Several times a year, the Vancouver Economic Commission organises delegations of Vancouver businesses to international conferences identified as having strategic value for local companies—particularly opportunities related to talent, capital and global networking.
In addition to liaising between festival organizers and local companies, our staff coordinates group branding and displays, seeking out opportunities for local companies to speak and pitch to strategic audiences. Pocket Gamer Connects London (PG Connects), which we attended in January, is one of the conferences with whom we have a multi-year history.
PG Connects is THE Global mobile games show – a full-on conference organized by Steel Media, the publishers of Pocket Gamer, The Virtual Report, 148 Apps, and numerous other relevant trade publications. Over the course of 2015, some 3500+ mobile gaming delegates from over 50 countries attended the PG Connects conferences held in London, Bangalore, San Francisco and Helsinki. In 2016, Vancouver became a host city of PG Connects– an honour we owe to the robustness of our overall Digital Entertainment & Interactive (DE&I) industry, and of course to our fully emerged mobile games cluster.
Some comments from the Level Up: Vancouver, British Columbia exhibitors at PG Connects London 2017:
“The whole trip was well-organized, booth looked great, media, panel, etc. Well done. Thank you.”
“The team was fantastic and very helpful.”
The success of this year’s showing means a high likelihood of Vancouver returning in full force to the 2018 PG Connects London. According to a survey the VEC sent out after the conference, the delegates of this year’s Level Up: Vancouver, British Columbia pavilion were rewarded for their hard work by finding success in many of their objectives:
- Finding new clients – meeting game publishers, tapping into the international business network of PG Connects and discovering new strategic partnerships and overseas B2B connections
- Advancing company brand and profile – through international business networking at the VEC-organized Canada House Industry Mixer, participating in media relations opportunities, speaking on an organized panel and generally participating in the Level Up: Vancouver pavilion.
- Following-up on co-production and recruitment leads – meeting user assurance groups for products in development; connecting with UK games companies and tapping into the EU scene
- Promoting Vancouver as one of the world’s fastest-growing mobile games clusters – calling attention to homegrown conferences like Consumer VR (CVR) and External Development Summit (XDS) as well as global stopovers (PG Connects Vancouver) in addition to making persuasive arguments for the cluster’s value proposition to international talent and investors
It’s at times like these that we’re especially proud of the business ecosystem built by innovative Vancouver entrepreneurs, investors and talent. Over the course of liaising with interested companies, meeting with them to determine their goals and objectives, and ironing out all the little details, we repeatedly witnessed the tight-knit nature of Vancouver’s Digital Entertainment & Interactive cluster. These mobile games companies bounced ideas freely off one another, feeding off their collective enthusiasm for the trip, their work, and mutual pride in the Vancouver games development industry.
While we were pleased with the positive feedback we received from the participating delegates, we were also excited by the enthusiastic suggestions various studio heads gave us on how to make next year’s PG Connects even better.
“Great support! Love PG Connects as an event, and appreciated the opportunities that the VEC was able to provide for us.”
Until it is time to go back to PG Connects, however, the Vancouver Economic Commission has several upcoming events in the DE&I space!
This May, our Vancouver Career Fair for VFX & Animation, Film & TV, and Video Games will incorporate the physical production side of Film & TV for the first time. Last year, 1500 jobseekers, industry professionals and students flooded the Fair. We expect an even bigger turnout this time!
Interested in exhibiting? Thanks to the Fair’s continued success, we have already filled half of this year’s available spaces for educator and employer booths, so be sure to register today at www.picatic.com/vancareerfair.
Questions about the event? Please contact Katrina Purcell at kpurcell@vancouvereconomic.com.
