Ukie Hub Crawl 2021
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Session 1 : Starting Up & Business Basics

07 Jan 16:00 – 18:00
Week 1 will be focused on Starting Up & Business Basics and will consist of a series of talks educating people about setting up a games studio:

Speakers:

• Gavin Smith, Relationship Director, Barclays - Barclays Games team: Here to help
• Matt Frenchman, CEO & Co-Founder, Sugar - Starting a Business: Back to the Future
• Isabel Davies, Associate, Wiggin - Game Development: Common Legal Pitfalls For Start-Ups
• Kate Rhodes, Account Executive, S-Tech Insurance - Insurance basics for Start-Ups: What should you protect and why

Panel: 

• James Brooksby, CEO - Absolutely Games
• Jay Shin, Director, and Co-founder - Arrogant Pixel

Session 2: Building your Brand

20 Jan 16:00 – 18:00
Week 2 will focus on building a brand and raising the profile of a business and will cover:

• Branding
• Trademark and copyright
• IP
• Being inclusive
• Staff retention and perks
• Healthy balance
• Team building
• Training

Speakers:

• India Atkin, Trainee Solicitor, Wiggin - Content Clearance for Games: Top Tips

• Teodora Miscov, Marketing & PR Manager, Waste Creative - What makes them tick, makes them click: 5 Neuromarketing Insights You Can Action Immediately

• David Taylor, Benefits Consulting Director, Connor Broadley - Using Benefits Strategy to build a brand

Panel:

• Oscar Guardiola, Marketing Lead - ustwo Games

• Andrew Hogan, Chief Marketing Officer & Co-Founder - Intorqa

Session 3: Talent and Recruitment

27 Jan 16:00 – 18:00
Week 3 focuses on talent and recruitment and the different ways a business can find staff and will cover:

• Internships
• Graduate programmes
• Agencies
• Fairs
• Salary benchmarking
• Contractors v employees

Speakers: 

• Ian Goodall, Managing Director, Aardvark Swift Recruitment & GradsinGames: Modern Recruitment Strategy
• Catrin Jones, Operations Manager, Skillsearch - Funky cats and their feisty stats: How to retain staff
• Cerys Aicken& Ross Lorey, Recruiters, EA - Why Internships Work

Panel: 

• Andrew Smith, Managing Director, - Spilt Milk Studios

• Nisha Minhas, Head of HR and Operations - Roll7

Session 4:
Essential Tech

03 Feb 16:00 – 18:00
Week 4 is a look at the different products available that can help you to run your business effectively and will cover:

• Middleware
• Licenses
• Software applications
• Virtual offices
• New tech/products
• Cloud storage

Speakers:

• Micheal Williams, Chief Product Officer, and Co-Founder, Intorqa - Understanding threats in gaming

• Arni Birgisson, Developer Advocate, AWS Game Tech - Why Cloud for Games

• Olivier Wolff, CEO, SimpleCloud.io - Remote collaboration and flexible distributed teams is the future of Game development

Panel:

• Vicky Potts - Co-Founder, Production & Dev, Whitepot Studios
• James Dobrowski, Managing Director, Sharkmob 

Session 5: Managing Workloads

10 Feb 16:00 – 18:00
Week 5 takes a look at how to manage a project and the workload of a business's employees both effectively and efficiently and will look to cover:

• Project management
• Efficiency of work
• Product selection and lifecycle
• Minimum viable
• Scope versus money
• Q&A

Speakers:

• Nisha Valand, Programme Director, Tentacle Zone - Tentacle Zone Incubator

• Steve Stopps - Studio Development Director - Excalibur Games - Scope Control: The secret to making better games

• Chris Taylor, Head of PMO, Sumo Digital - Managing Workloads: Developing Video Games through a Pandemic

• Mel Phillips, Head of Studio, Silver Rain Games - Managing Workloads: Basic rules to structure your pipeline

Panel:

• Maxwell Scott-Slade, Game Director, Co-Founder - Glitchers
• Dan Bernardo, Founder - Playtra Games

Session 6: Building for your Players

17 Feb 16:00 – 18:00
Week 6 content is aimed at helping businesses understand how to build their games with their players/fans in mind and engaging with them, and will cover:

• UA
• UX
• Community management

Speakers:

• Arni Birgisson, Developer Advocate, AWS Game Tech - Benefits of Analytics
• David Gowans, Head of Creative Technologies, Barclays
• Bianca Sarafian, Community Manager, Mediatonic - Communities at scale: the good, the bad, and the good again

Panel:

• Simran Whitham, Head of Player Engagement, Milky Tea Studios
• Jemima Crow, Marketing and Community Manager, Auroch Digital 

Session 7: Getting Investment Ready

27 Feb 16:00 – 18:00
Week 7 will be focused on Getting Investment Ready. Join and listen to experts discuss the different ways to find and raise finance for a business along with how to pitch a game or business:

• Mid-stage investment
• Publishers
• Investors
• Pitching
• To scale or not

Speakers:

• Peter Lewin, Senior Associate, Wiggin - Publishing Agreement Pitfalls – Tips for Developers and Publishers

• Olivier Wolff, CEO, SimpleCloud.io - Remote collaboration and flexible distributed teams is the future of Game development

• Gavin Smith & Daniel Ford, Barclays - VGTR Funding

• Matt Frenchman, CEO & Co-Founder, Sugar - How do you raise VC money?

• John Foundling, Partner, Menzies - Funding your growth

• Nick Parker, Founder, Parker Consulting - Understanding different forms of investment and where to find it

Panel:

• Oscar Guardiola, Marketing Lead - ustwo Games

• Andrew Hogan, Chief Marketing Officer & Co-Founder - Intorqa

• Tomas Rawlings, Chief Executive Officer, Auroch Digital Ltd 

• Tara Ready, Co-founder, Loveshark

Session 8: Raising your Profile

03 Mar 16:00 – 18:00
Week 8 will be focused on Raising your Profile. Join and listen to experts discuss the different ways you can raise the profile of your business or game:

• Marketing
• PR
• Making a trailer
• Promoting business

Speakers:

• Alma Wishart, Client Development Director & Justin Sanders, Head of Production, Global - Building Fame

• Stefano Petrullo, Founder, Renaissance PR - how to pick up a PR agency?

• Adam Whyte, CEO, Edge - Today, everyone can be a creator; now, every business can harness the power of their influence

Panel:

• James Kaye - Director and co-founder - Big Games Machine

• Melissa Chaplin, Head of Client Strategy, Game if you are

• MJ Widomska, Founder and Creative Director, YRS TRULY

Session 9: Going Global

10 Mar 16:00 – 18:00
Week 9 will aim to help people understand how to take their game or business to the international market:

• International trade
• Trade shows and events
• Choosing a market
• Localisation

Speakers:

• Paul Bowman & Jonathan Paterson, Barclays - Going Global

• Juho Jantunen, Sr. Solution Architect, AWS Game Tech - Deploying Your Game Globally

• Loreto Sanz Fueyo, Senior Director Translation, PTW - New Markets and Localization ROI

• Nick Farmer, Partner, Menzies - Structuring global growth

• Michael Hart, Business Development Manager, Halo Financial - Navigating Currency Risk to Protect Bottom Line Profit and how to Increase your Revenue

Panel:

• Toby Evan-Jones, VP, Business Development, Codemasters

• Matt Murphy - CEO - Genba Digital

Session 10: Policy of Games

17 Mar 16:00 – 18:00
Week 10 will cover the policy surrounding video games. This will look to cover the following:

• Government
• Legislation
• Being responsible
• Trade body support

Speakers: TBC

Session 11: Looking After your Workforce

24 Mar 16:00 – 18:00
Week 11 will have content that looks to educate people on how to manage and improve their teams. It will look to cover the following:

• Large studio management
• Team management
• Accessing skills
• Diversity

Speakers:

• Marion Finnagan, Senior Business Development Manager, AWS Games Tech - Inclusion, Diversity & Equity – In It For The Long Haul

• Matt Law, Corporate Consultant, Connor Broadley - Balancing the wellbeing pillars

• Khally Saarman-Jones, Payload Studios - An indie perspective on supporting your team

Panel:

• Nina Collins, Production Manager, Auroch Digital Ltd.

• Cinzia Musio, Diversity & Inclusivity Advisor, Splash Damage

Session 12: Selling your business

31 Mar 16:00 – 18:00
Week 12 will cover things a business owner might want to consider later in life:

• Exit strategy
• IPO
• Long term finance
• Valuation

Speakers:

• Edward Lane & Mark Phillips, Harbottle & Lewis - Gearing Up For A Sale: How To Prepare Your Business (And Yourself)

• John Foundling, Partner, Menzies - How to sell your business

• Edward Lane & Mark Phillips, Harbottle & Lewis - Navigating A Sale: How It All Works (And The Key Pitfalls To Avoid)

• Richard Darlington, Director, Zeus Capital - Overview of Video Game Transaction Landscape

Panel:

• James Brooksby, Chief Executive Officer, Absolutely Games

• Paul Farley, Chief Executive Officer, Firestoke Games