Inside Social Games

The 2nd annual Virtual Goods Summit 2008 is coming October 10 in San Francisco at UCSF’s Mission Bay Conference Center. While the specific format hasn’t been set, those interested can check out last year’s lineup and agenda to get a sense of what you can expect this year. Interested sponsors can also inquire at the VGS 2008 website.

As social games start to mature, so must the revenue streams. Industry leaders Zynga, SGN, and Playfish are all experimenting with virtual goods models with early success. While advertising will always provide valuable supplementary income, digital goods sales are vital to the future of the social gaming ecosystem.

VGS 2008 promises to dive into the hard questions around making virtual goods economies work and how virtual goods are impacting social networks and social application development. Here are the conference details:

Conference overview

The Virtual Goods Summit 2008 is a one day conference focused on the emerging market opportunity for virtual goods and economies. This year’s conference will build on the success of last year’s event and dive even deeper into some of the key themes facing industry participants today. We’ll feature a blend of panel discussions and expert-led breakout sessions covering everything from getting started with virtual goods to maximizing the revenue opportunity around virtual goods and virtual economies.

This year’s conference will bring together leading entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, technologists, and industry participants to spend the day discussing the present and future of this exciting new space. We encourage you to join us at this year’s event and participate in what promises to be a lively conversation. We’ll spend some time discussing a number of exciting topics, including the following:

Panel topics

• Making Virtual Economies Work: Lessons from the Leaders
• Generating Real Revenue from Virtual Goods
• Virtual Goods and Social Networks
• What Users Want: Branded vs User-Generated Virtual Goods

Questions to address

• What does it take to successfully launch a virtual goods offering?
• What does it take to nurture and develop a successful virtual economy?
• Why are users embracing virtual goods?
• How are virtual goods impacting social networks?
• What strategies can developers employ to drive greater volumes of virtual goods transactions?
• How can developers tackle tricky issues around billing, payments, and fraud?