Last year saw the inauguration of the first the Videogame Economic Forum (aka VEF), which was organized by Pole Magelis and based in Angouleme, the home of one of France’s leading games and interactive universities ENJMIN. Although there are various games conferences that take place each year in Europe including Game Connection, Casual Connect, and GDC, VEF is markedly different as it is the leading European conference focusing exclusively on debating issues, trends, and innovation in video game financing and funding.
Since the dawn of the video game industry, financing has been a major issue for small and large studios alike. In recent years, with the rapid rise of internet and mobile games, new business models, such as crowdfunding, have started to play a more prominent role. However, as any burgeoning game startup or small studio can attest, the challenges still remain. VEF seeks to bring together all key players in the games sector, including angels, VCs, analysts, crowdfunding leaders, publishers, small and large studios, game developers, etc.to share their knowledge on and experience in this ever-evolving debate.
The contours of this year’s program are starting to take shape, with some great, industry leading speakers already announced, including Zack Karlsson from Capcom, Stéphane Bittoun from My Major Company (pioneering French crowd-funder) and Frédéric Doumic CEO of OUAT Entertainment. In addition, the panels and workshops will all be in English with simultaneous translation, so the conference will be firmly international in scope. The full programme will be announced in a few weeks, so stay tuned for more details.
The forum is obviously a must attend event If you’re looking to get your game funded or looking to raise general funding for your game startup. Not only does it give you the opportunity to network with key game sector investors from France and elsewhere, but it will also give you invaluable tips via the panels and workshops on how to approach funding challenges. For those who register, you can also apply to participate in the “pitch project” competition and pitch your project, idea or startup (in 3 minutes!) to a panel of VCs, angels, bankers and other investors. To get them “pitch ready”, selected startups will also receive coaching from IDinvest partner Guillaume Latour.
If you’d like to attend, make sure to register asap as the early bird rate of €200 is only available through April 1st! You can register here.
Event details
Date & time: starting at 9h30 on May 16-17, 2013
Location: Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l’image, 121 rue de Bordeaux, Angouleme