Devcom is launching its Leadership Summit in February in Lisbon, Portugal, with key participants such as Shawn Layden, former president of Sony Interactive.
With the exchange of ideas and strategies being crucial to how the games industry adapts to the current and upcoming challenges industry, Devcom is adding further reasons to join the upcoming event, announcing key participants and topics. The program is here.
Layden is one of c-level leaders attending, with others including Jehanne Rousseau (formerly of Spiders), Gareth Williams (PressEngine), Lars Janssen (Deck13), Yves LeYaouanq (Focus Entertainment), and Lisa Kretschmer (IO Interactive).
The Devcom Leadership Summit 2025, taking place on February 19 to February 21, 2025, in Lisbon, is dedicated to creating a secure and open environment where top-level professionals can network and tackle critical industry challenges in an exclusive, confidential setting.
A program to fostering real impact
In collaboration with industry leaders, the team behind Europe’s leading developer conference has developed a three-day program centered on personalized networking, expert insights, and meaningful
discussions.
To facilitate these conversations, six expert-led roundtables will be held, each focusing on a key theme and supported by potential subtopics designed to inspire and guide dynamic, meaningful discussions:
- Leadership & HR — Current challenges, workplace culture, and the wellbeing of leaders and their teams.
- Production & Operations — Production-focused themes including sustainability, efficiency and scale.
- Business, Strategy & Innovation — Business models, mergers, and creative strategies for your studio and economic growth.
- Design, Creativity & Player Experience — Design trends, creative challenges, and the balance between innovation and user satisfaction.
- Tech & Tools in Game Development — Technical challenges, engine choices, and tools innovation.
- AI in Game Development — The transformative role of AI & machine learning across production, art, and gameplay development.
Unlike traditional conference formats, the Leadership Summit emphasizes its confidential setting (Chatham House Rules) which enables attendees to share experiences and strategies openly without disclosing who said what.
Why this matters now
The gaming landscape is still evolving at an unprecedented pace, with new technologies, shifting market
dynamics, and heightened player expectations presenting both opportunities and challenges. Devcom’s
Leadership Summit offers a much-needed safe space for leaders to navigate these complexities together
and refine their approaches to ensure sustainable growth and innovation.
Alexander L. Fernandez, CEO at Streamline Media Group, said of last year’s event, “The Devcom Leadership Summit hit exactly the right tone—covering the real issues and trends developers
need to stay ahead in today’s fast-evolving industry. It was a powerful experience with meaningful
conversations and insights that directly connect to the challenges we’re tackling right now. The event was
full of those genuine, stand-out moments that make you think, ‘This is why we’re here.’ I can’t wait to
come back next year and dive even deeper.”
And Yves Le Yaouanq, chief content officer at Focus Entertainment, said in a statement, “Attending the devcom Leadership Summit was an insightful experience, where I could connect or catch up with peers, from different parts of the industry and with different experiences (VCs, other Publishers, but also successful triple-I studios). Sharing experiences and best practices, facing common challenges and how to deal with them, each with their own solution and expertise, was not only helpful, but also reminded us how, as an industry, we can grow by sharing.”
Oscar Clark, CEO of Fundamentally Games, said in a statement, “The Devcom Leadership Summit was a fantastic space for candid discussion with leaders in European game teams, a space to explore the human and professional challenges in the market which at the time were considerable. There were some great speakers, but it was in the roundtable and networking sessions that really added the best value with discussions ranging from practical insight on fundraising, business operations and game marketing strategies.”
Devcom is host of the official developer conference of Gamescom (Devcom Developer Conference) and Europe’s largest community-based event for games industry professionals. The next Devcom will take place in Cologne, Germany, from August 17 to August 19, 2025.
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