Making Dubai the epicentre of the gaming world for two days, Pocket Gamer Connects debuted its  Dubai GameExpo Summit event last week. In collaboration with Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism, GameExpo Summit took place as part of the Dubai Esports and Games Festival on June 21st and 22nd. The event brought together over 1300 attendees – a rich, diverse group of industry professionals from around the globe, to explore innovation within the thriving games industry.

The first Pocket Gamer Connects event to be hosted in Dubai reflected the growth of the gaming sector in the MENA region, with more than 800 companies in attendance. The event was a massive success and welcomed people from the surrounding MENA regions and participants from over 60 countries.

The Dubai GameExpo Summit had 16 exciting speaking tracks in the event with participants and talks from some of the leading MENA-based brands such as Global Game Jam, Nine66, Super Evil Megacorp and many more the event was filled with opportunities for people to learn and industry professionals to get together, network and learn about each other. The two-day event had talks and insights from industry experts such as David Fernandez of Sandsoft Games and Leonid Blinov from the Tiktok MENA team, together with a buzzing indie zone and discussions about AI, Web3 Esports and the Metaverse – the event explored all industry growth sectors with senior thought leaders and was one of the most revealing and informative Pocket Gamer Events to date.

With the MENA region becoming the fastest-growing games market worldwide, the exciting new Pocket Gamer Connects event proved that the games industry is growing and expanding further, with Dubai at the heart of this growth. The Pocket Gamer Connects team is excited about the possibilities and the expansion of the Dubai event. Chris James, CEO of Steel Media, expressed his excitement about the event’s success, saying, “We are thrilled with our Debut in the Dubai region. The event really opened the doors to the thriving games industry in the UAE  and the MENA region beyond, and we can’t wait to be back with an even bigger event next year.”

Get ready to immerse yourself with another Pocket Gamer Connects event this July 19th and 20th with PG Connects Toronto returning this year with multiple new and improved tracks and themes celebrating all things gaming, and bringing together developers, industry leaders and fellow gamers.

Honouring the exceptional achievements of game developers and studios in the growing mobile games industry, nominations for the renowned Top 50 Mobile Game Makers awards are still open until the 21st of July, and you can vote here!