Digital Qazaqstan 2026
Digital Creative Industries
Digital Qazaqstan is the first national technology forum, grown out of Digital Almaty: 27 March 2026 in Shymkent, organised by the Ministry of AI and Digital Development, the Shymkent akimat and Astana Hub. The Digital Creative Industries zone (signposted on site as Oıyn Point) was built by CIAQ and its GCA committee: game demos by Kazakhstani indie teams, studio and university-lab stands, cosplay, comic authors and a talks stage.
Held27.03
- Dates
- 27 March 2026
- Where
- Shymkent · Qyzgaldaq saraiy, 101/1 Alatau Batyr St. · Oıyn Point zone
- Format
- offline
- Partner
- Digital Qazaqstan
Roadmap
Dates and stages
Astana Hub announces the first Digital Qazaqstan forum
Digital Almaty becomes the national Digital Qazaqstan forum
The forum in Shymkent, Oıyn Point zone
What was in the Oıyn Point zone
A PC game demo area where Kazakhstani indie teams showed their builds and visitors played at the stands. Exhibitors included Echo Games Lab, VISUAL FLOSS, EmoSDK, GHЁRNIK Studio, Grade Stock, SolidRock, Slider Game Studio, Fleshinsane team, ALAMID Games, GameLab KBTU, Umai Gaming and GameDev Center (Astana Hub). Around it: studio and university-lab stands, cosplay, comic and book authors, showreels by Kazakhstani animators and a talks stage.
CIAQ press release ↗David Tuganov's lecture
CIAQ President David Tuganov spoke on the Oıyn Point stage: “Digital creative industries: Kazakhstan's growth potential” — on games, music, film and animation as the highest-earning creative sectors, how Kazakhstan compares with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and what it takes to keep creators in the country. He announced a games accelerator with Astana Hub, an online academy for teenagers, a producing centre and a dedicated publisher to take creative products abroad.
Results
How it ended
The game zone hosted 12 indie teams and studios (per the CIAQ press release). The forum overall, per Astana Hub: 6,000 participants, 40 IT companies and 36 startups, 20+ investors, 11 memoranda and agreements signed.
«Kazakhstan spends 238 million dollars a year importing games, and it could earn as much exporting them. In this hall today are people making games in Astana, Almaty and Karaganda with no big budgets, on pure talent and AI tools. In five years one of them may make a hit the whole world knows.»
David TuganovPresident of CIAQ«Indie teams are a great example of how we could get our own Witcher that breaks through the wall of not knowing. Thanks to games like these the whole world can learn about Kazakhstan.»
Malika IgibaevaGCA coordinator, founder of SHŪPhotos
How it went
Photos: Digital Qazaqstan 2026 forum photo bank
Registration closed
The event has passed or the intake is over.