2018 Agenda

2018 LA GAMES CONFERENCE AGENDA

*Speakers and times are subject to change

LAGC Agenda
May 08, 2018

WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS

Trends to Watch in Games and Entertainment In our opening session, LA Games’ Chair Ned Sherman will highlight several key trends to watch in games and entertainment. PRESENTER: Ned Sherman, Counsel/Director, Manatt Digital; Founder, Digital Media Wire

FEATURED PRESENTATION

Measuring the Impact of Battle Royale on the Games Industry Battle royale titles like Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battleground are not just popular among dedicated PC and console gamers — they are a genuine cultural phenomenon. A-list celebrities play Fortnite and teachers are wondering what exactly their students are obsessing over. The new game type is disrupting nearly every aspect of the $108B interactive entertainment market, from mobile gaming to live streaming to esports. This talk will provide attendees with an understanding of the impact of battle royale games and which companies stand to gain or lose. PRESENTER: Carter Rogers, Senior Analyst, SuperData Research
Carter Rogers

VIEW FROM THE TOP: THE STATE OF THE GAME INDUSTRY

Industry leaders discuss the current state of the game industry. What does it take to make a successful gaming experience these days across platforms? What emerging platforms, technologies and business strategies will be most important in the years to come? How do you acquire and retain users and make money in this more and more complicated gaming and entertainment universe with new digital platforms competing for the time and pocketbooks of consumers? How do emerging developments in blockchain and XR factor into the equation? PANELISTS: Dan Murray, President, Skybound Interactive Dan Winters, Head of Business Development, Amazon Digital Games...
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Dan Murray
Deepak Gupta
Nanea Reeves
Robert Nashak
Eric Goldberg

Fireside Chat with Craig Donato, Chief Business Officer at Roblox

Craig Donato, Chief Business Officer, Roblox INTERVIEWER: Ned Sherman, Counsel/Director, Manatt Digital; Founder, Digital Media Wire
11:15 am - 11:30 am

NETWORKING BREAK

FEATURED PRESENTATIONS

Selfie GO  Dmytro Kustov – Chief Strategy Officer Selfie GO is a new social network with Augmented Reality. Elyland, a company with more than 10 years successful experience in gamedev brings a solution to the problem of the current social networks, which don’t help to establish long-lasting social contacts. Thanks to gamification and Augmented Reality we offer our users a real context for communication. Selfie GO educates a new generation of cryptocurrency enthusiasts, by sharing its revenue as SGO tokens with its active users. The social network has also a business part, which allows small business enterprises to hold...
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Dmytro Kustov
Oleksandr Sakhnevych

VIRTUAL CURRENCY & CRYPTO COLLIDE: HOW WILL ICO’S AND BLOCKCHAIN DISRUPT GAMING & ENTERTAINMENT?

Los Angeles is an epicenter for ICOs and the next market to be disrupted after FinTech is gaming and entertainment. This panel will discuss the latest ICO activity in games and entertainment. How will ICOs and blockchain disrupt the gaming and entertainment industries? PANELISTS: Malcolm CasSelle, CIO of OPSkins; President of WAX Michael Frasier, Vice President, Business Development, International, InComm Paul Kim, Managing Director, ICO’s, Blockchain Industries Tony Sheng, Product Lead, Decentraland Foundation MODERATOR: Jay Moore, Alchemist of Fun, Convergence 4D
Malcolm CasSelle
Michael Frasier
Paul Kim
Tony Sheng
Jay Moore

THE X[R] FACTOR: CREATING IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCES FOR GAMES & ENTERTAINMENT

This panel of leaders will discuss the hardware and software, including sensory interfaces, applications, and infrastructures, that are enabling immersive content creation for virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR), augmented reality (AR), and cinematic reality (CR). How are these tools being used to generate new forms of reality by bringing digital objects into the physical world and bringing physical world objects into the digital world? The panel will focus on what is available in the market today. What are the available apps, content, devices, and headsets?  What is the current state of consumer adoption? PANELISTS: Bjorn Book-Larsson, VP, Product, HTC Vive Daniel...
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Bjorn Book-Larsson
Daniel Oberlerchner
Julia Sourikoff
Ryan Pulliam
Phil Greenspan
Margaret Wallace

What’s Next for Mixed Reality Location-Based Entertainment (LBE)?

2018 will see the roll-out of a number of new LBE ventures in the U.S. market, providing a near-term monetizable platform for mixed reality. This panel will discuss the types of experiences consumers can expect from MR-based location based entertainment as well as the business models and content players entering the market. PANELISTS: Bruce Vaughn, CEO, Dreamscape VR Eric Gradman, CTO & Mad Inventor, Two Bit Circus Joanna Popper, Global Lead, Virtual Reality Location Based Entertainment, HP Louisa Spring, CEO,VARI Parks Shiraz Akmal, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, SPACES Inc. MODERATOR: Eunice Shin, Managing Director, Manatt Digital 
Shiraz Akmal
Joanna Popper
Eric Gradman
Louisa Spring
Eunice Shin

INNOVATION IN MOBILE: WHAT DEVELOPMENTS WILL FUEL FUTURE GROWTH?

The mobile games market continues to grow at a record-breaking pace. The market reached a new high in 2017 with consumers spending $14B more on mobile games in 2017 than in 2016 (SuperData Research). To put this in perspective, revenue generated by mobile games is now equal to all global movie box office sales during the same period, and mobile games now account for half of the entire global digital games market. Make no mistake about it: mobile games are big business, and the market to attract and retain users is highly competitive. This is panel will discuss what...
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12:45 pm - 1:45 pm

VIP/SPEAKER’S LUNCHEON

GAMES & ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY DEAL-MAKERS ROUNDTABLE

This panel of leading game and entertainment executives will discuss the future of the game business as it continues to grow and reach new heights. What kind of deals are being done today?  How is the business changing as more entertainment brands and talent are getting involved in the business?  What does media consolidation mean for the business? What does the future hold? PANELISTS: Chris Heatherly, EVP, Games and Digital Platforms, NBCUniversal Jon Goldman, Managing Partner, Skybound; Venture Partner, Greycroft Rick Phillips, President, Licensing and Publishing, FoxNext Games Ted Schilowitz, Futurist, Paramount Pictures  MODERATOR: Ned Sherman, Counsel/Director, Manatt Digital;...
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KEYNOTE CONVERSATION WITH BERNARD KIM OF ZYNGA

SPEAKERS: Bernard Kim, President of Publishing, Zynga INTERVIEWER: Stephanie Chan, Reporter, VentureBeat
Bernard Kim
Stephanie Chan
3:00 pm - 3:30 pm

NETWORKING BREAK

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR BRANDS, AGENCIES AND MARKETERS IN ESPORTS

The panel will discuss the best of brand activations of eSports teams, leagues, competitive gamers and streamers. PANELISTS: Allan Phang, Allstars Engagement & Internal Branding, AirAsia People and Culture Allen Lu, Business Development, JLIN and CEO, Team VGJ Dave Madden, SVP, Global Brand Partnerships, EA Dustin Callif, Managing Partner, Tool of North America Rishi Chadha, Head of Gaming, Twitter MODERATOR: Minard Hamilton, Managing Partner, Driver Ventures

CHINA AND BEYOND: THE OPPORTUNITY IN CHINA AND APAC’S EMERGING MARKETS

The APAC territories generated $51.2 billion or 47% of total global game revenues in 2017 with China alone taking one-quarter of all global game revenues (Newzoo’s Global Games Market Report). With mobile gaming leading the way, it is expected that the Chinese market will continue to grow. With China continuing to lead the way, it is expected that the fastest-growing region in the coming years will be rest of Asia (excluding China, Japan, and Korea), with total game revenues expected to grow to $10.5 billion in 2020, up from $4.5 billion last year (Newzoo’s Global Games Market Report). This...
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Anthony Castoro
Isabel Gan
Michael Metzger
Michael Zhang
Michael Cai

FIGHTING TOXICITY IN GAMING

The global game industry has a big problem. Toxicity is so prevalent in online gaming that many players are resigned to its presence. All publishers and most players agree that toxicity is problematic. There is no grey area like with loot boxes or crate drops. Everyone benefits from gaming communities free of toxic behavior. This panel will tackle the issue head-on by looking at the following questions: What are publishers doing to address the problem? What challenges do they face? What successes have they had? What role can streamers and influencers play in fighting toxicity? As voice recognition software improves,...
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Carlos Figueiredo
J Goldberg
Kat Lo
Michael Salmon
Dewey Hammond

HOLLYWOOD & GAMES

This panel brings together a mix of companies and executives from the film and games industries to share ideas about relationship between games and the film industry and how to create new business opportunities at the intersection of these two exciting media industries. PANELISTS: Chris Hewish, Executive Vice President, Interactive, Skydance Interactive Javon Frazier, EVP, Strategy & Business Development, Studio71 John Linden, President, Seismic Games Josh Brooks, SVP, Brand Strategy & Marketing, Jam City Lydia Bottegoni, Senior Vice President of Story and Franchise Development, Blizzard Entertainment MODERATOR: David Bloom, Columnist, Tubefilter

THE FUTURE OF ESPORTS

Providing a potent mix of real-life spectatorship and digital entertainment, today the worldwide phenomenon of competitive gaming today counts over 200 million spectators annually (SuperData Research) and presents a unique, new avenue in the entertainment market. This panel will discuss the rapidly growing and evolving market for eSports. PANELISTS: Andrew Paradise, CEO and Co-Founder, Skillz Ann Hand, CEO and Chairman, Super League Gaming Ari Segal, President & COO, Immortals & LA Valiant Arnold Hur, Chief Growth Officer, KSV esports Yvette Martinez-Rea, Chief Executive Officer, ESL North America MODERATOR: Jonathan Pan, Esports Instructor, University of California, Irvine

LICENSING: THE ROAD TO HAPPY HOUR

Join us as our panel of interactive licensing veterans present a quick state of the market overview, share war stories and answer your questions regarding licensing in entertainment content for video game development and licensing out video game franchises for consumer products. PANELISTS: Careen Yapp, Senior Vice President of Global Business, Mixed Dimensions Chelsea Faso, Head of Licensing/343 Industries (Halo), Microsoft Germaine Gioia, President, Playlife Company Josh Austin, VP Worldwide Licensing & Interactive, Paramount Pictures MODERATOR: Ben Elliott, VP, Business Development & Licensing, Warner Bros
Careen Yapp
Chelsea Faso
Germaine Gioia
Josh Austin
Ben Elliott

The Future of Gaming

A multi-discipline panel involved in the design, development, and business in the interactive industry discuss the future of digital entertainment, with a focus on engaging different voices and incorporating new perspectives across all aspects of the creative and go-to-market process. PANELISTS: Jane Pinckard, Associate Professor of the Practice of Cinematic Arts, Interactive Media and Games division, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California Margaret Moser, Professor, Interactive Media and Games division, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California Marientina Gotsis,  Associate Professor of Research, Interactive Media and Games division, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California Richard Lemarchand, Associate Professor in the USC...
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Jane Pinckard
Margaret Moser
Marientina Gotsis
Richard Lemarchand
Gordon Bellamy