devcom Breaks All Records at New Location
– 2 min read
This year's devcom at the new Confex in Cologne broke all previous records by a considerable margin. The number of participants increased by 45 per cent. The date for next year's event has already been set.
The devcom Developer Conference 2024, which was held at Confex for the first time, has ended with new record numbers. More than 5,000 unique participants registered for the conference, an increase of 45 per cent compared to 2023, consolidating devcom’s position as the largest industry conference in Europe and the second largest globally. The conference featured more than 350 speakers, about 100 more compared to 2023, who presented their topics across 210+ sessions on 17 stages plus the Keynote Stage. Additional side events, such as the Xsolla Game Night, European Game Night and Courage Cologne contributed to thousands of additional attendees. New dates for the upcoming devcom Leadership Summit at 19 to 21 February in Lisbon and the next devcom Developer Conference 2025 at 17 to 19 August in Cologne.
"This year's devcom Developer Conference was an extraordinary success, exceeding all our expectations and breaking records. The move to Koelnmesse's new Confex has allowed us to expand our offering and create a more spacious environment for our attendees, speakers and partners. Compared to last year, we recorded a 45 per cent increase in visitor numbers, which underscores the growing importance of devcom within the global games industry. Our B2B program was extremely well received, giving publishers and developers additional days to negotiate new projects at devcom and gamescom," said Stephan Reichart, Managing Director of game events.
The conference attracted attendees from 1,660 companies and 83 countries. Notably, 10 per cent of attendees represented companies with 2,000 or more employees, while 27 per cent were from companies with 100 to 2,000 employees.
The #ddc2024 Keynotes were delivered by Game Writer and Narrative Designer Kelsey Beachum, known for her work on Outer Wilds and Jason Latino, Cinematic Director at Larian Studios reflecting on how dead wrong he was about some of the game's biggest successes. Among the most anticipated and bookmarked sessions were Demystifying Creativity (Fawzi Mesmar, VP Global Creative, Ubisoft), Code Power-Ups: 10 Game-changing Programming Hacks (Terrance Cohen, Senior Engine Programmer, Insomniac Games) and You Must Self-Publish: The Future of Indie Funding (Jason Della Rocca, Co-Founder, Execution Labs).
devcom's newly established Scholarship Programs, in collaboration with gamescom and over 20 international partners, provided more than 200 participants with free access to the events, both online and on-site, along with additional support and networking opportunities.
