We recently had the privilege of hosting the 2023 Esports in Education Summit on campus. The Summit is organised annually by British Esports, the UK’s national esports federation, and exists to promote and inspire educators in the benefits of esports for all.
Our partnership with British Esports
The Esports in Education Summit brings together Senior Leaders, Curriculum Managers, Lecturers, and Educational Institutions with a keen interest in esports, as well as those from amateur and professional esports organisations. It provides a platform to discuss the ongoing impact, developments, and opportunities available in competitive gaming and esports for schools and colleges, especially those in varied stages of esports development.
This is the second year in a row we’ve hosted the Esports in Education Summit at our Metronome and Confetti X venues. The event was organised by British Esports who aim to support esports nationally and provide expertise and advice, it also delivers its own grassroots esports competition for schools and colleges called the British Esports Championships, or ‘Student Champs’ for short. Through our ongoing partnership with British Esports, we’ve managed to create lots of opportunities for student involvement in their annual Student Champs Grand Finals, which we hosted in 2021 and 2022 – to learn more about Student Champs, check out the 2022 Student Champs Grand Finals highlights.
A who’s who of UK esports
This year’s Esports in Education Summit saw a record increase in unique institutions attending the event. Initially launched in 2019 as the Esports within Further Education Conference, the event has grown significantly in popularity over the previous years, with the latest edition featuring more than 250 institutions from over 20 countries around the world.
As part of the event, we welcomed speakers and panellists from educational institutions across the UK and beyond. This included British-based esports organisations, leading safeguarding platforms, charitable foundations, as well as teachers and students with first hand experience of esports education delivery, and competitive esports tournament play.
The day was full of panel talks, hosted in Metronome, providing information on esports BTEC qualifications and progression to Higher Education, grassroots esports competition (Student Champs), the professional side to esports, and safeguarding. Our Head of Esports and Degree Course Leader, Gin Rai, also did a great job in representing Confetti as part of a panel discussion dedicated to the importance of an esports arena within an educational environment. Stakeholders were blown away by our own esports and content creation venue, Confetti X, proudly exhibited later in the day with a Student Champs demonstration match, during which the mighty Confetti Arrows engaged in some friendly competition with the Loughborough Lycans!
Why Confetti?
Our friends and neighbours, Notts TV also attended the event to pick the brains of key guests, including Resolve esports Chief Operating Officer (COO), Jeff Simpkins, whose Rocket League team collaboration with Williams esports, Williams Resolve, has recently been training on campus. He said:
“We’ve been bootcamping here in Nottingham – we’ve actually been here a couple of times now and plan to be back again in a couple of weeks. The reason for it is basically because of this facility that we’re in, Confetti X, it’s fantastic, and we’ve had the opportunity to play here on stage, which is quite rare for teams if they are not playing an event to be able to have stage time. It also helps us to get the players to adapt to that environment a bit sooner, which is obviously then huge when we do get to those big events.”
Asked why it was important bringing this event to our Nottingham campus, the Chair of British Esports, Andy Payne OBE said:
“Because Confetti has got the facilities, the technical experience and people to really pull off well an event like this. Because the team’s energy is young, ambitious and all about learning, it makes such a difference in their attitude. Video games and esports is an area of media that’s really important and Confetti really gets this, and so it’s in everyone’s interest, we have that sort of symbiotic relationship.”
Check out Notts TV’s recent broadcast on Vimeo (below) to learn more about the 2023 Esports in Education Summit.
Are you interested in being part of events and getting hands on experience as part of your studies? Book onto an Open Day to find out more about all the opportunities on offer here at Confetti.
