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Influencer sessions a highlight of record-breaking Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2018 event

Influencer sessions a highlight of record-breaking Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2018 event

An afternoon of talks about the gaming influencer scene was a highlight of Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki last week. The games industry conference, hosted by InfluencerUpdate.biz's parent company Steel Media, was yet another record-breaking edition of the hugely popular conference series that takes place multiple times each year around the world.

The event brought together the world’s mobile games industry in one location to share knowledge, make deals and network - but also boasted sessions on esports, PC, blockchain and, of course, influencer marketing.

Record-breaking attendance

In total more than 1,300 delegates attended this year’s Helsinki event on September 11th to 12th - making it our biggest ever event on mainland Europe.

Over 620 companies were represented, as were 49 different nationalities, creating a conference that represented a true cross-section of the industry at large.

More than 2,800 Pitch & Match meetings took place throughout the two-day event, enabling publishers, developers, investors and more to connect with each other and get the ball rolling on the big deals.

As well as talks and panels there were opportunities for endless networking.

It wasn’t just the Pitch & Match where people got talking though. We, of course, had our regular SpeedMatch session that enables shortlisted developers, publishers and investors, to make initial contact.

And then there was the infamous Global Connects Party which saw hundreds of attendees gather to network. And drink free booze. Probably.

Influencer insight

Over on the conference sessions, we had a huge 200 speakers on hand to deliver talks and panels across 16 tracks over two days, from the Monetiser and Developer Toolkit tracks to Game Changers: Hypercasual, Trade Trends, East Meets West, Blockchain Basics, Live Ops Landscape and more.

The esports and influencer tracks ran on Tuesday afternoon to a packed crowd in room three.

Solenne LaGrange of GINX TV spoke about the power of community in esports, in her talk "Attracting More Than Gamers: Esports As A Social Event". The audience for esports is expected to grow by 14.4 per cent by 2021, she said, becoming an activity watched by 307 million people.

David Kim from Nevaly spoke about "Game Industry Influencer Campaigns" and hit the audience with eye-opening facts and figures "from the trenches". People's phones were out snapping pictures of his slides, as he revealed that 6.3 per centengagement rate is average with a YouTube video; the average video is 18 minutes long and on average people watch less than six minutes of it. Relevant to the Pocket Gamer audience: just 26.2 per cent gaming videos are about mobile games.

Going further on a similar theme, Veera Rouvinen of Traplight spoke about "What Makes A Game Youtubable", outlining for developers in the room what influencers like to see in a game. She pointed out that PvP "rules YouTube" because of its diverse, active and endless gameplay. She also pointed out the 80 per cent of players are social media users, echoing LaGrange's observations about community.

The influencer panel was the last of the event, moderated by Heini Vesander (left).

Then Andrey Selin of Pixonic busted "7 Myths Of Influencer Marketing", and Dmitry Chudovsky of Zorka.mobi talked us through his company's "Ultimate Management Tool", because we saw a panel on "How To Get The Best Out Of Influencers". It was moderated by Heini Vesander of Matchmade, with panellist Olesja Marjalaakso of Polka Dot, Romain Schneider of Janeious, and Veera Rouvinen of Traplight.

"Truly diverse event"

"I was absolutely delighted by our biggest and best PGC Helsinki yet - we had the most delegates, speakers, sponsors and meetings ever in this our fifth year,” said Steel Media CEO Chris James.

“It was a truly diverse event too, although mobile remains at the heart, we covered multiple topics from hypercasual to triple-A PC/console ports, had a sizeable PC and XR presence and of course a sizeable crypto contingent as part of our first Blockchain Gamer Connects Helsinki.

“Crucially, despite the scale, the event managed to create the same genuine good-natured atmosphere of information sharing, practical business and fun that we always aim for - ultimately we're all part of the same big games family and pulling in the same general direction to make this industry more awesome!

"Huge thanks to our incredible team, all our sponsors and most of all the attendees who came along, engaged and made the event so special! Look forward to seeing you all again soon, how are you fixed for London on January 21st to 22nd 2019?"

A record number of delegates attended PG Connects this year.

A round of applause, please, to our sponsors, including Gold Sponsors G-STAR, MoPub, DeltaDNA, Unreal Engine, Epic Games, Hatch, Mintegral, Nutaku, Pixonic, Alto.io and Game Insight; Silver Sponsors KamaGames, Unity, Round Zero, Fingersoft, DOGI, Animoca Brands and Amazon Game Tech’ Bronze Sponsors Facebook gaming, HyprMX, Libring, Ogury, Devtodev, Beluga Global, Photon (Exit Games), Pocket Arena (Emoji Games), Auctionity, Adrealm, Gismart, Game of Whales, wappier, Shanghai Playwhale Digital Technology Co, Youmi Technology, AdTiming, Jodo Game; Associate Sponsors Chartboost, Next Games, Jam City, Kajak Games, Rovio, Playa Hub, Nitro Games, The Specialist Works, Matchmade, Seriously, Nordic XR Startups, Hash Rush and IndieSky.

Don't miss out!

Didn't get a chance to attend the show? PocketGamer.biz will be uploading the talks to its YouTube channel over the next few weeks, so you'll see the influencer track content there. You can also check out PocketGamer.biz's event coverage here.

And you could come to the next one! The next big Steel Media conference will be at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019 on January 21st to 22nd. Once again there'll be talks and panels about the influencer marketing scene. If you register before September 21st you can grab the Super Early Bird rates.