Organizing AWS Community MENA GameTech Day 2021
Tags: aws, gamedev, cloud, productivity
Published: 2021-07-01 17:44:13

After launching me-south-1 during [AWS Summit Bahrain 2019](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6OFE46pyJQ) we got to meet the amazing [Pakiza Abdulrahman] (https://www.linkedin.com/in/pakiza/) from [EDB Bahrain] (https://twitter.com/bahrainedb), who explained how the game development community is growing in Bahrain and how the launching of the new AWS Region in Bahrain will decrease the latency for gaming development and game streaming in the region.

> UNESCO sees digital games as innovative tools for teaching and learning about peace and sustainability.

Last year 2020 we only managed to run the AWS MENA Community Day and this year we decided on a [virtual GameTech Day conference] (https://awsmena.community/gametech/) to start with and shed the light on a world of opportunity in the game development industry especially with cloud scalability and agility as game development have an interwoven demand within all other digital experiences.

We were lucky to be AWSomely sponsored by [AMD] (https://www.amd.com/en/graphics/workstation-virtual-graphics-amazon-g4ad) who are interested to shed light on their [AWS] (https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/amd/) general purpose and game development and streaming instance offerings.

###Community, Outreach and Communication
For collaboration and outreach we talked to [Arabic Games] (https://arabic.games/) organizer [Joseph Azzam] (https://twitter.com/JosephRAzzam) and the UnReal Bahrain community lead by [Yousef BuHaza] (https://www.linkedin.com/in/yousef-buhazza-9560a618/) to help us navigate the regional game development ecosystem because they have alot of experience with Game Jams in the region.

Our AWS Communities in MENA were very excited and curious at the same time since its a new topic for most digital businesses in the region. A meetup will be created within all participating user groups. You can find a list of AWS user groups in MENA [here](https://aws.amazon.com/developer/community/usergroups/middle-east/).

###Speakers
The speakers come from around the globe and from the MENA region to bring new perspectives, technologies and skills to our audience. Here's a list of our speakers, topics and their short bio.

####Musab Abdullah - Empowering Bahrain and the MENA Tech Community
Musab is the Executive Director of Investment Development at the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB). In his capacity, he focuses on international outreach and attracting investments to the Kingdom within the ever-growing technology sector. Along with continuous policy advocacy and eco-system building to ensure ease of investment and continuous growth and success for investors.
Musab and his team work closely with technology-related companies, including startups, that are looking to access the region through the Kingdom of Bahrain. This includes supporting the companies throughout the decision-making process, through to their establishment and potential expansion of their operations. Musab is also responsible for working with key stakeholders to identify the strategic direction of the sector, develop the eco-system and ensure that Bahrain offers an attractive, seamless and friendly business environment for all entities, from startups to corporates. 
Prior to joining the EDB, Musab worked in the telecommunications sector for over a decade, as a policy-maker with the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications and as a regulator with the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority. His work focused on ensuring the continued growth and development of the sector, through introducing forward-looking policies, rolling out national projects and representing the Kingdom in international forums such as the International Telecommunications Union. He has also worked with a number of entities in other fields, including e-Government projects with the Central Informatics Organisation (now the Information and eGovernment Authority) and on banking solutions with Kuwait Finance House.  
Musab holds a BSc. in Computer Science from the University of Bahrain and an MSc. in Finance from DePaul University.

**[Linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/musab-abdullah-b213a8a) - [Web] (https://www.bahrainedb.com/)**

####Michael DeNeffe - AMD and AWS – Powering Game Development
For my entire career I’ve paired a passion for technology with an intuition for business and market development—resulting in a blend of business strategy and non-traditional ideas. Cloud graphics represent the perfect technology and marketplace to exercise my passion and experience

I've developed partnerships big and small, all with the end goal to drive business success. I’ve managed dozens of product launches from cloud to enterprise to consumer and gaming. In the process I’ve driven success for companies, from start-ups to industry leaders.

**[Linkedin] (https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldeneffe/)**

####David Heidt - Go global in minutes: How you can accelerate your gameservers and backends with AWS Edge Services.

AWS Senior Solutions Architect for Gaming, get in touch with David on his social channels.

**[Linkedin] (https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidsimonheidt) - [Twitter] (https://twitter.com/davidsheidt)**

####Olivier Chappe - The anatomy of a Presence API: how to modernize application with AWS Serverless services.

AWS GameTech Solutions Architect, get in touch with Olivier on his social media channels.

**[Linkedin] (https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivierchappe) - [Twitter] (https://twitter.com/olivier_chappe)**

####Marion Finnigan - Know your Players, grow your Game: A Guide to LiveOps in the Cloud

15 years in tech, covering the full breadth (hardware, operating systems, software, cloud), has led me to my happy place - the games industry. I worked with customers up and down the value chain, ranging from retailers (B2C), ISPs and telcos (B2B2C) to now video games developers/publishers and cloud providers (B2B). I'm an experienced and determined all-rounder with strong business acumen, an analytical and structured approach, and obsession for my customers - all influenced by strong values that I live by:

- Say what’s right and act upon it.
- Always do the best you can and be humble about it.
- Be passionate about what you do.
- Treat others as you wish to be treated.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/marionfinnigan-love-what-i-do/

####Joseph Azzam - Unreal Engine and the Epic Ecosystem
As part of the Evangelist team at Epic games, Joseph travels mostly in the Middle East to talk and teach Unreal Engine.
Joseph founded LebGameDev, a non-profit initiative that focuses on growing the gamedev scene in Lebanon. 
He specialized in a wide range of topics including VR, cultural heritage preservation, photogrammetry, tech art, and Blueprint, which he used to Develop Byblos VR.
He is currently teaching game development Saint-Joseph University of Beirut.

**[Linkedin] (https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephazzam/) - [Twitter] (https://twitter.com/JosephRAzzam)**

####Yousef BuHaza - The Impact of GameTech Across Sectors
Unreal Bahrain is a community-based group of volunteers that supports innovators and entertainment entrepreneurs in Bahrain and the region mainly in the field of game development. Since our formation in Early 2017 by Yousef BuHazza.
The community aims to aims to establish an environment that supports local and regional game developers. We recognize that game development is a collaborative effort that combines several disciplines, so to us, game developers are people with different skills that would like to use those skills to develop a game.
Initially the community was focused on developing digital games using Epic Games Unreal Engine, but has shifted to support all forms of game development regardless of the platform and included physical games such as table top games.

**[Twitter] (https://twitter.com/YousefBuHazza)** - **[Linkedin] (https://www.linkedin.com/in/yousef-buhazza-9560a618/) - [Web] (https://unrealbahrain.com/)**

####Denis Dyack - How To Get Into The Video Game Industry
Denis Dyack, a video game industry veteran of more than 30 years, is the Founder and CEO of Apocalypse Studios. His studio evangelizes using a cloud-first approach in game development and partners with AWS Game Tech to move the medium of the games industry forward.

In his years of experience speaking at games conferences and within AWS communities, Denis has been an advocate for building on Amazon Lumberyard and more recently in moving over game development pipelines to AWS.

Denis is also exploring deep Twitch integration for games and continues to find innovative ways to partner Amazon with games communities. He is always excited to share his AWS experiences and passion for his craft with others in the games industry.

**[Twitter] (https://twitter.com/denis_dyack)** - **[Linkedin] (https://www.linkedin.com/in/denis-dyack-4a94a61) - [Web] (https://apocalypse333.com/)**

###Panel - State of the Game Dev industry the region.

Community Leaders from Lebanon, Tunis, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain will be presenting the latest progress in the game dev scene in their countries, as well as go over the future initiatives to look forward to.

####Panelist

####Joseph Azzam (Host) - Lebanon

####Youssef BuHazza - Bahrain

#### Nourhan ElSherief, Senior Game Developer - Egypt
Graduated in The Faculty of Computers and Information in 2013, and completed the ITI game development 9-month diploma in 2014. Have had experience working with several studios on several mobile games, till joining Instinct Games in 2016 and been working as an Unreal developer ever since. As a side project, I started Indie Games Corner in late 2016, a blog for spreading awareness about the indie game scene in Egypt.	

####Houssem Ben Amor - Tunis
Business Development Manager at Nuked Cockroach, Tresorier of GlobalGameJam.Inc, Co-Founder of Tunisian Games Developers


###Heroes Trio

AWS Community Heroes [Ahmed Samir] (https://twitter.com/aseldesouky) founder of [AWS Bel Araby] (https://twitter.com/AwsBelaraby) and  [Anas Khattar] (https://twitter.com/anaskhattar) AWS Community Hero as well as AWS Container Hero [Walid Shaari](https://twitter.com/walidshaari) took lead of logistics and coordination between all the different communities and speakers.

###Landing Page

For the landing page [Ouadie Lahdioui] (https://twitter.com/lahdiouiouadie) AWS UG Morocco Leader used the same static site generator Jeykell which was forked from AWS Community Nordics with a new theme {% github aws-mena-community/awsmena.community no-readme %}
Follow this tutorial from Aleksandr Hovhannisyan to build your own static site with Jekyll on Github Pages {% link https://dev.to/aleksandrhovhannisyan/creating-a-personal-website-with-jekyll-and-github-pages-a-comprehensive-guide-3fje#overview-what-is-jekyll %}
Also check the live site here -> https://awsmena.community/gametech

###Registration, Broadcasting, Streaming and Graphics

We reached out to AWS regional MENA office in Dubai to create an official registration page for the event https://menagametechday2021.splashthat.com/ which we linked to our landing and agenda page.

We will be using [StreamYard] (https://streamyard.com) for live production and broadcasting to the #1 streaming platform for gamers in the middle east [Rawa TV] (https://rawa.tv/) as well as Twitch and Youtube. Links will be sent by email for registrants a day before the event.

Our talented designer [Boushra Hassanieh] (https://www.linkedin.com/in/boushra-hassanieh/) crafted the posts using [Canva] (https://www.canva.com/) which is very helpful for custom posts and cover images of the event on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. 

###PS5 Giveaway and Conference Feedback

AMD offered a PlayStation 5 console to 4 participants in our post-event feedback survey. The survey will be sent to registrants after the event for feedback and registration in the PS5 raffle.


##[Register now and lets play one more game!] (https://awsmena.community/gametech)