Dear friends: long time no hear!

As many of other studios this year, our own small team is stretched thin between several games projects, the main effect of working from home being that I now feel guilty taking any breaks since I assume that others are, meanwhile, working hard.

Out of the scarcity of time, we adopted the mantra of Valve: communicate through actions, and write words only when absolutely necessary. Being on the receiving end of Valve’s approach, I know that it’s not the most entertaining format – however, under the circumstances, it’s the best that we can do.

This issue contains the FAQ about this year’s Summit.

If you have any further questions, please call me or email Alma and we’ll take care of any requests!

We’re totally, absolutely confirmed for SEPTEMBER 15-17, 2021.

For our part of the world, the emergence from the dark tunnel of the pandemics has happened faster than one could expect: we had queues of people waiting to get vaccinated, and the logistics was there to support the demand; and the e-passport for those with the shots got introduced without a hitch.

A few months ago, when we already started to hope that the September dates would hold, we booked an alternative, smaller venue for what we thought could be a 100-120 person event: Vilnius Town Hall.

However, last week, we gave up on that booking in favour of the original venue – The Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania – because nearly everyone* on the attendee list is now confirming their participation, and some even bring their new colleagues along.

In 2021, we move the HQ of the event – the place where the lunches and dinners will happen, as well as where the in-house counsel workshop will run – to Hotel PACAI.

We’re currently close to booking the whole of PACAI just for the Summit (which will make its spacious courtyard the place to be for scoring a beer with Tobias and a cup of tea with Karin!), so if you’re looking to move your reservation there – please contact Alma ASAP.

We also have updated price list for all the other hotels, which are very generous in offering very special terms for the event (I think it might change once they’re swamped with the summer tourism traffic, which we expect to be huge, especially from the Nordics).

Two years is a long time in our industry, which is obvious when you look at all the changes that happened just with our tiny event: firms and companies merge, people move, new companies are founded… So many news to catch up with!

We’re extremely grateful to all the Summit’s sponsors who, throughout this turbulent period, have remained committed to supporting the event no matter what.

As you may remember, in 2019 we’ve started with the Legal Run, which we planned to continue in 2020. As luck would have it, it’s going to be even more awesome in 2021 as just 3 days ahead of the Summit, we’ve got the annual Vilnius Old Town Marathon happening.

If you’re interested in running 5K, 10K, 21K or 42K during this event, please inform me and Alma, and we’ll cover the registration fee for you. As always, those who run will get the special runner’s technical t-shirt with the Summit’s logo (which we have to update, as I just realised).

If you’d like to join the marathon on September 12, please:

Our own studio will have people running both 5K and 10K, and maybe a couple of folks will even do 20K, so I can assure you that it will be a very awesome day – and the special thing about this specific marathon is that you’re running in the middle of Old Town, on the streets that saw 1000+ years of history.

As much as I want to stay on topic, I feel like I must share this gem from Epic vs Apple:

For Apple’s CEO, who admitted that games generate the majority of App Store’s revenue, not to know what Steam is, is quite something.

If for some reason you spent the last few months under a rock and did not follow the trial, I highly recommend the transcripts. As nice as Apple is, to me they looked like a respectable gentleman who’s smoking on the playground – with Epic being the only neighbour not afraid to go and tell them to snub it.

Back to the event, in 2020 quite a few people planned to arrive to Vilnius a few days earlier and spend that time getting to know each other better (in a professional way, as far as I’m aware).

This expands on the concept of the in-house counsel work group that we run each year just before the event kicks off: things can get very productive when you have 6-12 people from international firms and companies drinking tea together, and talking in-depth about a specific issue (such as, for example, class action suits against publicly traded companies; or getting fined by Russia’s information watchdog).

I think a lot of us have really, truly enjoyed the lack of air travel in the past year. Sure, hopping on an early morning flight to Hamburg via Copenhagen was fun, but actually staying at home and achieving the same fro the comfort of your terrace while your dog falls asleep next to you, is even better.

Based on the few conversations that I had thus far, in 2021 many more people are considering to come 1-2 days earlier to catch up with their peers in smaller groups. And those traveling from outside of Europe also plan to use the trip to visit a few other cities nearby.

If you’re entertaining a similar idea, you can count on the following:

Just to spell this out: it is our understanding that no public events will allow non-vaccinated people come attend them, short of having a special medical condition and a certificate for it.

I’m looking at a few events in Finland and in Sweden, and it’s always the same story: not a single staff member or attendee is allowed into the event without their vaccination passport or a confirmed test showing high antibodies.

If your vaccination dates are close to the Summit’s dates, please talk to Alma to confirm the requirements. For most vaccines, the passport turns green a few days after the 2nd shot. Please check ahead, if your second shot happens after September 1st!

For those coming from outside of EU, the requirements change every few weeks. If you got shots with one of the vaccines approved in the EU, things are easy. If you, however, received something else, then we’ll need to work on a case by case basis to connect the dots, and you may need additional antibody/PCR testing before/after arrival.

Please do not hesitate to start the discussion with us early on! We are in touch with the city and with the country’s public health authority, and we’ll discuss each case specifically to make sure there are no surprises when you land!

Additionally, it looks like by August or September the country could move to the stage where every visitor can sign up for the shots, even if you don’t live here. And if/when this happens (which is already the case in some countries like Serbia), you can count on our help in arranging this, if you’ll want this (e.g. Pfizer on top of AZ/Sputnik/Sinovac, etc.).

At the time of writing, we have a bit over 180 attendees who confirmed their participation, and another 100 whose status says “Will confirm a bit later”.

Following that, we will confirm whom we can, and with certain limitations. While the venue of the conference, the Palace, can sit up to 300 attendees, and we even manufactured the tables to make it possible, the later you confirm – the further off your seat will be.

But more importantly, the hardest limit is with the Formal Dinner on September 16. We will not be able to sit and serve more than 210 people, so confirming after the deadline may result in a separate arrangement for the second day’s dinner – we’ll book the space at the formal tables as long as we can, and then we’ll start placing people into a side location.

Finally, the agenda: we’ll work on the update to 2019’s program at the end of June. Expect to see the schedule online by early August. I think we’ll have a blast talking about games industry matters for three days straight, no matter what the agenda will say… but of course, speakers and panelists must be prepared, and our team must have all the desired materials available for the big screen =).

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With this, we wish you a great weekend – and here’s hoping that in just four months, we’ll be hugging each other here in Vilnius Old Town!

Stay healthy – and get those shots!