Last week Baghdad hosted the Iraq E-Gaming Expo.
What set this event apart from other gaming and esports gatherings is that it didn't fixate on a single angle. It covered game development from the technical side, explained the sector's economic value to Iraq and the region, and laid out the size of the global, regional, and local gaming markets.
There was an exhibition where local teams and studios showed their games — including developers from Kurdistan — and an esports tournament to close it out.
My thanks to Mohand AlRubaie and the organizing team for the exceptional effort to pull this together in record time, and for asking me to walk through the economic dimensions and the scale of the opportunity for Iraq to take part in this sector across the Middle East and the world.
I hope next year brings more games, more studios, and more publishers helping our young developers reach more users, grow their revenue, and open up the jobs this field can create. And it was great to see Abdulrahman and Danar Kayfi leading useful, constructive sessions throughout the event.