TOGED at Türkiye Innovation Week 2026: A Seat at the Table That Matters

Getting video games into the rooms where Türkiye's broader innovation agenda is shaped takes more than industry enthusiasm. It takes showing up, consistently, in conversations that rarely start with gaming.

That's exactly what happened on February 10 in Istanbul. The Türkiye Innovation Week 2026 Ortak Akıl Çalıştayı brought together a serious cross-section of stakeholders: TİM Deputy Chairman Kutlu Karavelioğlu, TİM executives, investors, company representatives, entrepreneurs, NGO figures, and academics. The format was a working session, not a panel, which matters. These are the meetings where directions actually get set.

Setimedia Co-Founder Tugbek Olek attended as a representative of TOGED, the official association of game developers in Turkiye. TOGED's participation came through its partnership with Kristal Piksel, the Turkish game awards program, which served as a co-organizer of the event. Tugbek shared perspectives on the future vision and ongoing work of Türkiye Innovation Week, making the case for where the games industry fits within Türkiye's wider innovation story.

That fit isn't hard to argue. Turkish game developers have built globally competitive products with modest resources, created significant export value, and attracted international attention at a scale most domestic tech sectors haven't matched. The industry deserves to be part of these conversations, not as a footnote, but as a contributor with a real track record.

TOGED being in that room is part of making that case over time.