October 24 - Roundtable Discussion Night: Telemetry, Gambling, Monetization, Art

When: Wednesday, October 24th - 7pm doors open, 7:30-9pm roundtables, then bar...
What: IGDA-Montreal Roundtable Discussions Night
Where: Holiday Inn Midtown "La Plaza" - 420 Sherbrooke West
Why: Four in-depth roundtable discussions
Who: All game developers, and those related to the game industry
Entry: free, but must RSVP - priority for IGDA members (see below)

Everyone must RSVP via montreal@igda.org and indicate which topic they want to participate in. Each topic has limited seating of 20. Priority access will be given to IGDA members in good standing. If you are not a member, you can join online before RSVPing.

Doors will open and attendees can mingle starting at 7pm. Doors will close and discussions will officially start at 7:30pm and will run until 9pm. After the discussions, everyone is welcome to the hotel lobby bar to unwind. The roundtable topics are as follows:

"Player Telemetry: Tech Solutions for Tracking"
Moderator: Thiery Adam - Producer, Ludia

Sub-Topics:

• Pros and cons of different third party telemetry tech solutions
• Challenges to cross-platform player telemetry.
• Tricks to both optimize telemetry traffic and still get all the information you need.

"Gambling + Games: Match Made in Heaven... Or?"
Moderator: Regis Geoffrion - Franchise Owner, World Series of Poker, EA Mobile

Sub-Topics:

• Business model strategies for virtual gambling
• How to manage the chips economy in virtual gambling
• Business and legal implications of having gambling elements

"Trends in Balancing Monetization and Gameplay"
Moderator: Thomas Mir - Online Producer, Ubisoft

Sub-Topics:

• How are new trends of monetization and acquisition impacting gameplay?
• Mobile, web, consoles: different acquisition and monetization models across platforms
• Know your customer! For real. But how?

"Student Topic: Career Prep for Game Artists"
Moderator: Andrew Maximov - Environment Artist, Gameloft

Sub-Topics:

• How far does formal education get you?
• Your expectations versus reality
• Building a killer portfolio