The Hub Crawl rolled into Bristol on the sixth leg of the in-person national tour. A sultry, nay tropical, Thursday afternoon event hosted by the excellent Co-Op Mode coworking space saw four speakers and a panel discussing growth strategies for game studios.
Our sponsors Barclays got proceedings under way with a broad talk from Gavin Smith on growth and the support offered by banks. Barclays are constantly pushing the boundaries of support and their Games Frenzy taking place at the end of June looks like a must attend games meet up.
We then welcomed Phil Wildman from GG Insurance and Julia Morrish from Creative UK. Phil talked about the benefits and flexibility of insurance solutions and was inundated with an excellent set of questions from the audience. Julia shared the latest developments from Creative UK accelerators and funding programmes – all great initiatives and vital support for SME games companies.
We changed tack with Jermaine Odelli from Fourth Floor who talked about how to engage audiences across key social channels including Tik Tok, Twitch and YouTube. It is always great to learn how social channels are evolving and how games companies can engage with this important but sometimes fickle audience.
The final session at the Hub Crawl was a broad panel discussion featuring Natalie Mikkelson from Lo-Fi Games, Joshua Baldwin from Aardman Animations and Philip Oliver from Panivox. We heard three perfectly contrasting views from companies at various stages of growth. We heard about some of the challenges around recruitment, retention and getting exposure and were treated to thoughtful and fascinating guidance and advice.
The event ended with cool drinks and pizza and an extended networking session.
To watch the recording of the event please go to - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CCdCwAFAgE