We’re so close to The 2nd Annual GamesBeat & Facebook Gaming Summit, the event so nice we’re throwing it twice.
On Tuesday, January 25, 2022, at 8:20 am sharp PT, the hold music will end and Emcee Kahlief Adams, captain of the Spawn On Me Podcast and famously bad cook, will launch us into three days of events spanning the business of games.
Despite massive peer pressure from the GamesBeat staff, Dean Takahashi will definitely not be taking a deep dive into Walmart’s vision of the metaverse in his opening remarks, but what he will do is introduce us to the big themes of day one, which include the big evolutions we’re seeing in instant and cloud gaming; the increasingly important business need for diversity and representation in gaming; and industry perspectives on where we’re headed next. (Because even when we get it totally wrong (see: Walmart) it’s always a blast to speculate. When we get it right — because these are educated predictions from some of the biggest names in the industry — we’re positioning ourselves for great things.)
And we’ll start off with two important conversations with keynote speakers. Rick Kelley, VP of Global Gaming at Meta, in conversation with Dean, will offer a first look at not-yet-released proprietary data on global gaming trends, and the changes that will impact 2022. They’ll talk about what they’ve learned about gaming behavior and trends from the platform’s 900+ million gamers, and reveal what Facebook Gaming is focused on for 2022. Finally, they’ll talk about the company’s move to Meta, and the Metaverse, and how that’s going to affect how the company is thinking about gaming, short- and long-term.
In the second keynote, Dean is joined by Chris DeWolfe, CEO of Jam City to talk about the lightning evolution of mobile gaming from pay-to-play, through free-to-play, and now play-to-earn, or blockchain games. They’ll discuss the industry shakeup that blockchain games represent, from controversy to opportunities, look at the future of mobile game monetization, and more.
Our final talk of the Facebook event features Jason Rubin, vice president of Meta content at Facebook/Meta. He’ll talk about what we’ve all been wanting to hear about — the progress the company has made since Mark Zuckerberg’s big announcement that the company was pivoting to focus on the metaverse, with a name change to prove it.
On day two and three, we’re all GamesBeat: Into the Metaverse 2, all of the time. We’re talking everything metaverse, NFTs, and all the many and varied buzzwords and hype, and evaluate the promises creators, founders, funders, investors, and more are making. Plus, we’ll look at how to keep the party going — how close are we really to bringing the open metaverse to life, and what will it take to run these last miles? It’s an event full of folks who have been both in the trenches and in the thick of the discourse, the status quo disruptors who see a way forward, whether that’s the walled garden of the big tech companies that can take over the world, or a scrappy homegrown open version that could change it.
And last but not least, the third and final day starts off with a bang with the third Women in Gaming virtual breakfast (and women can sign up for the private event here). Andrea Rene, cofounder of What’s Good Games, will emcee, and moderate a panel with Debbie Bestwick, CEO of Team17; Tiffany Xingyu Wang, chief strategy officer of Spectrum Labs and founder and CEO of Oasis Consortium; and Laura Sturr, head of business operations and player experience at Amazon. There will be breakout sessions as well: Swatee Surve will run a subroom on careers/leadership; Serena Robar will run a subroom on the metaverse; and Joanie Kraut will run a subroom on Women In Gaming International (WIGI).
Thanks to the support of both Facebook and VB Lab, this fully virtual event, available online via VentureBeat’s best-in-class digital platform, will be free to those who have registered.
Pre-registered industry executives will also have access to Q&A rooms, networking lounges, 1:1 meetings, and more.
Sign up today to reserve your spot!
And for a full list of topics, speakers, and more, please visit our event site here.
