During the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of gamers, streamers, and fans are missing out on their favorite conventions, but Esports Insider is providing a digital conference, over the course of two days, that will deliver a convention feel while you stay at home.
From May 26th-May 27th, Esports Insider will present it’s ESI Digital Summit which will provide expert industry insight, panels, and opportunities to connect and network with delegates from the comfort of your own home. The ESI Digital Summit will be utilizing event networking platform Brella for various aspects of it’s digital conference as well.
Gamactica had a chance to speak with Sam Cooke, Managing Director & Co-Found of Esports Insider, about the event, and the challenges of conducting an event during the coronavirus pandemic.
The conference will touch on a variety of sectors within the esports industry, something that Cooke, and the team at Esports Insider, feel is of value to fans and those within the industry alike. Furthermore, streamers can gamers can find value by attending the event as well.
“We’ve five tracks across Investment, Betting, Brands & Sponsorship, Sports Meets Esports, and THINK” said Cooke. “We’ve in essence something for everyone for anyone operating in or around the space, such as gamers and streamers.
We’ve the opportunity to learn more about different sectors of the market, and ask the speakers questions too, as well as network with other attendees. The THINK sessions, our most imaginatively named track, will focus on numerous areas from the current ecosystem in Japan, to whether city based esports teams can work (and how..), and what the music industry has planned for the esports space. These are a combination of thought leadership and topics designed with a dual core focus; to incite debate and to make you THINK which for some reason we always put in all caps.”
The Esports Digital Summit offers a number of perks, and benefits, to attendees.
“Attendees get full access to everything, we don’t like to put up additional pay walls for ‘VIP attendees’ as we don’t feel this is conducive to the wider development of a fairly nascent industry” Cooke describes.
“Anyone attending will be able to access all the sessions live, and indeed in the aftermath (we’ll send a link with the videos post-event so don’t worry too much about having to choose between sessions taking place at the same time!). Attendees will also get access to the networking tools and be able to see other attendees, and reach out directly to request meetings and such.”
The event boasts a number of big names in the industry, and all are ready to provide their valuable insight to attendees.
“We’ve true esports experts, as opposed to the self-appointed ones on Linkedin…indeed we have Anders Blume, Slasher, Jakub Kristensen (CCO at Astralis), Anna Baumann (MD at Rogue), and Tricia Sugita (CEO at FlyQuest) to name but a few” Cooke said.
“We’ve also experts in their fields such as Moritz Maurer (CEO at GRID) and Marco Blume (Trading Director at Pinnacle) who’ve forgotten more than most know about esports data, Patrick Mahoney (CEO at We Are Nations) the same in regards to merchandise and the apparel space, Ryan Ruden (Columbia Records) and we’ve brand showcases featuring the likes of Fnatic & OnePlus, Rogue & Kia, and LEC & KitKat.”
While the entire world continues to navigate through the coronavirus pandemic, the esports industry has seen an increase in visibility, viewership on streaming platforms, and overall interest from the public.
“For sure esports has been less impacted by sports as tournament operators have been able to continue to host their events for the most part, albeit it online only, or in cases behind closed doors” Cooke said.
“More eyes and attention on esports than ever before means the capacity for a longer term benefit too, but are most stakeholders reaping these benefits now? Absolutely not. ESL, Blast, WePlay, FACEIT, Allied, StarLadder and more I assure you would all be much happier if they were able to host and put on physical events; they have commercial partners to satisfy, and fans spend money at these events, just as they do in the sporting world. For teams it’s somewhat the same too.
Yes, developers and IP owners of games, and streaming platforms, are benefitting from people being more at home and more bored, with less to no sport to watch, but the fact more people are playing CS:GO than ever before, and more people are watching Rocket League does not directly and commercially positively benefit the majority of stakeholders in this space. A major case in point here too, is the cancellation until next year of the largest Dota 2 event and by many metrics the biggest esports tournament of the calendar year, The International, which was set to take place in Stockholm in August. It’s cancelled and that impact will not just hit Valve, it will commercially impact a number of stakeholders operating the space, indeed ours included…ESI Stockholm will have to wait till next year!”
For more information on the Esports Insider Digital Summit and how you can get tickets, click here.