November 11th, 2026

Get an insider’s perspective on the UGC gaming industry with Hannes Van der Haegen. Meet the author, get your book signed, and dive into the ideas shaping the future of UGC gaming.

The first 50 attendees will receive a free copy of the book!

Opening Remarks

GEEIQ Interactive Workshop with Charles Hambro

Join Charles Hambro of GEEIQ for an interactive, collaborative session that puts the audience at the centre of the conversation.

Attendees will break into smaller working groups, each tackling the same four key questions about the future of UGC, gaming, and entertainment. Groups will debate, collaborate, and share their perspectives before coming back together to reveal and compare their answers.

Will the room reach a consensus, or will different perspectives uncover some surprising divides? This is your chance to help shape the conversation rather than simply listen to it.

We are in the lobby loading up the bus, excited to let you know who is dropping in soon!

The Great UGC Debate: Low Fidelity vs. High Fidelity

Jo Redfern (Coolabi Group) vs. James Purell (Kuzu Gaming)

Does the future of UGC belong to simple, accessible experiences, or increasingly sophisticated, high-fidelity worlds?

As platforms evolve and creator tools become more powerful, a fundamental question emerges: Does better technology actually make for better entertainment?

In this live, head-to-head debate, Jo Redfern of Coolabi Group and James Purell of Kuzu Gaming will go toe-to-toe over the future of UGC. From creative freedom and accessibility to player engagement, storytelling, and commercial success, both sides will make their case for what really matters.

Expect strong opinions, competing visions, and a few surprises. The audience will have its say, too.

From Streamer to Studio: Ali-A in conversation with YouTube
With nearly 20 million subscribers and over 7 billion views on his main channel alone, Ali-A is one of the biggest gaming creators the UK has ever produced. He’s also been putting his name on Fortnite games for years, and few people understand what this community wants to play better than he does. Now he’s building games of his own. So what has going from creator to game maker taught him, what comes next, and where does he think UGC gaming is heading? Main stage, don’t miss it.

Presented by YouTube

The UGC Flywheel: How Creators, Players, and Communities Drive Growth

The most successful UGC experiences don’t just attract players. They create a cycle of engagement, content, and discovery that fuels their own growth.

In this session, we’ll explore the UGC flywheel and how developers, players, streamers, and social sharing work together to turn great experiences into thriving communities and sustainable businesses.

From developers building worlds worth exploring to players creating moments worth sharing, streamers amplifying those experiences, and social platforms bringing in new audiences, we’ll unpack how each part of the ecosystem feeds the next.

How do you build an experience that doesn’t just get played, but gets shared, watched, and played again?

Who Owns a Meme? A Live Courtroom Drama

The internet creates culture at lightning speed. Memes become movements, viral moments become million-dollar businesses, and characters take on lives of their own. But when something created online becomes valuable, who actually owns it?

In this live courtroom drama, we’ll put the ownership of internet culture on trial. Through opening arguments, witness testimony, cross-examinations, and a final verdict, our opposing sides will battle over the rights to a viral phenomenon.

Is it the original creator? The platform? The community that made it famous? Or does internet culture belong to everyone?

Blending entertainment with real questions around intellectual property, copyright, and the business of UGC, this interactive session will challenge how we think about ownership in the creator economy.

The court is in session. And the audience is the jury.

What does it really take to build a successful experience on Roblox, and where are the biggest opportunities for creators?

Join James Lewis, Senior Manager, EMEA Communications at Roblox, alongside Max Entwistle, co-founder of Abracadabra Studios and co-creator of SharkBite, the Roblox hit with over 2 billion visits, and Callum Trevitt, Roblox game designer and producer whose work includes Hell’s Kitchen, TWICE Square, and Manchester City’s Blue Moon.

This developer-led conversation brings together the platform and the people building on it to explore what makes a great Roblox experience, how creators turn ideas into thriving businesses, and the growing opportunities for entertainment IP within the ecosystem.

Expect real-world insights, lessons learned, and an open discussion about what’s working, what’s changing, and what’s next for Roblox.

Less of a platform presentation. More of a conversation with the people making it happen.

What will the world of UGC look like ten years from now? Who will be the winners, what will happen to today’s biggest platforms, and where will the next generation of entertainment come from?

In this unconventional closing keynote, Calvin Innes is joined by a very special guest: himself, ten years in the future.

Beaming back from 2036, Calvin’s digital avatar, The Fandom Professor, delivers a series of breaking news headlines from the future, revealing what became of the platforms, creators, technologies, and businesses shaping today’s UGC ecosystem.

Expect bold predictions, plenty of humour, a few uncomfortable truths, and a glimpse into a future where the rules of entertainment have been rewritten.

The audience will vote on ten predictions, creating a time capsule to be revisited at WorldBuilder Summit in 2036.

The future has already happened. Now it’s time to find out what comes next.