Game Startup - February Workshop

February 28, 2012 ~ 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm

Partnering

Needing a distributor? A publisher? Looking to license your product or to partner with companies to develop your game? Knowing when to pursue a partner is an important strategic step. Successful partnerships and negotiations can be key to your company’s success. What are the pitfalls to avoid and opportunities that should not be missed? Our panel industry executives have been through it all and will share their war stories with you.

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Speakers:

Jeff Pobst, CEO & Founder, Hidden Path Entertainment
Derrick Morton, CEO and Founder, FlowPlay
Cooper Moo, VP Business Development, GSN
Scott Warner, Owner, Garvey Schubert Barer

Moderated by: Skylar Kreisher, CEO, Olympus Games

Speaker Bios:

Jeff Pobst, CEO Hidden Path Entertainment

Jeff is CEO of Hidden Path Entertainment, a 35-person video game company founded in 2006. HPE has developed games and entertainment with Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and Valve, independently releasing the award-winning tower defense game Defense Grid on the Xbox 360 and PC, and currently working on the announced Counter-Strike Global Offensive on four platforms.

Jeff has served as a game programmer, producer, lead, and operations officer, shipping over 25 gams on six platforms, including games in the Half-Life, Homeworld, and Lord of the Rings franchises. At Microsoft, Jeff rolled out the first information on Xbox 360 to game developers around the world and participated on the Xbox 360 portfolio team as well.

Before game development, Jeff earned a doctorate in Aerospace Engineering, was a film student, a propulsion researcher, and a satellite project manager.

Derrick Morton, CEO, FlowPlay

Derrick has been a games and online entertainment executive for over 14 years. During his career he has led the development of over 200 digital entertainment projects. Over the course of the past 7 years he has been a key executive at the top online game websites - iWin, Uproar, Flipside, Virtual Vegas and GameHouse. Most recently he was General Manager of Mobile Games for RealNetworks, a business unit he founded. At RealNetworks Derrick negotiated long-term distribution agreements with Cingular, Verizon, Virgin Mobile, and Vodafone Global among others. Additionally, he was singularly responsible for negotiating the mobile rights to South Park, MTV Cribs, and The Apprentice. Derrick was a key executive at GameHouse which was acquired in 2004 by RealNetworks. GameHouse subsequently became Real's studio for Xbox, PC, Mobile and online game development. Mr. Morton received a BA, magna cum laude, from USC Film School and an MBA from UCLA's Anderson School.

Cooper Moo, VP of Business Development, GSN Digital

As vice president of business development, Cooper leads GSN Digital’s overall strategy and operational execution of deals with distribution and content partners. Cooper joined the company in 2004 and has negotiated the agreements for the company’s major distribution partnerships including Pogo/EA, AOL, MSN, Yahoo! and content partnerships with Sony, PopCap, Hasbro, Endemol and Fremantle. GSN Digital offers casual games on Facebook, via it’s GSN.com destination site and on the iOS and Android mobile platforms.

Prior to joining GSN Cooper was senior manager of e-commerce for Monster.com. As director of strategic partnerships for Salary.com, he created and managed partnerships with Monster, Yahoo!, CareerBuilder. Before entering the online space, Cooper was a partner in a Seattle trading company. He is a published author, most recently collaborating with Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear and other writers on The Mongoliad to be published by Amazon.com in April, 2012.

Scott Warner, Owner, Garvey Shubert Barer

Scott Warner represents a diverse array of clients including software and hardware companies, chip manufacturers, video game companies, content providers, hospitals and biotech companies, medical device manufacturers, alternative energy and clean tech companies, museums, social networking and new media companies, and others. All of these clients share a common goal. They own or use technology and other intellectual property and want to protect and make the most of their investments while minimizing the risk to businesses. Mr. Warner brings a combination of business savvy, domain expertise, creative thinking and more than 15 years of experience in the technology sector to address his client's needs. He works with clients to achieve their goals through practical and effective solutions and as a result, has been recognized by his peers and clients as an AV Peer Review Rated lawyer by Martindale-Hubbell, as a "Super Lawyer" by Washington Law and Politics magazine, and one of "Washington's Most Amazing Lawyer" by Washington CEO Magazine.

Moderated by:

Skylar Kreisher, CEO, Olympus Games

Skylar Kreisher is CEO of Olympus Games, a game service company. Olympus’ first consumer product, Gmod, is currently in open beta and is expected to officially launch this summer. Gmod is a social marketplace for user created game content.

Over the past decade Skylar has worked with numerous game companies and technology startups. Prior to Olympus Games Skylar was VP of Game Services for Solid State Networks, where he introduced the “Direct” content delivery middleware to market. Direct has since been used to deliver and update games for Microsoft, EA, Bigpoint, Riot Games and is being featured in BioWare’s new MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic. He got his start here in the northwest as a lowly lead game tester on the Xbox in 2002.

Skylar is an advisor for DeVry’s Game and Simulation Programing Degree. He also consults for an assortment of companies on emerging technologies and content delivery services.