Kelly founded and acted as CEO of Indie MEGABOOTH (IMB) since 2012. IMB created a globally curated community of indie game studios that participated in showcases, industry conversations and alumni scholarship programs – all valued stepping stones into the games industry for emerging studios and developers. Over 900 unique titles from studios spanning 36 countries were showcased at IMB events in 33 global over a decade, including well-known titles such as [List your favorites]. IMB was independently owned, bootstrapped and was fully supported by sponsorships and community donations, and Kelly is still active within the alumni network and community.

Kelly Wallick was the longest sitting Chair of the Independent Games Festival (IGF) and first woman to hold the title. Established in 1998, the highly esteemed festival (often referred to as “the Sundance for indie games”) is dedicated to encouraging innovation and recognizing the best in independent games held at GDC each year. The festival consists of the IGF Ceremony, the IGF Pavilion, and Independent Games Summit, where Kelly hosted the award show in 2022.

Kelly began her work with the 1Up Fund at its inception, with a shared value around community and industry good. Founded by Ed Fries, the 1Up Fund aims to bring about community-driven changes to the industry through innovative and creative investments in the top indie teams working today. Her original role focused around creating, building and growing the 1Up portfolio community. In early 2022, she joined as a full time partner on the fund and expanded her role to investing and fundraising as the 1Up Fund expands into Fund II.

Kelly has been a speaker 15+ times at events like PAX, X, Y, Z. She has been part of several podcasts including X speaking about Y, Y on the topic of Z, and A about B. Every month, Kelly produces and hosts Big Questions in Games where she and her co-host, Seth Sivak, take a deep dive into gaming industry business trends.

Mentorship is something that is incredibly important to Kelly. In her career, she has acted as a mentor for many young people. She has informally advised on projects for multiple companies and has openly provided resources and recommendations to new game developers. Kelly is also a former Board member at IGF [link to IGF card] and of Lightforge Games, where she….[cool thing you did there.] She also serves as a Board member at GLAAD, where she shows her support for the LGBTQIA+ community by [some detail here, or we can just put a period after the word community.]