After two days of sessions, pitches and networking, the Bengaluru B2B AVGC Summit called the curtains on this year’s edition with a promise to return bigger and better.
The second day of the event at ITC Windsor Manor showed the same intensity from the buyers and sellers, just like day one. With consistent number of pitches from indigenous participants throughout the day, the buyers seem to be content as well.
So much so, that Jetpack Distribution’s Dominic Gardiner, during his session titled New Paradigms of Distribution announced that he plans to take with him at least two shows from India this time. During his session, Gardiner spoke about the distribution process with the five steps- publicity, pitch, contract, deliver and collect. According to him, to find a good distributor, you must look into a number of factors including, their catalogue compatibility with your offerings, asking for projections, terms of business and most importantly, looking for a good track record from the potential distributor. Concluding his sessions on the thoughts of what has changed and what has not in the field of distribution, he explained that even though the technology has changed giving entry to new buyers, screens and marketing tactics, what haven’t changed are the basics, like face to face business, B2B markets and legal contracts, to name a few.
Talking about the event, Turner’s Zia Bales said this was her first time in India and she felt extremely welcomed and enjoyed the pitches, while League of Geeks’ Blake Mizzi said he would definitely like to hear more stories from the Indian creators.
Technicolor’s Alison Warner, during her session, delved into a case study of the show, The Deep, which aired in 130 territories over various networks. She explained how they built a 360 degree brand around it and even though the show was aimed at kids, the parents loved it too, fetching the show an informal title of a family program. From video games to themed sections at water parks and toys, they have tried to maximise the brand presence for visibility.
An interesting talk by Mighty Serious’ Al Gibb started with his appreciation for the hosting country and the organisers. Going into the topic, the Australia-based developer explained the kind of games they make and what can be done further. He stressed on the point that no matter which government comes into power, they should always support the industry going further. Talking about their upcoming project to combat homophobia, in association with the state of Victoria, Australia, the CEO explained how they are working with behavioural researchers and universities to create a program, rather a game, to help people make better decisions on the topic.
Speaking to some of the sellers during lunch gave us the idea that even though not all their pitches were successful, they got valuable feedback and learnt a lot from the buyers, who were experienced in their respective fields.
A session moderated by Biren Ghose brought together some of the foreign delegates in an attempt to provide attendees with tips and tricks to pitch better. Suggestions included checking the shows that a broadcaster airs to get an idea if your offering fits in the scene and being relaxed and making a conversation, not just a robotic pitch. While the delegates engaged in some fun demo pitching sessions, all the attendees including the buyers and the sellers converged in the hall for the final leg of the show.
All the buyers were called upon the stage to share their feedback on the event, to which one statement resonated from everyone: “The event was very well organised.” Thanking ABAI for their initiatives, the buyers praised the content that they had seen in the past two days and seemed enthusiastic to return again.
With that, Biren Ghose took to lead to share the road for ABAI, going forward. He said, going forward in 2017, they would be looking forward to local and international engagement and would further attempt to take digital into the more rural areas. The ABAI president also announced that the ministry has given a greenlight for the continuation for the B2B event, so you can expect another edition, officially.
Also mentioning that they have had feedbacks about the market not being for production houses and studios, they promised to segregate the market and bring about opportunities for the aforementioned parties as well. Going by Ghose’s words Bengaluru GAFX will likely see mentoring sessions for pitches as well.
With the buyers and sellers thanking each other, it was time for curtain call. The MoU was signed between ABAI and Game Developers’ Association of Australia (GDAA) to promote India-Australia gaming corridor and was received with much applause. Thus, the two day event had come to a fruitful end, showing prospect of a better next edition.
Sharing parting thoughts, the summit’s director Srinivas Bindiganavale expressed, “The response to this pioneering event was phenomenal. We would like to express our appreciation for the whole-hearted participation from both the buyers and sellers in this Summit.”
Speaking about the two-day event and future plans, he further added, “The Summit was an overwhelming success with over 450 sessions, 120 plus sellers and 20 plus distinguished buyers from all over the world providing great knowledge, feedback and encouragement; and the social interactions with our community of creators and producers was as valuable. We look forward to creating more such platforms often to fuel growth to the original content IP creators of our country.”