CONTACTS: Tracie Snitker & Abby Oliva
Media Relations for Outspark
Reverb Communications
tracie@reverbinc.com/abby@reverbinc.com
Media Relations for Outspark
Reverb Communications
tracie@reverbinc.com/abby@reverbinc.com
SAN FRANCISCO - March 9, 2009 - VentureBeat, the leading online community and news outlet covering private companies and capital, today announced the speaker line-up for this yearHs GamesBeat Conference. GamesBeat 2009 is the conference's inaugural year and is the only gathering focused entirely on the business of games. Top speakers on this year's schedule include Sony Online Entertainment's President, John Smedley, 38 Studios founder and Major League Baseball All-Star Pitcher Curt Schilling, Creative Artists Agency game head Seamus Blakely and Bing Gordon of leading venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield&Byers. The conference takes place on March 24, 2009 at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco.
"The line-up of speakers is a testament to the game industry's interest in having an event focused entirely on business, especially in this environment where games are still growing but the economic climate is tough," said Dean Takahashi, lead writer, digitalmedia for VentureBeat and organizer of GamesBeat. "We're going to have a wide spectrum of start-ups, established leaders and the venture and finance communities all in one place for the first time ever."
The full line-up of speakers at GamesBeat 2009 includes:
GamesBeat also features an innovative opportunity for startups in digital media and interactive entertainment to present their companies to the GamesBeat 2009 with the "Who's Got Game Competition." Select entrepreneurs will be given the opportunity to pitch their company or new product to a conference center full of game and media industry executives, investors, journalists and fellow entrepreneurs. Submissions ended on March 6th and VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi and a handful of expert judges will select seven companies from the pool to present at GamesBeat 2009 in the next few days.
Each selected company will have five minutes during GamesBeat 2009 to tell the gaming industry why it should pay attention. Attendees will then vote to select a winner, who will receive a cleverly-designed award and a spotlight on VentureBeat.
Outspark is a leading entertainment services company that publishes and operates engaging online multiplayer games. Featuring a portfolio of immersive free-to-play games and related content, the company is building an online destination where members come for the games and stay for the community. Backed by Tencent, Altos Ventures and DCM, Outspark is headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., with a subsidiary office in Seoul, Korea. For more information, visit http://www.outspark.com.