Festival of Games 2011

UTRECHT – GamesIndustry.biz and the Festival of Games have agreed to work together to attract games industry icons to next year's Festival of Games Conference. As of today, the two organisations will share their industry knowledge to provide a best-in-class conference programme for the Festival of Games 2011, taking place across April 28-29 in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

While previous editions of the Festival have focused on bringing greater experience in the decision-making process to industry executives and managers, the new partnership with GamesIndustry.biz will strengthen the Festival's international ambitions and ensure that the conference's content reflects the most recent developments in the global and domestic markets.

"With GamesIndustry.biz, we have found an international partner that is able to help us attract the right speakers for our event. With our combined knowledge of the market, we are able to pinpoint trends and select boardroom knowledge for decision-makers from the entire industry," said Seth van der Meer, Chairman of the NLGD Foundation, the organising body of the Festival of Games.

And Phil Elliott, Publisher of GamesIndustry.biz, added: "I'm delighted that we're going to be working with the NLGD Foundation on the Festival of Games. It's an event that's developed strongly, and can now be counted among the most important industry conferences on the European calendar.”

"We look forward to leveraging our experience in the videogames business sector to help take it to the next level, and - in turn - sharing the knowledge and learning on offer at the event with our industry community."

THE FESTIVAL OF GAMES

The Festival of Games takes place on April 28-29, 2011, at the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht (the Netherlands). The 2010 event attracted over 2000 visitors, with 180 companies from 25 countries.

The Festival of Games is the most effective games industry event, that combines a conference, an international matchmaking event, called Pitch & Match, a business Expo for trade visitors, and the largest games industry Career Fair of Europe.

With previous Conference speakers including the inventor of Pac-man, Professor Toru Iwatani, David Perry (GAIKAI), Masaya Matsuura (Creator of the 1st music game), Ian Livingstone (Eidos/Square Enix Europe), Kellee Santiago (thatgamecompany) and Alan Yu (ngmoco), the Festival of Games has set high expectation levels for future editions of the event.

The Festival of Games is organized by the NLGD Foundation and is made possible by the Dutch ministry of Economic Affairs, the province of Utrecht and the city of Utrecht.

In the next months GamesIndustry.biz and the Festival of Games will announce the first results of this fresh partnership. We have already made arrangements with some very high profile people who are expected to make their debut on 28 and 29 April 2011. You can check both websites for the latest developments: www.gamesindustry.biz and www.festivalofgames.org.

GAMESINDUSTRY.BIZ

GamesIndustry.biz is the market-leading business community for news and information about the global videogames industry, covering all aspects of the interactive entertainment value chain from development through to retail.

The registration-only site has a significant and qualified global audience, spanning the all parts of the industry value chain, from design, development, publishing, marketing, distribution or retail all the way through to media, freelance and students.

Leading news content, with opinion-forming industry interviews and analysis, are added daily, while the site boasts one of the largest recruitment databases for videogames-related roles, a company directory of contact details for hundreds of businesses in the industry, links to industry bodies and events, and a database of press releases.

Additionally the site delivers daily and weekly newsletters to a massive and growing industry audience, and regularly features key figures offering their opinions on the topics of the day, often feeding back on our stories and features.