Our 10th year of delivering deal-making, career-changing conference experiences for the games industry got off to an amazing start with a record-breaking PG Connects London… Now, this week's San Francisco event has proven to be equally electric!

This Monday 18th and Tuesday 19th of March, we welcomed over 1000 attendees from more than 500 companies to our event in what proved to be the perfect precursor for GDC week.

We often say that our events are for the global games industry and with 1000+ visitors from 50 countries, our latest San Francisco event was our biggest US event yet and is sure to become one of the biggest gatherings in the games industry calendar going forwards.

Collaboration was at the very heart of PG Connects San Francisco as we partnered with Game Connection America to bring a truly epic event to the US.

Game Connection is one of the industry’s oldest and most prestigious conferences and much like PG Connects, the events have always had a strong focus on business networking and knowledge sharing, with key platforms, developers, publishers and service providers all coming together in one place.

Looks like joining with Pocket Gamer Connects this year powered up the whole experience for everyone!

A slate of superstar speakers

Many of those attendees were there to hear the latest trends and learn best practices in everything from game design to monetisation. The final tally reached 100 world-class expert speakers delivering 10 tracks and five Round Tables within the conference schedule across both days.

Others came for the chance to meet key decision makers and pioneers from some of the most exciting brands  in the industry. With limitless opportunities thanks to our partnership with MeetToMatch, PGC attendees are currently continuing their networking for the rest of the week booking GDC meetings all over the city organised through the official online MeetToMatch platform.

This was our busiest show floor yet as well, bustling with brands demonstrating their products and services all day, both days.

International representation was strong this year with regional representations including organised delegations from Switzerland, Costa Rica and Turkey, not to mention the UK Department of Trade's UK Games Showcase which was a highlight of day one, presenting a specially curated expo featuring the very best of British creativity and innovation.

Dozens of indie developers got the unparalleled opportunity for real-time expert feedback, media coverage and prizes with our Very Big Indie Pitch events.

And the winners are…

The Very Big Indie Pitch (PC & Console edition) was won by:

• 1st place - Kohlrabi Starship by Whimsical Wolff Games
• 2nd place - Ground of Aces by Blindflug Studios
• 3rd place - Zombie Rollerz: The Last Ship by Zing Games Inc

This year's San Francisco Very Big Indie Pitch (Mobile edition) was won by:

• 1st place - Battle Bears Heroes by SkyVu
• 2nd place - Trellis by Team Trellis
• 3rd place - Zombie Rollerz: The Last Ship (mobile) by Zing Games Inc

A word from the boss

Steel Media CEO Chris James said, "What an awesome event! The 10th anniversary of Pocket Gamer Connects continued in high style at the swanky Hibernia venue on our return to one of mobile games' most important capitals.

"This was the third city we visited back in 2015, the home of the big indie pitch and the host of many of our biggest ever parties over the years - so it was only fitting that in our anniversary year we came back to do all three!

"Our biggest ever North American PGC was ably complemented by an awesome networking party and lively pitch events. Plus we loaded the bases even further via cooperation with Meet-to-Match San Francisco, Game Connection America and the UK Department of Trade ensuring our delegates had incredible value.
Was also amazing to see trade delegations from Chile, Taiwan, Turkey and Switzerland in attendance and one of our biggest ever indie zones!

"I remain as always humbled by all the support and grateful to everybody who took part, especially our speakers, sponsors and exhibitors. It feels like we’ve rediscovered our home in San Francisco and offer a great way to lead into the incredible GDC conference - we will definitely be back, and even bigger next year!
Next up Dubai - another incredible city in the world's fastest growing games market, if you're interested in MENA (and you REALLY should be) then we'll see you there!"

Get involved!

Want to be a speaker at an upcoming event? 

There’s no better place than Pocket Gamer Connects events to share your knowledge and expertise with the global games community. We're accepting applications from renowned producers, developers, executives and leaders in the space to lead a session on a topic they’re passionate about and have expertise in at our upcoming shows.

If you think you have something to offer our audience, complete our speaker submission form  or get in touch with charlie.scowen@steelmedianetwork.com to discuss further!

Want to become a sponsor?

Nothing breeds success like success - if you want your brand to be associated with our leading international event series, why not join us as a sponsor? If you're looking to put your brand in front of the global mobile games industry, get in touch today to find out more about our varied sponsorship opportunities or other ways to get involved with our B2B sales team. Please contact lisa.bisset@steelmedianetwork.com or chris@steelmedia.co.uk for more details.

Thanks and see you soon!

Our return to San Francisco saw attendees, exhibitors, developers and publishers come together to create an exceptional conference experience for all!

We are immensely thankful to all those that made this possible, as we couldn’t have asked for better – thank you to every attendee, speaker and sponsor for this event. This magnificent success couldn’t have been possible without you.
It was our genuine pleasure to host you in San Francisco - and we can’t wait to see you at one of our shows throughout the year in Dubai, Helsinki and Jordan.

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