After two interesting and exciting days, the „International eSports Conference (ESCONF)“ has successfully closed with its extraordinary program last Wednesday. Supported by the main sponsors Electronic Arts, Samsung and the World Cyber Games, the ESCONF has established itself as the global event from Cologne that features topics of eSports and gaming communities. “We have excellently succeeded in the further process of internationalizing the ESCONF. More than 20 percent of our attendees come from foreign countries”, says Frank Sliwka, CEO of Global Games Media. “All decision makers of the eSports branch were present. The highlights of this year’s ESCONF were the agreement on founding an eSports World Association and the intense exchange of experiences with the representatives from South Korea. The new parts of the ESCONF – eSports Connection and the several workshops – had a good return and indicated the event’s high potential to be realized in upcoming years.”

25 international first-class speakers brought out their positions on the current development of eSports and offered multisided insights into their respective field of activity with their speeches and discussion rounds. Given this, one could be informed e.g. by Konstantin Ewald (Osborne Clarke) of the procedure of the very first law suit of eSports history or worth information about lobbying by Ibrahim Mazari (Turtle Entertainment) or a presentation by Noha Park (Korea e-Sports Association) about the backgrounds of eSports in South Korea.

The new matchmaking platform “eSports Connection“ was positively accepted by the participants. Companies and eSport teams had the possibility to exchange thoughts, get in contact and initiate business deals. “The feedback that we received so far has shown that there is a need for such a platform. Thus, we will extend this platform in the near future”, explains Carsten Kohlenbeck, Project Manager at Global Games Media.

A total of 150 attendees, guests and speakers from 15 different countries were present at the conference and represented more than 60 different companies, teams, associations, institutions and organizations. Within the next few days, the lectures of the speakers will be available online at the home-page www.esconf.com.