Gamestart Asia convention wants to kickstart Southeast Asia’s gaming industry

Everyone knows Gamestart Asia. It’s a brand new games conference organized by gamers, for gamers. Sony, 2K, Bandai Namco, every big game company with a presence in Singapore is going to be there, and the public is excited. But Gamestart Asia is more than just a fun event for consumers. It could potentially kickstart the burgeoning gaming industry in Southeast Asia.

Elicia Lee is the brains behind Gamestart Asia. She set up the company Eliphant – run by herself and a silent shareholder – just to front the event. Neither Eliphant nor Gamestart have any outside investment; it’s a privately-funded venture that has so far been bolstered by Lee’s own savings, as well as borrowed funds from family and close friends who believe in the project. If you haven’t already realized, it’s a very risky venture.

Lee at the recent media preview for Gamestart Asia 2014.

All gaming conferences held in Singapore so far, a country where operational costs are sky-high, have tanked and died. Some of them petered out because they were running into deficit on a yearly basis. One shot itself in the foot by overselling itself one year and presenting itself as a flea market the next. Others are too embarrassingly grassroots to warrant mention. Publishers and developers no longer trust people who come by and say, hey, buy space at my gaming con in Singapore!

See: Which is the top spending Asian country on games for 2014? (Oct 2014)Even Lee admits that the toughest part of organizing the Gamestart Asia con so far has been convincing people and companies to take a chance on a new convention in Singapore, especially in the wake of previous events that didn’t live up to expectations.

The natural thing is to use them as comparison, which I completely understand.

Yet there’s a lot of potential in Gamestart Asia that cannot be denied. Lee used to work in the PR and marketing department of EA Games in Singapore. She has contacts throughout the region, and is especially close with media and other members of the games industry based in Singapore. More importantly, she’s also a gamer.

A snapshot of the fancy tickets that have been printed.

One disappointing Singapore gaming conference (that we will not name) was organized by an events company. An events company might know how much time and manpower you need on setup day, but it’s not going to understand a gamer audience. This is something that Lee and her co-organizers, Lee Teck Hou from Gaming How, and consultant Christopher Ng, have a firm grasp on – they know what an audience of gamers wants to see.

The show floor is now filled – albeit primarily by the main sponsor, Sony – and attendees are raring to get in. Lee says that the response from people has been “incredible,” with individuals even going up to her and thanking her for organizing Gamestart because they’ve “always wanted a convention like this in Singapore and Southeast Asia.” According to Lee, strangers even write in to the con’s website offering time and resources to help, and grassroots game communities have also stepped up to help it succeed.

She expects about 8,000 visitors to the show this weekend, and this is without a business day, as is customary for gaming conferences like Tokyo Game Show and G-Star in Busan, Korea. Still, these 8,000 visitors aren’t going to help Lee cover costs in the least.

“I’m looking at our first year as an investment and hope that if we are successful this year, it will be easier to get sponsors, exhibitors, and funding for future events. The key goal for our first year is to organize a great convention and show that SEA gamers are ready for something like this,” Lee says. She’s hoping to get external or government funding next year so that Gamestart Asia can be sustainable.

But what really defines success for Lee? After all, the show isn’t going to make money. And there’s always that niggling fear that – after all you’ve done – lazy Singaporean gamers aren’t going to show up.

See: Singaporeans don’t attend local gaming events and we’re suffering for it“Gamestart will be a success this year if lots of people come and have enough fun to tell their friends about it,” Lee says, adding that she will definitely do it again for at least another year, regardless of money made or lost.

I knew there was a lot of passion for gaming and communities when I started working on Gamestart, but I’ve since discovered the huge amount of talent and creativity here as well.

Lee says that the con is no longer just an Eliphant event, but one helmed by everyone who has helped and contributed toward it in the last few months. Hopefully, all of this passion, talent, and creativity will show itself to its fullest this weekend. Then, Southeast Asia will finally be able to say it has its own gaming convention.