Slow travel - the future of doing business
Game Conference Guide Insights - August 2023
Times are changing for the games industry. We hear these words every time when a new technology arrives, there is a shakedown on the geopolitical level or new measures are being introduced, and also when we are talking about sustainability. For this month I decided to interview two amazing humans who went to search for answers by travelling around asking hard questions, discovering new communities, talking to leaders and the result is 16-part series on YouTube called 10 Weeks to Save the Games Industry.
I highly recommend checking it out, but before you click away, stay for a while.
In August issue of the newsletter we are going to talk about slow travel, I do have a very nice discount for those preparing for Tokyo Game Show plus there is an introduction of a new feature that will make PR agencies, publishers, studios, and fans very happy as Game Conference Guide starts to track all game showcases, not just those tied to notE3 or gamescom.
But before we continue, I want to give a shout-out to amazing supporters: Jeanette, Kate, Takaaki, Damir, Masatoshi, Erik, Robin, Mateusz, Justin, Tobi & Jay who believe in the vision and value Game Conference Guide provides.
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And now, let’s save the games industry.
„The driving force behind the project was the urge of taking responsibility for climate change as well as the feeling of agency to develop practical solutions,“ says Maria Wagner, founder of Impact with Joy, one half of the team who produced on the go the documentary. „We knew that many leaders in the industry share this urge,” she quickly adds.
Have you ever imagined how much greenhouse gas emissions you are emitting as a frequent flyer? This question kept Jiri Kupiainen, CEO of Matchmade, awake until one day he sat down and did the math. The result? He was shocked.
Games Industry is very aware of the climate change and the professionals want to do their part with many initiatives: public, or privately organized within the studios themselves. It is not question of awareness, will or even money.
„The biggest problem today is a lack of clear, actionable & trustworthy solutions that actually work for the games industry - something that we can hopefully play a small part in changing soon.” explains Kupiainen.
The 10 Weeks to Save the Games Industry changed how his company is going to tackle travel onwards. They switched to long trips with multiple destinations as it makes it easier to build new connections and take care of existing ones. With this approach (conscious and thinking about sustainability), it is possible to attend events and it can be productive and fun in the end as you are meeting new friends on their turf.
Both Wagner and Kupiainen are bringing slow-travel as a solution to the table when asked how do they foresee the future for travelling for business. Without changing your mindset it won’t be easy. What they mean by slow travel is planning a longer trips which could be a challenge for those with families especially with small children. The trick is to simply think about the entire journey instead of the final destination and putting more thoughts into how you can benefit from the entire length instead of quick hoping to the same destination everyone else goes.
„We went to multiple different events during the trip, but we also spent a lot of time doing our research on interesting contacts we could make in places outside of the typical conference circuit and planning our travel between events so that we would have the opportunities to meet with new people in less visited cities.“
Slow travel has other pros as well, „You get to meet people, which you might not meet at the conferences. Another plus is that people are way more relaxed compared to the meeting marathons at gamescom or other conferences.“ says Wagner. And she is adding few additional tips: try to think about travelling by train or bus, always wear headphones during travelling when working. And most importantly, be mindful when it comes to the business travel. „Asking yourself if it is necessary to travel in the first place is important. Because if for example you just travel by yourself and don't take your whole team with you it can already reduce emissions significantly.”
I feel a bit guilty while looking at my gamescom calendar overflowing with meetings and quick catchups. This is the event with a massive gravity well that pulls everyone to Cologne for a few days and after a series of daily meeting marathons everyone leaves back home.
„Let's be honest, it feels good to travel "slowly" and have the time to ease into the new environment and enjoy your journey. Allowing yourself to take this time will also affect your meetings and your business decisions in a positive way.“
What were the key learnings from the whole trip? “Overall, I would say there is less of a “European games industry” than several smaller local industries connected by the conference jetsetters,” says Kupiainen. “And when it comes to climate change and awareness of our role as an industry in fighting it, I would say Northern European companies and leaders are significantly further ahead in concrete action.“ And from these we should see some concrete plans / solutions in the near future.
„Mostly it’s about us as an industry accepting our responsibility as the leading medium of the 21st century - if we don’t use the reach and incredible engagement we have for the right causes, how can we expect other industries to do the same?“
You can’t argue with this.
You can find the 10 Weeks to Save the Games Industry on YouTube in full lengths. Go and watch it. And if you decide to slow travel, feel free to share your thoughts.
PARTNER OF THE MONTH
Are you going to Tokyo Game Show and do you want to plan more meetings ahead? Or do you want to connect with the participants virtually from the convenience of your own home?
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Introducing: Showcases
Game Conference Guide now tracks showcases, trailer premieres, E3 & gamescom press conferences, updates, online festivals, and various Steam events with dedicated direct-like feature.
Wait a moment, weren’t they tracked before? Yes and no. In general, you can find big press conferences listed usually happening around big events like notE3 or gamescom, but there are more announcements, game premiers and dozens of publishers with their own direct-like broadcasts that are worth mentioning.
During Covid years having its own press conference, presenting upcoming line-up or announcing something was essential. With the return to on-site events, this trend didn’t die down, quite the opposite. Number of showcases, broadcasts and various announcement streams skyrocketed, and you can see massive updates to long-running games, world premieres in the middle of the week, small indie labels stretching muscles, and Devolver Digital having fun by showcasing games delayed to 2024. In other words, there is ton of showcases massaging fans with exciting announcements. From now on, you can find all of them on a dedicated page here.
Showcases are very tricky to track, they are being announced in most cases just a few weeks ahead, sometimes days, so check back frequently. And if you come across any showcase that might be highlighted, please let me know.
This feature is being added with a slight delay, as I do have a day job and life outside of events. For this reason, Showcases doesn’t have a dedicated calendar yet. This will be added in coming weeks retroactively to all 2023 showcases. The new Calendar will track events, conference, deadlines and showcase for you to watch, attend, and submit.
Now, I do want to end this post on positive note. I do have a peak behind the scenes for you what is coming in the next Game Conference Guide update. As you can see on the GIF above, all the tables will be merged into tabs. With a simple press of a button, you will be able to navigate between events, deadlines and showcases very quickly. It will save you time and you don’t have to click anywhere else. Prototype is running very smoothly, but it is a bit rough around the edges to be launched into the wild. It will take few weeks to polish everything. Please stand by.
And that is all for this month. See you all in Cologne.
[Game Conference Guide is tracking games industry & game developers events, trade shows, festivals, conferences and events around the world.]
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Pavol Buday, curator @ GCG