WINGS Organises Meeting Space and Mentors’ Café Event for Women and Marginalised Gender Developers
Thank you to everyone who joined us at the WINGS Lounge and WINGS Mentors’ Café in Malmö last week! We had such an amazing time connecting with all of you! The events were filled with insightful mentorship, valuable networking opportunities, and plenty of great snacks to keep everyone fueled and engaged.
WINGS Lounge & Meeting Space
On May 22 & 23 we hosted an inclusive meeting area which served as a dedicated rendezvous point for women and other underrepresented gender identities within the games industry. The Lounge provided a supportive environment where game industry professionals could book their business meetings and connect with fellow developers, industry professionals, and potential collaborators.
WINGS Mentors’ Café
Held on May 22, this event offered an invaluable opportunity for personal sessions with experienced mentors from various disciplines within the games industry.
We were fortunate to have an incredible lineup of mentors who generously shared their expertise:
Lína Ingvarsdottir — Founding Partner at Behold
Sigurlina Ingvarsdottir is a founding partner at Behold Ventures, a fund investing in early stage game industry companies in the Nordics. Prior to joining Behold Ventures, Sigurlína was a leader on franchises like EA Sports FIFA and Star Wars Battlefront.
Sofie Laentver — VP at Nordisk Games
With more than a decade within the games industry and a background within the arts and digital creative industry, Sofie brings a strategic, collaborative and thoughtful leadership perspective to business development and management execution in her current role as VP of Nordisk Games.
Priore to Nordisk Games Sofie was MD of Interactive Denmark, a business focused non-profit organisation for the Danish games industry.
Today she holds several board positions in international game companies, and has an excellent and vast industry network, as well as being engaged in game industry organisations as the newly formed Games Denmark and The Creative Panel at Danish Chamber of Commerce.
Margarete Schneider — Manager at Game City Hamburg, Founder of Radioactive Dreams
Margarete knows the indie games business from several angles: as project manager for Gamecity Hamburg, she shaped the Games Lift Incubator as a support program for indie devs since its creation in 2020. Before that, she built up an international network in the games industry as Publishing Scout, Senior Product Manager, and Head of Sales for Publisher Daedalic Entertainment. Parallel to her work for Gamecity Hamburg, she co-founded indie studio Radioactive Dreams in 2020. They released their first title, Turbo Shell, in 2023 for PC and Switch.
Mafalda Duarte — Studio Director & Producer at Telescope Game Studios
Mafalda is the Studio director and producer at Telescope Game Studios, a multicultural Potsdam-based team, bringing the game Last Whale Singer: Rise of the Leviathan to life.
She supports Women in Games as the Ambassador Coordinator, is one of Game Dev Lisbon’s founders, and is the creator of the Networking Playbook.
Thomas BIDAUX — CEO & Co-founder of ICO Partners
BIDAUX is the CEO and co-founder of ICO, a video game self-publishing agency and a crowdfunding expert. With over 20 years of experience in the video game and tabletop game industries, BIDAUX has held senior positions at companies such as NCsoft and France Telecom. He is also a co-founder of Women in Games France, an organisation that supports and promotes the participation and advancement of women in the video game industry.
Astrid Refstrup — Dev Relations & Business Development at WINGS
Astrid works as the Developer Relations & Business Development expert at WINGS. Formerly, Astrid was the CEO of Triple Topping Games and an advisor to Kowloon Nights.
With a wealth of experience and passion, she has a background encompassing creative vision, business knowledge, and self-publishing expertise.
Laureline Petit — Community Expert Focusing on DEI & Leadership, WINGS
Laureline started her journey in the games industry as a French Community Manager at Goodgames Studio in 2014. She later contributed to titles like Far Cry 5 and Assassin’s Creed at Ubisoft, then to Cities: Skylines and Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 at Paradox Interactive. As head of the Community Team, she emphasised empathetic leadership and diversity.
Driven by a passion for growth and change, Laureline is pursuing a Master’s degree at Malmö University focusing on leadership and DEI.
Dajana Dimovska — CEO of Indium Play
Dajana, CEO at Indium Play, a boutique QA and Playtesting studio, and Co-CEO at NapNok Games, renowned for groundbreaking multiplayer experiences, has been pivotal in Denmark’s gaming community. Her efforts in game development and community building aim to foster personal human interaction, evident in business, event organization, and game development.
Augusta Butlin — Business Developer at Valve Corporation
Augusta has been with Valve for 17 years and does Business Development on Steam. In that role, she has worn many hats including business strategy, product development (from idea generation to continuous iteration) and partner relations.
Emma Farrow — Chief Publishing Officer at Avalanche Studios Group
Emma is the Chief Publishing Officer for Avalanche Studios Group, overseeing the games’ go-to-market and live service publishing endeavors.
Emma has worked in the games industry for over 11 years across partnerships, operations, publishing, acquisitions and investment, and business development.
Eva Gaspar — CEO at Abylight Studios, Mentor at SpielFabrique, Game BCN, Founder at EGS
Eva is an IP&IT lawyer, Video Game Business Consultant, University Teacher & International Speaker. In 1999 began her professional career in the video game industry where she climbed up the ladder from entry level administrative to CEO and President of the Board of Abylight Studios, a video game developer and publisher based in Barcelona and grounded in 2004. In 2013 founded and currently leads GDConsult.es, a consultancy agency for creative and digital Spanish entrepreneurs and companies.
In 2014 co-founded and Presided P.A.D., the largest association of video game companies in Spain to kick the Indie scene into official existence.
In 2015 was awarded “Most Prominent Female” by Casual Connect in Amsterdam.Since 2017 co-organizes the European Game Showcase in San Francisco, a non-profit project that aims to give more exposure to European Indie developers in the US.
As well as:
Linda Tiger — COO at Arrowhead Game Studios
Daniela Marquez — Freelance 2D Artist, Formerly Paradox
We are incredibly grateful for the overwhelming support and positive feedback we received for these events. The success of the WINGS Lounge and WINGS Mentors’ Café has reinforced our commitment to organizing more events like this in the future. We look forward to seeing you all again next year and continuing to support and empower women and other underrepresented gender identities in the games industry.
Stay tuned for more updates and future events. Until then, keep creating and inspiring! 💜
For more information about WINGS and how to apply for our funding, visit wingsfund.me.
