On Tour II: Day One

Day One is the first day of panels and presentations (not to be confused with Day Zero, which is the day before, and has the community reception, plus any extras thrown in), and this day started with a strong showing for the Morning Run:

At seven in the morning, the heat of the day hasn't arrived yet.

But this group of people generated their own heat:

We look forward to seeing more counsels join the running club in September, as the trend is certainly positive.

Meanwhile, at the venue, the breakfast started with the serving of Cyprus coffee:

Brewed on hot sand, this coffee takes a while to get ready – and comes real hot. Amateurs may use paper cups. We brought the handmade ceramics from Vilnius.

After a few coffees, and a fruit or two, it was time to start the program with a cross-country look at privacy – ??? Privacy XC 2024 – in front of a packed conference hall:

Greg Pilarowski lead and moderated the panel...

...with Tobias Schelinski , Rachel Hayes , Michael Boughey , Isabel Davies and JINGNAN W. joining in:

The comparison of the Australian privacy laws with the platypus was one of the many helpful analogies that will stay with us for a long time:

After a short break, we reconvened for the second cross-country discussion of the day – ??? Protection of Minors XC 2024, lead by Isabel Davies :

Joining Isabel were Peter Lewin , Tracey Tang , Emma C. Smizer , Jan-Peter Ewert and Dr. Claas Oehler .

With the first half of the program completed, it was time to share some bread (and village salad) around the tables in the taverna:

And what better way to finish the break, than by exploring the fridge with the ice cream (rose, mastikha and vanilla)?

After lunch, it was time to talk about Cyprus – with ??? Games Industry in Cyprus, lead and moderated by George Mountis :

Joining him on stage were George Ioannou , Alexandros Georgiades , Victoria-Zoi Papagiannis , Yiannis Karamanolis , Roman Zanin , and the minister of the interior of Cyprus, Konstantinos Ioannou.

Before the next panel started, we were ready to present the Grand Prize to the winner of the Magic: The Gathering tournament – Nick Allan (well done!):

We then moved to a fireside chat about a rather special aspect of the M&A – ??? Making MBOs Happen, lead and moderated by Mike Turner , with Micha Katz and Roman Zanin joining the conversation:

Continuing with the M&A topics, we moved to a review of contractual clauses that come helpful post-acquisition, with ???M&A's Toolbox for Difficult Times lead and moderated by Richard Faichney with Robert Fenner , Andrew Klungness and Micha Katz joining in.

Taking a breath of fresh air, we then got ready to talk about insurance.

??? Insurance in Games Industry: Best Practices, lead and moderated by Nick Allan , came with a warning:

Nick was joined by an expert panel of James McCarthy , Anna Dempsey , Lewis P. , Dorian Slater Thomas and Phil Wildman .

We finished Day One's program with the chat about project-based approach and contingency planning as games companies face the challenge of de-globalization and multiple asymmetric events that impact the mobility of talent, the availability of payments, and the flow of technology, under the banner of ??? Controlled Engagement with Restricted Territories.

Sergei Klimov (your humble servant) moderated the experts in the field: Greg Pilarowski , Leonard von Rummel , Kirill Laptev and George Ioannou .

And that was the end of the program – but not the end of the day!

The Industry Dinner was a place to embrace old friends...

...as well as to make some new ones:

I hope that everyone had a good time, combining learning and catching up with peers, and I look forward to the start of Day Two shortly – which will start with a panel on litigating clones!

/ Sergei