GSMA and IMGA Collaborate to Drive Mobile Gaming Innovation at the Mobile World Congress

The GSM Association (GSMA) and the International Mobile Gaming Awards (IMGA) today announced an agreement to join forces at this year’s Mobile World Congress (Barcelona, 11-14 February 2008) to promote the development of the mobile gaming sector.

The GSMA will endorse and promote the established International Mobile Gaming Awards, the largest mobile gaming awards programme which is aimed at professional and non-professional developers of unpublished mobile games. The GSMA will also facilitate the IMGA in hosting their annual Awards ceremony, held on Monday February 11 in the Mobile Entertainment & Content Zone (Hall 7) within the Congress. In turn, the IMGA will support and promote the GSMA’s Global Mobile Award’s Best Mobile Game category - for best published and commercially available mobile games.

The GSMA acknowledges that mobile gaming helps drive creativity and innovation and adds value to the industry and to customers. And the IMGA’s annual Awards ceremony at the Mobile World Congress will provide an invaluable platform for both small and large developers, hoping to publish new games, with the opportunity to get the level of exposure they need in front of senior executives from both handset manufacturers and mobile operators attending the event.

The GSMA and IMGA will also work on future projects together that will help drive innovation, creativity and the growth of the mobile gaming industry.

"We are delighted to partner with the IMGA to align these two Awards programmes and to showcase some of the most innovative, published and unpublished mobile games at the world’s biggest mobile event," said Bill Gajda, Chief Commercial Officer at the GSMA. "The IMGA brings an unrivalled track record and credibility to the Congress along with a significant community of games developers to showcase mobile games to the broader industry. We’re also excited at the prospect of working on future projects and events that will help drive innovation in this very fast moving sector."

"I am very proud of this agreement with the GSMA", said Maarten Noyons," CEO and founder of the IMGA. "The GSMA represents the mobile industry worldwide and the Mobile World Congress is known throughout the world as the most successful mobile industry event. This endorsement and partnership is critical if we are to fulfil our goal of continuing to drive innovation and creativity amongst developers, publishers and bring the excitement and potential of this sector to the attention of the wider industry."

The GSMA’s Global Mobile Awards will take place on Tuesday 12^th February and the IMGA Awards will take place on Monday 11^th February at the Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona.

The GSM Association (GSMA) is the global trade association representing more than 700 GSM mobile phone operators across 218 countries and territories of the world. In addition, more than 200 manufacturers and suppliers support the Association's initiatives as key partners.

The primary goals of the GSMA are to ensure mobile phones and wireless services work globally and are easily accessible, enhancing their value to individual customers and national economies, while creating new business opportunities for operators and their suppliers. The Association's members serve more than 2.5 billion customers - 82% of the world's mobile phone users.

The International Mobile Gaming Awards (IMGA), launched in 2004 is the leading platform for Innovation in Mobile Entertainment worldwide. Each year mobile gaming studios, individual developers, students and researchers are challenged to come up with the most innovative concepts for tomorrow's mobile games. The IMGA brings together Industry leaders and top talent in Mobile Entertainment and displays the most innovative Mobile Entertainment Games and Applications to a broad worldwide audience.