Check out the agenda for the industry’s first conference devoted exclusively to mobile gaming

In this keynote session, Jason Loia of Digital Chocolate presents his company’s endeavors into cross-platform mobile games through case studies and explains why future  generations of gamers will be drawn to cross-platform titles on their mobile devices.

• Analyzing the business case for cross-platform: Where the next billion gamers are coming from and why they will be drawn to cross-platform games.
• Explaining the nuances of cross-platform games, from interoperability to the importance of virality and analytics.
• Breaking down Digital Chocolate’s flagship cross-platform title: Lessons learned from the release of Galaxy Life.

Jason Loia, COO, Digital Chocolate

The growth of cross-platform games that can be played on both smartphones and tablets using a single login has been a massive development for publishers and developers. These emerging opportunities for cross-platform gaming have also brought about great challenges, and the distribution of games between devices continues to be a hot topic for everyone involved in the smartphone and tablet gaming communities.

• Understanding how smartphones and tablets fit within the larger context of cross-platform gaming.
• Discussing best practices in the development and publishing of cross-platform gaming, including game design and monetization challenges.
• Evaluating case studies in cross-platform gaming – What works, what doesn’t, and what publishers and developers can do to ensure a successful launch of a cross-platform game that can be played on both smartphones and tablets.

Moderator - Jason Loia, COO, Digital Chocolate
Harri Myllyla, CEO, Star Arcade
Alex Schwartz, CEO, Owlchemy Labs
Jennifer Lu, Director of Business Development, TinyCo
Jesse Divnich, VP Insights & Analytics, EEDAR

Sponsor Session - ARM

Simon Hickman, Gaming Marketing Manager, Media Processing Division, ARM

Nearly 85% of all U.S. iPad users are playing games on their tablet. With buzz worthy new Android tablets such as Amazon’s Kindle Fire starting to enter the market, is tablet gaming about to become more than just an iPad phenomenon?

• Similarities and differences in the demographics of Android tablet owners compared to iPad owners.
• Are Android tablet owners as interested in using their tablets for gaming as their counterparts who own iPads?
• Challenges and opportunities for game publishers and developers looking to expand their reach to the Android tablet market. Is this market a worthwhile investment of your time and resources?

Moderator - David Cole, CEO, DFC Intelligence
Chris Petrovic, General Manager, GameStop Digital Ventures
Chris Tanquary, Product Manager – Gaming & Music, Samsung
Rick Marazzani, Head of Content Programming, Exent

Once upon a time, before iOS and Android were a significant part of the mobile gaming lexicon, wireless carriers were the primary gateway that publishers and developers went through to bring their games to the masses. With app stores run by the major OS’ becoming the largest mobile gaming marketplaces and OEM’s creating their own mobile gaming hubs, wireless carriers have had to adjust their strategies to remain a prominent player in the mobile games market.

• Discussing the initiatives that wireless carriers are undertaking to cement themselves as key players in the future of mobile gaming.
• Tablet Wars – With T-Mobile having partnered with Huawei on the Springboard to create a tablet with a wide range of gaming functionalities, how will future partnerships between wireless carriers and hardware manufacturers affect publishers and developers of tablet games?
• Will wireless carriers have to negotiate more exclusive game agreements with publishers and developers in order to appeal to their present and future customers?

Mike Synoground, Product Manager, Games, T-Mobile

From Atari to Xbox, the console industry has shaped the way that all of us have grown up playing our favorite games. With the rise of online, smartphone and tablet gaming and the decline in revenue from traditional console games, can the industry’s console manufacturers adapt to this evolution of gaming by taking their core console gaming titles to the smartphone and tablet market?

• Learn how console gaming manufacturers, publishers and developers stand to benefit from adapting their games to smartphones and tablets.
• Transitioning console game titles to the smartphone and tablet gaming market – Is doing so profitable?
• Will smartphone and tablet gamers be willing to pay to play console games on their devices?
• Which console games/franchises have the greatest potential to earn revenue on smartphone and tablet devices?

Moderator - Damon Brown, US Editor, Pocket Gamer
Maria Pacheco, Vice President of Mobile Games, Atari

With 90% of online and mobile gaming revenue coming from Asia and Europe by 2014, the booming international market for smartphone and tablet games is providing North American publishers and developers with outstanding opportunities to grow, promote and monetize their games to a global audience.

• Which areas of the world will see the most growth in the smartphone and tablet gaming spaces over the next five years?
• Who are the key players in the smartphone and tablet gaming sectors in these regions and what cultural/societal factors are shaping the rise of smartphone and tablet gaming in these regions?
• Understanding development, distribution, marketing, virtual currency and user acquisition costs in international markets.
• Effective strategies for bringing your smartphone and tablet games to an international audience.

Moderator - Carlos Icaza
Kyu Lee, VP, Gamevil
Paul Chen, VP of Developer Relations, Papaya Mobile
Randy Lee, Director of Business Development, CrowdStar

Correlating insight to action is the next challenge in monetizing games.  Applied predictive analytics goes beyond the ability to capture and report analytical data. It is at the forefront of driving new and emerging business models.  The combination of the ability to collect relevant data, analyze it and then based on a number of factors turn it into automated, real-time actionable results that drive ROI, will provide developers with new kinds of revenue opportunities that more effectively engage and monetize their users.  The critical factor is the ability to take relevant action at the right time.

Brian Lent, Co-Founder & CTO, Medio Systems

• Understand how cross-promotion differs from user acquisition services, from advertising to revenue sharing models.
• Learn how cross-promotion can help to enable partnership and business development opportunities with fellow publishers and developers in the mobile space.
• Analyze the challenges associated with promoting the games of fellow publishers and developers to your established audiences. How do you inform your gamers of other great titles they might enjoy, while making sure that they continue to keep playing your own games?
• Dissecting how mobile publishers and developers have cross-promoted their games to other networks. What strategies did they utilize and why were they effective? Where did they slip up and what areas could they improve upon in the future?  

Moderator - Atul Bagga, Senior Analyst – Video Games, Lazard Capital Systems
Chris Akhavan, VP and GM, Partnerships & Strategic Operations, Tapjoy
Maria Alegre, CEO,ChartBoost
Darya Trushkina, VP of Business Development, Game Insight
Brian Doxtator, VP Business Operations, PlayHaven

Sponsor Session - PlayHaven

Andy Yang, CEO, PlayHaven

A wise man once said that “All publicity is good publicity, except for an obituary notice.” In the incredibly competitive mobile gaming marketplace, the ability to gain publicity for your games is often the difference between its success or its proverbial obituary notice. Virality has been replaced by discovery, but discovery often needs publicity to give it an extra push in a marketplace filled with tens of thousands of games.

• What are the best publicity and social PR techniques that can be utilized to drive awareness for your mobile games?
• Analyzing the pros and cons of cross-promotion: Do you really want to publicize someone else’s games to try and expand the market for your own?
• PR vs. User Acquisition: Why a comprehensive PR campaign for your mobile games can be more effective over the long term than emptying the budget for user acquisition services.

Marti Miernik, Head of Communications, G5 Entertainment & CEO, PR Sirens

Sponsor Session - Apsalar

Michael Oiknine, CEO, Apsalar

From Breaking Bad to Zorro, advergames and licensed franchises are increasingly becoming important sectors within the mobile games industry. Both offer publishers and developers the opportunity to create games with easily recognizable brands and characters, providing large audiences to target.

• Understanding how advergames and licensed games are shaping both the current and future marketplace for smartphone and tablet gaming. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
• Learn how brands and license holders select the publishers and developers that they work with and how involved a brand or license holder have to be in the game design process.
• Leveraging existing consumer base or fan base of a brand or licensed franchise to more effectively market the smartphone or tablet game adaptation of a product or licensed franchise.
• How can publishers and developers utilize their creative licenses to craft compelling games based on a brand or licensed franchise, while maintaining the integrity of the brand or licensed franchise that consumers and fans identify with?

Moderator - Steve Fowler, General Manager, A-List Games
Kenny Rosenblatt, CEO, Arkadium
Mark Donohue, Senior VP, WildTangent Media
Sean Hurwitz, CEO, PixoFactor Entertainment
Franke Rodriguez, President, Anomaly Canada

With a vast experience in emerging markets, M-Coin will share their knowledge of what makes the monetizing world go round in Latin America. Discussion will also include the importance of localization and carrier billing as a way to get ahead, focusing on subjects such as:

• Emerging markets, an overview for app developers and publishers
• Feature phones vs. Smartphones
• What to focus on for Emerging regions
• Operator Billing opportunity
• Choosing the right billing partner

TBD, M-Coin

• Best practices for successfully driving sales of in-game purchases/virtual goods for smartphone and tablet games.   
• How mobile developers of FTP games can leverage these best practices for in-game payments/virtual goods to deepen engagement with their gamers in order to increase ARPU’s
• Making virtual goods more appealing to gamers that aren’t already paying for them.
• Creating alternative monetization opportunities targeted towards gamers that aren’t willing to pay for virtual goods.

Moderator - Pietro Macchiarella, Research Analyst, Parks Associates
Eyal Rabinovich, Co-Founder, MoMinis
Mitchell Weisman, CEO, LifeStreet Media
Nick Bhardwaj, VP of Monetization, NaturalMotion
Barry Dorf, Director of 3rd Party, ngmoco

• Understanding what gamers want to be rewarded for - From initial download to beating their high scores, gamers have a variety of perceptions of what they should be rewarded for. Our panelists break down when and where to reward gamers, and why the moment of reward is sometimes just as important as the reward itself.
• Virtual Rewards vs. Tangible Rewards – The wide ranges in demographics of mobile gamers, from age to gender, means that different segments of gamers have varying attitudes regarding the value of virtual rewards (in-game energy boosts, weapons, etc.) versus tangible goods (gift cards from retailers, coupons, etc.). The panel will share their thoughts on how to determine whether virtual or tangible rewards are more valuable to your gamers.
• Analyzing the brand partnership routes – With gamification becoming a hot topic for corporates, brands are increasingly looking to work with publishers and developers to provide in-game rewards in exchange for the opportunity to put their products before young, tech savvy audiences. We tell you how you can go about forming partnerships with brands to help you bridge the gap with your audiences between the mobile and real worlds.

Market fragmentation is on the mind of every member of the smartphone and tablet gaming community, from small independent publishers to the largest wireless carriers. HTML5 is seen by many in the industry as the game changer to break the boundaries and limitations that publishers and developers face on a daily basis when they work to make their games available for multiple platforms and operating systems.

• Uncover the pros and cons of using HTML5 vs. going native via iOS/Android.
• Discuss best practice for promoting and distributing games outside the native app stores.
• Finding the best billing and payment options available to you outside of the native app store marketplace.
• Tools and platforms for HTML5 mobile game development – What are they and what can they do to enhance smartphone and tablet games?

Moderator - Carlos Icaza, Social Markets Writer, Forbes
Jamie Hall, President, MocoSpace
Todd Hooper, CEO, Zipline Games
Tina Tran, VP Developer Relations, FunSockets
Geraldine Yong, CEO, MogiMe
Dave Dohrmann, President, Ludei

Businesses in the smartphone and tablet gaming sectors have access to a staggering array of analytics regarding the playing behaviors of their audiences, yet very few of these businesses are utilizing the actionable data available to them to monetize their games more effectively and develop a more fulfilling gameplay experience that keeps gamers coming back for more.

• What are player behavior analytics and how can they be useful to your business?  
• How player behavior analytics regarding in-game/virtual goods purchases allow you to monetize games more effectively.
• Using player behavior analytics to keep both casual and hardcore gamers alike invested in games for longer periods of time.  
• Turning player behavior analytics into the targeted marketing of your games to specific demographics.

Brian Lent, Co-Founder & CTO, Medio Systems
TBD, Apsalar
Hugh Reynolds, CEO, Swrve

There are few situations more frustrating for publishers and developers then having a terrific game that loses players over time due to poor engagement strategies and overly complex game mechanics. Our presenters will use their experiences in analytics and usability testing to highlight the options that publishers and developers have to enhance the lifetime value of their games by continually improving them over time

• Understand the various options and implications for implementation: in-house development, tools, outsourced services.
• Apply analytics throughout the game development lifecycle and the player lifecycle.
• Analyze how freemium game analytics is not "normal" - Implications of the power law.
• One-on-one usability testing for mobile games  - Why this has value in addition to metrics analysis.
• Learn why consumers feel and interact with games as they do, and why it's extremely effective when developers see sessions streamed live.

Nick Lim, CEO, Sonamine
Hugh Bowen, CEO, Bowen Research

Recent research reports have indicated that over 90% of Americans between the ages of 2-17 are gamers. With such an overwhelming majority of late Millennials and Generation Z spending their free time gaming, what is the potential for utilizing the mobile games that children/young adults of all ages love for educational purposes both in the classroom and at home?

• With such a large percentage of children and young adults already playing mobile games, why has educational mobile gaming failed to gain more traction thus far?
• How can smartphone and tablet games be used as intelligent entertainment for children and young adults?
• Is the potential there for educational mobile games to be profitable for the publishers and developers producing these games?

Moderator - Jamil Moledina, VP of Business Development, Funzio
Margaret Wallace, CEO, Playmatics
R. Brennan Knotts, COO, KinderTown
Geraldine Yong, CEO, MogiMe

Remember the dark ages when you had to go about life without checking into your favorite places or were forced to explore your city without mobile scavenger hunts? Now mobile game publishers and developers are increasingly bringing the world of their gamers to smartphones and tablets with location-based mobile games that turn neighborhoods into fields of play. 

• Understanding the value of publishing and developing mobile games that feature location-based services.
• Incorporating locations into the dynamics of your mobile games – How to ensure that your location-based game utilizes the unique environments that your gamers live in to offer a personalized gaming experience.
• Developing and publishing location-based mobile games without breaking the bank. 

Justin Beck, CEO, PerBlue
Mark Lackey, CEO, 2clams