How GIC is upping the event engagement game with meetings, mentoring and meaningful connections

On a summer weekend in 2008, 13 people gathered in a student dormitory conference room to attend the very first Zjazd Twórców Gier (Game Developers Gathering). Although it was a small event, it struck a chord with Poland’s budding game developer community. 

Fast forward to the present day, and that small gathering has evolved into the Game Industry Conference (GIC), a major international event drawing more than 3,500 attendees and several major studios from over 50 countries each year. 

While the event has grown dramatically, the spirit remains the same, with the GIC still deeply rooted in the community. Many members of the organizing team, including academics and top industry professionals, contribute their time pro bono. Together, they’re all committed to creating a space where game developers can come together, learn from each other, and push the industry forward.

The question is, why Poland for a leading games conference? The answer is that the country is now one of the top game-producing countries in the world. You only need to look at CD Projekt Red, the Polish game studio which has sold over 100 million copies of games such as The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077. According to Jakub Marszałkowski, Chair of the GIC organizing committee, it’s no coincidence that Poland, home to 500 game studios hiring 15,000 developers, is leading the world in game development and now conferences dedicated to the multi-billion dollar industry.

“Our audience, our community, the Polish game industry as a whole, loves experience sharing,” says Jakub. “In the games industry, we do not compete for the market. You can share your secrets with others, they can share their secrets with you. Everyone benefits, everyone wins.”

Changing the game for game conferences worldwide

At the heart of the GIC is a strong philosophy: respect the intelligence of your audience. Rather than watering down their lectures to cater to everyone, the organizers ask speakers to deliver advanced talks – even if that means beginners struggle with some of the content. 

“We put a lot of effort into the quality of our advanced lectures,” explains Jakub. “If a student or junior developer can follow a lecture until the very end, then that means a senior developer probably hasn’t learned enough from it.”

It’s this no-compromise approach that has earned GIC a reputation for hosting some of the highest-quality technical talks in Europe.

But the innovation doesn’t stop at the lecture stage. Behind the scenes, the GIC team brings a relentless spirit of creativity and experimentation to how the event is designed and run.

They’ve created original solutions ranging from custom booth structures to a homegrown speaker review and submission platform. Feedback is gathered and analyzed after every event, leading to even more innovations and optimization. Not every idea works, but the ones that do become an essential part of the conference’s DNA. 

“Maybe the craziest thing we tried was pay-what-you-want ticketing,” recalls Jakub. “It was autumn 2020 and people weren’t going to pay for an online conference, but we didn’t want it to be yet another free conference. So we let everyone choose their own price, even pay nothing, which ended up working really well.”

Another popular innovation is the Zen Room, a quiet, tech-free space where attendees can take a break from the noise and recharge. Now people who might have left the event early can relax in peace before getting back to the conference.

Leveling up the experience with Grip Engage

To support an event of this scale with so many moving parts, the team needed a flexible, customizable platform. After trying several different options, they chose Grip Engage, Grip’s event engagement product suite. This was selected for its award-winning mobile Event App, Lead Retrieval feature, ability to support multiple meeting types and personalized communication options, along with a powerful API.

Grip Engage was also selected because it’s vital that the event drives connections between participants, where valuable business relationships are made and maintained. One tactic the GIC team employed to boost connections was enabling exhibitors to scan attendees badges using Grip’s Event App Lead Retrieval functionality. After each scan, the lead’s details were available to download by the exhibitor in the Grip platform, in real-time, so they could be quickly followed up.  

Furthermore, the success of the GIC’s strategy to maximize connections is evidenced by the number of meetings booked, over 550 at the show. Meetings are so important that GIC has achieved a perfect score amongst participants by providing more than one meeting type. For example, rather than just having everything come under a default “business meeting” umbrella, the team has five separate meeting formats:

• Business meetings – developers pitching games to investors or exploring partnerships.
• Recruitment meetings – companies scouting for talent
• Media meetings – opportunities for game coverage and interviews
• VIP media meetings – for high-profile press and developers to connect
• 1on1 mentoring – personalized sessions between experts and emerging professionals

This structure ensures that each group – developers, recruiters, media, mentors and mentees – can quickly get value from the show, without getting overwhelmed. And the real game changer was that all of this could be managed via Grip’s Event App. While Grip’s AI-powered matchmaking was employed to ensure participants were recommended genuinely useful people they should meet. 

“These meetings are where the connections are made and deals are signed,” says Jakub. “This year, we had publishers at the conference with budgets of up to $8 million.”

Jakub and his team also use the data from Engage to better understand participants and segment them into different groups depending on what ticket they bought, what they’re doing at the event, and more. 

As a result, the organizers can use personalized in-app notifications to communicate with them more efficiently. “People see the messages and invitations that are relevant to them, without any distractions,” says Jakub. “All those groups, data types, user types, and relations that we can build in the app allow us to achieve things that were never possible with any other app.”

Marcin Michalski, a developer on the organizing committee, particularly appreciates Grip’s API set. “With the API, we can easily implement and add new features. For example, we have the custom ticket view, where attendees can see exactly what’s included in their pass. This reduces confusion and cuts down on support emails.”

The team also uses the API to automate the schedule syncing process, saving hours of manual work and reducing the chance of errors. “We have our review system, and when we approve a talk or update a speaker, we can push those changes straight to the app,” explains Marcin.

Unlocking new skills with mentoring

One of the event’s biggest successes has been its 1on1 mentoring initiative, researched and developed under the BSG-Go Interreg Project, with the support of the European Union.

Rather than relying on unstructured networking or ad hoc mentor sessions, GIC made mentoring more accessible and effective for everyone involved.

Here’s how it works:

1. Mentors apply in advance and are vetted for experience and expertise
2. Mentees submit questions via the Grip app
3. Mentors can browse submitted questions and select mentees, or the organizing team can manually match pairs based on their requirements
4. A time and table are selected or assigned automatically in the app

“Then the automatic magic of having a good conference app happens,” says Jakub. “People can just go directly to their assigned table, sit down and start talking, with zero friction or confusion.” 

The mentoring sessions gave people the opportunity to ask any kind of questions related to game development, in categories including game design, art, marketing, and business.

Mentees could ask for help overcoming specific technical challenges, while others were looking for advice on how to progress their game development career. 

This is an amazing opportunity for attendees, no matter where they are in their career path. “I remember one of the mentors was also a mentee,” says Jakub. “He was very experienced in his field, but he was also able to get help from the mentors in other areas. It’s all about sharing that knowledge.”

Planning the next quest

Looking ahead, Jakub is keen to grow the event to reach more people. “We constantly work hard on the event and as a result it’s become the biggest game development conference in Europe.” 

In the meantime, the team will continue developing new solutions for the conference by leveraging the adaptability of Engage. For example, they’re currently working on dedicated tabs with specific information for different participants, so speakers would have access to a speaker’s guide, etc.

They’re also looking for ways to further improve the 1on1 mentoring, using analytics to better understand how the sessions are being planned and carried out, along with the results of those meetings. 

Above all, they’ll keep experimenting, testing, and innovating, because that’s what’s in their DNA. It’s what will take them to the next level.

“We believe we’re using the most advanced event technology platform in the industry. People may not buy a ticket just because of the app you use, but it’s one of the reasons they keep coming back.”