The Quest for Young Talent Animationsinstitut Beyond Study
ON SITE The Studio brought to you by AMCRS Tuesday, May 04, 15:00

What’s next? Charting the different roadmaps available to game and XR developers to bring their innovative ideas to life.

LIVE

So you have your million-dollar idea - and maybe even the right team to bring it to life. But how? This session will take a closer look at the different resources in the Baden-Württemberg region for budding young innovators on their way to creating a market-ready product that is true to their vision. Lone Wolf or Indie Studio? Bedroom Office or Co-working space? Bootstrap or Public funding? Our four panelists will each let us know about their perspectives on the BW Games Market and engage in a vital discussion.

This panel is aimed at young XR developers caught between forging their own independent path or choosing the security of working for a bigger studio. Get in touch with the speakers by using the eventmobi-contact system or send an email to vrnow@animationsinstitut.de

Jirka Dell'Oro-Friedl, Professor for Application and Game Design, Hochschule Furtwangen

Jirka Dell'Oro-Friedl is a professor for application and game design at the faculty of digital media of the Hochschule Furtwangen University in the Black Forest. He started developing games and interactive media 40 years ago and founded the company EnterTrain Software GmbH in 1997, with which has won several awards, including twice the German Computer Game Award.

Two years ago, together with students of the university in Furtwangen, he founded the "Stammtisch Games Südbaden" to organize meetings for the few and widely spread game developers of the very southwest area of Germany. At this point of time, they are starting the Team-Coop Furtwangen, a coworking space for game studios and adjacent business, with strong support from the city and the university. Two studios are already operating there. His gamelab just moved into the same building, as well as the "StartUpSpace", a project funded by the ministry of education and science with the goal to incite, encourage and enable students to become founders in the digital industry.

Dr. Angela Frank, Head of Unit "Cultural and Creative Industries", Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg

Dr. Angela Frank is head of the unit "Kultur- und Kreativwirtschaft" (cultural and creative industries) of Medien- und Filmgesellschaft MFG Baden-Württemberg (Media and Film Society) since February 2019.

After studying law and obtaining her PhD in media and antitrust law, she worked at the Landesanstalt für Kommunikation Baden-Württemberg (State Institute for Communication Baden-Württemberg) for many years. There she headed the department for grants, public relations, training and further education, and was deputy of the institute's president. Prior to this, she was responsible for the licensing of private regional TV operators.

Adrian Goersch, Managing Director, Black Forest Games GmbH

Adrian Goersch is managing director of Black Forest Games, a German PC and console game-development studio.

After studying economics at the German Federal Bank he started working at the Landeszentralbank in Stuttgart. Several stations later he ended up in Finance at Electronic Arts, Cologne from where he moved to Spellbound Entertainment AG as CFO. In 2012 he founded the development studio Black Forest Games together with four former Spellbound leads.

Kathrin Radtke, Programmer, Studio Fizbin

Kathrin is a game programmer living in Stuttgart. Since 2016 she is part of the team at Studio Fizbin, working on cross platform titles like "The Inner World", "Minute of Islands" and "Say No! More".  She is the office manager for the creative collective Kokolores based in Ludwigsburg.

Sven Schmidt, Coach & Advisor, Sven Schmidt

Sven Schmidt is one of the initiators of the creatables initiative and has been involved in the production, marketing and distribution of digital media with a special focus on games for 20 years. In his career, he worked successfully as a producer and marketing manager in companies such as WEB.DE, Electronic Arts, Gameforge and Crytek, and since 2014 he has been advising clients in the fields of eCommerce and games as a freelance consultant.

In consulting, he takes a holistic approach in which the various elements and disciplines in a company pull together.

As a coach, he accompanies people who are facing fundamental dissatisfaction or disorientation in their careers. His clients learn to show themselves with all their talents, skills, know-how and the topics they are burning for and thereby achieve success and fulfillment in their professional life.