On day one of Industry Week 2021, students were lucky enough to enjoy a great esports talk from Twitch’s Mark “Garvey” Candella.
Mark “Garvey” Candella – Director of Student and Education Programs at Twitch – is a returning speaker to Confetti, having visited on a couple of occasions during the past two years. Since 2015, he has taken the program to 29 countries globally – spreading the good that comes with esports!
Delivering a talk as part of day one of Industry Week 2021, he spoke about how impressed he always is by Confetti, the passion and creativity of the students here, and the world-class facilities on offer.
“I love Confetti – it’s a very creative place!”
Not a bad accolade coming from an esports industry legend!
During his talk, Garvey spoke about the importance of including universities in the world of esports going forwards – explaining that young, passionate, creative students are the right people to be leading and shaping the industry for the years to come.
“Students are made of dreams – if you want to predict the future, ask a student what they’re dreaming of.”
Esports is so much more than just gaming – in fact, platforms like Twitch ‘fly the flag’ for esports as being something which “fills a void”, according to Garvey, for the some five million viewers watching and consuming the content on the platform.
He also spoke about how esports is, in itself, a medium – offering valuable and transferrable skills in an emerging form of digital media. Whether or not students decide to go into esports, studying it gives individuals a sense of team, the ability to represent themselves professionally, and a confidence level they may otherwise not have.
“Esports to me is an engaging, fun and appropriate way to learn valuable and transferrable skills in the 21st century – you’re not putting yourself into a box by taking esports.”
We want to thank Garvey for this brilliant talk – we hope those of you who attended came away feeling as inspired as we did about the future of esports and Confetti’s place within it.
Make sure you sign up for more interesting talks this week – whether you’re interested in esports, gaming, media, music or graphic design, there are over eighty events for students to enjoy!
Are you interested in attending events like Industry Week as part of your studies? Book onto a virtual open day to find out more about our offer at Confetti.
