TIGA Announces â’Scotland In Focusâ’ Event at the Scottish Parliament

By October 8, 2009 Press Releases

TIGA, the trade association representing the UK games industry, and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), today announced ‘Scotland In Focus’ an event to be held on October 28, 2009 at the Scottish Parliament.

‘Scotland In Focus’ will look in detail at the strength of the Scottish videogames industry and the challenges it faces with the aim of raising the profile of this crucial sector among Scottish Parliamentarians, Ministers, media and wider stakeholders.
The event is hosted by Joe Fitzpatrick, MSP for Dundee West and will be a panel discussion and networking event for Scottish videogame developers, Scottish Government and other relevant parties.

Speakers & panelists include:
• Richard Wilson, TIGA CEO
• Jackie McKenzie, NESTA, Head of Innovation Programmes Scotland
• Joe Fitzpatrick, MSP for Dundee West
• Colin MacDonald, Studio Manager, Real Time Worlds
• Colin Anderson, MD, Denki
• Jeff Meek, Managing Partner, French Duncan
• Paul Durrant, Dare to be Digital
• Blair Jenkins, Chair

Richard Wilson, TIGA CEO stated: “The Scottish development sector has a combined current turnover of approximately £20m and employs over 700 highly skilled, creative and talented staff. Dundee is the epicenter for the industry in Scotland. However there are also important games companies located across the country, including Edinburgh, Fife and Perthshire.

“This highly successful and growing economic sector has great potential. Yet it faces serious challenges: skills shortages, a brain drain of talented staff to development businesses overseas, and a competitive environment characterised by overseas governments giving substantial assistance to their games industries – typically in the form of tax breaks for games production – which puts Scottish developers in particular and the UK games industry in general at a serious competitive disadvantage.””

Jackie McKenzie, Head of Innovation Programmes Scotland for NESTA added: “Scotland has an extremely vibrant creative sector and we want to encourage its continued growth. By fostering collaboration between different creative industries we encourage innovation and this is crucial to Scotland’s long term economic growth.””

French Duncan, an independent firm of chartered accountants and business advisors, headquartered in Scotland, are sponsors ‘Scotland In Focus’. French Duncan has long been a partner of TIGA, with Jeff Meek, Head of Technology and Media at the firm’s Edinburgh branch also acting as TIGA treasurer.

Event Details:
What: Panel discussion and networking event
Where: Committee Room 2, Scottish Parliament, Holyrood
When: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 from 1pm-3pm
For more information on this event visit www.tiga.org or contact eva@tiga.org to reserve your place.

Ends

Notes to editors:

About TIGA
TIGA is the trade association representing the UK’s games industry. The majority of our members are either independent games developers or in-house publisher owned developers. We also have outsourcing companies, technology businesses and universities amongst our membership.

TIGA’s vision is to make the UK the best place in the world to do games business. We focus on three sets of activities: political representation, generating media coverage and developing services that enhance the competitiveness of our members. This means that TIGA members are effectively represented in the corridors of power, their voice is heard in the media and they receive benefits that make a material difference to their businesses, including a reduction in costs and improved commercial opportunities.

About NESTA
NESTA is the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, a unique and independent body with a mission to make the UK more innovative. NESTA’s Creative Economy Programme works with over 300 businesses across the creative industries and tests the best way for them to grow. Together with our internationally acclaimed research, NESTA’s body of work on innovation constitutes a strong evidence base on how to drive growth in the creative sector. www.nesta.org.uk

About French Duncan
French Duncan LLP is an independent Scottish firm of chartered accountants and business advisers. It offers a personal service with all the necessary expertise to advise a business as it grows. Its clients range from private ones, business start-ups, owners and managed businesses to multinationals, and the firm is supported by 23 partners and a total of 160 staff across six offices.

Jeff Meek, the firm’s Head of Media and Technology, has advised many games companies on their financial and business needs. His many client assignments include the development of business plans and financial models as well as raising funding from bank Business Angels and Venture Capital. He is a well-known expert in the area of Research and Development Tax Credits and has a 100% record of successful R&D Tax Credits claims, in many cases taking over a failed assignment from the existing advisers to deliver a successful outcome.

French Duncan has gained particular experience in a number of market sectors such as Creative Industries, particularly the Computer Games industry; Professional Services; Hotels and Leisure; all areas of Technology; professional practices; manufacturing; Property & Construction; and the Charities and Not-for-Profit sector.

Meek also lectures on Fundraising, Strategic, Royalty Auditing and Tax planning as they affect the Creative Industries. He is Treasurer to TIGA (the trade body which represents the UK Video Games Industry).

Over the past 12 months French Duncan has grown significantly and now has a large presence across the central belt of Scotland. French Duncan is the sole Scottish member of ‘Polaris International’, a global accountancy network, which allows it to support its clients wherever they are around the world. The network of independent accounting and business advisory firms has 200 members in over 90 countries throughout the world and a combined annual revenue of over US$400 million.

It offers a very wide range of traditional accountancy services giving an experienced and independent view to help clients achieve their goals. In particular, it offers an extensive outsourced business-processing service which includes: payroll bureau, book-keeping, management accounts and reporting and preparation of VAT returns.

French Duncan LLP, 56 Palmerston Place, Edinburgh, EH12 5AY, Tel: +44 (0)131 225 6366 Fax: +44 (0)131 220 1041. Contact: Jeff Meek, E-mail: j.meek@frenchduncan.co.uk, www.frenchduncan.co.uk.

For further information, please contact Eva Field, Tiga PR Manager on: 07814 039 983, or email eva@tiga.org.

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