🇮🇹 Summit On Tour III: stats, takeaways & speakers

While we're on fire filing paperwork and settling invoices with all the suppliers, and processing the first applications for 🇵🇹 Porto 2026, here's a brief summary of what happened in Rome last week – and what it means for us, going forward.

For live reporting from LinkedIn (where you can easier connect with the specific people we mentioned), here's what we posted during the event:

Opening | Day One | Day Two

Let's go –>

Our biggest On Tour yet!

With 275 registrations from 36 countries (271 actual attendee bags pick ups), the conference became the biggest conference in this format that we've organized so far (despite Jochen/Giovanni deciding to sit it out in Reykjavik).

On the chart above, you can see the country stats: UK, Cyprus, Poland are the examples of the regions were a lot of studios have their legal talent based, and thus these countries punch well above their relevance purely as consumer markets (especially 🇨🇾 Cyprus, with Wargaming, EasyBrain, Vizor, Gaijin, X-FLOW, Huuuge, OwlCat, and many other studios already present and expanding).

Asia at 11%, North America at 13%

11% of the attendees in Rome came from Asia/Pacific (compared to 13% for North America), which we consider to be a very positive sign – and something that we will continue to focus on increasing, in the future. In fact, making the conference easier to access for the attendees from 🇨🇳🇯🇵🇰🇷🇸🇬🇲🇾 Asia is one of the main drivers behind the change of location of the main Summit in 2026.

Asia is a big part of the industry, whether it's about players or about studios, and connections with our legal peers based in the region are very precious. We have so many aspects of our markets and cultures that are simply different. Having a friend or a colleague in the other part of the world, whom you know and trust, has a huge impact on the professional capacity to help our creative teams thrive globally.

(In the middle of writing this issue of the newsletter, I took a Zoom call that involved a Barcelona-based game developer, and a Hong Kong-based publisher, about a project that may be financed by a Cyprus-based tech fund: the game being pitched is focused on the martial arts in Hong Kong in the '70s; the whole concept is made possible only inasmuch as we can establish a close collaboration with a Hong Kong-based screen writer – there you go! even for indie teams, "the bridge to Asia" is a big thing!).

Local vs International

There are three reasons behind Summit On Tour being a traveling circus, visiting a new country each year: (1) to meet and engage with the local community, expanding everyone's network; (2) to deliver the flavor and ambience of a new region; and (3) to create new challenges for Charlie Oscar's operations team.

We expect the event in Porto to show the split similar to that of the Rome edition, with, perhaps, 5-7% of the locally based attendees, while the event in France or in Germany, which we hope to run in 2027, should be closer to the Warsaw edition (25-30% locals) – based on the high number of the industry-focused legal talent based in these countries.

Our key takeaways from Rome

• You can actually serve 🥦 broccoli at the breakfast buffet, imagine that! The ambition of running a conference where attendees do not gain weight from a tonne of carbs, but get a chance to eat as healthily as at home, or even more so, is absolutely realistic.
• For the majority of attendees, traveling to Rome was easier and cheaper (direct flights, shorter travel times, lower cost of tickets) than to Limassol or Vilnius. Moving the main Summit to a similar location (in reality, only two options: 🇮🇹Rome/FCO or 🇫🇷 Paris/CDG) will have the single biggest positive impact on the budgets and convenience of the attending counsels – and will lead to having more studios present, and seeing a more diverse audience attending.
• Running a community event for the international games industry requires a location that's inclusive and predictable in its visa policies. 🇮🇹 Italy, 🇫🇷 France, 🇨🇾 Cyprus, 🇸🇬 Singapore are all great in this respect. On the other hand, the Baltic region, and now also the USA, pose a challenge that cuts off a significant part of industry experts (as an attendee who may have any kind of passport, and be based anywhere in the world; I need to have 100% predictability of being able to come to the event).

• 60 minutes is the maximum time that works for a session, and ⏰ 45-minute panels are even better (when manageable). The intensity of the 'T2P: Indemnity Clause XC" session is the golden standard of how you can pack a lot of insights – from 5 panelists! – into less than an hour. In fact, 2 out of 3 panels that won the Audience Choice Awards, were 45 minute long.
• 12 sessions across 2 days is the optimal content load. In Limassol '24, we had 14 sessions, including some that lasted 90 minutes, and – in the words of one of the attendees – you felt 'mentally drained' from having to digest so much new information. Vilnius '24, and Rome '25, each had 6 sessions per day, which is the blueprint that we'll follow in the future.
• 15 minute ☕️ coffee breaks after each session are an absolute must. The more intense the presentations – the more you need some breathing space between the change of topics.

• With very few exceptions, cross-country sessions (we mark them with "XC", the term I picked when working with Disney Interactive) with between 4 and 6 panelists deliver the most value. Whether we talk about minors, or privacy, or advertising, it's never about one country; and in fact, learning about the differences between the regions only adds to a better understanding of "why" and "what's about the future".
• The mix of in-house and law firm experts provides the best perspective on a topic, as we connect the real-world use to the production process. Whatever we do, it's always an applied art: we register the trademark because our colleagues came up with a new product; we litigate (or not) a clone, because the business unit decided to take action. In Rome, 8 out of 12 sessions had in-house counsels on the panel. Like in the modern zoos, this removes the barrier between who's "a client" and who's "an expert": without a doubt, we learn from each other in equal measure.
• Finally, thanks to Peter Dawson and Darya Firsava, we now have a new benchmark for research and prep work: their "The Name of the Game® XC" session had 6 on-stage panelists, 1 off-stage co-lead, and 7 contributing experts, so that we benefitted from the distilled wisdom of over a dozen of counsels. Our thanks and appreciation to every expert who reached out to the leads, and added the extra details – this is the way, this is the community spirit!!

Sessions & Speakers

Great food, great hospitality and great atmosphere of Rome were all, well, great, but let's face it: the real stars of Summit On Tour III, and the people most responsible for making it a success, were the speakers – over 50 experts who shared their experience, and expertise, from the stage.

In the order of appearance on the agenda:

The Price You Pay: Enforcement of Consumer Protection XC

Konni Ewald (Osborne Clarke), Kimberly Culp (FENWICK), Philipp Sümmermann (Osborne Clarke), Gianluigi Marino (Osborne Clarke). Extra credit: Leonie Schneider (Osborne Clarke), the off-stage co-lead.

🎖️ This panel won one of the three Audience Choice Award prizes!

Made in Italy: Video Games

Alessandro Coni (Italian Competition Authority), Francesco de Rigeriis (LCA Studio Legale), Claudio Pollina (Frame by Frame), Luca Guidobaldi (ADVANT Nctm), Nicoletta Serao (LCA Studio Legale), Marco Saletta (IIDEA/SIE), Berenice Marisei (Lazio Innova), Gonzalo Aguirre Bisi (ThunderGryph Games).

The Name of the Game® XC

Peter Dawson (Wiggin), Riley Russell (Kojima Productions), Aleksey Ponomarev (X-FLOW), Sean Kane (Frankfurt Kurnit/Roman Gladiators), Lydia Starostina (Playrix), Arata Nomoto 野本新 (City-Yuwa Partners/シティユーワ法律事務所). Extra credit: Darya Firsava (Wargaming), the off-stage co-lead.

Additional expertise:

Kipeum Lee 이기쁨 (Pearl Abyss), Jack Chen 陈潇侠 (律师/Dentons), Chao Yu 俞超 (Pillar Legal), Thomas Pattloch (北京泰仑知识产权/Beijing Tailun IP Agency), Ilya Titov (ADVANT Beiten), Margarita Divina (Melling, Voitishkin and Partners), Roman Golovatsky (Denuo).

🥳 This panel made it into the top-5 of Audience Choice Awards!

The Game of Fashion XC

Miriam Farhi (Perkis Coie), Luca Guidobaldi (ADVANT Nctm). Connected via Metaverse/Zoom: Vanni Volpi (GUCCI). Extra credit: Camille Raclet (ADVANT Altana), off-stage contributor.

Blaster M&Aster:
Earn-Out Protections in Games Industry M&A

Mathias Loertscher (Osborne Clarke), Mike Turner (Latham & Watkins), Katie Kaplucha (Latham & Watkins), Sam Yazdani (Miniclip). Extra credit: Katie Tait (Osborne Clarke), Jacob Eldson (Osborne Clarke), off-stage contributors.

Deceptively Obvious 3.0 XC

Ryan Black (DLA Piper), Efraín Olmedo (Santamarina y Steta), Olivier Oosterbaan (Leopold Meijnen Oosterbaan), Meryl Koh 许君宁 (Drew & Napier), Anna Kruszewska (Hasik Rheims & Partners), Christian Rauda (ARTANA).

🎖️ This panel won one of the three Audience Choice Award prizes!

Unscripted:
Demystifying Dealmaking in the Entertainment Industry XC

Luca Guidobaldi (ADVANT Nctm), Emma Smizer (Frankfurt Kurnit), Karol Laskowski (Dentons), Dorian Slater Thomas (Frankfurt Kurnit), Dan Azara (Stormind Games). Extra credit: Angela Paoletti (Local Transit), off-stage contributor.

Navigating Expectations & Emotions in M&A and Partnerships

Lewis Parle (Lockton),  Daniel Finegold (SEGA Europe),  Lauren Horman (Take-Two Interactive), Richard Faichney (Taylor Wessing), Kuba Jankowski (CD PROJEKT RED), Ron Koo (Perkins Coie).

Remote Hiring 2025 XC

Ryan Black (DLA Piper), Nicky Ormrod (SEGA Europe), Isabel Davies (Wiggin), Aris Damianou (C | Accounting & Tax),  Krzysztof Muciak (CD PROJEKT RED), Heather Sager (Perkins Coie). Extra credit: Peter Lewin (Wiggin), who pitched the idea of this session originally.

🥳 This panel made it into the top-5 of Audience Choice Awards!

Bestseller Clause

Alexandre Rudoni (A&O Shearman), Anna Kruszewska (Hasik Rheims & Partners), Yiannis Karamanolis (Karamanolis & Karamanolis).

T2P: Indemnity Clause XC

Ryan Black (DLA Piper),  Brian Chung 정태현 (Kim & Chang), Tobias Schelinski (Taylor Wessing), Greg Boyd (Frankfurt Kurnit), Matt Dobill (Epic Games). Extra credit: Will Deller (Bird & Bird), off-stage contributor.

🎖️ This panel won the Audience Choice Awards!

Roguelike Collaboration:
The Infinite Game of Navigating Different Cultures

Vanessa Lerner (Dias Carneiro Advogados), Celeste Berry (Epic Games), Boğaç Erozan (Riot Games), Emma Smizer (Frankfurt Kurnit),  Peter Lewin (Wiggin).

On behalf of the entire community:

👏👏👏 THANK YOU!! 👏👏👏

What's next?

During the conference, our photographer Simas Bernotas took over 15.000 shots. He is currently going through the material, and in about two weeks we expect to prepare, and release, the public gallery from the event. We'll send a newsletter with the link, once it becomes available.

As for now, we're grateful to all the conference partners who helped us make it happen in an inclusive and accessible fashion, and in particular – to the local hosts, Lazio Innova and ADVANT Nctm, for making every attendee feel at home in Rome.

💚🤍♥️

To those who plan to attend 🇱🇹 Summit X in Vilnius – see you in 5 months! And to those who plan to attend 🇵🇹 Summit On Tour IV in Porto – see you next year; feel free to bring a friend!

// Sergei @ Charlie Oscar