This year’s Ukie AGM was held for the first time at W.A.S.D x IGN, a video games event hosted at the Truman Brewery in Shoreditch.
The business of the morning involved the approval of 2022 minutes and FY22 auditors, as well as the appointment of a new board and its Chair, Vice Chair and Treasurer.
The incoming board members were announced as Nina Adams of Auroch Digital; Katherine Bidwell of State of Play Games; Nick Button-Brown of Outright Games; Rob Kinder of Payload Studios; Thomas Hegarty of Roll7; David Gould of Take 2 Interactive and Rafal Kloczko at Epic Games.
Meanwhile, Liz Fitzgerald was re-appointed as Treasurer, Li Ma of Tencent appointed as Vice Chair and Tim Woodley of Hello Games re-appointed as Chair.
Woodley opened the event with a welcome speech identifying the unique moment the organisation finds itself in. With increasingly positive attention from government as well as the imminent appointment of a new CEO, he approached the next 10 years of Ukie with a considerable degree of optimism, adding that “the door is open, we need to run through it.”
Joint acting CEOs Dan Wood and Sam Collins delivered speeches updating members on Ukie’s campaigning and commercial activities respectively. Highlights included the upcoming Manifesto which will focus on skills and funding, as well as next years’ trade missions to GDC and China following Ukie’s biggest (in terms of both stand and delegates) Gamescom ever.
John Whittingdale MP then gave an address to members on the future of the industry. As a joint Minister of State for DSIT and DCMS with a keen interest in games, he was uniquely placed to consider the games sector’s position in the government’s recent Creative Industries Sector Vision.
The morning wrapped up with a presentation from Ukie’s Head of Policy and Public Affairs, Dominic Murphy taking a deep dive into our Manifesto work followed by a panel on skills with our own Head of Education and Director of Digital Schoolhouse, Shahneila Saeed; Khally Saarman-Jones, Director of People and Culture at Payload Studios; and Emma Smith, Head of Talent at Creative Assembly.
Members were also able to pick up a copy of the 2023 Ukie Annual Review, which summarises the work that the Ukie team has done to make the UK the best place to make, play and sell games in the past year. The Review contains:
- Reports from the Co-CEOs of Ukie, Danial Wood and Sam Collins, and our Chair, Tim Woodley, discussing the developments of the past twelve months.
- Updates from the Ukie team on their work on behalf of the industry since September 2022.
- Information on our member groups, membership board.
The Annual Review is available to download here.