Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: DotA 2, ESI Birmingham, ESL, ESL One Birmingham, Esports Insider, james dean, Sam Cooke

ESI Birmingham Networking Event toTake Place During the Dota 2 Major

Published Mon, 07 May 2018 20:45:20 -0500

by Madeline Ricchiuto

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The ESL Uk and Esports Inside have partnered up to bring us the ESI Birmingham, which will be an esports business symposium taking place the day before the ESL One Birmingham Dota 2 Major quarter-finals begin. So anyone interested in networking in the esports industry will be able to attend the conference on May 24, 2018 at the Arena Birmingham, but the program of networking events will continue during and after the main conference.

In addition, attendees of ESI Birmingham will also get Special Guest passes to the already sold out ESL One Dota 2 Major, as well as a behind-the-scenes tour of the arena.

ESI Birmingham follows hot on the heels of the Esports Insider Super Forum, held in March at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge. It is the latest in a programme of events organised by Esports Insider, including the upcoming ESI London (September 18-20), with the aim of showcasing the opportunities for businesses within the esports industry.

The symposium will feature four panels and an opening keynote by James Dean, UK managing director at ESL and Mark Broom, UK Client Computing Marketing Manager at Intel. The opening keynote, "Together as One", will look at explaining the ins and outs of the Intel and ESL partnership, where it's going and how instrumental it has been in shaping current UK esports.

The second keynote session will be delivered by PwC, one of the largest professional services firms globally with a network that spans across 158 countries. Based on their experiences with a range of industry sectors, they will be providing their perspective on the esports industry with representatives from the UK, Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden.

The panel offerings for ESI Birmingham are as follows:

UK esports: the land of opportunity
- Speakers: Dr Florian Block, Research Fellow at Digital Creativity Labs, University of York and Ben Woodward, Co-Founder of Code Red Esports
Understanding the esports demographic
- Speakers: Jurre Pannekeet, Head of Esports at Newzoo, Kirsty Endfield, Founder and Director of Swipe Right PR and Dan Matson, Director at AMP Global Media
Where is the revenue: marketing, advertising, VC and sponsorships
- Speaker: Mathew Kemp, Senior Product Manager at Jagex Ltd
Community: the lifeblood of all things gaming
- Speaker: to be announced soon

"ESI Birmingham is a fantastic addition to the ESL One Birmingham lineup," said James Dean, UK managing director at ESL. "ESL One Birmingham is the first Dota 2 Major and ESL One event to be held in the UK, and proof that the UK esports scene is continuing to grow in importance and influence worldwide. We have a huge audience of young, tech-savvy esports fans, and ESI Birmingham showcases the many opportunities available for UK businesses to reach them. Whatever your background, this is the time to experience the full potential of the esports industry."

Sam Cooke, managing director at Esports Insider, added: "We've been hosting esports business focused events for some time now and witnessed the growing appetite to understand more about the industry. The UK is the 5th largest gaming market and 2nd largest media market in the world, the sold-out ESL One Birmingham event is a fine demonstration of the vast potential for esports and businesses in the UK."

"We've been keen to work more closely with ESL UK for some time, and with ESL One Birmingham, the fastest selling Dota 2 Major, this seemed the perfect opportunity!"

More details of ESI Birmingham are to be announced soon. If you're interested in attending, you can register for the forum here.

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