Leamington Spa to host inaugural Interactive Futures games festival
The UK is set to welcome a brand new games festival after Interactive Futures unveiled its inaugural event to be held early next year - in Warwickshire.
Leamington Spa, home to one of the UK’s largest games clusters outside London, will host a range of sessions and opportunities across three days for games professionals, content creators and curators, game-players and families.
Interactive Futures will bring together the creative and games communities to showcase the latest developments and opportunities, uncover career and industry insights and reveal new releases. The event will celebrate the heritage and success of Leamington Spa’s games community, whilst also providing a platform for all UK-based games professionals to gain industry insights, network and collaborate.
Known in the industry as 'Silicon Spa,' the cluster employs over 2,500 highly-skilled individuals which equates to over 10% of the total UK games development workforce. The town has a history of over 30 years in the sector with local talent including key names such as Codemasters, SEGA and Ubisoft.
Among the first speakers to be announced are Dr Jo Twist, CEO of the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment, who will open the conference on Friday 1 February, and games journalist Jordan Webber, who will act as Conference Chair throughout the event and is hugely passionate about both games and her adopted hometown of Leamington Spa.
“I spend a good deal of my time convincing people to come to Leamington, so this event is the perfect way to get lots of my friends, colleagues, and other people from the video game community to visit the best town in the world,” said Jo.
Sessions across the event will focus on a range of key topics including accessibility, influencer marketing, project post-mortems, diversification in talent, breaking into the industry, staying safe online and upcoming new releases. With influencer marketing a current hot topic, there will be discussion on how companies can use this to their advantage in promoting their releases. Friday’s influencer session will see Rich Keith, managing director of influencer management company, Fourth Floor Creative, and James Day, head of social media at Jagex, discuss their top tips for engaging influencers and how the marketing landscape is changing.
Another key topic at the event will be accessibility in games. Joining the panel discussions will be Playstation’s accessibility specialist, Mark Friend alongside Barrie Ellis from games accessibility charity, Special Effect, accessible games designer at Midoki, Lynsey Graham and specialist accessibility consultant, Ian Hamilton.
For those looking to start their career in the industry, a range of experts will be available to help. Nick Duncombe, resource manager at Playground Games, the team behind the Forza Horizon series, will be discussing routes into the industry alongside the likes of DJ Hero co-creator, Alex Darby, and e-sports presenter and influencer Elle Osili-Woods. If you fancy yourself as a games journalist or the next big influencer, then sessions with freelance journalist Alysia Judge and CEO of influencer platform, Matchmade, Heini Vesander, will be sure to help attendees get started.
The event is backed by Warwickshire County Council, Warwick District Council and Coventry & Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership.
Cllr Izzi Seccombe, Leader of Warwickshire County Council said: "We look forward to welcoming the Interactive Futures games festival next year. It will provide an excellent opportunity to showcase the world-class talent we have in the region, and really puts Warwickshire on the map as a destination to develop a career in this fast-moving industry.
"We are proud to be the home of Silicon Spa which plays such a key role in our thriving economy. The range of activities planned will appeal to a wide audience from games developers to young gaming enthusiasts, and we are confident it will become a flagship event in the UK gaming calendar."
Cllr Andrew Mobbs, Leader of Warwick District Council, added: “Hosting this unique event in Leamington Spa is a watershed moment for our district. Our ‘Silicon Spa’ games cluster is already the third largest in the UK and this is a wonderful opportunity to promote further our presence and expertise in such a crucial sector. I am immensely proud that we are hosting this inaugural festival, which I hope will bring the talented and innovative people working in our local games industry the national and international recognition they deserve.”
Interactive Futures will take place at the Royal Spa Centre on Friday 1 and Saturday 2 February and will be preceded by an academic conference for colleges and universities on Thursday 31stJanuary.
Tickets for the event are on sale now from www.interactive-futures.com with Friday 1 February providing an industry-specific focus and Saturday 2 February open to all families, students and active gamers. You can also follow the event on social media @int_futures on Twitter and @interactive_futures on Instagram