Northern Exposure: A meeting of games industry minds

Northern Exposure, a B2B games conference produced by Secret Sauce, returns on Thursday 12thSeptember and is guaranteed to be bigger and better than ever.

This new one-day event will bring together industry experts from across the UK and Europe to discuss the business of games. Talks promise to be inspirational, thought-provoking, and explorative with topics ranging from leadership, publishing and marketing to art, technology and design.


Northern Exposure’s first wave of announced speakers include:
Gabrielle Kent, Writer and Narrative Consultant

Craig Duncan, Studio Head at Rare Ltd

Colin Macdonald, Director at All 4 Games

Alex Peters, Senior VP at SEGA Searchlight and Development Services

From the team who brought you GameHorizon, Secret Sauce’s Managing Director and Conference Producer Carri Cunliffe said: “We’re looking forward to welcoming an exciting selection of experts to Northern Exposure at the iconic Discovery Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne this coming September. We know so many people had fond memories of GameHorizon and we’re thrilled to now offer a new conference that retains the spirit of our previous events but with a fresh format that we think will be of value and real insight to everyone attending. No tracks; just inspiring chat! Every talk at Northern Exposure will be the first time they have ever been presented as this is an important part of our vision. There’ll also be plenty of networking, bringing everyone across the business spectrum of the games industry together.”

It was also recently announced that the Northern Exposure team had created an Advisory Board to support the growth of the conference going forward with familiar faces including:

Nina Cliff, Head of Business Development at Tag Games

Ron Ashtiani, CEO, Creative Director and Entrepreneur

Tom Beardsmore, CEO at Coatsink

Stevie Ward, Co-Founder at Women Making Games

Bob Makin, CEO at SockMonkey

Board member Ron Ashtiani said: "I'm thrilled to see the return of a business games conference to the North East. We've got a great Advisory Board team together and I'm looking forward to helping shape the future of Northern Exposure moving forward."

Supporting Northern Exposure as Headline Sponsors are Invest North East England. David Pattison, Inward Investment Manager, said: “The North East is home to over 50 internationally renowned, specialist gaming companies, world-class facilities, and state-of-the-art infrastructure so we're delighted to sponsor this years’ Northern Exposure. As a leading location for the sector, the event gives us the perfect opportunity to showcase what the North East has to offer and put our region on the map”.

The conference, also supported by Invest Newcastle, aims to bring world-class speakers to the North East region to explore the business side of games and where the industry is heading. Jennifer Hartley, Director at Invest Newcastle, said: “We are happy to be part of promoting our region’s games community at the Northern Exposure conference 2019. This event will not only provide a platform for the sector to come together, learn and share experiences, it will also give us the opportunity to promote shout about what is great about our city to national and international delegates”.

Tickets to Northern Exposure are available now via https://www.north-expo.co.uk/