Community Clubhouse at GDC 2025

Community Clubhouse at GDC 2025

The destination for player experience & support, trust & safety, community engagement, compliance, player-focused game dev & revenue growth

By Kent Martin - Keywords Studios

Date and time

Tuesday, March 18 · 8:30am - 6:30pm PDT

Location

Moscone Center

747 Howard Street San Francisco, CA 94103

Agenda

9:00 AM - 9:30 AM

Morning Coffee & Networking

9:30 AM - 10:30 AM

“Us and Them” – Building healthy relationship with players and partners

Damien Mauric, SVP at SEGA

Shams Jorjani, CEO at Arrowhead Games Studios

Johan Pilestedt, Chief Creative Officer at Arrowhead

(LOCATION ROOM 158) Join Arrowhead, the acclaimed developer behind the hit Helldivers 2, as they delve into "Us and Them"—their philosophy for fostering healthy relationships with players and partner...

10:50 AM - 11:50 AM

Magic Potion Games: A Club Penguin for the Next Generation

Anna Wright, Senior Director, Player Operations, Niantic

Karin Johnson, Founder & CPO, Magic Potion Games

Stephen MacDonald, Founder and CEO, Magic Potion Games

(LOCATION ROOM 158) Join Magic Potion Games Co-Founders, learn their vision to build the next big children’s focused game. Anna Wright, Niantic Labs (Pokemon Go!) leads our discovery with Club Pengui...

10:50 AM - 11:50 AM

Breaking the Productivity Trap: Reimagining Game Development in the AI Era

Vered Horesh, Chief of Strategic AI Partnerships, BRIA

Volkan Gurel, CEO & Co-Founder, Layer AI

Andrei Muratov, Head of Game Analytics & AI/ML, AWS

Oren Debi, VP Product, AI & Innovation, SciPlay

(LOCATION ROOM 160) Despite widespread AI adoption, the gaming industry remains focused on incremental efficiency gains rather than transformative innovation. This panel examines why established stud...

11:50 AM - 1:20 PM

LUNCH BREAK

1:20 AM - 2:20 AM

Start Early: Building Gaming Communities

Katleen Evers, CEO and Founder,

Sydnee McLeod, Senior Community Manager, Norsfell

Max von Knorring, COO, Amplitude Studios

Joanna Keler, Marketing Consultant, Gamer Tag

(LOCATION ROOM 158) All too often, community management is the last thing that gets ticked off on a development ‘to-do’ list, but the hesitation could cost you valuable early player feedback and cruc...

1:20 AM - 2:20 AM

Less Disruption, More Engagement: Unpacking Anti-Toxicity Tech Strategy

Director of Customer Success at Modulate

(LOCATION ROOM 160) This session will explore how implementing comprehensive player safety strategies can enhance player engagement and wellbeing. By examining real customer data and experiences, att...

2:40 AM - 3:40 AM

Leveraging AI for Player Acquisition, Engagement and Monetization

Kimberly Corbett, Chief Publishing Officer, Fortis Games

William “Bill” Grosso, CEO, Game Data Pros (GDP)

Phil Mohr, CEO, Metica

Shayan Sanyal, Global Leader, Games Industry BD, AWS

(LOCATION ROOM 158) The economics of live service games are being revolutionized by AI and cloud computing. Join industry leaders as they share how they're leveraging AI to create more profitable an...

2:40 AM - 3:40 AM

Bots Cost: How tackling cheats helps protect both player experience & revenue

Alon Dayan, Co-Founder & CEO, Quago

Micah Roland, Senior Manager, Product Mgmt, Scopely

AC Ward, Dir of Anti Cheat Engineering, Electronic Arts

Nidhi Gupta, Engineering Lead at Roblox

(LOCATION ROOM 160) Cheating in games isn’t just a player experience issue—it’s a complex challenge with significant financial consequences that puts many games’ business model at risk. Curated by Qu...

4:10 AM - 5:10 AM

Ripple Effects of Great Tooling: Why the Developer Experience Matters to All

Josh Loveridge, Managing Dir, Stratton Studios

Matt Ellis, Developer Advocate, JetBrains

Justin Marc Miersch, Founder, 314 Arts

Antonio Rafael Antunes Miranda, Sr Developer, Sirenix

(LOCATION ROOM 158) Often in the process of making games there are difficult decisions to be made around budgets, timelines, polish, etc…. The decisions we make have a great impact on all of these pr...

4:10 AM - 5:10 AM

D2C X-Ray Vision: What Top Publishers do to Scale Web Shop Success

David Vogelpohl, CMO, FastSpring

Jason Dauenhauer, Head of VIP Services, Keywords Studios

Travis Neiderhiser, Head of Developer Success, Nexus

Michael Lewis, SVP, D2C, Take-Two Interactive

(LOCATION ROOM 160) Curated and Moderated by Chip Thurston, Head of Gaming at FastSpring. D2C revenue continues to grow rapidly as publishers get more sophisticated in their approach, regulations co...

5:30 AM - 6:00 AM

Balancing Player Expectations & Creative Priorities in a High-touch Player Era

Kim Nordstrom, CEO PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions

Rob Schoeppe, CCO Accelbyte, ex AWS, Sony, BandaiNamco

Chris Melissinos, AWS Principal Evangelist

Max Von Knorring, COO & Co-Founder Amplitude Studios

(LOCATION ROOM 158) Curated by Itamar Rogel (Co-Founder, Co-CEO at Affogata) The panel will discuss how to balance the creative and business priorities of a gaming studio with players’ expectations a...

5:30 AM - 6:00 AM

Fireside Chat: Saving Lives with Real-Life Threat Escalations

Kaila Jarvis,Global T&S Advisor, Keywords Studios

Christina Camilleri, Head of T&S, Netflix Games

(LOCATION ROOM 160) As the gaming industry continues to grow and evolve, so does the need for strong safety measures to protect developers, moderators, content creators, and communities. While online...

6:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Community Clubhouse Happy Hour with Midwest Games - Provided by FastSpring!

(LOCATIONS: NETWORKING (ROTUNDA) AREA and CONTENT ROOMS) Come close out the day with fellow Community Clubhouse members in our exclusive Networking Lounge - sip on wine, beer, or soda, connect with i...

About this event

  • Event lasts 10 hours

☝️☝️☝️ NOTE ON AGENDA: Please note that sessions are running concurrently in Esplanade Rooms 158 and 160.

Community Clubhouse is back at GDC 2025!


We’re returning to San Francisco for our 5th edition, bringing a full day of expert-led sessions featuring insights from Arrowhead, Activision, Niantic, EA, Take-Two Interactive, and more! The event is set to take place inside the Moscone Center San Francisco, Esplanade Rooms : 158 & 160

This year, we’re diving into the industry’s biggest shifts and spotlighting the innovative leaders shaping the future of game community engagement.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM OUR EVENT:

  • Tips and best practices shared by experts from the most successful studios, from beginner level to more advanced
  • Presentations on what's working for specific games and studios
  • Unmatched networking time with professional peers, as well as fun activities and giveaways

    EXPLORE THE 2024 THEME:
  • The Ever-Changing Nature of Gaming

A Friendly Heads-Up: To access the Community Clubhouse, you’ll need a GDC pass.

  • If you're already attending GDC 2025 as an attendee or exhibitor, your existing pass grants you entry
  • However, you must still register here to gain access to Community Clubhouse

If you’d love to join us but don’t have a GDC pass, we may have you covered! Community Clubhouse is offering a limited number of complimentary scholarship passes for eligible individuals, including:

  • Professionals who align with this program but are between jobs due to recent layoffs
  • Those generally facing financial challenges in purchasing a GDC Expo pass
  • A Limited Amount for Educators and students

You can request a scholarship pass during the registration process on this site.

We look forward to welcoming you! 🚀

This edition of Community Clubhouse is brought to you by:

Gold Level Sponsors:

Silver Level Sponsors:

Bronze Level Sponsors:

ABOUT COMMUNITY CLUBHOUSE
Founded in early 2023 by industry veterans to address the lack of focus on Player Experience, Community Management, and Trust & Safety at major gaming conferences, Community Clubhouse is a free learning and networking hub for game community professionals. It provides a dedicated space for knowledge-sharing and industry connection. Through in-person events featuring expert panels, AMAs, and networking opportunities adjacent to major gaming conferences worldwide, Community Clubhouse continues to foster collaboration and elevate best practices in player engagement.

Frequently asked questions

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

The following roles (or similar) from game studios and publishers are invited to register for this event: Customer Support, Player Experience, Moderation, Trust and Safety, Community Leads and Managers, QA and Player Insights / Analytics , Producers, Product Leads and Managers, C-Suite and Founders

CAN I SUBMIT A PROPOSAL TO SPEAK AT COMMUNITY CLUBHOUSE AT GDC 2024?

The deadline for speaking submissions has passed. Thank you for checking!

Tags

Organized by

Kent Martin - Keywords Studios