Why go to the White Nights gaming conference in Moscow?

If I had been told in 2012 that our first relatively small conference for 300 people would turn into a major international event that would take place three times a year in different cities and even countries, I would… believe it. Because I clearly understood why we were doing White Nights: we wanted to create a meeting place for representatives of the then new industry.

In less than two weeks, on October 13-14, we will be in Moscow for the first time. And right now, many companies are facing the question of whether to go to White Nights or not.

It may seem to some that there is not much to do there: publishers are not needed by everyone, they have already shown their game to someone, or they did not have time to finish everything they were going to do in it, so they do not want to waste time and money once again.
As the Director of Business Development at Nevosoft, I always ask myself the question: would we participate if the conference were not ours? And that’s what I think about before I answer.

Representatives of all major platforms will gather at White Nights:

• from Facebook will come Bob Slinn, Europe’s chief for interaction with game developers, as well as Yulia Ogneva, who works with key publishers;
  Google will talk about its new products and store news;
• Microsoft will talk about games that run on different screens at the same time;
• A well-known company will hold a closed speech on the first letter of the alphabet, where it will tell about new devices and operating systems (only 30 people will get there, the entry is here)
• Artur Shakalis announces the launch of the Odnoklassniki mobile platform;
• Maxim Babichev presents a new format of interaction with developers, which no one has talked about anywhere else.

All this means that if you have at least one relatively decent mobile or social game and you still hope for its takeoff, then at White Nights you will have a chance to prepare the runway.

Believe me, no one gets such conditions that partners receive at the start of new services later. Also, the volumes of traffic received will never be able to compare.

Due to the fact that our “Planet of Gems” was among the first games at the launch of the VK mobile platform, we received installations from Russia for several million dollars, and the game has been continuously at the top of the box office top for a year.

As I wrote above, Odnoklassniki is announcing the launch of its mobile gaming platform in Moscow — those who find out about everything first will have the chance to use this opportunity to the maximum.

Or let’s imagine that a meeting at a conference will lead to a feature on one of the platforms, and as a result you will receive 200,000 free (!) installations. Even with a very modest ARPU of $0.1, this is $20,000. At the same time, the investment in the ticket is $ 320. Even if you spend another $700 on tickets to Moscow and a hotel. It turns out to be a good ROI, isn’t it?

Of course, there are no guarantees — as in almost everything we do. But here you can either live with it and do what you love, or sell Kirby vacuum cleaners.

At conferences, there are not only announcements of new services from industry giants — it is here that new companies announce their entry into the market. And here the same logic applies: the first partners are offered the most favorable conditions.

What are the main issues currently facing gaming companies? That’s right, where to get traffic and how best to monetize it in your project. And it is in this direction that the founders of new businesses are actively thinking. I can say beforehand that there will definitely be a couple of interesting announcements from this area.

Unfortunately, there are very few good B2B events left in Russia, and this is bad news. But the rest have qualitative growth. It is at White Nights that top representatives of the world’s leading companies come — often this is their first trip to Russia.

I like to say that persuading a person living in California and working for a company like Warner Bros. to come to Russia in winter is not an easy task, but I succeed. Of course, they can be caught at other conferences — but now estimate the cost of a business trip abroad, especially considering the current exchange rates. It will turn out much more expensive.

In general, it is often customary for us to nod towards the west. They say they work more efficiently there and something else is better there.

You can look at the events that take place there, and their number. Take, for example, London: only there several dozen conferences for the gaming industry are held annually. Probably, people have something to discuss, and they do not consider attending conferences a useless activity. It’s weird to think that you know everything while sitting at home and reading Facebook. Unfortunately, there are vanishingly few projects from Russian—speaking developers in the world’s top projects – we probably don’t know something after all.

For us, for Nevosoft, this conference is the most ambitious task of the bizdev department. When we decided to hold it three years ago, we wanted to be in the epicenter of the industry and personally get to know the leading companies of the world. And, you know, we succeeded.

Every week I make about 30 introductions by mail — I introduce some people to others. How do I know them? All thanks to the fact that I went to various conferences, and then brought many to Russia. 90% of the transactions I conducted were made through personal acquaintance with the other party.

In addition, there is such a thing as the law of weak ties. This is when the most important events in life occur due to a superficial acquaintance with someone. When some hateful acquaintance can unexpectedly play a very important role – for example, take and introduce a future business partner or a landmark investor, or give some simple advice that will entail global changes for you.

The more people you know, the more opportunities there are. No wonder they say that you never know where you will find it. Therefore, it is always necessary to search, and, returning to my question, would we have gone to White Nights if it were not our conference, the answer is unequivocal. Of course, yes.

We often brag about the White Nights speaker line-up. This time, Fireproof Studios, Gamevil, Miniclip and GREE will come to us — these companies will perform for the first time. But we have many other interesting participants: Wargaming, ARM, Twitter, Appodeal, ZeptoLab, Adappio, Creative Mobile, TabTale, Riot Games, Game Insight, Disney, SEGA Networks.

And two weeks before the conference, according to statistics, another 60% of people are registered with us, which means that you can take an honorable place among the above.

The program is posted on the website.

You can register here.

All about parties.

For the first time the material was printed on the pages VC.ru