XP26 programming

2026 sessions

Time Red Stage (Regency A) Green Stage (Regency B) Blue Stage (Regency C)
8:30 am

Registration (All Day)

9:15 am

Opening Remarks & Title

Jason Lepine
Founder & CEO, XP Gaming Inc.
9:30 am

Indie Pitch Competition presented by Ubisoft

Jason Della Rocca
Co-Founder, Execution Labs
Stefan Jewinski
Game Director, Ubisoft Toronto
Chloé Giusti
ID@Xbox Regional Lead - Americas/ANZ, Microsoft - Xbox
Allan Adham
Content & Acquisition Lead, Team17
Zhenghua (Z) Yang
Founder & CEO, Serenity Forge
11:00 am

Building an OP Cashflow Strategy for your Studio to Thrive

Matthew Walach
Co-founder, Insert Coin
Muddassir Mahmood
Co-founder, Insert Coin

Building the Creator Pipeline: How Smart Partnerships Are Scaling Influencer Marketing

Scott Christian
Studio Director, Hilltop Studios
John Nguyen
Regional Vice President - Canada, Xsolla
Gem Johnson
CEO, Corvian Marketing
Corina Diaz
Marketing Director / Influencer Manager, Mighty Yell / Skystone Games

Always Playable: The Production Mindset That Survives Reality

Matt Lee
Executive Producer, Gameloft Montréal
12:00 pm

The Innovation Paradox

Chris Bateman
Founder and Chief Consultant, International Hobo Ltd

Closing Deals in 2026

Pontus Mahler
Co-Founder, Agora Gaming Partners
1:00 pm

Building a Community for Lifetime Game Projects

Alexandra Orlando
Community Director, Kitfox Games
1:30 pm

From West to East: How to Make F2P Games Thrive in New Markets

Angel Fraser
Lead Product Manager, Scopely Inc
2:00 pm

The New Timeline for Indie Success

Jason Della Rocca
Co-Founder, Execution Labs

Game Audio: The Future of Game Audio & Music

Christian Hurst
Co-Founder, Managing Director, Interleave
Michelle Hwu
Audio Director, Soft Rains
Eduardo Vaisman
Audio Director, Ubisoft Toronto
Yuanjun Ou
Audio Director, Tencent

The Business of UX

Ruwan Fernando
Founder, Go Boldly Design
3:00 pm

Inside the Booth: Bringing Professional Performances to Your Next Project

Scott Christian
Studio Director, Hilltop Studios
Myles Dobson
Actor, ACTRA
Elana Dunkelman
Voice Actor
Lindsey Gardner
Voice/Casting Director

Best Practices for Multi-Platform Development

Andrew Carvalho
Co-Founder and Technical Director, Laundry Bear Games
4:00 pm

Where Traditional Animation Meets Gaming

Agustin Valcarenghi
Executive Director, 2veinte
Pablo Gostanian
Creative Director, 2veinte

What We Got Wrong (And Right) About Game Marketing

Kit Ellis
Co-founder, Never A Minute Marketing
Jenny Windom
Partner, Wholesome Games
Christopher Chancey
General Manager, Indie Asylum / Gambit Digital
Agusia Krzywinska
Technical Director & Co-Founder, Adjective Noun Studios
Time Red Stage (Regency A) Green Stage (Regency B) Blue Stage (Regency C)
8:30 am

Registration (All Day)

9:15 am

Designing Backwards: Creating Cauldrons for ‘Horizon Forbidden West’

Dennis Micka
Principle Game Designer, Guerrilla Games
10:30 am

IP Teardown: Under the Hood of the Game Worlds We Love

Christian Fonnesbech
Founder and Head of IP, Leverage

Capacity Planning That Works Across Studios and Titles

Matt Lee
Executive Producer, Gameloft Montréal
Emil Vanjaka
Senior Operations Manager, 2K
Rafael Mayor-Mora
Director of Operations (Shared Development Studios), 2K Games
Gordana Vrbanc Duquet
Production & Planning Director, Ubisoft Toronto

Worldbuilding a Generated City

Tanya Short
Captain, Kitfox Games
11:30 am

Designing Effective Communication During Game Development

Rebecca Brooker
Lead Game Designer, Behaviour Interactive

Renaissance of Business in Health Care and the Video Game Sector

Eda Shere
VP, Business Development and Partnerships, Surrey Place
Ivona Novak
Development Director, Electronic Arts
Christina Hoy
Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer, Lumenus Community Services
Anthea Foyer
Sector Development Officer, IDM Office, City of Toronto

Start Up 101 – 20 Years Later

Wolfgang Hamann
Pres./CEO/Founder/Owner, Koolhaus Games Inc.
12:30 pm

Canada’s Video Game Industry – From Strength to Staying Power

Paul Fogolin
President & CEO, ESAC
Kristian Roberts
CEO, Nordicity
Dylan Boyd
Senior Manager, Digital Content, Entertainment Software Association of Canada
1:00 pm

When Your Voice Shakes: Building Safety in the Studio Trenches

Emily Vulama
Director of Operations, Nightmarket Games
1:30 pm

How To Achieve High Quality, Performant Lighting in URP and Unity 6

Ryan Warner
Sr. Software Development Consultant II, Unity Technologies

Responding to Unprecedented Climate

Trang Nguyen
Head of Operations, Soft Rains
Kaitlin Tremblay
Narrative Director, Soft Rains
2:30 pm

Funding the Future of Canadian Game Development

Corey Caplan
Director of Business Development and Partner Licensing, tinyBuild Games
Ryan Sno-Wood
Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, XP Gaming Inc.
eileen mary holowka
Co-Executive Director, Baby Ghosts Studio Development Fund
Shelley Coultish
Deputy Director, CMF Program Administrator, Telefilm Canada

Advancing AI Game Development with AMD Schola and GPUOpen

Alexander Cann
Staff Software Engineer, AMD
Alex Blake-Davies
Sr. Developer Product Marketing Specialist, AMD

2026 round tables

XP Curated Expert Roundtables are available to Conference and VIP pass holders. Limited capacity ensures focused discussion.
Advance registration through MeetToMatch is required and seats will fill quickly.

Time Studio B
11:00 am

Ask Games Lawyers Anything: This Normally Costs Money

Sangeetha Punniyamoorthy
Partner; Co-Chair of Canadian Intellectual Property & Technology, DLA Piper Canada LLP
Ryan Black
Partner; Global Lead, Video Games, DLA Piper (Canada) LLP
David Lafontaine
Associate - Intellectual Property and Technology, DLA Piper (Canada) LLP
1:30 pm

Unpacking the OP Financial Strategy: Deep Dive & Open Q&A

Matthew Walach
Co-founder, Insert Coin
Muddassir Mahmood
Co-founder, Insert Coin
Time Studio B
11:00 am

Game Audio Round Table

Christian Hurst
Co-Founder, Managing Director, Interleave
1:30 pm

The AI Adoption Gap: Bridging Strategy and Reality in Games Leadership

Russell Sng
Strategic Growth & Developer Relations, Artificial Agency

featured sessions

More to be announced!