In an official mailing, the newly-minted GameDaily Connect USA Conference (formerly Casual Connect) was announced, set for August 27-29, 2019 and, like last year’s event, to be hosted at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California.
This year’s North American conference will be the first since Greenlit Content acquired Casual Connect in December 2018. GameDaily is one of Greenlit Content’s games business-focused media brands. Greenlit Content has been subsequently acquired by esports organizational powerhouse, REKTGlobal.
Along with the announcement and new name, GameDaily Connect presented the new, more colorful conference logo as well. Following the link from the announcement email to the event website, however, showed this year’s dates and location but don’t yet reflect the “GameDaily Connect” branding and haven’t shed all of the 2018 conference information. The symposiums, LiveOps Connect and 21st Century Leadership & Power In Diversity Symposium, are listed with 2018 dates, but it’s not clear yet if these symposiums, or if others in replacement, may turn up again this year.
Still, on the conference’s front page, featured speakers and track information for GameDaily Connect is easily found. Event organization through a rebrand is a work in progress on two fronts — and there are two months until the conference — so it may take some time for the conference’s info to be sorted out and updated.
One baton that’s definitely getting passed from Casual Connect to GameDaily Connect is the Indie Game scholarship and awards program. Indie game developer entrants can submit their game for consideration by June 30th.
The GameDaily Connect experience itself will tell how similarly other aspects of the event will follow (or take a different route than) Casual Connect’s style and format and whether it will attract attendees of similar quality and quantity. Keep an eye on Events for Gamers for more information as the conference approaches in late summer.
