Roundtable Leaders

Monday, September 11, 2017

Lester Chen, Global Head of eSports at YouTube
The Rise of Mobile Gaming Content Consumption
A foray into the early stages of what could be a behemoth content category in gaming. An exploration into how consumption of mobile gaming content can come to balance the immense amounts of spend users are making within the games they play. Asking questions around what necessary hardware and software may be necessary or upcoming to spur growth and what minefields also exist when treading into this topic. Can Mobile Games stand out as a gaming category of their own?

Mary DeMarle, Executive Narrative Director at Eidos-Montréal
Digging Deep: Inspiring and Sustaining Collaborative Innovation during Long-term Creative Projects
Following Mary’s D.I.C.E. Europe talk, she will be leading a roundtable discussion on her speaking topic. Mary will have attendees discuss how designing, writing, and creating narratively-driven, Triple A video games is an experience comparable to running a marathon with a team: the group efforts must be managed through time... and time can mean several years. So from start to finish, how do you keep people motivated? How do you challenge yourself and others to do more, to push ideas and innovation even further, as exhaustion sets in?

Sigurlina Ingvarsdottir, FIFA Senior Producer at Electronic Arts
Realizing the full potential
Following Sigurlina’s D.I.C.E. Europe talk, she will be leading a roundtable discussion on her speaking topic. In her roundtable she welcomes the D.I.C.E. attendees to discuss how ensuring diversity and inclusion of both creative teams and the cast and content of entertainment franchises isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s right for your game and for your business.

Raul Rubio Munarriz, CEO and Creative Director of Tequila Works
The Root of Inspiration
Following Raul’s D.I.C.E. session, he will examine with his roundtable the inner workings of creativity and inspiration. Rubio Munarriz will look at how elements of culture, personal roots and life experience come together to shape not only the creative individual and teams, but help inform the unique, moving experiences they create to connect with global audiences.

George Panayotopoulos, Strategic Partner Manager, Gaming at YouTube
What does the future of gaming content look like in a VR world?
As VR gaming platforms, peripherals and software become more established we discuss how this will change the world of video content. How will Let’s Plays, walkthroughs, reviews and game-based entertainment evolve in this new world? We will consider new formats and technologies like VR180 as we look at platforms like YouTube through a VR lens.

Frank Pearce, Chief Product Officer of Blizzard Entertainment
Planning for Creativity
What processes, tools, structures, and other mechanisms can be used to make sure ideas are surfaced and explored in companies big and small? We’ll discuss how an organization, its leadership, and dedicated teams/individuals can consistently mine for ideas, evaluate their potential, and have the right vehicles in place to help good ideas become great.

Hilmar Veigar Petursson, CEO of CCP Games
The Blockchain: What can cryptocurrencies teach us about the future of gaming and gaming economies?
Bitcoin. Ethereum. Litecoin. Not a day goes by where we don’t hear about another initial coin offering (ICO) or read something new about blockchain, the groundbreaking tech behind cryptocurrencies. But blockchain isn’t just about cryptocurrency and smart contracts in the context of finance, or at least it doesn’t have to be. CCP’s CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson has been thinking a lot about blockchain lately, and will lead a discussion about what it and related technologies can teach us about the future of gaming and gaming economies.

Ted Price, President and CEO of Insomniac Games
Bottoms Up Creativity
In the high stakes world of games, fear of failure can often lead to a top-down approach where creative decisions are relegated to a handful of leads. How does one turn things upside down and ensure creativity thrives at all levels of one’s organization? What are the pros and cons of encouraging everyone to jump in? How can growing games companies ensure that all team members feel ownership of the creative process? Does this make your game better? An open discussion will ensue.

Anatoly Ropotov, CEO of Gameinsight
Taking a Swipe at the Console: Bringing Action Games to Mobile
Since the dawn of the App Store in 2008, traditional gaming experiences have largely remained on the console and PC, while mobile users have been offered ‘lite’ versions or casual games. Attempts to bring action-packed PC and console experiences to mobile have almost always met with derision from gamers. And this shouldn’t be surprising: trying to cram games designed for controllers and keyboards onto small screens that rely on touch and swipe motions, is not unlike trying to put a square peg in a round hole. In this roundtable, Game Insight CEO Anatoly Ropotov will discuss with attendees the difficulties faced by developers trying to bring traditional action games to touch screen platforms.

Hannes Seifert, Country Manager DACH of Riot Games
Better Together - Games, A Social Medium
We’ve gone from bedrooms to billions, dial up modems to ever present connectivity, and from lonely basement gaming nights to stadiums. This roundtable will discuss how games have evolved into a huge social experience. One that starts at playing with friends, continues with small and big online communities, and ultimately leads to watching huge game events together with thousands of gamers. Social multiplayer games can help us learn important skills such as team play, cooperation, tactics, and strategy - and all that while improving our abilities as digital natives for the societies of the future. Be ready to contribute to a vivid discussion on this, one that’s going to be better together.

Sibel Sunar, CEO of fortyseven communications
Streams of Communication
A roundtable to share new and best practices, pitfalls and learnings around the "new media" landscape, from your blog to Twitch, to influencers, to press.

Paul Wedgwood, CEO of Splash Damage
Future of Gaming/Innovation/Exiting: How to sell your Company
Paul will lead a discussion on the future of the gaming industry and the trends in innovative ideas. Topics will cover ideas on how to build a successful company, how to exit and sell your Company whilst keeping core values and loyalty from within.

Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony's Worldwide Studios for Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.
Let's talk about VR (and AR and MR)
2016 was called "Year of VR" and saw the launch of high quality VR systems from Oculus, HTC/VIVE, Sony and Google. Microsoft released developer version of Hololens as well. What will be necessary to popularize this exciting new medium?

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Mike Bithell, CEO and Founder of Bithell Games
TL:DR - Keeping it Brief
When the audience for games was predominantly cash-strapped teens with ample free time, value could be measured by bigger is better. Gameplay content is wise to the ageing audience but unwise in the scale of that content. Does a parent who connects with Horizon Zero Dawn’s themes of compassion and responsibility have the time to enjoy all its side quests? In this presentation, Mike will talk about the work many devs are doing to make high-value short-duration games, and examine the trend’s successes and challenges.

Lyle Hall, President & CEO of Heavy Iron Games
State of the Industry: Where are we now?
This topic will engage its roundtable in discussion around what we have seen, learned and understood over the past 12 months. A year ago, Twitch streaming, influencers and VR were in focus, and while there has been some fall off in the attention on those subjects, they continue to exist as core parts of our business. Our industry is driven by technology invention and its rapid advancement, creating a constantly evolving landscape filled with achievement and pitfalls. We will discuss the pros and cons of this environment as well as the key drivers and vehicles of investment that offer opportunities for success.

Jon Leslie, Principal Agile Coach of Favro
Building Great Teams
There may be no other industry or medium requiring so many different disciplines and specialties to come together to produce something that not only works, but is both immersive and fun. This is true regardless of overall development team size. However, it’s a proven fact that smaller, cross-functional, empowered teams are not only more productive, but also more creative. How should a studio go about building teams that transcend individual disciplines and work together as game developers to make truly new and innovative experiences? What are the attributes that make a great team? And, once that greatness is achieved, how do you scale it across many teams of teams, working on a single title? Let’s discuss the biggest driver of what makes a great game - the team.

Hendrik Lesser, CEO of Remote Control Productions and President of the European Games Developer Federation (EGDF)
Funding, Education, Networking, Creativity
Video games have evolved dramatically over the last decades, and so has their cultural acceptance. Gone are the days when gaming was viewed as a waste of time or even dangerous – today, our industry is widely accepted as a highly popular means of entertainment. This change in perception has led to several European-wide as well as national funding schemes and other initiatives in terms of education and perception which offer lots of opportunities. The discussion will give insight into what these schemes have to offer and how their structural support can enable a broad variety of highly creative projects.

Bill Roper; Chief Creative Officer at Improbable
Building Better Worlds: The Next Steps in Online and Open Worldbuilding
Bill Roper will look at the technological and market developments driving the adoption of open worlds, and how, in an increasingly saturated market, developers and publishers can get ahead of the curve. Roper will share his thoughts on where the technical and creative future of open world games may lie, looking at the technical challenges and design possibilities of persistence, high fidelity, scale, intricacy and higher player counts.

Lidwine Sauer, Director of Insights and Trends of Ubisoft's Strategic Innovation Lab
Navigate the Rapid currents of Change
Following Lidwine’s D.I.C.E. Europe talk, she will be leading a roundtable discussion on her speaking topic. We live in a time of accelerated disruption and transformation, where innovations that originate in one industry can very quickly upend many others. Unexpected events have almost become the norm. Faced with rapid and regular revolution, how do you anticipate the opportunities -- and the risks -- that the future holds? How do you drive forward-thinking change in a creative organization?