Cursor's Jan Storgards on creating a passionate community of start-ups

uh hello everyone I hope you have enjoyed the program so far it is great pleasure to be here in front of you all guys my name is Jan Stuarts and I'm the head of the games in ICT community development program over the past last two years a bit more than that we have uh accelerated over 50 startups and hundreds of ideas of individuals in the game industry as you have uh heard this morning that there's so much we have done so far most as my colleagues we were talking about a lot of the actual content and accents that we have been doing so I thought that I might actually talk about about the Community Development that we have been doing I'm really excited about all the access activities we have done here and it has

been a great pleasure to see the progress and the improvement from the start to this end of today so let me start with the story which happened to me this weekend so these two girls are my lovely daughters obviously Elisa is now 11 years old and Patricia on the right side 10 years ago or 10 years old I'm a proud father of course and I'm very proud that they are very good at school they speak already for international languages they do a lot of different type of sports and they're very International and such uh anyways you know all parents now and then ask their children that what do they want to do when they grow up grow old you know okay so I did ask them without any pressure telling them to do what to do they were talking about video

games they create passion the idea what they want to do when they they become older they is to develop games I mean they don't know really yet at all how to develop games but obviously it makes me very happy happy that I make them work a bit of course I ask that okay so if you want to develop Games you start with the idea with them with the great game design so Patricia younger girls she came up with this like immediately in a couple of minutes my little world I want to develop something that I can take care of uh care of pets and grow them probably nothing so original but it's a starting point for of all of us but actually want to promote gaming industry to the next Generations to come

by the way I'm also sure that your children will will like when you give tasks like this because game design is so much fun well anyways what's the the story behind this is that it made made me think about the future what's to come in the in the games industry there will be so much to innovate learn and to do great things in the future too it's one of those one of those Industries a creative industry where people's minds heart and body are all involved at the same time the great experiences to people heart what is this all about so why why do we spend hundreds and thousands of hours not sleeping nights just to think about what would be the next big thing it's it's we all have our background but I think this is the something that

drives us to to do do mad things and that is to develop games um it's our feelings in the end that I'm actually actually motivates us and and to spend time with with this game development however we need other skills too it's about the mind we have the heart the passion what we do but there is also the mind our creative minds would not work with our skills and knowledge to develop games and The Business and I think we are the one of the best places in the world to get a well-educated and trained around this team we should appreciate and I know you guys all appreciate it but the same things doesn't happen abroad in many places we are very privileged here in Finland that we the state the different Financial parties supports our our

purposes and our our passion to the game industry we can even talk about it publicly and openly with the real Words which doesn't happen in in many places yet continuous education participating trainings learning new technologies is actually built in in our hearts and minds and we are all our very proud and curious about the new developments okay so but what is the third part of this great recipe to do stuff great stuff I call it party it's our physical and mental existence that that makes things to happen it's also that the infrastructures behind the people the scenes the physical spaces tools Etc and everything that we use to to make things happen uh well I must say that everyone probably knows that inactivity is one of

those great problems that the modern society has been influencing to our lives on a daily basis in activity I mean inactivity not to move a lot of this discussed about this and unfortunately games are often to be blamed we all know that this is misunderstood games are very social like like children's play there is a lot of learning effects that's and in several ways to develop games that actually are used we are theoretically speaking fun and enjoyment is also useful anyways um I also hoped you guys we all we would promote healthy and balanced lifestyle that does include exercise together with game playing

we we actually want to to have our pride Minds uh Pride minds and Bodies In Shape in the future too especially to our children of our children's the negative branding around gaming and connections to this this um this kind of problems is a matter of speaking about it you know healthy mind in a healthy body so please support all the programs that promote exercise and health living style in your game studios and all around you and the communities you are so what does this comp do so this is what we have been actually doing we have been creating a community with the spirit of Entrepreneurship it is all about people us working together opening our minds creating

games and ideas nobody has done before it is also being smart networking traveling a bit getting new ideas establishing great teams making friends going out and having a lot of fun and this is what we actually have been doing the past two two or two plus years it's creating a community of passionate people wanting to learn and develop better games better games Improvement we want to improve to better all the time that people like and enjoy so we're happy to share all our experiences thanks very much to all my colleagues and the partners and collaborators especially of those who are thinking of an incubator on acceleration program development around camera gaming whether National or International we would be very happy to assist you so along these years we have been quite successful but obviously made some some

mistakes too well I'm not going to go through all the mistakes have been made but if you come to ask me then I can tell you and we have learned a lot during this journey so what I want to do is to thank you everyone participating this program startups University and special mention obviously the European Union which always sometimes forgotten that they very much have helped us to build these programs there have been many organizations supporting our journey every campaign have been great positive towards our objectives and everything so we have built a real community and a great trust effort Network that we can use for the future we have all worked worked together very hard with the big heart it has been amazing through the past two plus years and there will be obviously

more coming soon so what it is about it's about hard hard mind and body that actually develops these better games and a lot of fun so even becoming a bit older don't stop playing play games not to grow old because that keeps us going thank you very much foreign