Inside Asian Gaming announced on Friday a brand new online innovation and solutions platform, GAME, in response to the challenges posed to the Asian gaming industry by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Short for Gaming Asia Mega Experience, GAME is a recognition of the difficulties faced in bringing the industry together at a time when we need to collaborate and develop innovative ideas more than ever before. It will provide a variety of interactive and engaging online experiences ranging from keynote speeches and presentations from industry heavyweights to workshops, talks and panel discussions.
After IAG revealed details of GAME and called for expressions of interest on Friday, the new GAME website, which can be found at iaggame.com, was overwhelmed with traffic and there were reports that some people had difficulty registering. Capacity has now been increased and IAG again encourages those interested in taking part as either attendees, speakers or sponsors to register their interest at iaggame.com.
IAG CEO Andrew Scott announced GAME via an impassioned video speech to the industry, the full transcript of which follows:
“Good morning, good afternoon or good evening, whatever it may happen to be in your part of Asia, or indeed across the globe. I’m speaking to you from the IAG office in Macau.
“Like everyone, I’ve been watching the unfolding global crisis caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus. In the early days of the crisis, I was hopeful that the impact on our industry might be relatively contained. Sadly, in recent weeks, it’s become abundantly clear that this a global public health catastrophe.
“Economically, the disaster is no less profound and it is not exaggerating to say this is an existential crisis for our industry – one that is not sustainable. Something will have to give, and some massive changes to our industry are coming.
“Now, you can be paralyzed like a deer in the headlights, you can be frozen by indecision and inaction, you can send your team to the beach to ‘wait it out’.
“Or you do something about it, you can innovate, you can get creative, and try to come up with some strategies and some solutions.
“So why am I making this video? Because IAG, as an SME supplier to the Asian gaming industry that is also suffering, is practising exactly what I’ve just been preaching. We’ve been putting our thinking caps on and trying our best to innovate.
“And, we’ve come up with something. You’ve probably noticed right now the usual gaming industry trade shows and conferences are being postponed or cancelled, but right now, the need for senior industry people to get together and talk and think creatively and come up with ideas is bigger than ever.
“So our team at IAG has come up with a concept that we have named GAME, it’s an acronym, standing for Gaming Asia Mega Experience. So what is GAME?
“It’s a 100% online business event experience, exclusively for people working in our industry: operators, suppliers, consultants, lawyers, gaming media and any professionals working in our industry. Big companies are welcome, small companies are welcome, people from across Asia are welcome, and people from outside Asia are welcome.
“You attend GAME from the comfort and safety of your home or office online, after registering for the event, for free. It’s an interactive and engaging experience. It’s a little bit like a conference, it’s a little bit like a TED talk, it’s a little bit like a workshop or a brainstorming session. Some GAME sessions will be like a keynote speech from an industry heavyweight, some GAME sessions will be like a presentation with slides and charts, some GAME sessions will be like a moderated panel with three or four speakers on a split screen with a moderator. Almost all GAME sessions will have an AMA, or ‘ask me anything’, where people in the audience can ask questions of the speakers. There’ll also be a chat box where members of the audience can chat to the GAME session host, speakers and even each other during the GAME session.
“For 15 years, IAG has been a platform or a forum for B2B information about our industry, and GAME is no different, we’ve just innovated on the delivery channel, using the modern technology that is out there in the 2020s. We plan for GAME to be loaded with business insights for this brave new world we find ourselves in.
“Right now we need industry leadership and we need a focal point for the industry to concentrate its best and brightest minds to come up with creative and innovative solutions to difficult challenges. Suddenly there is so much to talk about, so many topics.
“I should also say to IAG’s partners in the events industry that we have no intention to compete with the event companies which we are lead media partners for. In fact, while some GAME sessions will be independently curated by IAG, we will be also inviting every event company which IAG has a lead media partner agreement with to co-produce some GAME sessions, and we certainly hope they take us up on that invitation.
“Regarding the technology platform we’ll be using for GAME, we’re still working on some refinements to that, so we’ll be making an announcement in regard to that next week. It’s likely our first event will be limited to just 100 participants for technical reasons, so we’ll be issuing those registrations on a first come-first served basis, but of course we expect to soon have much larger audience sizes, and we’ll expand the tech capacity accordingly. We don’t want the perfect to be the enemy of the good and we intend to get started as quickly as possible.
“So now, I have three calls to action for you.
“First, if you like this idea and want to be part of it, please sign up, for free, at iaggame.com. That’s I-A-G-G-A-M-E dot com. Once you sign up though the website, our Project Director Victoria Man will get directly in contact with you.
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“Second, I’d like to make a call for speakers. If you’re part of the gaming industry in Asia and you believe you have genuine compelling innovative or creative insights or solutions, or you can be part of the solution in some way, please get in touch.
“And third, I know it’s a difficult time, but if there’s any company, or even several companies out there, that want to come on board as a sponsor for this event and associate your brand with something innovative, please get in touch with me or Victoria or our head of sales Jadeson Ho for more information.
“But let me stress … if we don’t get any sponsors, we’ll still be running GAME anyway, because we think this is what the industry needs right now, and we want to be part of the solution.
“So let’s get through this, let’s innovate, and together, let’s all change, improve and evolve — both the businesses we work for, and ourselves.
“Thank you for your time, thank you for your attention, and remember, please go and register at iaggame.com, and let’s all be part of the solution, together.”
