Onboarding the Next Generation of Games Talent | Develop:Brighton 2024

Good to call. Cool. All right, we will get started. I know it's uh Thursday morning. Um I'll maybe try and slow down the first bit and then let people catch up. We'll see how it goes. But uh thank you all for joining. Um yeah, I'll get into it. So I'm going to be talking about onboarding the next generation of games talent. Um, my name is Nigel Tracy. I'm the co-founder of the brand My Matter. So, we are a storytelling brand and that essentially means we we talk about stories. We make stories as well. So, we make manga style comic books. Uh, I'm not going to talk about that. I could do a whole talk about that, but um here to talk about uh young people. So, yeah, we make stories. We also do a lot of uh workshops with young people, creative workshops, whether it's

comic story, comic storytelling, game design, uh esports. So, engaging young people using storytelling mediums like comics like video games. We've been doing some form of work experience for a number of years at our events. So, we do games events, we do uh different types of events. We go to places like Comic-Con and last year we started the first steps of our work experience uh program called Showrunners. And one thing I should also say it'll be relevant uh later is that our our brand uh I promised I wouldn't talk about comics and now I'm uh immediately talking about our comics. But uh our our brand is set within a television network. So our uh comics tell the story of different shows uh on the network. So just to give some context, it'll also be relevant later. And then we also do the video game diversity campaign, do I look like a gamer? Uh so I was here last year talking about diversity in game

narrative. And we do a bunch of events and activities over the year with the aim of challenging the stereotype of the word gamer and showcasing pathways into the industry, into the culture for young people. young people from diverse backgrounds uh like myself. So just to give a heads up of what I'm going to talk about. So this is the the the summary uh up front. Uh what I'm looking to do is bring together some of our experiences in working with young people either in our workshops um in particularly in our work experience program and talk about different aspects of what we have learned uh as an organization as a team. So I want to talk about some of the things that we've learned as it relates to like the hurdles that we've seen in attracting and retaining talent. A lot of this is focused on Gen Z, Gen Alpha. Uh like I said, we do workshops from as young as sort of upper primary

uh a lot of secondary uh college and then university as well. So yeah, I've seen a seen a few things as as daunting as that sounds. So and some certain patterns start to uh emerge. Then also talk about like the ecosystem. So, not just what we're doing, but what we've seen other people doing and how it can all benefit getting young diverse talent into the games industry. And then along the way, hopefully a able to provide some things to think about, some takeaways, whether you're a studio, whether you are an aspiring professional looking to get into the industry. And I know I've met uh both categories at develop. So this is going to be a this is going to be me telling a story. So as a storytelling brand uh when I do these talks I like to frame them in a in a context of a story. So I'm not going to throw a bunch of like stats. I want to talk about like the young people that we have dealt with and what we've learned

from them. But I'm going to start with that because uh this struck me as talking to people like we talk to a lot of young people who are studying some form of game design in college or university and very keen to get into the games indry very keen to get into places uh like develop and and talk to people like yourselves but it comes with a a bit of like a reality check as well. So, I was looking I got this from uh games industry.bbeers who I think got this from hit marker talking about 5.9% of entrylevel roles from the jobs posted in the first half of 2022 which is in some ways alarming. Um it does say there's a big hurdle when we talk about hurdles to attract talent. It's difficult for young people and whenever I talk to them I always try and be optimistic because they're not about to go into not all of them are about to

go into jobs right that moment. Um but be realistic in terms of the the difficulty. I think part of the thing I've seen with education and and that path into the industry is that there's a lot of young people who are without sounding too negative are under the depression that there is a job waiting for them um when they finish their studies and obly we know that the games industry is in a difficult stretch at the moment and even without that it is difficult for young talent to get in. So that's something I've had to kind of adjust expectations but I'll talk a bit more that about that later. The other part and sort of more relevant to what we've got what we're talking about here at this conference is the work inner workings of the games industry which to my surprise even for those who are studying game design the games making process remains a relative black box so I'm quite stunned actually by the number of young people I speak to and don't

know about the process of making games don't necessarily know about the events um that are happening that they can go to that they can learn from and it's it stuck in my mind and I've tried to understand why and I I feel what I've got to is that for your average young person their the main point of contact for games is essentially marketing it's them they're all consumers so I always go to a workshop I say you know we make comics we do games events And all the time hands go up for those people who play games. So they're all very familiar being consumers. But when it comes to being producers, either knowing they can be producers or knowing the steps, there are much fewer hands that go up. And it's yeah, it's come to my realization that it's not necessarily it's not always their fault. there's an element of responsibility there where

yeah games are shown to them in the form of in the form of marketing in the form of trailers new releases things that things that they can consume not so much what they can do to get into the industry so I feel that's one of the things that as a as a brand through our activities we try and do and that's something that we can do more of as a as a collective in terms of showing where the steps are what the process is and where the steps are to get to them. And then another barrier that I've uh that I've come across is this kind of uh idea that you need experience to get experience. So I I know for games jobs there's often a requirement of needing x number of years experience in a game specific uh environment uh to qualify for this job. For a lot of young people, they don't have that. they you're unlikely to get that coming out of college, coming out of university. But that's not to say they don't have skills that aren't

relevant. So in terms of another barrier that becomes something that turns away a lot of young talent where they feel that they need a very specific set of skills or experiences. sorry very specific set of experiences that they don't have and don't know where to get and then where they get through when they do get through the door it's a question of is this for me and one of the things that keeps coming up in I think actually there's a talk right now about imposter syndrome and thinking or believing that you belong in this space for from our experiences with with young people is very much that's very much top of mind in terms of do I belong here particularly whether it's do I have the right skills do I do I look uh like I should belong here so as we go into challenges of like on boarding and also retaining talent um there's a few different areas that we've seen are

relevant to young people and something to keep in mind so whether yeah whether it's DI EDI Jedi which is a new one I've learned recently it does matter The idea of diversity in all its forms does matter for this generation and it perhaps matters more than it has in previous generations. And I think what's important to note, what I've found is this idea of diversity beyond uh the marketing um aspect of it. So I think for a lot of young people there's an idea of wanting to belong in an environment and belong in an environment means knowing that the people there understand you as an individual and not just as a tickbox to use that phrase. So, as part of our campaign, we talk a lot around diversity, whether it's ethnic diversity, uh, gender diversity, uh, neurodeiversity, or just different experiences and how that translates into

the experience of a young person, a new starter at an organization once they do make it through the door. And it's not just the on-screen diversity. I know there's a lot of discussion around bringing different characters into games, different playable characters, different stories, and that's all good. That's something that we also talk about. But I think what's perhaps more meaningful is the idea of offscreen diversity. So, not just having the characters that you play, but the people who make the characters make the stories. And it's important to think about when recruiting for talent to find that that talent in different spaces. So, for example, if you're talking about creating games that take the player through different cultures, through different um different types of characters, it's also important to have those people making the game that reflect those uh cultures, those perspectives that you have in the game. And that gives an opportunity. So I feel

when we're talking about like attracting young talent, there's an opportunity there to bring different skills in, different experiences that can help improve the games uh the games that we play. So another uh aspect is this idea of of work life balance and yeah just the idea of like even though games is is a passion is something that we all in this room in this building enjoy doing. It's almost like a dream job for a lot of young people. But then it is a job and it's something that we have to remind them. I'm sure uh you might have done that in some form about the balance of between work and the rest of your life. And I feel feel for this generation that's coming up, it's a case of what has been hard for us to learn has come easy for them. So there's things that previous generations have

struggled through whether it's mental health which is something that is being talked about uh more and more or just that general work life balance that we have I say um yeah so we have talked about maybe gone without uh it being top of mind but it's now an expectation for that new generation. So then there comes a case of what do you do to ensure that people aren't uh working uh more than they have to that their mental health is being taken care of that their well-being is being addressed because that kind of thing is expected from the younger generation. Then the other aspect to this is the creative freedom and we've seen this a lot with the young people that we work with on our work experience program. So I'll talk a bit more about it uh towards the end but I think what I've seen is that they want to come and know that what they do has an impact and being a small organization we've been able to give that and we've seen the difference

it makes in people when they've been able to have the responsibility put on them um in terms of the final output whether it's our one of our events whether it's uh a comic that we're working on and I've tried to take some aspect of feedback that we've got uh from our young people that we've worked with. Uh when I was putting this together, I did think about trying to clean up the grammar uh in this. So, it's not perfect grammar. Um but I thought I'd just like leave it as it as it came. But this has came from one of the uh people on our showrunners program who highlighted in their feedback the aspect of being involved in um in the work that we're doing and having a goal to reach for. So uh a sense of meaning beyond the specific work that they were doing and I feel that's something that I've seen them react to in a positive sense. Uh so one of the things that we aim to do is explain what they are working on but

also why they are working on. Um so as a brand we have a certain uh certain set of values and certain why around the work that we do. So for us it's about using storytelling as a storytelling brand to develop creativity in others and people of all ages. So when they come on board they are essentially like told that they know the why to the work that they're doing. And I feel that makes all the difference into them understanding what they do and understanding the meaning uh behind what they do. Another aspect of working with uh past generation or future generations is feedback. And this is something along the way I've had to learn myself in terms of being able to manage young people. I've certainly had to learn about management myself. And one of the one of the big learnings for me personally is the need for feedback. And not just feedback when something has

been done wrong because I found I was uh good at doing that. Um but feedback when something is being done right and there's that aspect of I said earlier about sort of belonging and of knowing why you're doing this of knowing that you are in the right place. So we had a young person and she was working in marketing. So her interest was in marketing and she helped us develop u a sense of our value. So she helped us go through a process. uh she actually inputed on the process and what we found towards the end of her uh time with us is that about halfway through she didn't know she was doing a good job and that struck me because she was doing a great job and that's the thing she was very very quiet but like quietly competent and reliable in terms of the work she was doing but also the communication the way she went about her work is like very um is a very good start in terms of what she was doing. Um but I didn't feed back

that she was doing a good job enough so that she was confident uh in the work she was doing. So that's something I had to learn and in other young people that we have we've had through our program is something that's come up a few times of them wanting to know that is this uh a good job? What am I doing right? And of course if things aren't being done uh up to standard then uh showing them the right way. So it's that constructive feedback which is so important. So what we've had to do is put in processes to ensure that on a regular basis we're feeding back on the work they're doing so they don't feel lost in a sense. They don't feel lost. They know they're going in the right direction. So that's some of the things that we've picked up on in terms of importance for young people to consider when in a working professional environment. Uh what I also want to talk about is some of the strengths of young people and some of the things to think about in terms of why we should be why we should care about bringing in future

generations, young talent, diverse talent. So they're your customers. So we make games and I feel the video games industry is in in some sense in a in a great place of having such a powerful connection with the audience who could be uh like I say going from consumer to producer. So the young people they play games and like I mentioned when we go to workshops everyone plays some form of games. Usually there's the ones that come up. Fortnite, Roblox, uh GTA, even though um most of them aren't old enough, but I don't judge. Um but they definitely play games and that brings a sense an insight uh that they have cuz they play games, their friends play games, they have uh thoughts and opinions on games and all those could be used to inform the games that are made in future. So it's important to keep in mind. Uh

other aspect is they come with a create creativity and open-mindness. Uh so I've had to learn this again a lot of this is me learning about the way we work and what we can learn. So we've had many many uh young person on our work experience bring their bring their ideas and I always say to them don't be afraid to bring your ideas. uh it doesn't mean we're going to do all of them because it doesn't always work like that but uh we always want to hear them and we always want to that open line of communication. So in doing that that's helped them feel more comfortable in voicing what they see as right way to do things what this is the wrong way to do things. Uh a recent example is we had someone um in our events coordination. So we do our own events. We go to events like Comic- Con like I said earlier. And she looked at the she looked at our website. She

looked at our social media and uh she said to me um can I voice an opinion? She said I don't want to be out of turn but can I voice an opinion? And I said yeah sure go ahead. and she said, "I I don't know how old you are, but I feel like the website is very millennial." Um, and I said, "That's because I'm a millennial." Um, but she comes from a different generation. So, after uh that bruised to my ego, um, we went ahead and talked about some of her feedback in terms of how we can better do our social media, what we can do to improve the website going forward. And since then she's come up with a lot more a lot more ideas. But that is the point. The point is for them to bring their creativity uh their perspective of doing that and for that to inform the process of what we do uh where it makes sense. Uh and I feel we've been able to shape our processes to accommodate those um those thoughts,

that feedback. And like I say, it doesn't always all get done. Uh I try and be as transparent and honest as I can where some things we do because it has to be done that way at least for that time. Um but where things can change always open to um new ideas and a bit more uh feedback where we've seen like the impact of the way we work being having a positive approach. So this idea of being able to work independently uh and having that boost their confidence such that they become more responsible in the work that they do. So we've we've seen that given the space to fail. It does mean some does mean some people do fail but that's what the feedback is for. But what it also means is that it gives them space uh to learn to to develop and to show what they can do. So in this case, this was someone who maybe

wasn't or was more used to being told where to go and what to do coming from schooling system and we were able to cuz our work experience is sort of part remote um part in person. Uh so we're able to give them their own space while still checking in on them, but give them their own space to manage the time that they had to get the work that they were given uh done in the time that we needed it. And again, sometimes it means, particularly early on, they don't get things right all the time. But what it does mean is that once they realize again the why, what they're doing, and especially working with others, um, they do step up or they have that ability to step up. And all that is to say that I found that this generation sometimes gets a a bad rap. Sometimes they being seen as not as reliable, um, not as capable, but they are they can be more capable than you think. Now, like I said, I deal in

stories. So, we're a storytelling brand. Uh, so I always like to uh give examples from stories that I've seen uh that I've learned along the way. And uh we recently talked about uh this film Kubo and the Two Strings. I don't know if anyone's seen it. Uh it's really good stopotion animation. And there's a scene in this which really encapsulates what I feel the different generations uh or past generations see for young people. I'll play the clip and then uh explain on the other side.
Your conversation is over. Monkeys don't swim.
Not to worry. Monkey see me. Monkey do.
How long have you been waiting to say that?
Ever since I met you. What were we grown up conversationing about?
No. You're ridiculous. You're just absolutely ridiculous. Ridiculous. Crossing the lake is a ridiculous idea. It's not your fault. There's no sense left in your head.
I think I resent that. I may not know everything.
Anything.
Anything, but I do know Kubo is more

capable than you think he is. You're being a tiny bit overprotective here.
You're being a lot overprotective here.
It's my job to make sure Kubo is safe. And that is not safe. You You are not safe. Kub was just a child
and an incredibly gifted one. He just saved our lives.
Yes, he's very powerful, but he still has much to learn.
What?
Well, fast lurker.
Did you know you could do that? show off. So yeah, so this is a film about um a kid Kubo who has to find these pieces of armor to um fight off like a evil

spirit. I won't get too into it, but along the way, uh, he has these two characters, Monkey and Beetle, and they sort of fight, they do this whole like there's this whole parenting thing going on, but they fight over whether to protect him or to let him do his own thing. And in that scene, they while they're arguing about whether to um let him be himself, he's off making this incredible uh boat that they use to cross the sea. And I felt that's such a great analogy for some of the conversations that I've seen that often talk about the young people um forgetting that they are themselves capable of great things if given the opportunity. And we've certainly seen that uh in our work. Again, I go back to this one um young person who did a great job with our with our values because I had a process. Um so I should say my background is in engineering. Uh so

actually I'm very much well we've been doing this for a long time but at the beginning is very much uh this is not my area so I'm learning everything as we go. Um but she was able to I think she studied psychology something. So she was able to bring a process that I knew nothing about and um have a better go of extracting the data that we had collected from people from surveys uh to pull out the values that we now use today. So it was a case of surprised me definitely surprised me um by a case of giving her that space and she made something really great but that's not to say it's all good. So I wanted to give a bit of balance uh in this. So there are definitely areas for improvement. Um are there any teachers in in Okay, cool. This might be for you. This is your bit. Uh so there are definitely areas of improvement when it comes to uh future generations, Gen Z, Gen Alpha, uh coming into the professional workplace. We've seen them uh in our organization and I've talked

to a lot of people in games in other uh in other areas and yeah, there's room for improvement. So I'll go through a few of these. Uh I should also say I should have said this at the uh at the top that uh as well as being the co-founder of my mada uh I'm also on the advisory committee for the children's media conference uh and advisory group for young baft um and in the well up until uh the election the mayor's London mayor's cultural leadership board and in all cases uh it provides me with a great opportunity to talk to people who I make content for young people, work with young people in some way. Uh so as well as I've given I'm given the perspective from our uh experiences, uh a lot of this is also informed by conversations from people in in different industries as well as games. So with that being said, uh some of the areas for

improvement. So technical aptitude. Um, it's interesting to see that a lot of young people, particularly those that are studying, I take games, studying game design, still miss out, not not only miss out, like I said, on some of the processes uh in games. So, they might not have a clear understanding of how games are made, the different steps that it takes, but also miss the the wealth of resources that they have around them outside of school, outside of education. Um I often see a bit of I say like tunnel vision in terms of where they can go to get information once they know those that do they can take advantage um of it. Um just yesterday I was talking to someone that um who's co-founded an animation studio and he was talking about a an intern that they had who was all selftaught uh came into their company and has been there for I think he's like 5 years and he's still there now but all selftaught never learned uh animation from school but

from YouTube videos and things like that and yeah it just it just strikes me that there's something missing in terms of being able to sometimes it's like self motivated to find information but that link between the information they have around them and the will to go and get it. Uh so that's one of the things in terms of the the gaps um in production like the game production but also the gaps in I say like storytelling. So an example we had someone with us who was uh very keen for uh very keen to do video and content editing. Uh so he was familiar with the tool. So he did have some technical aptitude. He was familiar with uh Premiere Pro I think he used. Uh and we do a lot of content. So we do like live streams on Twitch. We do a podcast. Uh so some of the tasks I gave him were related to taking the content and making clips. But what struck us um

myself and my colleague Tazzy as we spoke to him is that while he had the the technical aptitude he he could use the tools he was missing the a bit of like the why. So the the best clips to take and why he should take uh certain moments or why he shouldn't be repeating uh certain things that were said in clips. Um so just just that understanding of yes the technical aptitude to a certain extent um but also what to get for our brand and what makes sense in that s uh in that case. So there's the technical side of things and as well as the technical side. This for me is is a big one and I feel almost in some ways bigger than the technical ones because you can uh when it comes to it you can learn you can go somewhere and learn the technical side of things but the professionalism and soft skills and this for me is the one that will impact a lot of young people moving making that move into a professional world of work.

the things like communication uh timekeeping um how they uh how they are self-starting and being able to manage their own time. So some people get it uh not everyone does. So we've seen a lot of cases where uh being able to communicate across email is is not there. um being able to communicate that even basic things like you're you're running late or what time commitments you've you've got or you can make it's it's lacking in in some cases. Again, not everyone um but in some cases lacking. So what we try and do is give them a grounding when they start uh to set our expectations in terms of how we work, the tools that we use to communicate and and how they can integrate into that. Um but also try and make it general because the thing for us is that uh what they learn from us they can go um anywhere and apply it transferable skills. Um but definitely

that ability to work into a in a team environment um effectively uh sometimes needs to be improved upon and also this idea of thinking about the the company and not yourself. So we had a couple instances, this one in particular, where we had asked a young person to do some research into the the cost of uh materials for an event uh project that we were working on. And after having a discussion uh with them, we realized that um they were looking at things as expensive for them and not thinking about it as expensive for a company. was a quite a funny realization at the time. So just the idea of like you're not working on something for yourself is not your money being spent, it's the company's money. But as an example, just the idea of like going from uh an

education environment where it is about what you do and uh very much individual to go into a a team sort of organization business environment where now it's a considerations about what the company needs and what the company resources are. Um not that we have a bunch of money or anything but you know um so all that points to what I feel is needed this idea of training and mentorship and there's a lot of good work being done organizations I mentioned uh young baft have their uh young game designers uh initiative u organizations like nextgen skills academy that we've worked with into games that we've worked with and I know limit break have their uh mentorship program as well. So I feel that's all important and this is where I go into some steps as um as an industry we can keep in mind in terms of how to

deal with this new generation coming forward so they can best be placed into the industry uh and bring themselves into into the industry. Uh it's also a bit self- serving uh here. So the first thing to keep in mind is as a games industry, you do not need to solve all the problems. And this is something that I always try and remind people of. So it's not on any one organization individual to solve all the problems of this whole pipeline. I feel that's very key because we all have something that we are good at, an area of expertise. We certainly have areas that we're good at and areas that we're not so good at. So it is about those partnerships. So while it's not on all of us to solve uh all the problems uh we all do have a responsibility um to have some part of the answer uh in this challenge and I feel that this is um a quote this is not from one of our showrunners but um yeah this I like this quote because I

feel it's the the importance of working with young people and making sure that they are ready to go into the workplace case is critical because they are the ones that are in future going to become the senior leaders. So it's important to to get them to ensure that they're ready to work to ensure that they're ready to work for specific companies because yeah, if we don't educate them, if we don't give them that opportunity to to gain that commercial experience, and that's the important part, the commercial experience, we're going to lose a lot of capability in the industry. And for me, it reminds me of um so like this uh like this one of our work experience said, I I am a millennial. though. I don't know if anyone remembers a game called lemmings.
So, there's this game called Lemmings. Um, if you're of a certain age, you'll remember, but basically, you got these lem lemmings that have to get to one side to the other. And if you you have

to basically build the structure for them to get to the other side, and if you don't, they essentially uh die. So, it's a bit it's a bit grim, but I do feel it's an apt analogy because what we've got is a generation of young people who are coming out of school, coming out of college, coming out of university, and if we don't train them properly, if we don't make sure that they can get back uh get over to the other side, uh we will lose them. So, the way that we have to engage them, the way that we have to uh develop them is different than it has been done before. But it is crucial to ensure that we've got that talent that like I say can go on uh and become those senior leaders in future. Uh so to round up with some practical steps um for onboarding future talent. I feel some of the things that we need to do is expose the process of making games uh beyond the marketing so that the next generation understands the

different steps understands where they where their skills can be best placed in that and don't just see games as just as something to play obviously we all enjoy playing games uh and don't just see games as coding and art and nothing else. So I feel that's important also important to focus on the skills wherever they come from. So in our interactions with young people whether it's workshops whether it is uh our work experience I'm always mindful of not to tell anyone that they can or should do a specific job. Um what we're keen to do is pull out the skills and tell them where they could be applied. Uh and I feel that's for us and where that's a better approach because it doesn't necessarily limit them. Um particularly in an area where a job that is here today may not be tomorrow and we don't want them to feel that if this if it's not there they can't do anything. So it's very much a skills but back to what I was saying earlier about this the idea

of you have to get a certain set of experience to get into games. um maybe if we focus on the skills and the personnel personalities uh it might broaden the the net so to speak. So we talk a lot about diversity in games through our campaign. Um but it is important as well as a moral case for diversity. There is a a business case for it as well because games are stories. We all want better games. We want better stories and stories are about getting different perspectives, playing different perspectives. So it is important to cultivate that diverse workforce to encourage that young generation to not only get here but stay here feel they belong here so they can bring that different perspective into the games that we're making. Um personal one for me is to think about the ecosystem and not charity. So I often get sort of positive uh responses

or people saying uh I'm I'm giving back and I always accept that. Um I appreciate the positive feedback but I don't want people to see what we do as charity. It's more of an investment an investment in the ecosystem and the future of creative industries. So us spending time with young people is about Yeah. is about making sure that they're fully prepared to enter this experience, not just doing a nice thing so that we can feel good at the end of the day. So if we think about the ecosystem and where we're best placed to serve that uh ecosystem, I think we'll all benefit from that. Um so yeah, so all that like I said came from some of our discussions, a lot of our talks um and workshops and then our showrunners work experience program. Uh so just to round off it is about creating meaningful opportunities to develop commercial experience. So by working on our comics our events they get gain that experience that can

transfer into other areas and from um we started this last year so something we're continuing to develop. It's uh you consider it like an alpha is like an alpha version at the moment but uh as we go we do try and evaluate get feedback from them uh from the young people that go. So it is something that we've seen some positive impacts here. Uh although I will I even though this is uh real feedback I will question the sufficiently supported. One of the things I've learned is that um I think one of the feedback or multiple feedback that's come back is that because I'm quite busy um it's sometimes hard to get hold of me. So that's something I need to keep in mind as well. But uh by and large they do feel sufficiently supported by what we're doing. And then like I said in the same way that we don't tell people what they should and should do um in terms of roles um we always feel it's important to understand the individual motivation. So some of the things I was saying

earlier are about making people feel like an individual like their individual needs are met. So we do something where we map their we use a process known as motivational maps to understand the individual motivations what motivates them in a workplace setting and then we map that to different areas different profiles um personality profiles. So we know uh all by the way all these names are sort of branded because like I said at the beginning our network our brand is set within a television network. So our characters and stories or that so we've come up with TV related uh profiles. Um but the important thing is that we know who are the natural leaders who are more actionorientated who are those support um those detail oriented support workers uh who are the more energetic the more social ones and who are those leaders who like to support people. So once we know that then we can better tailor our

program but then we provide that information to the individual so they can go uh beyond our program uh and take that knowledge with them and we found that it helps them find their sense of place uh within the working um working environment but ultimately it is about giving them some alter autonomy and freedom to fail. I always say I describe our work experience to um like teachers and careers leads that it's like manage failure. Um so it's given them that space to fail uh to do something to maybe fail but to understand why they failed and to improve and they'll be better for that. Uh they don't always appreciate it um but I feel in the long term um it improves. So um that's just about it. So if anyone wants to yeah talk to me I will be about uh for the day. Uh there's definitely ways that you can get involved in what we're doing. Um but also yeah just to chat I am around uh all day. We have different options.

So we work with some organizations in terms of providing talks. Um we also talk to organizations about how they can engage uh with young people as well. So feel free to come and find me. I will be wandering the halls throughout the day. Um but other than that, thank you. If there are any questions now, I don't know if we have time, but if there are any questions now, I can take questions or you can find me uh around the day and I can't see the audience cuz these lights are really effective. There you go.
Was that all well explained and no questions? Oh, good. Oh, good. I'm interested in some of for young people especially racially diverse young people the ins that you were mentioning you were saying there's young bafters there's a young what what were the four ones you mentioned about four

oh um so I mentioned uh so young baft have a couple initiatives one in particular is the young game designers um initiative so it's where young people aged uh 10 to 18 can design develop games uh that are judged and they go to a showcase event. Um it was last weekend, no this Yeah, this weekend just gone. So there's that. Uh there's NextGen Skills Academy, great organization that work a lot with colleges in terms of providing um remote and inerson work experience opportunities and otherwise connecting them with industry. Um into games uh do a similar thing in terms of providing live briefs set by uh companies in in specifically in games. NextGen do animation, VFX and games into games specific to games. Uh and then uh Limit Break are a mentor organization. So they pair up aspiring talent uh with mentors in the games industry and yeah just give them that. I think it's like six months

of support of uh follow-ups and one-to-one talks and events.
Thank you. Also, do you know about the creative mentor network? Oh,
I don't.
They they do some work in Brighton, so I think they might be interested. Maybe I'll talk to you after.
Thank you.
I learned something as well. Cool.
Oh, we got Oh, time's up. I'm giving giving a signal. But yeah, you can you can find me uh loitering around for the rest of the day. But thank you