Frank Sliwka, former event director for Games Convention organizers Leipziger Messe, is to oversee the developer conference at the new GamesCom event in Cologne, Germany next year.
Sliwka recently
left Leipziger Messe in order to head up marketing and communications company Global Games Media (GGM).
The move came after German trade organization
BIU moved its support away from the Leipzig based Games Convention as Germany’s, and by default Europe’s, largest video games expo.
GGM will now be tasked with organizing a new developer conference intended to attract over 1,000 visitors from around the world. Silwka will also help more generally with the "development, strategy and internationalization of GamesCom," according to event organizers Koelnmesse -- the inaugural GamesCom will happen in early September 2009.
“We are delighted to be working with Frank Sliwka and Global Games Media. Their choice of Cologne and their confidence in the new trade fair location show us that we are on the right track and can establish gamescom as Europe's trade fair and event highlight in a very short space of time", said Oliver P. Kuhrt, MD of Koelnmesse.
Said Sliwka, "Cologne and GamesCom offer the ideal conditions for all target groups in the global games industry. Games developers from around the world will be able to exchange creatively and constructively at the developer conference, and thus influence the future of the games industry considerably."
