Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki Digital

The need to connect and do business remains as strong as ever, despite many of us being isolated at home. We had hoped that IRL games industry networking events would return to normal as the year continues, but we’ve accepted that 2020 is going to be an unusual one all the way to the winter. So let’s keep the momentum going by squishing our traditional Helsinki edition together with our world-beating Digital editions to create an online event that you can join no matter where you’re working from!

We assure you that we will continue to work incredibly hard to distill as much of the content and spirit as we can from the traditional PG Connects events you have come to know and love over the last seven years, and hone the format so it can be as genuinely useful as possible. That means expert talks, panels and round-tables, an improved digital meeting system, digital versions of Big Indie Pitches and fringe events like Publisher SpeedMatch, and more surprises too.

Expert Insight
As one of an expected 1,000+ delegates, you will have access to an innovative online platform for five days in September.

You’ll be able to select from a program of great live video content full of insight and practical advice across ten themed conference tracks. We will be celebrating the best of fantastic Finland, the spiritual home of mobile gaming, but also casting the net wide to bring you the most insightful content from around the world. You can watch the tracks live or catch up on the recorded videos within your own time, and if you’re online while the speakers are performing you’ll be able to interact with them and the other viewers with questions and comments.

We’ll unveil the speakers and schedule progressively on the official site (www.pgconnects.com) and through our media channels.

You can expect the usual inspiring talks from over 200 speakers who will educate and inspire through an agenda of themed tracks set to cover monetisation and growth, global game trends and company culture, development tools and stories and strategies to thrive in the modern gaming market be it mobile, PC, console or XR.

24-Hour Networking For All
Aside from the talks, you’ll also be able to search and connect with other attendees, to meet, discuss, do deals and make plans using the all-new online meeting system. The system will go live a week or so ahead of the event.

Plus we’ll also be running online variants of our celebrated Big Indie Pitch, Investor Connector, and Publisher SpeedMatch activities, that will bring together specific groups with specific needs. Please register your interest at the links below and we will send you details…

INVESTOR CONNECTOR (developers, publishers and investors)

PUBLISHER SPEEDMATCH (developers and publishers)

BIG INDIE PITCH (all platforms welcome)

The event is called Connects because that’s what we help you do; connect with the whole gaming industry, from students and indie studios to the media, international investors and publishers. No other event puts you in touch with the entire mobile gaming industry like our Connects conferences, and this remains true of PG Connects Helsinki Digital.

Most of the benefits of an IRL conference!
We’re not going to pretend this will have ALL the benefits of a regular conference. There are no free drinks for a start (although you could crack open a bottle at home), no booths to wander or cool freebies to pocket, you obviously don’t get the thrill of visiting a great Finnish city (unless you already live there, in which case: sorry we won’t get to quaff lonkero with you this year) and generally there’ll be less of those incidental catch-ups and spontaneous meetings that often make the whole thing worthwhile.

We’re also not going to pretend we’ll get everything faultlessly perfect, there’s a lot of tech platforms involved and we’re evolving our approach all the time. But we know that you understand all that, you’re in the games business, right? Everything is a work in progress, even after its released! We also feel sure that you’ll lend us your patience, trust and support to try and pull off something that can genuinely help us all stay connected, doing business and having fun through these challenging times.

Established International Audience
More than 25,000 industry professionals have attended the live Connects international conference series since 2014. Since then, the roadshow has landed in the UK, Canada, USA, Finland, Hong Kong, Jordan and India with a genuinely international client base; on average, delegates from more than 45 countries attend each event. With the advent of the Digital conference, we have seen this number grow! There were over 60 countries represented at our April online event, and in 2020 we know that over 70% of our audience works in game creation/publishing.

In 2016, PG Connects became the biggest dedicated mobile games industry conference series in Europe and have stayed on top ever since. Every event has been bigger and better than the last, and since 2017 we’ve added VR/AR, PC, console and blockchain to the mix. Our first Digital event in April smashed expectations with over 1,100 attendees.

Previous speakers and delegates from all the key industry players include Supercell, King, Space Ape Games, Niantic, SYBO, Tencent, Mythical Games, Unity, Jam City, Skybound, Apple, Rovio, Disney, Super Evil Megacorp, Wargaming, Kabam, NetEase, NTT Docomo, Ubisoft, Facebook, Google, Square Enix, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Gameloft, Sega, Capcom, Twitter, Snapchat, Twitch, NaturalMotion, N3TWORK and many, many, many more. If you’d like to speak at PGC Digital, or another of our upcoming events, please sign up using our Speaker Submission form.

And because Steel Media owns and operates the leading media in this space too, including PocketGamer.com, PocketGamer.biz and PCGamesInsider.biz, our events benefit from unrivalled press coverage. A combined website readership of over a million users a month, 300,000 engaged Twitter followers, over 115,000 subscribers on YouTube, all await. Our events including opportunities – like a Journalist Bar (operating in Discord for our Digital events) – where you can show writers and editors your games.

Find out more here.