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Film und Medien Stiftung NRW➝News➝News➝Countdown in NRW. The 6th gamescom opens in five days

Countdown in NRW. The 6th gamescom opens in five days

  • World’s largest trade fair for interactive games from 13.-17.08.2014 in Cologne
  • Around 650 exhibitors and hundreds of thousands of participants expected
  • GDC – Game Developers Conference Europe, Independent Games Summit, Respawn, gamescom congress, gamescom festival, Videodays, and more
  • „Media region of NRW“ in the business area (H 4.2, A-042)

The gamescom, the world’s largest leading trade fair and event highlight for interactive games and gamers, will again transform Cologne into a meeting place for the international games industry in the coming week. The organisers BIU and Koelnmesse are expecting around 650 exhibitors and hundreds of thousands of participants to attend the gamescom’s sixth edition. The day tickets for private visitors – on offer in the online shop – are already completely sold out. Afternoon tickets can still be purchased on site. Numerous congresses, events and conferences, which equally attract the industry and the games scene to the media metropolis, are also being held in Cologne outside of the trade fair grounds during the Games Week.

Evoke (08.-10.08.)
The weekend before the gamescom will be launched in the Abenteuerhalle Kalk by Evoke where demos, intros and wilds will be celebrated with digital art, music and barbecue. Competitions will be held in the categories of Compo Machine, Executable, Interactive, Graphics and Music. www.evoke.eu/2014

GDC – Game Developers Conference Europe (11.-13.08.)
The Games Week begins in Cologne with Europe’s largest developer conference, the GDC Europe. The Game Developers Conference offers an insight into the games developments and business trends in the whole continent and, for three days, transforms NRW into the centre of the European developers scene. The conference is divided into five tracks – Business/Marketing/Management, Design, Production, Programming and Visual Arts –  and could attract speakers like Chris Roberts (Cloud Imperium Games) or Tom Forsyth (Oculus VR). www.gdceurope.com

Independent Games Summit (11.08.)
The Independent Games Summit is being organised as part of the GDC Europe on 11.08. Apart from addressing the most important developments in the indie scene, roundtables and discussions will deal such issues as game design, distribution or marketing. www.gdceurope.com/conference/igs.php

Respawn – Gathering of Game Developers (12.-13.08.)
Launched by Aruba Events in 2013, the developers conference, the Respawn – Gathering of Game Developers, provides games developers with best practice tips for their daily work and offers them a networking platform for potential business partners in the new "Pitch & Match" area. The influence of the indie culture on development and business is at the centre of discussions, lectures and workshops with such people as Peter Alau (Apportable), Odile Limpach (Ubisoft Blue Byte) or Fasih Sayin (Crytek). The conference is cooperating with the GDC Europe for the first time. www.respawngathering.com

gamescom congress (14.08.)
Social and economic issues of the computer games industry will be discussed in over 30 lectures and workshops in the Congress Centrum Nord of the Koelnmesse. After the opening by NRW Media Minister Angelica Schwall-Duren, the gamescom congress will address four different thematic blocks: „Discovering new worlds through playing“, „The games industry in Germany“, „Education, science and research“ and „Focus on Europe – Media policies and legislative issues“. The congress is organised by Koelnmesse, with support from NRW’s Minister for Europe, Federal Affairs and Media, BIU and the City of Cologne. www.gamescom.de/gamescom_kongress

gamescom award (15.08.)
An international expert jury has nominated the best games innovations in 13 categories from a total of 140 entries. They will all be competing for the gamescom award 2014. Apart from the chance of winning the coveted award, the nominees will also be able to sport the title of 'nominated for the gamescom award 2014'  which will be visible to professional visitors and games fans at the fair through a corresponding label. The awards ceremony will take place from 18:00 on 15 August at the Let’s play meets gamescom stage.

gamescom festival (15.- 17.08.)
Starting on Friday, the festival will be presenting artists and bands like Maximo Park, Thees Uhlmann and Ja, Panik on various stages in Cologne’s city centre. The gamescom festival is an event of Media Kultur Koln in cooperation with prime entertainment. www.gamescom.de/gamescom_festival

Videodays (15.-16.07.)
It is Europe’s biggest Youtuber gathering and the highlight for all webvideo fans. The Videodays will be held again in the Lanxess Arena. In 2013, 9,500 visitors met their stars here. Major YouTube channels, networks and cooperation partners will appear at the parallel convention. The finale at the VideoDay Show will see the PlayAwards 2014 being presented to the most successful Youtubers. videodays.eu

Media Region NRW Stand (13.-15.08.)
The „Media Region NRW“ will be present in 2014 again with an umbrella stand in the business area (Hall 4.2, Stand A-042), organised by the Mediencluster NRW in cooperation with the Film- und Medienstiftung and the Creative Europe Desk NRW. NRW companies, startups and professional delegates can use the stand as a meeting place for information and networking as well as for their business meetings. As a kick-off event, the  partners will be hosting a get-together at the stand on Wednesday 13.08. at 13.00 with Media Minister Angelica Schwall-Duren also expected to attend. Virve Indren, Head of Development at Creative Europe in Brussels, will be here to introduce the new development funding for video games in the European support programme. medien.nrw.de/gamescom2014

gamesmatch@gamescom
The Mediencluster NRW will again host an international matchmaking – gamesmatch@gamescom – at the stand, to be organised by enterprise europe network and NRW.Europa. Introduced for the first time in 2013, the format surpassed all expectations with more than 120 participants from 15 countries. Further partners of the format are G.A.M.E. Bundesverband, BIU, Creative Europe Desk NRW, IKT.NRW and CREATIVE.NRW.