On Wednesday 26 October, we welcomed over 300 students to the first in-person Ukie Student Conference since 2019. Hosted at Staffordshire University, in partnership with Epic Games and Skills City, the event featured a jam-packed programme of insightful talks and a buzzing exhibitor area where students made meaningful connections with industry. All talks were livestreamed on Twitch to over 400 viewers.
The day kicked off with a keynote from Simon Benson, Immersive Technology Director at Skills City, who spoke to a packed-out room about the explosion of opportunities available in the games sector. His fascinating talk deep dived into the potential of virtual reality across games, esports, training and beyond.
The students heard from a variety of games companies, including Rare, Sumo Digital, Samsung, DR Studios and Nerial, who spoke on a range of topics from technical art and game development to careers and portfolio advice. The Electronic Arts Next Generation Talent team hosted a Q&A session with Lead Software Engineer, Chris Fitzpatrick, and Software Engineer Intern, Iris Aksunger, who shared their journey into games and a typical day in the software engineering team at Codemasters, from both a junior and senior perspective. Louise Andrew, Head of Art at d3t, gave an inspiring presentation on what it’s really like to be a games artist and how to land a job in the field.
Lots of connections were made between students and industry in our exhibitor area, where a host of games studios and training providers were helping our student members better understand how to get into games. Our exhibitors could barely catch a breath between conversations with the enthusiastic attendees, with one team member commenting that she’d never met such a passionate group of students before.
We rounded off the programme of talks with an informative Placements and Employability Panel, featuring representatives from Skills City, Flix Interactive, Playground Games, Lucid Games and Staffordshire University, who shared their top tips on applications and interviews, and answered some brilliant questions from the audience. We then wrapped up the day with a networking session where students and industry could continue their conversations over some tabletop and VR games!
It was fantastic to be back at Staffordshire University for a valuable day of learning and development for our student members. We can’t wait for the next Ukie Student Conference in early 2023!