The Casual Connect conference next week in San Francisco is anything but casual for the game industry — serious business gets conducted here, insights from industry movers and shakers are presented and discussed, and there are plenty of networking opportunities. For a marketer, there’s a lot to pay attention to at this event, whether you are there in person or following it from afar. The show covers three full days in San Francisco at the Here’s a look at some of what promises to be the most interesting people, insights, and sessions at the show.

The keynote attraction for Casual Connect San Francisco is Michael Eisner, the media titan who formerly at ABC and Paramount but most famously CEO of Disney for over twenty years. In 2005 he founded and heads up the Tornante Company, which invests, acquires, and operates media companies — like Topps, the baseball card company that’s moving into mobile. He’s being interviewed by John Riccitiello, CEO of Unity (and former CEO of Electronic Arts), talking about the interplay between content and technology. It should be fascinating to hear what these seasoned execs have to say about where we’re headed. This talk takes place at 11:00 am Tuesday morning, and it should be packed.

There’s plenty of material for marketers to look forward to beyond the keynote. Amazon’s director of game services, Chris Drury, will talk about The Mobile Gaming Landscape: How Monetization is Evolving at 9:30 on Tuesday. This is about the mst important topic of all for game marketers, because if your game isn’t monetizing it doesn’t matter how good you are at building awareness. Other key sessions Tuesday morning include Finding Success in the Next Generation of Mobile Game Publishing, a panel discussion including execs from FunPlus, Chillingo, App Annie, Spil Games, and Tencent North America, taking place at 10 am; at the same time another panel discussion, The Consumer As Producer – Games & Video Converge to Lead a Revolution, brings execs from Twitch, ESL, Super Evil Megacorp, and Theorist, moderated by Newzoo CEO Peter Warman. The message underlying both of these sessions is that gaming is still evolving, and marketers need to be on top of the latest changes in order to keep up.

Tuesday afternoon’s sessions continue to hit key topics, such as the panel discussion Games Go Hollywood, featuring execs from Universal Pictures, WME, RED Games, Skybound Interactive, and Pocket Gems, moderated by Facebook’s head of strategic developer relations. We continue to see leading mobile publishers creating games based on hit movies, and knowing more about that trend is important. Marketers also might glean some important thoughts from Yuval Rechter, SVP of business development for Babyfirst Mobile, as he speaks about A Multi-Channel App Marketing Strategy to show how acquisition can work across multiple marketing fronts.

Wednesday has an interesting lineup for marketers looking to know more about the potential for VR and AR. The co-founder of Resolution games speaks on Why Casual Games May be the Key to Bringing VR to the Masses, and that seems to be a topic that hasn’t been aired much before. There’s also Mapping Opportunities for Mobile Game Developers in Mobile VR by the CEO of Sidekick games, and Design Challenges for VR by Google’s chief game designer Noah Falstein. In the afternoon, the VR Roundup – Looking for What’s Around the Corner panel discussion with execs from Oculus, Epic Games, Google, and Unity should give you a clear idea of what’s coming next in this hot field.

On the practical side, Monetization: How to Triple Your Earnings From Ad Networks presented by the founder and CEO of Appodeal promises to provide some solid information on how to improve revenue from in-game ads. An overview of mobile game advertising can be found with the panel discussion on Monetization Experts Present: The Advertising User Manual.

While the first two days were packed with these and many other sessions, the pace doesn’t let up for Thursday. Indie Marketing Strategy: Considering the Big Picture is a panel discussion that focuses on what smaller developers can do to get noticed, featuring execs from Versus Evil, Massive Damage, Double Fine, and Execution Labs. There’s also a number of sessions on bringing games to other markets, such as Cracking Japan: How Foreign Developers Can Enter the World’s Most Lucrative Mobile Games Market by Dr. Serkan Toto, and Going Global – Bringing Games from the West to China by Ryan DeSanto, director of business development for NetEase, and Opportunities in Southeast Asia with panelists from all over the region. If those markets aren’t enough, check out the panel discussion on India is the New China: Land of Opportunity, or the discussion on South Korea: The Latest Learnings from One of Asia’s Powerhouse Markets.

These are just a fraction of the sessions being presented at Casual Connect, and it leaves out entirely the value you can derive from the booths presenting different products and services as well as the numerous networking opportunities. Casual Connect is a concentrated way to stay in touch with the latest developments in the wide-ranging, fast-moving world of gaming. We hope to see you there!