The BGI

INFLUENTIAL CONFERENCE BRINGS TOGETHER MAJOR STUDIOS AND UNIVERSITIES TO FORGE CLOSER LINKS AND TACKLE KEY ISSUES

Some of the UK’s leading games studios, recruiters and educators will come together this April for the Games Education Summit.

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The agenda-setting conference is sponsored by Unity, Unreal Engine and Grads in Games, and will take place on April 21st and 22nd, returning as both a live and a streamed event at Sheffield Hallam University. The Summit provides two days of learning, networking and collaboration – providing games studios and educational organisations with the opportunity to discover new ways of working together. It also gives students and young developers, who can join for free, the chance to learn about how to unlock pathways into games and take their careers forward.

In-person delegates will join workshops, attend a networking evening and experience the Grads in Games awards at the National Videogame Museum. Online delegates can join all the panel sessions which will be streamed live.

Key sessions will include:

• Successfully managing remote and flexible working
• How to fill the ‘hard-to-hire’ roles in games
• Mental health and wellbeing
• How new recruits to games landed their first positions
• How to get the most out of university
• Equality, Diversity & Inclusion in games

The Games Education Summit is an annual conference that gives games educators and developers a forum to discuss the biggest issues in games, meet colleagues in workshops, and hear from learners and young developers about how to unlock their pathways into games.

Speakers include representatives from Unity, Unreal Engine, Cloud Imperium, Aardvark Swift, Abertay University, AIM Group, Amiqus, Exient, Gamesindustry.biz, Grads In Games, Media Molecule, My.Games, nDreams, Next Gen Skills Academy, No More Robots, Playground Games, Safe In Our World, Sheffield Hallam University, Sumo Digital, Ukie, Women in Games and more.

“The Games Education Summit represents a fantastic opportunity for creators, educators, developers and students within the sphere of real-time learning, to come together and discuss the challenges currently facing the industry and collaborate on new and innovative ways to unlock varied careers in games,” said Aurore Dimopoulos, Director, Real Time Learning at Unity. “At Unity we’re fully committed to supporting creators of any ability through our free ‘Pathways’ experiences, which help anyone interested in breaking into the gaming and tech industries expand their professional opportunities by gaining the skills they need to obtain a job, regardless of prior experience.”

“The Games Education Summit is vital to ensure that the industry retains a strong relationship with education,” offered Aardvark Swift MD Ian Goodall. “This collaboration is essential to ensuring that we create a pipeline of future talent in games, and for the industry to provide educators and students with the support they need.”

Amiqus Business Manager Liz Prince added: “The Games Education Summit provides a valuable platform for studios and educators to discuss the issues facing both areas. We look forward to attending each year as it gives us great insight into the challenges and opportunities we all face in terms of developing, nurturing and supporting the next generation of games industry talent.”

Get your tickets to GamesEd22 at Eventbrite.

Notes to Editors

For more information on the Games Education Summit, contact Lisa Carter via lisa.carter@mimrammedia.com and follow @thebgi on Twitter.

About the BGI

The BGI is a national voice for videogame culture, heritage and education which empowers people from all backgrounds, especially women, BAME, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and from disadvantaged backgrounds, to:

• Play through accessible and creative experiences that engage and inspire
• Collaborate through inclusive communities, research, discussions and teamwork
• Learn through informal, formal and vocational learning

Our charity celebrates and interrogates games culture for everyone through the National Videogame Museum, our Collection, our research into games preservation and our festivals such as GameCity. We run award-winning formal and informal learning programmes such as Pixelheads in person and online for schools and families. We run vocational courses and the Games Education Summit and we co-founded and organise the Games Careers Week Festival for young people, their parents and educators. For more details about the BGI’s mission and programmes, please visit: http://www.thebgi.uk/

Toikido has supported the National Videogame Museum by becoming a patron. Toikido is a London-based entertainment company that sells millions of toys in over 1oo countries, including merchandise from fellow NVM patrons Playstation (Among Us) and Sheffield-based Boneloaf (Gang Beasts).

Darran Garnham, CEO of Toikido said: “I am super proud to support. As a dad of 3 boys, this is an important cause to champion for young people”.

NVM/BGI CEO Rick Gibson: “We are so grateful to Darran and the team for their support of the museum. The charity would not be here without the support of companies like Toikido to help us through the pandemic to brighter days”.

Toikido joins a list of industry companies and leaders which includes Sir Ian Livingstone, Carl Cavers, Andy Payne OBE, Rockstar, Rebellion and Sega Europe amongst others.

 

The charity received the sad news that our Advisory Board member Ian Hetherington had passed away.

One of the founding fathers of the British videogames industry, Ian helped countless people, companies and our own charity with a wisdom and generosity borne of a long and illustrious career in videogames over 40 years.

CEO Rick Gibson wrote “Ian was a colleague, friend and mentor who had a unique mix of creativity and commercial acumen. His track record of success and drive is remarkable and his influence on the sector, its technology and growth is profound and indelible. I have worked with him on several projects over the years and he will be deeply missed. On behalf of the charity, I’d like to pass on our condolences to his family.”

You can read a short obituary to Ian on Gamesindustry.biz.

INFLUENTIAL CONFERENCE RETURNS IN APRIL TO INVESTIGATE HARD-TO-HIRE SKILLS, REMOTE WORKING AND MENTAL HEALTH

Educators, games studios and young games developers will gather in Sheffield and online on 21-22 April 2022 to discuss the most topical subjects in games education – including remote working, mental health and those skills which recruiters are currently finding tricky to find.

The Games Education Summit is an annual conference that gives games educators and developers a forum to discuss the biggest issues in games, meet colleagues in workshops, and hear from learners and young developers about how to unlock their pathways into games.

Speakers at GamesEd22 include Amiqus, Safe in our World, Sheffield Hallam University, Bournemouth and Portsmouth Universities, Aardvark Swift, Playground Games, Grads in Games, Cloud Imperium, Women in Games, Ukie, Next Gen Skills Academy, Sumo Digital and TIGA. More speakers will be announced in early 2022.

Day One will focus on challenges, best practice and innovative solutions of games companies,  universities and colleges including remote working, four-day working weeks, and pastoral care of students and staff. It will investigate the skills games companies are struggling to recruit from educational institutions, and ask how industry can help educators train talent to be ready for the workplace.

Day Two will bring in diverse young developers and students to discuss their experiences of education, recruitment and early games careers.

Delegates attending in person will be able to join workshops, networking events and an awards show at the National Videogame Museum, or stream keynotes and panel sessions online.

“We’re delighted to be bringing the Games Education Summit back as a live event in April at Sheffield Hallam University, as well as welcoming delegates virtually too,” said Rick Gibson, CEO of the BGI, which organises the event.

“Educators consistently report that they have changed universities’ curricula as a result of discussions at previous GamesEd Summits. At the same time, we know that studios find it invaluable to be able to network and collaborate with educators at the event. We look forward to once again setting the agenda at GamesEd Summit 2022.”

Get your early bird tickets to GamesEd22 at Eventbrite.

Notes to Editors

For more information on the Games Education Summit, contact Lisa Carter at lisa@mimrammedia.com and follow @thebgi on Twitter.

About the BGI

The BGI is a national voice for videogame culture, heritage and education which empowers people from all backgrounds, especially women, BAME, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and from disadvantaged backgrounds, to:

• Play through accessible and creative experiences that engage and inspire
• Collaborate through inclusive communities, research, discussions and teamwork
• Learn through informal, formal and vocational learning

Our charity celebrates and interrogates games culture for everyone through the National Videogame Museum, our Collection, our research into games preservation and our festivals such as GameCity. We run award-winning formal and informal learning programmes such as Pixelheads in person and online for schools and families. We run vocational courses and the Games Education Summit and we co-founded and organise the Games Careers Week Festival for young people, their parents and educators. For more details about the BGI’s mission and programmes, please visit: http://www.thebgi.uk/

 

 

National Videogame Museum announces Christmas appeal with BGI’s new strategy to transform lives with games

Sheffield, 0900 23/11/21: The charity that runs the National Videogame Museum has launched a Christmas appeal to help families from deprived communities visit the museum, and announced its new strategy to promote the social impact of videogames.

The appeal, fronted by Claire Boissiere and Ian Livingstone CBE, aims to bring hundreds of children from the most deprived neighbourhoods of Sheffield and the surrounding region into the Museum. The appeal is raising funds to support the museum to give free visits for disadvantaged families to play games and learn how they’re made.

The charity’s new mission – transforming lives with games – reflects a raft of social programmes BGI has launched this year serving disadvantaged communities. They include Biome working with Sheffield’s refugee communities to create games art about their folklore; an online National Videogame Gallery to celebrate the art and animation of diverse games developers; an LGBTQ+ young producers club; a 2 year programme to train teachers from schools in deprived areas how to use games in the classroom; and a programme to train women and LGBTQ+ people of colour how to make games using Crayta. The National Videogame Museum is also part of this month’s BBC Children in Need campaign and is one of the co-founders of Games Careers Week, a public education campaign which encourages diverse candidates to consider games careers that reached nearly 40,000 people this year.

Claire Boissiere, the BGI’s Chair, said: “Videogames are performing a new role in society, giving skills, connections and enjoyment to people isolated and set back by the pandemic. The National Videogame Museum and our multi award winning programmes work with vulnerable communities to harness the unique power of videogames. We inspire, teach and open doors to new opportunities for everyone, no matter their background. Whether through play, community, learning, careers or games culture, our charity’s bold new mission is to transform lives with games.”

Rick Gibson, the charity’s CEO, said “During the pandemic, with amazing support from games companies, we refocused our programmes to help disadvantaged and under-represented people, working with the Arts Council, Children in Need, Esmee Fairbairn Trust, English Heritage and Ufi VocTech on multiple ambitious social programmes. The National Videogame Museum is the only UK museum dedicated to celebrating and interpreting videogames, investigating why they matter, and preserving our sector’s precious heritage for future generations. This Christmas we hope you will join our amazing games sector patrons to support our work with disadvantaged children.”

The NVM’s Christmas appeal can be found at www.justgiving.com/campaign/NVMXMAS

 

Sheffield 0900 22/11/2021: BGI announced the appointment of John O’Shea as its new Creative Director. John  will lead the Programming, Collections and Learning teams, overseeing the National Videogame Museum, the GameCity Festival and other BGI projects.

John was Associate Director (Creative) for Science Gallery London, King’s College London’s flagship public-facing facility connecting art, science and health to foster innovation in the heart of the city since September 2018. He worked with over 200 artists and researchers, on ambitious multi-arts programming spanning art, science, design, videogames and performance.

As Senior Exhibitions Manager at National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, John  spearheaded Supersenses, a major exhibition at the relaunched National Science and Media Museum, comprising a suite of artist-led interactive and immersive sensory experiences, each complemented by signature display objects from the Science Museum Group Collection. He also curated and produced the timely “hot-topic” exhibition, Fake News: What Lies Behind the Truth; having previously been at the National Football Museum in Manchester, where he curated Pitch to Pixel, a major exhibition looking at how videogames influence the world beyond the game.

The BGI educates the public about the art, science, history and technology of videogames through the National Videogame Museum and its Collection, its award-winning learning programme and its new Vocational programme which includes the Games Education Summit and Games Careers Week.

BGI CEO Rick Gibson said: “John has an outstanding track record in developing exhibitions and running multi-strand museum and learning programmes. He has a deep appreciation of the new role that the National Videogame Museum and our charity can play in the arts world and wider society. We hope he will challenge our young charity and help us deliver our ambitious programme.”

John O’Shea said: “The rapid evolution of videogaming (and associated technologies, such as computer graphics, the Internet, virtual reality, A.I. etc) has been astonishing: I feel, this is an exciting moment both to reflect on the importance of videogaming, and to explore the future of gaming, and its influence in the world.”

John will take up his position in January 2022.

The new Creative Director will build on the work of Iain Simons, co-founder of the National Videogame Arcade and GameCity, and the BGI’s previous Creative Director. Iain stepped down from the role in summer ‘21 to develop new projects, but will continue to be involved as the museum’s Curator at Large, advising the charity, sitting on the museum’s advisory board and contributing to curation.

Notes to Editors

A press pack including images and video of the galleries is available here.

Interviews

If you would like to interview BGI staff, please contact Conor Clarke on conor@thenvm.org or 07939 465667.

About the BGI

The BGI is a registered charity number 1183530 that educates the public about the art, science, history and technology of videogames. The BGI runs the National Videogame Museum, Pixelheads, Games Education Summit and is co-founder (alongside Into Games and Grads in Games) of Games Careers Week, a festival promoting games careers to diverse candidates that launched in 2021 and reached 37,000 people and partnered with over 120 games companies, universities, schools and non-profits. For more details about the BGI, please visit: http://www.thebgi.uk.

About the National Videogame Museum

The NVM celebrates and interrogates videogame culture and allows the public to play most of its exhibits, which include nearly 100 games consoles, arcade machines and other interactive experiences, including games designed exclusively for the Museum. The Museum holds one of the UK’s largest collections of 5,000 videogame objects including arcade machines, technology, game memorabilia and ephemera. Formerly the National Videogame Arcade in Nottingham, the Museum has welcomed over 200,000 visitors, including hundreds of school visits, since it opened in 2016. The Museum presents a mixture of permanent and temporary exhibitions, some of which tour the UK. For more details about the NVM, please visit: http://www.thenvm.org.

 

We’re so grateful to BBC Children in Need for their support for the National Videogame Museum’s ‘Play the City’ project for children experiencing technology poverty and exclusion.

Watch BGI CEO Rick Gibson and BGI Trustee Marcia Deakin from NextGen Skills Academy at a ScreenSkills masterclass in Leamington Spa. The session on Pathways into the Games industry: Jobs, skills and CVs included Kathleen Brice from Codemasters, Marcia Deakin from NextGen, Chris McCarthy from Third Kind Games and Chris Sayers from Mediatonic.  The panel shared their own career journeys and gave advice and tips on CV’s, approaching employers and what to put in a portfolio.

You can watch other sessions on games careers here.