The GPI Design & Development team is getting ready to head to London. For the first time, they will be taking part in Mojo Nation’s Play Creators Festival the first weekend in September If you are attending the conference and would like to meet with them, please contact us.
Since we are new to the Festival we asked Billy Langsworthy of Mojo Nation about the Festival and what to expect.
GPI: Hi Billy, can you tell us a bit about the history of Mojo Nation and why you host the Play Creators Festival?
BILLY: The nutshell version of where Mojo came from is that other industries had dedicated publications for their creative and design communities, while the toy industry didn’t. Mojo was launched to address that, interviewing the inventors, studios, creative leaders and designers (both external and in-house) in the industry.
Prior to launching Mojo, the UK wasn’t home to events dedicated to providing pitching sessions, networking opportunities and award celebrations for inventors and designers of all experience-levels. Our Play Creators Festival was launched to remedy that, with an opening night networking event, a conference, an awards and our live Mojo Pitch. This has been bolstered in recent years with the addition of a Virtual Mojo Pitch, to provide important pitching opportunities to folks, regardless of where they are in the world.
GPI: For the publishers attending the event and listening to inventor pitches, how does this event fit into their strategy of meeting with inventors and discovering new ideas?  Â
BILLY: It provides publishers a platform to meet with both pros and newcomers, and being based in the UK, it also gives companies outside of the UK a chance to connect with some inventor talent who they might otherwise not encounter. It’s even more true of our virtual event, which has welcomed inventors from countries like Greece, India, New Zealand and other places which may not yet be regular stops on the IR circuit. Most publishers want to unearth great new inventors connections– as well as great new ideas – and this event provides both.
GPI: What is the added value to a game publisher to attend Play Creators if they already have a full pitch schedule with inventors throughout the year?
BILLY: In addition to what I mentioned above, for some the chance to connect in person will be important, and the event provides companies with a chance to see new ideas and meet inventors they know, and some they don’t – all at a useful time of the year.
GPI: What is the one thing you would tell a publisher on why this is a must-go-to event?
BILLY: Well, the publishers who do the event year-in year-out tell us they do so because they unearth great new inventors, great new concepts and it provides an important time to also connect with their established inventor partners. I should add, it’s also a lot of fun!