Break

Sponsored by Appodeal

16:00 - 16:30: Games That Retain

Fernando Pernica

Co-Founder & CBO, Nefta

In this session, we look at how to build a retention strategy from the outset, how to flex it across game lifecycle and maturity and how to go beyond just time-based metrics. Will cover tactics around onboarding, progression curves, variable rewards, and player engagement that will allow titles to have players coming back for years to come.

16:30 - 17:00: Fireside Chat: The Power of Creative on Snap in a Post-IDFA World

Callum Carmichael

Head of Gaming - Growth, Snap

Yury Bolotkin

Marketing Director, Starberry Games

The post-IDFA landscape has helped birth a new era of innovation in games advertising. Learn how StarBerry Games has leaned into this change, achieving best-in-class creative engagement and growth for their titles through a data-driven creative strategy on Snap.