The fine folks (Koelnmesse GmbH and game – Association of the German Games Industry) organizing the gamescom congress have sent fresh news and updates about the upcoming 2024 iteration of the German-based conference, now in its 17th year.
Leading off what’s new, one prominent change gamescom congress attendees will discover is that they’re hosted at the Confex, which is the new conference center on the Koelnmesse exhibition grounds. Sccording to the news release, Confex offers technologically advanced facilities that can enable more attendees to participate, since the prior venue, the Koelnmesse’s Congress Centre North, had met its peak number of attendees. The new location on south-west portion of of the exhibition grounds the exhibition grounds will be better located in relation to the gamescom Business Centre and the Cologne Messe/Deutz train station — presumably resulting in better connections to the gamescom expo event itself and to connecting areas in and around the host city of Cologne.
On the topical side, the focuses will expand from the core of games and game development and business to incorporate education, culture, business and science and how games might add value to each other. Along those lines, the timely topics “Games and Artificial Intelligence” and “Games and Democracy” will be featured at the gamescom congress. The new topics will be divided into “Science & Education”, “Economy & Innovation” and “Society & Culture” sections for folks who want a little more granularity when they are on the hunt for a specific topic or talk.
A few of the topics that will be addressed include how games might be able to strengthen democratic coexistence, how games might add (or subtract) from democratic discourse, what possibilities can artificial intelligence unlock for business and society, and so on. It’s safe to assume this expansion of topics represents an outreach to connecting disciplines that may expand the impact of the event.
With the idea of amplifying the value of these new topics and disciplines represented at gamescom congress, new program formats, such as roundtables and speed dating, will be introduced this year to help with networking and help with connecting the dots between these different interest groups.
Whether you’re from the business or development side of games or another industry, if you want to attend gamescom and/or gamescom congress, visit this link to check out your ticket options. Gamescom takes place in Cologne, Germany, which will be be online on August 20, 2024 and in person from August 21-25, 2024. Specifically, Gamescom Congress will be hosted on August 22, 2024. More details about the program and other possibly new and (pardon the turn of phrase) game-changing additions may be coming to this event, which we’ll keep an eye out for!
