GamesEd19 Speakers

– Speakers –

We’re delighted to welcome over 30 fantastic speakers, including:

Alan O’Dea

Alan is the Lecturer of Games Business and Production at Staffordshire University. Alan has worked in games for over 15 years in management, business development, publishing and strategy roles.

Ant Cain

Lecturer in Games Development, Sunderland College

Ant Cain is currently the course leader on Sunderland College’s NextGen Games, Animation and VFX course. With twelve years of experience teaching game development, Ant has seen first-hand the difference industry involvement can make to a student’s journey.

Carlo Harvey

Senior Lecturer in Games Technology.

Dr. Carlo Harvey is currently a Senior Lecturer at Birmingham City University and Course Director of the Computer Games Technology BSc / MSc

Charlie Hargood

Principal Academic and Programme Leader in Games Design and Technology, Bournmouth University

Dr Charlie Hargood is a Principal Academic in Creative Technology at BU specialising in narrative systems, hypertext, and games design.

Chris Payton

Head of Art at Rebellion

Originally a student of Architecture, I’ve been working in video games since 2001. I work with a fantastic team of artists on projects such as Sniper Elite, Strange Brigade and Zombie Army.

Dr Christopher Lowthorpe

Project Manager/Lead Academic, Games Fusion Project

Associate Lecturer, BA Game Design

London College of Communication

A playful provocateur and award-winning educator, thinker and practitioner, Chris has over a decade of game education experience. He is co-author ofPunk Playthings: Provocations for 21st Century Gamemakers for Taylor Francis, and co-founder of PlayHaus, a strategic skunkworks for games education.

Dr Christopher Windmill

Senior Lecturer in Software Engineering, University of Derby

Chris Windmill is a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Derby with responsibility for BSc Computer Games Programming. His research interests lie in XR technology, data visualisation, and educational pedagogy especially in game game assisted learning. Outside of work he’s an avid board and card game player and even finds the occasional time to take bad photos.

Claire Timpany

HR Manager, Rebellion

David Smith

CEO, Interactive and Founder, Women in Games WIGJ

David has over 20 years in recruitment in games as CEO of Interactive Selection.

In 2009 he founded the Women in Games not for profit organisation.

Dan Wood

COO, Ukie

Dan is COO at Ukie, where he is responsible for the day to day operational running of Ukie.

Dr Douglas Brown

Head of Games at Falmouth University’s Games Academy.

Characterised by a focus on teamwork and ‘doing it for real’, Falmouth University’s Games Academy comprises ten interlinked undergraduate courses spanning a variety of different specialisms.

Emma Smith

Talent Manager and Legacy Project Lead, Creative Assembly

Next Gen Skills Employer Steering Group Member

From playground to industry, the Legacy Project, lead by Emma, is the studio’s commitment to educating, inspiring and supporting the games development talent of tomorrow and promoting games as a power for good.

Federico Fasce

Lecturer and Researcher, Goldsmiths, University of London

Born in Genova in 1975 Federico has worked in and out the game industry since 1996. He sees himself as a game designer, though lately is questioning what games even mean, and he doesn’t really care as long as people keep making cool things.

Geoff Moore

Games Curriculum Leader, Confetti

Geoff has a Fine Art background and now works within creative digital education in Games Production and Games Art.

Harinder Sangha

Operations Director, Sumo Digital

Ian Goodall

Owner of Ardvark Swift and Founder of Grads in GamesAs owner of Aardvark Swift & founder of Grads in Games Ian has an insight into the games industry from both a studio & an academic perspective.

Ian Livingstone CBE

Ian is one of the founding fathers of the UK games industry and has a long track record of working to support the growth of the sector.

Dr Jacob Habgood

Jake is Director of the Steel Minions Game Studio and co-head of the Centre for Learning in Digital Worlds at Sheffield Hallam University.

James Bennett-Hill

Curriculum Lead & Lecturer in Games Development at The Sheffield College

James currently teaches on and leads the level 3 curriculum for Games, Animation & VFX at the Sheffield College. He has taught there for 5 years across a range of levels up to level 5, as well as working in Learning Support for a few years.

Karen Mclaughlin

Group Director of HR, Sumo

Karen and her dedicated team deliver the HR shared service for Sumo Group plc, covering over 600 people in nine studios across three countries (UK, India and Canada). Karen is a CIPD qualified HR professional, with over 20 years’ experience in the games industry.

Karen Hedger

Creative Industries Manager AIM AwardsKaren is a creative industries education specialist with extensive experience of curriculum and qualification design and development, teaching, learning, and assessment, Karen has a specialist interest in the games industry.

Marie-Claire Isaaman

CEO, Women in Games

Marie-Claire is CEO of Women in Games (WIGJ) a not for profit organisation working to address Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the Game Industries. She is a Consultant, Trustee, Researcher, Advisor and External Examiner across a range of UK & European Universities and Colleges.

Mark Eyles

Educational Advisor to TIGAGame developer 21 years (starting 1981), setting up and running university games courses 16 years (starting 2003), TIGA advisor since 2007.

Mark Wickham

Course Leader: BA (Hons) Games Art and Design

Mark is Course Leader for BA (Hons) Games Art & Design and BSc (Hons) Games Development, BSc (Hons) User Experience Design, BSc (Hons) Interaction Design, and previously Subject Leader for MA Games. He has an undergraduate degree in Model Design, an MA in Animation and Sound Design, PGCert in Teaching and Learning in Art, Design and Communication, and is a Fellow of the HEA.

Meg Daintith

Meg is a Recruitment professional over 20 years experience both in agency and in-house across various sectors, specialising in games for the past 14 years. After a long career with award-winning Amiqus in games industry she is currently Recruitment Manager at legendary racing-game developer, Codemasters close to Leamington Spa.

Melissa Knox

Senior Producer, Rare

Producer for 6 years, active in UK games industry – guest speaker, VGA and STEM Ambassador, judge for BAFTA, Dare to be Digital, and UK Games Fund

Dr Michael Scott

Head of Computing, Falmouth University

Nia Wearn

Nia Wearn is a Senior Lecturer in Gameplay and Games Studies at Staffordshire University, where she has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses on everything apart from engines and code – alongside running student comms, social media accounts and a thriving board game library on campus.

Nick Duncombe

Resource Manager, Playground Games

Nick Duncombe heads the Recruitment function at Playground Games, a Microsoft first-party studio and one of the UK’s most pre-eminent AAA developers. Nick joined Playground in 2015 during the development of Forza Horizon 3 and has helped the studio grow to over 200 employees.

Dr Peter Howell

Senior Lecturer in Game Design, University of Portsmouth

I am a Senior Lecturer in the School of Creative Technologies at the University of Portsmouth, teaching physical and digital prototyping, as well as game studies and psychological theory for game design. Previously I have taught game design and development at both Further and Higher Education level.

Rick Gibson

A games strategist for 20 years, Rick founded 2 pan-industry campaigns: Games Up?, which successfully campaigned for the introduction of Video Games Tax Relief (VGTR) and the BGI itself, which won the support of over 560 orgainsations. Rick has long campaigned for government recognition of and support for the games industry.

Rob Murray

Talent Attraction Manager, Dovetail Games Rob manages the recruitment at Dovetail Games – finding great people to join our Development & Publishing Teams.