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Press release:
Kraków Technology Park (the organizer of Digital Dragons 2021) is today very happy and pleased to announce that the main conference of the Digital Dragons 2021 event is kicking-off on September 7th, 2021 (the event will take place between September 7th and 9th, both online and offline).

Kraków Technology Park, the organizer of Digital Dragons 2021, is pleased to announce the first five speakers. The event will take place on 7-9 September online and offline.

Digital Dragons is one of the biggest game industry conferences in Europe. This year Digital Dragons was split into three independent events. The first two – Indie Celebration and Business Meet Up – were held in May and almost 400 industry professionals took part in individual business meetings and over 250 games from 50 countries were submitted.

Now it’s time for The Main Conference which will take place on 7-9 September. During the first two days participants will meet for lectures, discussion panels and business meetings online. The last day of the conference will be also held offline in Kraków Technology Park.

The organizers announced the first five speakers that will share their knowledge and experience with other industry professionals. One of them will be David Jaffe who is now working with Movie Games. David is a well-known figure in the industry with over 30 years of experience. During his career he worked on such hit series as Twisted Metal and God of War.

During the Digital Dragons Conference he will discuss how to use the experience and knowledge gained from failed projects to our advantage in the future.

Other speakers include Darren Korb, a composer of game music to such beloved titles as Hades, Pyre and Bastion. He will reveal some of his secrets on how to create a soundtrack that will lift up the gaming experience. Danuta Psuty from Flying Wild Hog is an experienced level designer with Dead Island Riptide, Dying Light, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Ghost Recon Wildlands and Outriders in her portfolio.

She will try to explain how level design can influence the story in the game and how the tale should be told to keep the player hungry for more. Christian Fonnesbech, Head of IP Development in Leverage Partnership will share his experience on building IPs and franchises and how to create one that could last for years.

Last but not least is Pascal Luban from The Game Design Studio. Pascal, who was the lead game designer on Alone In The Dark – The New Nightmare and creative director on Wanted – Weapons Of Fate, will speak about games that make you think.

He will try to answer very important questions. Could games be more than enjoyable entertainment and could games enrich us in the way that great literature, movies or music do?

During the event there are 48 lectures and discussion panels devoted to game design, programming, art in games, business, marketing and more game-related topics planned. One of the key elements of the event will be a matchmaking platform for networking.

Game developers and investors, publishers and distributors are able to arrange direct business meetings. On September 9th everyone will have a chance to meet face-to-face during the 3rd day of the event. A series of panels on women in game dev is also planned for the last day of Digital Dragons. Women’s leadership in the game industry will be the main theme for the third-day agenda.

Besides the traditional Digital Dragons Awards gala the novelty of this year’s conference will be The Golden Ticket – a fast track that allows admission of the best foreign indie team directly into the Poland Prize acceleration program.

This program offers the opportunity to work with the best publishers and investors in the game industry and to receive funds for product development from a selected partner up to €70 000! The program is addressed to foreign teams, and finances setting up a company in Poland. Teams interested in getting The Golden Ticket can apply during the conference. All information and the registration form will soon be available on the Digital Dragons website.

The lectures application is still open. The organizers will place emphasis on the substantive level and adaptation of the speeches to the current needs of the industry. You can submit your proposals here: https://digitaldragons.pl/conference/submit-a-speech/

About Sponsors:
Małopolska Region is the Main Partner of the event: the regional authorities implementing a range of projects that serve innovation and economic development of Małopolska, and its attractiveness for investors. Małopolska is a perfect location for running business, particularly based on new technologies.

About Digital Dragons:
Digital Dragons is currently one of the largest international events for the digital entertainment industry in Central and Eastern Europe. The main goal of the Digital Dragons is to create a Business to Business (B2B) cooperation platform within the Polish games sector, one of the most intensively developing sectors of the creative industries.

Last year’s edition of the Digital Dragons, held online for the first time, attracted 2900 participants, including 1100 companies from 65 countries. Among the representatives of the digital entertainment industry, there were leading Polish and foreign companies.

366 projects from 30 countries were submitted to the two contests: the Indie Celebration and the Digital Dragons Indie Showcase, while media coverage reached over 1.5 million people. In 2021, the Digital Dragons will be held online as a series of events organised from May to September.

About Kraków Technology Park:
Kraków Technology Park (KPT) has contributed to the development of proper conditions for the development of entrepreneurship for 20 years. For 10 years it has managed the Technology Incubator for IT start-ups. The KPT inspires the start-up community by organising numerous events including workshops, hackathons, and conferences that help to verify business concepts. Besides these, it runs KPT ScaleUp acceleration programme.

Companies may count on the support of seed funds, tax reliefs offered by the Polska Strefa Inwestycji (Polish Investment Zone) programme, and preferential office space rental conditions. The KPT is particularly focused on Industry 4.0 and the video games industry. It is the leader of the hub4industry consortium aiming to provide comprehensive support for companies wishing to implement Industry 4.0 solutions.

The KPT also organises Digital Dragons – the leading games industry event in Europe. The KPT also works with the international EIT Digital, which aims to drive the digital transformation in Europe.