Interactive

UK – GamCrowd Studio day a roaring success

By Phil - 19 February 2016

Voting is closing at the end of the month to find the winner from the Pitch ICE competition which took place at London’s ExCel during Clarion Gaming’s Totally Gaming event.

In total 14 new start-ups took to the stage during the show to convince attendees of the attraction of their business idea. The show featured fantasy and social gaming ideas, gaming services suppliers and payments providers and a new responsible gambling tool.

Anyone who wishes to choose the winner from the participants has a second chance to catch up with their pitches on the Gamcrowd website – www.gamcrowd.com/pitchice. Those wishing to have their say has until 12 midday on the 29th of February to cast their vote.

Chris North, the founder of GamCrowd and the organiser of this year’s show in conjunction with Clarion Gaming, said he was delighted with the quality of the pitches this year. “We said when we announced the final line-up that we were hugely impressed with the quality of entries for this year’s show, and as it turned out all the companies came through the Pitch process with flying colours. The standard of presentations was great, the crowd were engaged and it felt like we were generating a huge amount of buzz on the exhibition floor.”

Further testament to the value of Pitch ICE and the quality of previous contestants came from the success of last year’s Pitch ICE winner Gamevy which won the award for Game to Watch at this year’s ICE Totally Gaming event for its game The Heist. Meanwhile, another Pitch ICE alumnus Fenway Games also won an award with its SnapBet product.

Helen Walton, marketing director at Gamevy, commented: “Last year was incredible for us. Winning Pitch ICE 2015 paved the way for an incredibly exciting year which was topped off this year at ICE when we won the Game to Watch competition.”

Both Gamevy and Fenway Games also took part in the ground-breaking Studio day on the Thursday of ICE Totally Gaming where a host of industry experts and start-up advisors gave talks at the show designed to help companies through critical stages in their business journey.

Jon Bradford, the former chief executive of TechStars in London, gave a compelling speech on the difficulties faced by start-ups in any sector; Phil Halls-Smith and Shula Hagan from law firm Joelson Wilson talked start-up legals, Andy Clerkson from Grand Parade gave a talk on tech and GamCrowd’s Chris North gave a wrap-up of the event.

“The whole show went a long way to showcasing how we think the upcoming GamCrowd News and GamCrowd Studio sites will give added value to new ventures in the space, providing free advice and guidance just when companies really need it,” Mr. North said. “We think the whole show showed clearly the sheer amount of talent within the gaming industry, but also signposted how companies and entrepreneurs need help from the off. This is what Gamcrowd News and Studio is designed to do.”