Malmö Game Summit

Games bring people together, but communities keep them coming back. This opening keynote explores how gaming communities create belonging, inspire creativity, strengthen local culture, and help people of all ages find their place. From board game cafés and conventions to local associations and digital communities, we’ll discuss why the people around the games matter just as much as the games themselves.

Fostering the connection between neurodivergent and neurotypical team members. “Neuromixing” is combining different cognitive styles to unlock a team’s collective potential. Diversity is a superpower in creative industries, but simply gathering diverse people isn’t enough. Without active facilitation diverse teams can generate more friction than innovation and that friction can have severe negative impact on people’s lives and livelihood. “The click” – that cognitive chemistry where people genuinely understand and collaborate with each other – is something you build, not just luck. In this panel we’ll share examples where cognitive differences matched or collided and what elements at play contributed to these results. We’ll hear from team members, leads and managers, and professionals who study their interactions. Most importantly, you’ll come away with practical methods to foster more supportive, inspiring, and effective relationships between team members of all types to improve the experience and the collaboration of everyone involved.

What makes people feel like they truly belong? Join community leaders, creators, and industry professionals as they explore how belonging strengthens creativity, collaboration, and long-term community growth. Through personal stories and practical examples, this panel discusses how to build welcoming spaces where more people feel valued, contribute, and choose to stay.

What makes a convention truly memorable, and how do we build events that thrive year after year? Join convention organizers from across the gaming community as they share lessons learned, discuss common challenges, and explore how collaboration and knowledge sharing can strengthen volunteer-driven events. Whether you’re organizing your first convention or your fifteenth, this panel is about learning from each other and building the future of community events together.

How can games improve and support youth, and serve as a tool for greater inclusion? We will show some examples of how a community can address social issues within the broader society. Young people suffer from isolation today; this has been a growing problem since the pandemic. Our examples show how games can be an important factor in supporting and empowering youth, especially within a community of other gamers. Gaming is expanding into other sectors of society, such as social work, schools, and higher education.