New industry conference will provide practical advice and inspiration to start-ups, existing studios and aspiring entrepreneurs in the UK games industry
TIGA, the trade association representing the UK games industry, will host the Start-Up, Scale-Up & Grow Conference this Spring – a one-day event aimed at providing support, advice and inspiration to start-ups and studios looking to scale up and expand.
The conference will take place on Thursday April 3rd at the home of TIGA charity partner The Passage in London and will host over 25 speakers discussing key issues tackling the obstacles to launching, expanding and growing a studio, including:
- Raising investment
- Claiming the Video Games Expenditure Credit
- Recruiting and retaining a highly skilled team
- Navigating the UK’s immigration system
- Lessons in leadership and management
- Advantages of outsourcing and co-production
- Best practice in marketing
- The opportunities presented by AI
- Role of mentoring in entrepreneurship
The first expert speakers announced include:
- Chris Kingsley CBE, CTO & Co-Founder, Rebellion
- Gemma Brown, COO, Dovetail Games
- Chris McCourt, Investment Director, Mercia Ventures
- Joanna Haslam, Design Director, Snap Finger Click
- Nathalia Garcia, Fractional CMO
- Salman Shurie, Founder and Game Designer, Gesinimo Games
- Professor Christopher Headleand, Head of Department, Sugi (Digital, Tech, Innovation and Business)
- Laurence Keir-Thomas, Director and Solicitor, Fragomen LLP
- Julia Kenny, Head of Console Partnerships, Headup
- Astrid Refstrup, Developer Relations and Business Development, Wings
- Felix Wong, Partner, Lvl Up Partners
- Luke Thomas, Managing Director, Plus Accounting
Additional speakers will be announced over the coming weeks.
Tickets to the Start-Up, Scale-Up & Grow Conference are FREE for TIGA members..
Non-members’ tickets are priced at just £59 as part of our Early Bird offer ending February 26th (£73 full price).
Service provider tickets are priced at £250.
Tickets include access to the full-day of conference sessions, lunch, refreshments, networking throughout the day, plus a free copy of TIGA’s new Start-Up, Scale-Up & Grow Guide.
Tickets are available at: https://tiga.org/tiga-start-up-scale-up-and-grow-conference
Dr Richard Wilson OBE, CEO of TIGA, said:
“TIGA’s focus is to make the UK the best place in the world to develop video games. In addition to campaigning for our industry in the corridors of power and enhancing games education, TIGA aims to enable more studios to start-up, scale-up and grow.
The UK is a great place to start-up a games business, but growing is difficult, especially for independent studios. TIGA’s research reveals that 53 per cent of all studios founded between 2008 and 2018 did not survive to 2023. Of those studios that endure, many stay small, with 78 per cent of all UK games studios employing four or fewer people.
“The TIGA Start-Up, Scale-Up & Grow Conference will provide unrivalled advice, information and inspiration to studios seeking to scale-up and grow and so support the wider video games industry.”
Founded in 1980, The Passage provides practical support and a wide range of services to help transform the lives of people experiencing, or at risk of experiencing homelessness. Guided by their Vincentian values, The Passage offers their clients resources and solutions to prevent or end their homelessness for good. The charity runs a modern Resource Centre in London, helping people to find routes to employment, benefits and stable accommodation; four residential projects, outreach and health services and homelessness prevention schemes. For more information or to get involved visit www.passage.org.uk.