Season\’s greetings! Amidst the annual radio throwback playlists and holiday hectics our General Manager Martine Spaans would like to take a moment to review 2022.
In terms of real-life events 2022 has been a great year. During a somewhat unique GDC San Francisco experience with awkward elbow bumps and mandatory masking we’ve managed to host a successful Dutch Lounge with plenty of quiet space for meetings and getting work done. Most of all, it was great to see many familiar faces again.
(Did you know we’re setting up a similar Netherlands Lounge for the next GDC? Signups are open now and the early bird discount lasts until January 16th!)
Obviously we didn’t stop there:
- In May we organised a Fieldlab event on Research and Education.
- In August we set up a 273m2 Netherlands Pavilion at Gamescom with 25 participating Dutch companies.
- In September we sent a trade mission to the Tokyo Game Show.
- In October we organised the completely new Dutch Game Day powered by Control. In the evening the Dutch Game Awards took place, where we took to the stage to celebrate what amazing games we bring to the world.
- And finally, this December we closed the year with an Accessibility in Games talk by the HiPerks Foundation.
In 2023 we will keep up the momentum with regular meetups and events. After all, connecting with peers and industry friends gives us the insights and inspiration that drive us forward. If you’re planning to host an event, let us know so we can help you spread the word.
Online events also remain on our agenda. This year the Roundtables about Diversity & Inclusion and Web3 were well attended and the online format makes it possible for us to invite speakers from all around the world. Are there topics you’d like to learn more about? Let us know!
Events are not all we do. As some of you may know we’ve set up a Lobby taskforce and we’re working on a game industry Position Paper to present to the Dutch government. This is a first step we’re taking in our mission to get the Dutch game industry on the political agenda. With the positive impact we can make on players’ lives and the economic growth potential we believe we can make a strong case for a dedicated game fund.
But it is going to take time and effort to get there, and we can’t do it without the support of our members. If you’re not a member yet, please do consider joining us. We’re in this together and we must stand together to achieve goals beyond our immediate interests to let the Dutch game industry flourish.
Last but certainly not least, we’d like to express our gratitude to our partners and our members. Thank you for being part of the DGA and for helping us take the Dutch Game Industry to the next level!
Here’s to a great year behind us, and to an even better year ahead!
– Martine Spaans, General Manager, on behalf of the DGA team