By Ian Livingstone CBE, games entrepreneur and Digital Skills Champion

 

What did you speak about at the conference?

I gave a visual account of my struggles as an entrepreneur in the 1970s when setting up Games Workshop with Steve Jackson. I also spoke about our multi-million selling Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. From analogue to digital, I gave a brief history of the video games industry, and talked about the importance of digital-making skills needed to operate in digital age.

Why are conferences like this important not only to the digital sector but also to business in general?

Technology drives innovation. New digital platforms, new technologies, the internet, super high-speed broadband, smart phones and apps have all combined to transform the world as we know it. Business models are changing and businesses must embrace digital. If they are not thinking digital they are probably thinking dinosaur. That is why it is so important that people attend Digital2015 to learn about the challenges and opportunities in the digital world.

What do you do?

My main interest is in games development. However, I spend most of my time involved in public policy about the importance of digital-making skills and the creative industries.

How did you get into your line of work?

I turned my hobby of playing games into the business of making games after launching Dungeons & Dragons in Europe in 1975.

What did you do before?

I had a very boring job in an American oil company. I only lasted two years working for somebody else before starting my own company.

How do you convince people that they should embrace a digital future and what do you say to people who are nervous about getting involved? Tell them to think about the consequences of not embracing digital. Look at some of the very established bricks and mortar perished by not evolving quickly enough. Look at how companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Uber and Apple have transformed the world in such a short period of time.

What would you say to anyone wanting to follow in your career footsteps?

Do it. Follow you heart and don’t be afraid of failure. Failure is just success work-in-progress.

How has your business/sector changed over the years and what do you see as the future?

The games industry has changed beyond recognition, moving from a premium-priced boxed product sold at retail to an online freemium service. The near future is still mobile. Nobody knows much beyond that!

Why is it so important that children learn about coding in schools?

There are computers in our classrooms but, for the most part, they are not used effectively. Until recently, the National Curriculum required schools to teach not computer science but ICT – a strange hybrid of office skills. While Word and Excel are useful tools, they are never going to equip anybody for a career in the digital industries. Computer science is different. It is a vital, analytical discipline, and a system of problem solving and logical thinking that is as relevant to the modern world as physics, chemistry or biology. Computer science is to ICT what writing is to reading. It is the difference between making an application and using one. It is the combination of computer programming skills and creativity by which world-changing companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter were built. Indeed, in a world where computers define so much of how society works, from how we do business to how we enjoy ourselves, I would argue that computer science is 'essential knowledge' for the 21st century. Children of today need to learn how to become creators of digital technology as well as consumers of it. They need to be given digital-making skills to inspire them to create their own digital content. We cannot build a digital economy with a nation of digital illiterates.