Opportunities and expectations - where to go for business
Game Conference Guide Insights - May 2026
In this month’s issue:
Where to find new business, leads and prospects?
Barcelona is calling, get ready!
Check out fresh new events from Polan & Canada
Upcoming showcases and deadlines for submissions
“We have been to multiple events and haven’t seen a lot of success.”
A recent post on LinkedIn was asking simple question, where others are finding successes at online or at on-site events? And I do believe it was leaning towards where to find leads, rather than should you attend conferences. Now, the answer is obviously “it depends”, and when I started to type up the response, it hit me, I could share my thoughts with a much more broader audience than the one I have on the dreaded, AI infested platform.
And while pre-booked meetings are important (this applies to on-site and remote events alike), as they are driving business, relationships and expand the network, the best ones are happening organically.
Those are the right time at the right location kind of meetings. Random ones on the sidewalks, bumps in the cafes, with a group of friends chilling outside, or just waiting in line for food during the lunch break. The opportunities are out there, and in majority cases luck is involved. The longer you are in the industry, the luck increases a bit, as you can see shortcuts, you are familiar with ins & outs of the events, how to throttle expectations and also how you can utilize your network to get to that dinner where everyone else wants to go.
I do not know the strategy of the person who posed the question at the beginning. We tend to flock to the same events as everyone else, talk in many cases to the same people as everyone else, which limits the time spent having the conversation leading potentially to pitching the services to the right people or having a future discussion about business. We have forgotten there are other ways you can talk to prospects or leads, and it doesn’t have to be only at events. You can visit them, traveling salesmen still exists, and in many cases going door to door brings more value than betting everything on one big event.
The opportunities are out there, but in many cases the calendar of meetings dictates if an event budget is going to be approved.
PARTNER OF THE MONTH
Pocket Gamer Connects returns to Barcelona on 15th–16th June for its second outing in one of Europe’s fastest-growing games hubs. After a hugely successful debut in 2025, the event once again brings together over 1,000 games industry professionals for two days of focused networking, deal-making and insight.
More than 100 expert speakers across 17 conference tracks will share practical knowledge on topics ranging from monetisation and publishing to AI, cross-platform development, and the future of the industry.
But PGC Barcelona is about more than talks. With curated investor meetings, publisher matchmaking sessions, a Careers Zone, and the return of the Big Indie Pitch and huge indie expo showcase, the event is designed to help developers, publishers, and investors connect and get real business done.
Set in a city that has rapidly become a major centre for studios, talent and investment, PGC Barcelona offers a rare opportunity to build meaningful industry relationships while gaining insight into the trends shaping the global games market.
Personally, I am a huge fan of local events.
This is where my career started and gained traction and where the strangest relationships have been created. The careers of professionals are unplanned, they change the companies, trajectory and positions, especially now when the job market is under a lot of pressure. Also, many youngsters are not attending events, they either don’t know about them, they don’t have resources or simply just don’t care. That goes for indies, creators, studios.
So, where to do business?
There are more than 300 events each year, and I can’t pinpoint 10 of them for you. I could but then I wouldn’t consider your goals, your challenges, nor how difficult it is to convince your line manager to approve the budget. Making meaningful connections takes effort and what I learned in the co-dev space, if your relationships are weak, you are not going to see RFPs coming, you won’t be having off record conversations, nor hearing what is going on in the pipelines. These kind of dialogues are happening at events, at private dinners, oftentimes during studio tours.
Recently I tried to trace where I met the decision makers who gave me the opportunities and who are responsible for where I am now, and what I do for living.
They all lead to events that are not there anymore, to small local initiatives that exploded after a year or two, and to places where I was basically by chance and without a full agenda. The job at Reboot and all the others except few freelancing gigs were tied to this conference inn Croatia which was sunsetted without an official statement this year. I am not in a position to explain what happened, nor do I possess all the information needed to have a conclusive closure. During the past 10 years, hundreds of impromptu conversations happened and they lead to something beautiful; friendships, tribalistic affinity to a space and time, which will always be cherished as we have experienced it together.
And the reason why I was there in the first place is another local event that has seen only two editions. It was happening in Vienna and was led by a person who is no longer in the industry.
Local events have the power to change your trajectory, affect your opinion, learn new things, be inspired and get to know a very passionate community of professionals and aspiring developers who are not going to travel where everyone else goes.
What I am trying to say is: go off the beaten path, skip one of your classics, endure the FOMO, and go where you have never been. But how do I know who will be in the audience? Check the type of companies sending speakers, look at the sponsors, these are pretty easy to find. And then talk to your peers. Or just reach out to organizers and ask for a list of attending companies. Some will be happy to share it with you.
Just last week I learned a lot of companies are going to a well known conference focusing on advancement of graphics to talk business, not just present papers. And I can bet there won’t be that many service providers. Yet.
FEATURED EVENTS
Don’t miss DevGAMM Gdańsk 2026 – the event where the Baltic gamedev ecosystem comes together this summer! 🇵🇱
Join the conference on June 18-19 for two days of high-level content and massive networking, with sessions built around the real challenges studios face today: co-development, AI-driven workflows, LiveOps, monetization, and mobile trends.
The North American Games Industry Summit (NAGIS) Powered by Xsolla is a high-impact B2B event uniting studios, publishers, investors, and tech partners through curated programming, executive sessions, and structured pitch meetings. Featuring world-class speakers, premium hospitality, and exclusive networking, NAGIS drives real deal-making. Launching June 18–19, 2026 at the Edmonton EXPO Centre alongside Game Con Canada.
Game Con Canada is Canada’s largest gaming expo, uniting 40,000–50,000 fans for a three-day celebration of video games, board games, esports, cosplay, celebrities, and pop culture. Spanning 400,000+ sq ft at the Edmonton EXPO Centre, GCC features hundreds of demos, major stage productions, and immersive activations. Join us June 19–21, 2026, don’t miss it… BRING YOUR EH-GAME!
Exploring and discovering takes resources, which are tight at the moment. If you go to the same place, you will talk to the same people. The recent XDS report says, the biggest amount of deals for external projects are happening at conferences. And it is important to add, not just for xdev. If there is prior contact between the parties, ideally facilitated with a great recommendation, then the conversations are much easier.
There are more events one could ever attend during a year, and if you are in a position where you can travel, pick very carefully, as FOMO can be strong, but also a lot of events are deceiving. Where one gains, you might lose time and energy. And it happens to all of us. I stopped counting how many events I have visited and they didn’t bring any immediate results. In these cases, the seeds were put in the ground and I am still in touch with my new friends. Will they ever sprout into opportunities or something beyond that? I can’t tell.
The goals to attend events are different for each of us, the great thing is they are ever changing, adopting and with that the attendance mix as well.
On top, where one event sunsets, a new one takes the stage, like Splitscreen in Croatia. And who knows, there might be new opportunities. New relationships.
You never know, if you don’t go.
🚀Upcoming Showcases to watch in May 2026
📺AG French Direct
May 27 @ 6PM CEST📺Indie Dev Showcase
May 27 @ 10PM CEST🐉Dragon Quest 40th Anniversary Showcase
May 27 @ TBA📺Insider Gaming Showcase
May 28 @ TBA📺Thinky Direct
May 28 @ 7PM CEST📺Indie Quest Showcase
May 28 @ 2AM CEST (May 29)📺Cerebral Puzzle Showcase
May 28 - Jun 4 @ TBA
Get all details, dates, times & direct links to broadcasts here.
⏰Upcoming Deadlines on the horizon
📺Unmistakable
Deadline: May 26, Steam Showcase, entry: Free🏆ChinaJoy x Game Connection Games Development Awards
Deadline: May 31, Awards, entry: Free📺Game Devs of Color Expo Direct & Steam
Deadline: Jun 5, Steam Showcase, entry: Free🔍PitchYaGame #June Edition
Deadline: Jun 5, Pitching, Showcase, entry: Free🎮ChinaJoy x Game Connection Game Festival
Deadline: Jun 30, Steam Showcase, entry: Free
Get all deadlines here.
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Pavol Buday, curator @ GCG