Entrepreneurs Unplugged - Are Publishers Really Evil?
Presents
Entrepreneurs Unplugged:
Are Publishers Really Evil?
YetiZen is kicking off a new event series, “Entrepreneurs Unplugged” for this month! Join us on March 19th at 6pm as we debate on the topic: Are publishers really evil?
Every month after our popular San Francisco Game Developer’s Workshop, the Yetis will host a forum where everybody can submit a topic that they would love to rant and debate on. The topic with the most up votes will be selected and become the topic of the following Entrepreneur Unplugged Series!
YetiZen will bring together entrepreneurs from both camps as well as a publisher to sit the hot on seat. Sharing Revenues? IP Ownership? Marketing Assistance? Can I do it on my own? Do I really need a publisher???
Afraid that you don’t know anyone there? Debate makes you thirsty? No worries! Our IceBreaker alcoholic tea will loosen you up and quench the thirst! If that weren’t enough, we have an all you can drink cans of Red Bulls waiting for you to keep the entrepreneurial energy going all night long!
Register today and be part of the raging debate. See you there!
Agenda:
6:00pm - 7:00pm ——————- Check-in / Networking Hour
7:00pm - 8:30pm ——————- Are Publisher Really EVIL Panel
8:30pm - 9:00pm ——————- Q&A Discussion
9:00pm ——————————- Closing
Meet Our Guests:
Randy Angle
LudusLabs
Co-Founder & Senior Partner
In a career spanning more than 30 years and over 80 games, Randy has worked on almost every platform and genre. He has lead successful teams with director or executive roles in design, engineering, production, studio management, and on properties including: Star Trek, LEGO, Lord of the Rings, Dungeons & Dragons, Zorro, PAC-MAN, Dig Dug, Galaga, SpongeBob SquarePants, Spiderman, and original properties. As an accomplished public speaker, he speaks at conferences and conducts classes and seminars regularly about developing games and succeeding in the videogame industry.
Damon Grow
CrowdMob
Co-Founder & CEO
Damon Grow is CEO and Co-Founder of CrowdMob Inc., a mobile social startup that builds geolocation games for the masses. Damon has been a top serial entrepreneur and game designer for social games. He previously founded Shattered Reality Interactive (now Rocket Ninja), a venture funded social gaming company and 2008 TechCrunch 50 finalist. He has formerly served as Creative Director of Lolapps where he built their X-Wars games, Yakuza Lords, Diva Life and Band of Heroes. Prior to Lolapps, Damon was Co-Founder and Head of Games at ROFLplay, which was acquired by Lolapps.
A lifelong gamer, Damon has designed games for multiple platforms and genres, from immediate social experiences to large-scale massively multiplayer online games. His depth of knowledge in gaming and ability to spot emerging market trends within the social gaming space has earned him a top spot as one of the most respected social game designers.
Justin Berenbaum
505 Games
VP of Business Development & Strategic Relations
With almost 20 years in the interactive and emerging markets space, Justin’s career spans international business development, sales, licensing, customer support, digital distribution and mobile gaming for video game publishers, developers and technology companies.
Justin is currently Vice President of Business Development & Strategic Relations for 505 Games where he is responsible for fostering relationships with developers and key platform holders in addition to finding ancillary revenue opportunities. He was formerly President Theseus Games, Inc., a digital entertainment consulting company specializing in strategic relationship acquisition and management. Justin has served as Vice President Business Development for EmSense Corporation, a quantitative biosensory metrics analysis company, and as Senior Manager Business Development & Latin America at Activision-Blizzard, a leading video game developer and publisher. Justin holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz where he was also music director for the college radio station and an on-air DJ.
Sumeet Maniar
Scalify
VP Business Development & Advisor
Sumeet Maniar is an online publishing industry veteran in the free to play space both in multiplayer PC and mobile games. As a founding member of $xxx+ Gamersfirst, Sumeet trademarked Free2Play in 2002. Gamersfirst published over 15 large titles (MMORPGs) and developed tools and various payment methods (first with e-pins). The success was replicated globally with operations in Turkey, Brazil, India, SE Asia, and Europe (Gamersfirst was the first to open these markets). As CEO of Gamiana, he led the development and self-publishing efforts of two titles that are in the process of becoming cross-platform (mobile, Facebook & PC). Sumeet has raised capital several times and has both B2B and B2C experiences which are critical in 3rd party relationships and has global relationships in the online games industry. As an internet e-commerce veteran, Sumeet was part of the team “T2” which developed into Orbitz and developed the model behind idine.com, the frequent dining discount program used by many airline loyalty programs. Currently Sumeet is leading efforts that developers can use – Scalify – scaling ability in synchronous mobile or PC games through true peer to peer, NinjaMetrics – predictive analytics that are stochastic based and IPPSUS - cloud mobile gaming.