ESI London 2023 Main Stage Sessions Preview – Day Two

October 19th and 20th are the most important dates for any esports industry professional, and the place to be is BOXPARK Wembley for ESI London 2023! 

Esports Insider’s flagship conference will offer talks and presentations from some of the most notable people in the industry, as well as a large number of panel discussions, aimed to kickstart talks among the visitors, and perhaps change some minds. Tickets are still available if you wish to join the fun!

The second day of the conference will host Checkpoint, Esports Insider’s creator-focused conference track, diving into the topics that concern digital creators around the world. Along with Checkpoint, we will be talking about major new movements in the content creation industry and the effect it has on both esports and the creators themselves.

Esports is evolving and expanding fast, and the opportunities (and needs) of fan engagement are getting bigger by the day. In the first talk of the day, Ars Futura’s CO Luka Drezga will discuss the opportunities for expanding esports beyond just streams and statistics. 

Incorporating new technologies can improve the overall viewing experience for the fans, and provide extra value for companies that are working on esports events. 

Kickstarting Checkpoint is a discussion about content creators and esports organisations, discussing the benefits of collaboration for both parties. We are all familiar that almost every esports organisation has its own roster of content creators, and some of them even go so far as to prioritise creators, and invest less into competitive teams.

A well-known example is Tyler Blevins, known as Ninja, a creator who was recently appointed Chief Innovation Officer at GameSquare, and is behind Ninja Labs, a new hub created by the company. 

Organisations like G2 Esports, Misfits and XSET are investing a lot into creators, but the question for a large number of viewers is – why? What value do creators bring to esports organisations, and what can an esports organisation do to help a creator? 

This discussion will talk about the overlap between content creation and esports, and the benefits for both sides.

Content creators have a unique ability to attract audiences to the most diverse of causes and ideas. Of course, they also need to make a living somehow, so partnerships with not just esports organisations, but with brands and companies, matter a lot. 

Dissecting the creator economy, this panel discussion will focus on the collaboration opportunities between content creators and brands that aim to diversify their audiences and improve their reach. 

Visitors can learn more about the reasoning behind the choice of a certain creator, why brands work with certain creators more, and what makes a creator more appealing to a large brand. On the creator side, we will learn about what creators can do to secure better partnerships and create more meaningful relationships with brands.

Creators are sought after in both gaming and esports, but working with just about anybody can bring more harm than good. Being a creator does not mean just being someone who records videos and is active on social media, it means single-handedly being a small team of people with all sorts of skills, from business development to social media and human resources.

So, how to do it? How to navigate the extremely tough and stressful world of content creation without burning out and have fun while doing it? This panel will talk about the challenges facing creators from both sides, and talk about tips and tricks for both brands and publishers working with creators to leverage their audience, as well as creators that seek to walk the fine line of being interesting while still working with brands that pay your bills.

The International Esports Federation is one of the longest standing players on the esports scene, helping support grassroots ecosystems across the world and organising events that focus on nations, instead of teams and organisations. 

This talk will focus on IESF’s journey in the last 15 years, and talk about how IESF helps athletes, national federations and esports as a whole.

If you ever wondered why esports event X is taking place in city Y, this is a panel for you. Locations are an integral part of esports events, and choosing where and when to organise a high-profile LAN event can make or break the entire experience for both the organisers and the audience.

From a city and country perspective, making yourself interesting to esports event organisers attracts fans that spend money on accommodation and entertainment, which makes esports events an interesting way of marketing a city or a region to a younger audience. Cities like Paris, Copenhagen, Tokyo and London all held large-scale events in the last year. 

BLAST has opened bids for host cities earlier this year, and noted more than 20 million Euros of economic impact as a good reason for cities to consider and bid. 

If one just thinks of Katowice, a city that has been transformed by esports, it is apparent that competitive gaming can do wonders to a local ecosystem. 

This discussion will unpack the details of what it takes to create large tournaments, and what makes locations such an important part of the esports ecosystem.

The Invictus Games are an event focusing on wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women, which added esports to its ever-growing list of sports in 2022. Competing in games has proved to be a success with players and audiences alike.

Considering the fact that gaming and esports are perhaps the most accessible competitions, this panel discussion will focus on the benefits esports can bring to not just this event, but to all veterans, servicemen and women.

The discussion will also revolve aroud the benefits of esports and gaming for mental health and recovery, as well as what the plans are for esports at the Invictus Games.

Esports courses and degrees were nowhere to be found a decade ago, and we can now see an immense increase in the number of collegiate esports courses around the world, notably in the UK and the United States. Still, some of these programmes stand out as better than others, raising the question of what actually makes for a good esports college programme.

It is no longer enough to just offer computers and courses that describe the bare basics of esports to students. Universities need to create studios, content creation opportunities, partnerships with real-world esports organisations and production companies and much more. Are universities in over their heads, do esports experts take themselves too seriously?

This discussion will talk about what makes for a good collegiate programme based on esports, what are universities around the world doing when it comes to esports education, and what are the issues and points of failure students are experiencing.