Event

Despite the fireside chat between Paul Gardner (Wiggin) and Canon Pence (Epic) gaining the highest audience score, in our incredibly unbiased opinion the best session was really the one on the Digital Fairness Act. This truly insightful delve into the biggest issue in the EU featured participants from Take-Two, Epic, Discord, Video Games Europe, and Flux (oh, that's us!). Together we outlined the history of the DFA’s inception, the potential impact on the video game industry, and why companies should get involved in the legislative process (if you need a hand, we know a great policy consultancy). Reflecting upon being mimicked the following evening by a notable counsel, Celia is proud to have introduced the phrase “well dodgy” to the lexicon of an international audience.

We’ll grudgingly admit that there were other excellent panels as well – a whole agenda of knowledgeable people talking about interesting things. One of the real highlights was the opening session on how to avoid unwitting use of problematic content from a cultural standpoint. Engaging with representatives from cultures you're referencing is pretty vital, but you've got to do it properly and with respect. Also, some innocuous-seeming content might be flat-out illegal in some jurisdictions, and the panellists recommend you don't just grab any old world map off the internet, lest it show disputed borders in an unfortunate manner. 

Given Celia's advertising regulation background, the panel on influencer marketing was also top of our list. Influencer partnering is in every marketing playbook now, so it’s important to understand how to interact with the people you’re paying to rep your brand. Apparently, Gen Z streamers don’t read their emails or answer their phones and are prone to ignoring bits of their contracts if they don’t like them/you. Kids these days, amiright? Don't know how these lawyers do it. 

The Summit excels at creating opportunities for making new connections and catching up with your usual crowd – we were stoked to meet some of our clients and pals in person, confirming that they weren’t just Wizard of Oz floating heads, and even more delighted to see Isabel Davies (one of our Wiggin colleagues) join the Hall of Fame. Inevitably, we chatted to a whole bunch of people about many highly relevant topics: the lack of bread in LA, bar etiquette, Invisalign, Britishisms, and Kylie Minogue’s plastic surgeon. We also spent a lot of time explaining (gladly – no shame in asking) what a public policy consultancy actually does.

See you in Berlin, yeah?