Biography / Speaker-Profile

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Tobias Kopka – Curator / Facilitator
Reboot Develop & curatomic

Detailed Bio

Tobias Kopka is a passionate program director and people connector in the games industry and affiliated fields. Tobias spearheads some of the finest game developer conferences in Europe for more than a decade, always keen on supporting growth via better connections. Currently, he is expanding his “mission to connect” as a freelance curator, facilitator, and advisor under his label curatomic.

Partners he is working with currently include the boutique game developer conference REBOOT Develop in Croatia and Canada, gamesweek in Berlin, gamescom Congress in Cologne – and a few more events around the globe.

Previously Tobias was the Artistic & Program Director of LUDICIOUS Zürich Game Festival from 2017 till 2020, Conference & Program Director of Quo Vadis. Create. Game. Business (gamesweek Berlin) between 2013 and 2017 and also heading Respawn – Gathering of Game Developers from 2013 till 2017.  

Tobias loves to bring together diverse communities from all skill areas and backgrounds and is driven by seeing new things emerge from gathering creators from different knowledge domains. Tobias is in the demoscene for almost 30 years (currently pushing forward the initiative “Art of Coding” to enlist the demoscene successfully onto UNESCO intangible world cultural heritage as the first digital culture ever), has a background in tech for more than 15 years, and has lectured in higher education for more than 7 years.

Tobias holds an M.A. in Media Studies, History, and Political Science from the University of Cologne, is educated as a Physical-technical Assistant, and is generally a guy interested in everything.

As speaker and moderator, he focuses on the games industry, ecosystems & communities, digital culture & digital media. Some of his recent presentations include appearances at the NYU Game Center, New York (03/2015) / Parsons The New School for Design, New York (10/2015) / GMGDC, Chengdu, China (11/2015) / Reboot Develop, Split (04/2016) / Play-Festival, Hamburg (11/2016), Next Level Festival, Düsseldorf (11/2016), X-Mas Pitching of Games Bavaria, Munich (12/2016), Ludicious Zürich Games Festival (01/2017), Reboot Develop, Dubrovnik, Croatia (05/2017), Cologne Game Conference (10/2017), Nordic Game Conference (05/2019), Swiss National Museum (01/2020), 1E9 Conference, Deutsches Museum Munich (11/2020).

Tobias is a judge at IGF Independent Games Festival, a member of the advisory board of GIC Games Industry Conference, Poznan, Poland, is part of the jury of the German Game Developer Award, Advisory Board Member at Games.NRW, Advisor at the Swiss Game Hub and has been advising the Swiss national arts council Pro Helvetia as part of the expert jury on Interactive Media.

Shorter Industry Bios

Tobias Kopka is a passionate program director and people connector in the games industry and affiliated domains. He spearheads some of the finest game developer conferences for more than a decade, always keen on changing things for the better. Currently, he is Head of Developer Relations at the boutique game developer conferences of Reboot Develop in Croatia and Canada and expanding his “mission to connect” as Freelance Curator, Facilitator and Advisor under his label curatomic. Pro-bono side projects include the European Game Showcase during GDC and #ArtOfCoding, an initiative that brings the Demoscene as the first digital culture onto the lists of UNESCO intangible world cultural heritage.

Tobias has been the Artistic & Program Director of Ludicious Zurich Game Festival for 3 1/2 years, has headed the Conference & Program Direction of  Quo Vadis. Create. Game. Business (Berlin) and Respawn – Gathering of Game Developers (Cologne) for more than five years and curates conferences and professional events with his tech, art, and science background for more than 12 years. Tobias enjoys bringing diverse audiences from different domains and backgrounds together because that´s where new things emerge.
Tobias Kopka is a passionate program director, facilitator, and people connector in the games industry and affiliated domains. He spearheads some of the finest game developer conferences for more than a decade (Ludicious Zürich Game Festival, Quo Vadis, devcom, Respawn - Gathering of Game Developers), always keen on changing the industry for the better. Currently, he is Head of Developer Relations at the boutique game developer conferences of Reboot Develop in Croatia and Canada, and expanding his “mission to connect” as Freelance Curator, Facilitator and Advisor under his label curatomic. Pro-bono side projects include the European Game Showcase during GDC and #ArtOfCoding, an initiative that brings the Demoscene as the first digital culture onto the lists of UNESCO intangible world cultural heritage.

Detailed Projects: