James is a 25-year veteran of the video game industry, first working as editor-in-chief of the USA’s largest print publication for video games, Electronic Gaming Monthly, serving a base of over 600,000 monthly subscribers with a pass-along rate of over 3 million readers.

He then has transitioned into the development side of the games industry, primarily in the role of game producer, having shipped acclaimed titles such as Child of Eden, Lumines Electronic Symphony, and Jupiter & Mars (among others) on platforms as wide-ranging as PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, PlayStation VR, and the Meta Quest platform. Over the years he has built deep relationships with 3rd-party publishers and console-makers alike. 

Having founded BitSummit (Japan’s 2nd-largest gaming convention visited by over 35,000 people a year) he has access to one of the largest networks of game development talent, middleware providers, console makers, and publishers around.

Toko Kapea is a commercial lawyer, director and investor. Toko has been managing a new tourism business owned by Ngai Tahu Runanga on the West Coast of the South Island. The company is creating 4 location-based experiences telling Poutini Ngai Tahu, heritage, and natural icons of the West Coast. Toko is overseeing the creative partner for the project, Wētā Workshop. The project also has an app being developed by Cerebral Fix. Toko has just completed a 7-year term as director of Television New Zealand and is currently on the board of Basketball New Zealand. Toko is a judge for the NZ Hi-Tech Awards – Māori Kamupene of the Year category. 

Guy Te Kiniwe Royal is an experienced commercial and investment manager with over 30 years’ experience. Having held management and governance roles in the energy, investment, transport, agri-tech and indigenous development sectors he has acted as CEO for a professional advisory firm, tribal authority and waste technology businesses. He is a former Director of Kiwirail, New Zealand Growth Capital Partners, and NZ Fast Forward Fund. Guy is currently a Director of CH4 Global Inc (which he helped found) a US Company with global operations and is also on the Board of the commercial arm of his tribe – Raukawa Asset Holding Company, as well as some startups. Guy has invested into a number of creative sector businesses including BeyondVR and has extensive connections to venture capital and start-up businesses both domestically in NZ and overseas.

Sam Kennedy is a founder and Director of Tigertron, a US video game company. He previously worked at Edelman Digital — Activision’s marketing and PR firm— where he was Vice President, Digital & Social Media, overseeing the launch of billion-dollar franchises including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Destiny 2. Sam has also worked on Guitar Hero, Skylanders, Starwave, and Jupiter & Mars.

Joy Mielke started in the game industry as the production manager at Koei’s (currently Koei Tecmo) US office and oversaw the successful shipment of over a dozen titles across MS/Sony/Nintendo platforms. In 2013 Joy worked together with James to kick off BitSummit, the second largest video game event in Japan. In 2019, Joy was instrumental in the release of Jupiter & Mars on the PS4 for the standard and VR version as the Project Manager at Tigertron.