From October 24 to 26, Meet & Build 2024 was held at Quai10 in Charleroi, organized by WALGA, the association representing the video game industry in Wallonia.
Now in its third three-day 'Extended' version, the professional meetings between industry players from Wallonia and other regions and countries around the world were a success in terms of both quantity and quality.
The first day, devoted to international meetings, brought together over 100 participants, more than half of them with a 3-day ticket, from a dozen different countries (Albania, Brazil, Croatia, France, Greece, Philippines, United Kingdom, Taiwan, etc.). Throughout the day, some fifteen presentations were given by national industry associations (Brazil, Croatia, Greece, Japan and the Philippines), international organizations (IGDA, SpielFabrique), Belgian schools (HEAJ, Howest) and representatives of the African market (Afrogameuses, Gara).
The Business Meetings on the second day brought together almost 150 participants to meet with international game publishers and Belgian public and private investment structures, who were able to present their activities to the audience at the start of the day, followed by a pitch session featuring a dozen Belgian and international project leaders presenting their first game to investors. In the afternoon, for the first time, nine workshops were organized by investment and marketing specialists. Limited to around twenty participants, they were practically all fully booked. All in all, the two days generated some 391 meetings via the app, an increase of more than 50 % over last year, and dozens more informal meetings at the networking drinks that closed each day. The appointment-setting app also posted a record meeting acceptance rate of 71.7 % and 721 individual messages, well above the average for other events, proving the perfect casting of all categories of participants.
The highlight of the event was the Saturday conferences, which for their ninth edition offered a wide range of topics presented by international speakers accompanied by moderators from the Walloon ecosystem. Over 250 participants, professionals and students alike, were able to enrich their knowledge of the industry and make some memorable encounters.
Meet & Build was also honored by the presence of the Philippine ambassador to Brussels, who came to meet his country's delegation, represented by the president and coordinator of the industry association, accompanied by five studios who were able to take advantage of the three-day event to establish promising contacts with Walloon players for the development of their business in Europe. A streaming session on WALGA's Twitch channel (WalgaTV) provided an opportunity to interview several representatives of international studios while presenting their game projects. It could be followed live both on Twitch and in one of the Quai10 rooms.
Last but not least, a dozen games from the various participating Belgian and international studios were presented in the Quai10 video game area, which welcomed several hundred visitors over the three days.
The WALGA team is proud to have put Meet & Build on the world map of the video game industry, recognized as one of the best by many international participants. For future editions, our ambition is to attract even more international delegations from new countries, as well as to strengthen those who have already attended. The winning formula of enriching encounters, instructive workshops and inspiring conferences will form the basis of the program for the 2025 edition, which will take place from October 25 to 27, 2025.
Finally, we'd like to thank all the teams and volunteers who contributed to the event's success. A very big thank you also to our partners, without whom the event would not have been possible: Digital Wallonia, the Walloon Region, AWEX, Wallimage, VAF, Spielfabrique, Quai10 and the City of Charleroi.
