Maria Bobrovskaya, N1 Partners: “This year marked the launch of N1 Duality, a long-term direction that will evolve throughout our conference season”

Maria Bobrovskaya, team lead PR, event, production at N1 Partners, talks about the company’s N1 Duality booth concept and participation at iGB L!VE 2026.

Exclusive interview.- Following N1 Partners’ participation at iGB L!VE 2026, Maria Bobrovskaya, team lead PR, event, production, shared details about the event. In an interview with Focus Gaming News, she spoke about the company’s new N1 Duality booth concept and what comes first when planning a participation: the business goals, the product, or the booth concept.

She also shared what makes a conference truly memorable, the products the company showcased at the expo, and the N1 Sport Promo.

N1 Partners introduced N1 Duality as the unifying theme for its booths and merch this year. What inspired it?

This year marked the launch of N1 Duality by N1 Partners, a long-term direction that will evolve throughout our conference season.

For iGB Live, our priority was to present N1 Partners as a company where seemingly opposite qualities work together: technology and human expertise, speed and precision, business thinking and artistic vision.

That’s where the name N1 Duality came from. Once that direction was defined, every element had to reinforce it. The visual identity, live illustration, interactive zones, merch, and partner collaborations were all designed to communicate the same message from different angles. That direction was reflected across every part of the stand, from the design and activities to our art collaborations with Clym Evernden and Yoomoota. 

What’s more, this isn’t a one-off conference theme. iGB Live was the opening chapter; we’ll continue developing N1 Duality in different ways at future events (SBC Lisbon, SiGMA Rome, and other conferences).

What comes first when planning a company’s participation: the business goals, the product, or the booth concept?

For us, it always starts with the business objective.

Before thinking about design, we decide what the company needs to achieve. A booth created to build brand awareness will look very different from one focused on launching a new product, attracting affiliates, or holding meetings with existing partners. That objective shapes every decision — from the message and booth layout to the activities, partnerships, and conversations we want to create.

Once the goal is clear, we define one key message we want visitors to leave with. Only then do we build all elements around it — from the booth design to activities, partnerships, and merch. If you try to communicate too many things at once, people usually remember none of them.

In many ways, the biggest challenge is making dozens of moving parts work as one. A conference project involves marketing, design, product, business development, event, production, and contractors working in parallel. It’s easy to create several great activations, but much harder to make them reinforce the same message instead of competing for attention. The booth may start the conversation, but it’s our products, offers, and affiliate managers that continue it and determine the business outcome.

Ultimately, we evaluate our participation in the conference based on a combination of various metrics and indicators: the number of attendees and their feedback, the results of affiliate team meetings, and the campaigns launched afterwards.

“For iGB Live, our priority was to present N1 Partners as a company where seemingly opposite qualities work together: technology and human expertise, speed and precision, business thinking and artistic vision.”

Maria Bobrovskaya, team lead PR, event, production at N1 Partners.

What did N1 Partners showcase at iGB Live this year, and which products or initiatives received the strongest response from visitors?

This year, we wanted to show not only our products but also the idea behind N1 Duality through collaborations that naturally brought together business and art.

What received the strongest response wasn’t a single activation but the way every element of the stand worked together to create a consistent brand experience.

One of the highlights was our partnership with BAFTA-winning illustrator Clym Evernden, who created a live art performance throughout the exhibition and produced exclusive sketch portraits for our guests. Rather than displaying finished pieces, we invited visitors to become a part of the creative process, which became a conversation starter and encouraged people to spend more time at the stand.

We extended the collaboration with an exclusive capsule merch collection designed together with Clym, available in a very limited edition for our VIP partners. We also teamed up with internationally recognised designer Yoomoota to develop art toys inspired by the N1 Duality concept. Instead of traditional conference giveaways, we wanted to create pieces that visitors genuinely wanted to keep.

Together with the limited-edition merch collection and collectible art toys designed with Yoomoota, these collaborations gave visitors multiple ways to engage with the N1 Duality theme instead of experiencing it through a single installation. The Yoomoota collection will continue to evolve throughout the year, with new editions planned for SBC Lisbon and SiGMA Rome this year.

On the business side, our N1 Sport Promo became one of the main talking points among affiliates looking to maximise performance during major sports and esports events. The campaign allowed partners to increase their CPA payouts by delivering more qualified FTDs during the biggest sports and esports events of the year.

Overall, visitors responded best when creativity naturally became part of the business conversation.

With so many brands competing for attention at iGB Live, what makes a conference truly memorable from your perspective?

The most memorable parts of a conference aren’t always the biggest booths or the busiest networking events. They’re the moments that make people stop, get curious, and start a conversation.

After a conference, very few people remember every meeting or presentation they attended. What stays with them are the brands they interacted with – the ones that gave them a reason to engage, whether through an interesting activation or unexpected interaction. That’s what we aim for.

If people are still talking about the company’s participation in the conference, sharing photos, or remembering the brand weeks after the event, that’s the strongest indicator your booth stayed with people long after the event.

“Before thinking about design, we decide what the company needs to achieve.”

Maria Bobrovskaya, team lead PR, event, production at N1 Partners.

N1 Sport Promo has just ended. Looking back, what were the biggest lessons from this campaign, and what should affiliates take into the next sports season?

One of the biggest lessons was that major sporting events shouldn’t be treated as one-off opportunities. The affiliates who performed best weren’t necessarily the ones chasing every tournament; they were the ones who built a consistent acquisition strategy and adapted it throughout the season.

Another takeaway was that different sporting events attracted different audiences. The same approach wouldn’t work equally well throughout the season, so testing new creatives, offers, and acquisition strategies became just as important as increasing traffic volumes.

If there was one thing we’d recommend for the next sports season, it would be to start preparing earlier, test more actively, and focus on building sustainable growth instead of chasing short-term peaks.

We’ll continue sharing insights and seasonal opportunities to help affiliates prepare for future campaigns.