The International eSports Conference (ESCONF) takes place from May 26th - 27th, 2009 in Cologne (Germany). 

This year the International eSports Conference 2009 (ESCONF) takes place for the sixth time and will again be the place to be for the international “who’s who” in eSports. The International eSports Conference has already developed to a globally leading business and networking platform for eSports and gaming communities. This time the event will feature lectures, workshops, meetings and opportunities to network. Whereas this year lectures will address students, teachers, parents, politicians and the media in an effort to improve a general awareness of eSports, workshops are going to address eSportmen and their according managements to eventually teach them important know-how for their own development. eSport organizations will be invited to join private meetings discussing current developments, trends and problems.

The ESCONF 2009 ends successfully. We want to thank every attendee, guest, speaker for their participation at this years conference. Also we want to thank our main partners and media partners for their support. In the next days, we will publish the lectures and presentations of the workshops to everone. So that everyone can have a look at the content of the conference.

The program of the “International eSports Conference (ESCONF)” taking place in Cologne from May 26th to 27th has been confirmed and addresses students, university students, teachers, parents, politicians and the media this year in addition to eSportsmen and their managers.

Following the introduction of Martin Lorber of Electronic Arts and Frank Sliwka, Vice President European Business Development at Think Services, Simon Wondracek of EGM eSport & Gaming Media is going to deliver an overview of eSports and its characteristics in his opening speech. Afterwards Prof. Dr. Jörg Müller-Lietkow, Paderborn University, will subject eSports to critical analysis and Christian Funk of nGize eSports will talk about his responsibility as a manager of an eSports team. The LARA prize winners and professional players of SK Gaming, Dennis and Daniel Schellhase, will then share their experiences as players. Ibrahim Mazari, spokesman and Jugendschutzbeauftragter (Commissioner for the Protection of Youth) at Turtle Entertainment will tackle the subject of awareness training exemplified by the Eltern-LAN (awareness training on LAN for parents). Stefan Dähn of readmore.de/Computec Media concludes the series of speeches as he expounds the importance of tournaments and events for eSports and the people behind it.

A series of workshops for eSportsmen and their managers follows the lecture program beginning with Nicolas Gabrysch, partner of the law firm Osborne Clarke. Nicolas Gabrysch is going to deliver a lecture on the pros and cons of specific legal forms with Alexander T. Müller, Managing Director of SK Gaming, supporting him. Dominic Multerer will lead the second workshop presenting popular marketing tools as he gives both an insight into the technical aspects and analyzes their efficiency for eSports.

In the evening ESCONF Reception will be hosted in Germany’s very first eSports club house of the Cologne eSports team n!faculty featuring informal networking with snacks and drinks. The participants can review the day and establish and maintain contacts.

On May 27th we will invite delegates from eSports, science, politics, media, associations and the industry to a closed roundtable think-tank discussing the future role of eSports within the society.