TIGA Celebrates 10th Birthday at Channel 4

By April 18, 2011 TIGA News

TIGA, the trade association representing the UK games industry, celebrated its 10th anniversary on Thursday 14th April. TIGA marked a decade of advancing the interests of the UK games industry with a party held at Channel 4’s Central London studios.

The event was attended by over 100 people from the companies that TIGA represents. The evening included speeches from TIGA CEO, Dr. Richard Wilson, Professor Carsten Maple, Pro Vice Chancellor of Research & Enterprise at the University of Bedfordshire, and TIGA Board members, John Chasey, President and Founder of Finblade, and Philip Oliver, CEO of Blitz Games Studios.

The anniversary coincides with another successful year for TIGA which saw the association awarded ‘Trade Association of the Year 2010’ by the Trade Association Forum. As well as this, TIGA’s membership increased by 47 per cent and they were finalists in the category of ‘Outstanding Organisation of the Year (SME)’ in the Chartered Management Institute’s Awards. TIGA also achieved Investors in People status – a standard obtained by just 1.3 per cent of all UK businesses.

TIGA is now well renowned for its lobbying of Government. At the March 2011 Budget it achieved an enhanced Small Firms R&D Tax Credit, worth around an additional £7 million to the UK video games industry per annum. They continue to lobby for Games Tax Relief, which would support economic growth and which would be revenue positive for HM Treasury.

The event was kindly sponsored by Autodesk and Escape Studios. Pam Bhandal from Autodesk commented on the star prize at the event, a copy of Autodesk Maya 2012:

“After scooping the star prize of a copy of Autodesk Maya 2012 at Thursday’s TIGA 10th birthday party, Crytek’s Managing Director Karl Hilton has very kindly given everyone else a second chance of winning this prize, donated by Autodesk. As Karl suggested, TIGA has picked another business card out of the hat and the second lucky winner is James Turner, Chief Executive of Two Way Media.””

Karl Hilton commented:
“Given the company’s existing investment in multiple seats of 3ds Max, Maya and Softimage across its various European studios, it seemed only fair to allow the prize to be won by another member. We were delighted that Two Way Media will be able to take advantage of this excellent prize.”

Tim Flett, Games Business Development Manager at Escape Studios, commented:
“We’re delighted to sponsor TIGA’s anniversary event and congratulate them on the great work they’ve achieved in the last 10 years. As a TIGA member, Escape is excited to be part of the games industry, and supports TIGA’s vision to make the UK the best place in the world to do games business.

Dr Richard Wilson, TIGA CEO, said:
“It was a fantastic way to celebrate our tenth anniversary. I would like to say a big thank you to our sponsors Autodesk and Escape Studios, to our members and to the whole TIGA team.

“TIGA has made great progress over the last 10 years. We have strengthened the video games industry’s political influence; achieved high levels of positive coverage about the UK industry; and delivered new and improved services for our members.

“Our achievements are a testament to the work of all involved with TIGA. As our membership continues to increase rapidly, TIGA is consistently at the forefront of ensuring the industry has strong representation on issues affecting the video games sector. We look forward to championing the sector’s interests for many years to come.””

Jason Kingsley, TIGA Chairman and CEO and Creative Director of Rebellion, said:

“The party was a huge success and an excellent way to mark ten years of TIGA. When TIGA was set up, we aimed to provide an independent voice for developers to ensure their views were truly represented to politicians and the media. We have succeeded in that task and we are now intent on advancing the interests of all games businesses, including developers, self-publishing developers, publishers, platform holders, outsourcers and education providers who support TIGA’s principles and who want to belong to an ambitious, dynamic and effective trade association.

“TIGA exists to serve its members’ interests. We are deeply honoured to have this responsibility. Over the next ten years TIGA will continually improve its processes, products and services to meet the needs of its expanding membership.

“On behalf of the TIGA board, I would like to thank all of our members and friends for supporting TIGA.””

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