We’d like to thank everyone for coming to GamesBeat 09, our inaugural games conference held Tuesday in San Francisco. The event drew hundreds of attendees, with every part of the video game ecosystem represented. There were venture capitalists (like Tim Chang of Norwest and Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed above), industry executives such as John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment (below), entrepreneurs, investors, and the media. The attendees came from all over, including Argentina, India and Dubai. We managed to fill the space at the Mission Bay Conference Center.
We owe a debt to our sponsors, media, speakers, and attendees. For the best startup award, Exponential Entertainment beat out more than 50 entrants. The company, a maker of web-based casual movie games, won both the popular vote and the judges’ vote. Chris Taylor, founder of Gas Powered Games, did a great job as co-emcee (hooker jokes excepted). We couldn’t have done it without the whole VentureBeat team, including Andie Rhyins, Isabel Hilborn, Dan Kaplan, Dave Dinatale and Kelly Morrissey. We had great fun, even during the firedrill when we were forced into the spring sun outside for lunch. Here are some photos of the event, taken by Renee Blodgett. We hope to see you all next year.
VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi
Gareth Davis (left to right) of Facebook, Susan Panico of Sony PlayStation, and Jason Oberfest of MySpace
Jay Eum of Translink Capital (center) and Mark Sugarman of MHS Capital (right)
Brett Close of 38 Studios (looking at camera)
Mark Pincus of Zynga, Kristian Segerstrale of Playfish and Susan Wu of Ohai
David Cole of DFC Intelligence and Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital
VentureBeat’s Matt Marshall and Dave Long of Exponential Entertainment
[Photos by Renee Blodgett]