Connecting the Ecosystem: Barclays Eagle Labs to Host Creative Industries Meet-Up in Glasgow Next Week

Creative businesses and games developers from across Scotland are being invited to connect, collaborate, and break down industry silos at a new cross-sector Media and Creative Meet Up networking event in Glasgow next week.

Hosted by Barclays Eagle Labs, the Media and Creative Meet Up will take place on Thursday, June 25, from 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM at Eagle Labs Glasgow.

The gathering follows a series of creative roundtables hosted by Barclays in late 2025 to gather insights from across the industry. The overarching feedback from those sessions was clear: creative businesses want more tangible opportunities to connect with peers in adjacent subsectors, share common challenges, and explore collaborative projects.

Breaking Down Silos: A ‘More Than Games’ Approach

For the games sector, this event represents an ideal opportunity to engage with the wider creative economy.

While consumer entertainment remains the bedrock of the industry, games technology, real-time 3D tools, and interactive design are increasingly finding critical applications in adjacent fields – a concept championed by the Scottish Games Network’s own More Than Games initiative. Whether exploring applications in broadcast, heritage, education, or experiential media, crossing paths with professionals outside the immediate games sector is where new pipelines and innovations are sparked.

Event Details & Structure

The evening is designed to be simple, direct, and focused on genuine networking rather than rigid presentations. It offers a dedicated space to swap insights, discuss shared business challenges, and grow networks with peers you might not normally encounter in day-to-day operations.

• Date: Thursday, June 25, 2026.
• Time: 5:30 PM – 8:30 PM.
• Location: Barclays Eagle Labs, Glasgow.
• Focus: Cross-sector networking, peer-to-peer collaboration, and knowledge sharing.

How to Register

The event is free to attend, but registration is essential to secure a spot.

If you are looking to expand your network beyond the traditional boundaries of the games industry and discover new collaborative opportunities within Scotland’s broader creative landscape, you can register for the event via the official EventBrite listing.

Beyond the Consumer Market: Bringing The More Than Games Message To Develop: Brighton 2026

The global games market in 2026 is more crowded, volatile, and competitive than ever before. For independent studios and established developers alike, relying solely on consumer retail success is becoming an ever-riskier strategy. That is why I am headed to Brighton this July to deliver a session on how developers can unlock entirely new, sustainable revenue streams by applying their creative and technical superpowers outside the entertainment sector and the consumer games market.

I will be speaking at Develop: Brighton on Wednesday 15 July at 3:00pm in Room 3 as part of the business track. My talk, titled More Than Games: Unlocking New Funding & Creative Opportunities Outside the Consumer Market, will lay out a practical, strategic roadmap for senior leaders and developers to diversify their portfolios and access non-traditional commercial sectors.

The £1.3 Billion Spillover Opportunity

For years, the games industry has operated within a self-imposed silo, focusing almost exclusively on selling products to players. Given the huge and constantly growing consumer market, that made perfect sense. More people playing means more games are played (well, more or less…) As long as the consumer market grew, game companies rarely had to look beyond their players, chosen genres and methodologies. It was business as usual.

But the core value of our sector is far greater than that enormous consumer bottom line. Across the UK, games technology and real-time 3D skills generate an estimated £1.3 billion (Ukie 2024) in ‘spillover’ GVA in fields like healthcare, film, education, space data, travel/tourism, advanced manufacturing, cultural heritage and more.

This is not a theoretical opportunity; it is a massive, underserved B2B and government/public market actively looking for the interactive expertise that game developers possess. From virtual-reality clinical training tools to digital twins for environmental planning, the systems we use to build and design games are the exact tools needed to solve real-world problems.

During my session, I will focus on the practical steps required to bridge the gap between these two worlds:

• Identifying Opportunities: How to pinpoint high-growth, non-consumer markets that are actively seeking real-time 3D and interactive design capabilities.
• Translating the Language: How to strip away game-development jargon and speak in a professional, mission-oriented vocabulary that builds trust with corporate and public-sector partners.
• Structuring Collaborations: How to pitch, contract, and deliver B2B projects that yield reliable, sustainable revenue without distracting from your core creative goals.
• Accessing Alternative Funding: How to position your studio’s technical skills to qualify for innovation grants, public funding, and research partnerships.

Taking the Scottish Strategy National

This presentation is the direct evolution of the work I have been doing with the Level Up Scotland Games Action Plan and our upcoming Project Pathfinder initiative. In Scotland, we have proven that the games industry is a vital national asset and a force multiplier for the wider economy. By taking this message to Brighton, my goal is to show the broader UK ecosystem how to break out of the consumer-only mindset.

We need to stop viewing our skills as locked inside a single entertainment vertical. The technical agility, systems thinking, and user-experience design found in our studios are valuable commodities. If we can learn to leverage them in other sectors, we can build more resilient, diversified businesses that are insulated from the turbulent shifts of the global retail market – and use games as a driver for the national innovation agenda.

Join Me in Brighton

Whether you are a solo developer trying to fund your passion project or a studio director looking to stabilise your monthly cash flow, this session is designed to provide you with an actionable process for business growth.

I look forward to connecting with friends, allies, and new partners in Brighton to discuss how we can collectively build a more integrated, creative-tech economy.

Session Details:

• Date: Wednesday 15 July 2026
• Time: 3:00pm – 3:45pm
• Location: Room 3, Hilton Brighton Metropole
• Track: Business

Find out more about the conference and book tickets: Develop: Brighton 2026

The Interactive Frontier: Why Dundee’s ‘Big Telly Jam’ is a Masterclass in Cross-Sector Innovation

Biome Collective and Arcadia present Big Telly Jam at CoSTAR’s Realtime Lab

The CoSTAR Realtime Lab at Water’s Edge is set to host a transformative one-day workshop on 6 May 2026, as Biome Collective and Arcadia join forces for the Big Telly Jam. Supported by Creative Scotland, the event is designed to dismantle the silos between traditional art, game design, film, and virtual production.

While the ‘jam’ format is a staple of the games industry, this iteration is specifically engineered to be inclusive, low-pressure, and high-impact. It invites artists, filmmakers, and technologists to step out of their comfort zones and explore how real-time tools can be used for more than just consumer entertainment.

Strategic Analysis: The Blueprint in Action

At SGN, we have long advocated for the More Than Games approach – the idea that games technology is a force multiplier for the entire creative economy. The Big Telly Jam is a living example of this theory. It moves the conversation away from making ‘products’ and toward exploring possibilities.

A Space for Playful Experimentation

The workshop focuses on paper prototyping and low-fi ideation, ensuring that technical expertise is not a barrier to entry. Participants will have the rare opportunity to see virtual production facilities in action, using the same tools that power modern cinema and high-end gaming to test their own creative concepts.

Big Telly Jam shows what is possible when great facilities, creative talent, and the right partners come together, says Malath Abbas:

Dundee has a rare combination of artistic energy, technical skill, and ambitious people. Thanks to support from Creative Scotland, CoSTAR Realtime Lab, and our partners, we can open up access to these tools and create a day where artists and designers can test ideas, collaborate, and be inspired.

Susie Buchan of Biome Collective echoes this sentiment, emphasising the social and collaborative nature of the day:

We want the day to be fun, low-pressure, and explorative for everyone taking part! It’s an opportunity for people to try something new and connect with creatives from different disciplines to their own.

Breaking the Silos

For the Scottish games community, participation in events like the Big Telly Jam is essential. It prevents the insularity that often plagues our sector and opens up new professional pathways. By working alongside poets, performers, producers, and visual artists, game designers can find fresh inspiration, new applications and potential new partners for their technical skills.

The event is open to emergent creators from across Scotland, and significantly, a limited number of paid participation places are available. This ensures that financial barriers do not prevent the most innovative voices from being in the room. The day concludes with an opportunity for participants to pitch their ideas for a cash prize, providing a tangible incentive for the most promising collaborative concepts.

Join the Movement

The Big Telly Jam represents the future of the Dundee cluster – a place where the lines between play, performance, and technology are permanently blurred. We encourage all SGN readers to look at this not as another ‘dev ‘event, but as a vital opportunity to be part of the cross-sectoral future of the Scottish economy.

Event Details:

• Date: Wednesday 6 May 2026
• Time: 9:30am – 5:00pm
• Location: CoSTAR Realtime Lab, Water’s Edge, Dundee

Book your tickets here: Big Telly Jam via Humanitix

Learn more about the hosts: Biome Collective | Arcadia Festival

Meet Scotland’s Creative Community: Join the More Than Games Drinks Reception Tomorrow

Following the major More Than Games: Creative Industries Edition event tomorrow, the Scottish Games Network is inviting the entire games sector to join a unique evening of cross-sector networking drinks.

This is a rare opportunity to meet peers and colleagues from outside games development, across the wider creative and cultural community in Scotland – but with a foot very firmly in the games world.

The networking reception will take place tomorrow, Wednesday, November 26th, from 5:30 PM to 8:00 PM at Barclays Eagle Lab in Glasgow.

A Unique Opportunity for Collaboration

The ‘More Than Games’ event is dedicated to exploring how the skills and technologies from the games industry can drive innovation in surrounding sectors. The networking reception is where this philosophy comes to life.

Attendees will have the chance to meet founders, leaders and high-level representatives and decision-makers from across Scotland’s cultural sector, including:

• Animation, Film and Screen Production
• Performing Arts and Theatre
• National Museum and Heritage bodies
• Cultural Sector Leaders

This unique convergence provides a platform for game developers to share insights, find potential collaborators for applied games or interactive projects, and understand the technological needs of the wider creative community.

Hear the Day’s Findings

The evening will not only be a social event but also a chance to hear a brief summary of the key findings, challenges, and collaboration opportunities identified during the day’s intensive workshops and speaker sessions. It is the perfect opportunity to catch up on the day’s strategic discussions, even if you were unable to attend the full symposium.

This is an important moment to be able to step outside the games industry ‘bubble’ and build the deep, long-term relationships necessary to build a new more communicative and collaborative future for Scotland’s digital and creative economies.

This More Than Games event is supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland.

Event Details:

• What: MTG Networking Drinks
• When: Tomorrow, Wednesday, November 26th, 5:30 PM – 8:00 PM
• Where: Barclays Eagle Lab, Glasgow
• Who: All members of the games, digital, and creative/cultural sectors are encouraged to attend.

You can register to attend using this link. Feel free to share with colleagues, connections and team mates.

We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

#creativeScotland #games #glasgow #moreThanGames #scotland

Fun Is Not A Four-Letter Word: SGN Challenges Scotland’s Creative Sector to Embrace ‘Playful Thinking’

The Scottish Games Network (SGN) today announced the ‘More Than Games: Creative Industries Innovation Summit,’ an initiative set to bridge the country’s vibrant games ecosystem with its creative, cultural, and heritage sectors.

Scheduled for November 26th, 2025, at Barclays Eagle Lab in Glasgow, this invitation-only event is supported by The National Lottery through Creative Scotland. The 2025 edition builds upon the success of three previous events held between 2022 and 2024, which brought together the country’s games ecosystem, sectors including film, fintech, data, cyber, tech and more.

The half-day programme will bring together a curated group of leaders from games, film, TV, music, theatre, and museums. The goal is to move beyond traditional conversations and explore how the tools, technologies, and ‘playful thinking’ of the games world can offer innovative solutions to real-world challenges. Research from UKIE has shown that the application of games technology in other sectors adds £1.3 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA) to the UK economy, a powerful addition to the core consumer market’s estimated £7 billion value.

Brian Baglow, Founder of the Scottish Games Network, said:

For too long, the games industry has operated in its own silo, and other creative sectors have been missing out on its transformative potential. This event is designed to open up that conversation. We believe that by bringing these diverse communities together in a facilitated space, we can spark new ideas, unlock new collaboration opportunities, and build a more resilient and innovative creative economy for Scotland.

The event will feature a series of ‘provocations’ from sector leaders, followed by structured facilitated workshops, collaborative problem-solving sessions, and speed networking. The objective is to produce tangible outputs, including a detailed roadmap for future cross-sector projects and partnerships.

Ashley Smith-Hammond, Creative Industries Officer at Creative Scotland, said:

We are excited to support this event, which will help build collaborative networks and spark new ideas between creatives working across disciplines. Such support is part of our commitment to championing innovation in creative practices. The ‘More Than Games’ initiative has the potential to drive significant cultural, social and economic value by helping us to support the interdisciplinary connections for creatives working across arts, technology and creative industries.

The event is the first step in the broader More Than Games initiative by the Scottish Games Network to establish a platform for the wider application of games and playful thinking to solve problems in key sectors across Scotland, with more events to be announced in the future.

If you think your organisation should be invited to participate in this event, please contact Brian directly.

The MTG: Creative Industries Innovation Summit is supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland.

#creativeIndustries #ecosystem #fun #games #MoreThanGames #playfulThinking #scotland

The Quiet Work: An Update on the Next Chapter for Scottish Games

You may have noticed that the news feed on the Scottish Games Network has been quieter than usual over the past week.

That quiet has not been for a lack of activity. In fact, it’s been precisely the opposite.

Behind the scenes, this has been a period of intense and focused work. It’s been a week of meetings and conversations with organisations across – and around – the entire games ecosystem. It’s been about starting new dialogues, continuing long-running collaborations, and nurturing the relationships and connections necessary to build even more effectively in 2026 and beyond.

For years, I have worked to build a blueprint. Now, we, collectively, are laying the foundations for what comes next.

Part of that foundational work is recognising that as Scotland’s games ecosystem matures, it requires more specialised and focused organisations to drive it forward. The days of one organisation (and more honestly, one person) trying to be all things to all people must end if we are to be truly effective.

All of the recent changes across Scotland mark a strategic evolution. The SGDA is a dedicated voice for developers and studios – their new accelerator is a perfect example of this vital, focused work. The Scottish Games Network can now fully embrace its role as the ecosystem organisation: the connective tissue linking our brilliant developers to education, to government, to the wider creative industries, tech, screen and the rest of the world.

Part of embracing that role means evolving our own platform. To that end, another key workstream has been the upcoming restructure and redesign of the Scottish Games Network website itself. Our goal is to transform it into the central, authoritative hub for the entire ecosystem.

Back in August 2025, I asked for help building and evolving the editorial output from SGN. I was humbled when over 30 people from across the ecosystem volunteered their time and expertise to help with this project, and I want to publicly thank them – and assure them this is still happening – I… just had to get the Games Action Plan finished and ready for publication (more of which below). Together, we will build a far more comprehensive media channel that not only reports the news, but actively investigates, supports and showcases the incredible people, organisations and work being done across Scotland.

This is not a division – it is a sign of an evolving and maturing sector.

This new direction is already being delivered through the projects that have been the focus of this quiet work:

• The Games Action Plan: The completed, community-generated, national blueprint that provides the entire ecosystem with a unified, data-driven path forward.
• Hello World!: The talent pipeline, delivering on the Action Plan’s promise to inspire and cultivate the next generation of studios, developers and creators.
• More Than Games: The innovation engine, connecting the incredible skills of our industry to the wider digital and creative economy.

The quiet phase is nearly complete. Over the next few weeks, you will see a series of major announcements as the scaffolding comes down and the results of this work are revealed.

The pivotal moment will be the meeting of the Cross-Party Group on Scotland’s Games Ecosystem on Tuesday, November 18th. This will be the public forum where we, as a newly focused and aligned community, will formally present the Action Plan and begin the next exciting chapter for games in Scotland.

The work continues, and I look forward to sharing the next steps with you all in the near future.

#actionPlan #comingSoon #games #HelloWorld_ #MoreThanGames #scotland #SGF26

Glitchers’ Sea Hero Quest Goes Viral in South Korea, Highlighting the Global Impact of Games for Good

Scottish studio GLITCHERS has seen its groundbreaking dementia research game, Sea Hero Quest, go viral in South Korea after a social media post mistakenly claimed the game could help diagnose the condition. While the studio has clarified this is not the case, the incredible surge in interest is a powerful testament to the game’s global appeal and a perfect illustration of the More Than Games mindset in action.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FqbGqWeAdD0

The story, as detailed in a recent blog post by the studio, highlights the unexpected ways in which games designed for social good can capture the public imagination.

A Game to Fight Dementia

Originally launched as a ‘Game for Good’ initiative, Sea Hero Quest is a landmark collaboration between Glitchers, Deutsche Telekom, Alzheimer’s Research UK, University College London, and the University of East Anglia. The project leveraged Deutsche Telekom’s international reach to put a powerful scientific tool into the hands of millions.

The mobile game was designed to aid dementia research. Players navigate a small boat through various mazes and waterways, and their anonymous gameplay data provides scientists with invaluable information on human spatial navigation.

According to Alzheimer’s Research UK, the data gathered from the game is unprecedented. With over four million players globally, the project has generated a dataset that would have taken over 17,000 years to collect using traditional lab-based methods. The charity states that just two minutes spent playing the game generates the same amount of data as five hours of conventional research.

This data helps create a global benchmark, allowing researchers to better understand the subtle disorientation that is one of the earliest symptoms of dementia. The project has been a monumental success, already leading to new insights into the differences in spatial navigation abilities across different ages, genders, and countries.

GLITCHERS recently announced that they were making the game available to researchers and organisations around the world, who wish to use the game (and its incredible data set) to further their work into dementia.

A Perfect More Than Games Case Study

The viral moment in South Korea is a powerful example of the core principles behind the ‘More Than Games’ mindset (a key pillar of the Scottish Games Action Plan). It showcases a studio using its world-class game design skills to tackle a major global health challenge, creating a product that has a profound real-world impact far beyond entertainment.

Glitchers’ own vision is to create “games for good” and to “leave the world a little bit better than we found it.” The studio, originally founded in England, relocated to Edinburgh during lockdown, a move which further strengthens Scotland’s position as a hub for innovative and socially conscious game development. Sea Hero Quest is the embodiment of that mission. It proves that the skills honed in our games industry are a powerful asset that can be applied to science, healthcare, and beyond.

Congratulations to the team at Glitchers on this latest chapter in their incredible journey. They are an amazing example of the innovation and positive global impact that our industry can achieve.

#edinburgh #games #MoreThanGames #scotland #SouthKorea #viral

Abertay’s ‘Play For Good’ To Showcase the Power of Games at RSE Curious Festival

The transformative power of video games to address real-world challenges will be on full display this September, as Abertay University’s Applied Games Lab presents its Play for Good exhibition as part of the prestigious Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Curious festival of knowledge.

This is a significant and welcome inclusion, demonstrating the growing recognition of games as a powerful tool for social and cultural impact. The exhibition is a real-world showcase of the More Than Games philosophy, a core pillar of the work being done to build a more resilient and impactful games ecosystem in Scotland.

This is the second major games-focused event to be included in the festival, joining the ‘Unreal Pasts, Playful Presents’ panel discussion, which also explores the cultural impact of our medium.

The interactive exhibition will feature a range of innovative projects developed by artists, experimental game makers, and experience designers from the Abertay Game Lab. These are not traditional entertainment products, but digital and physical artefacts designed to tackle challenges in health, wellbeing, and social inclusion.

Projects on display at Play For Good, include:

• Virtual reality games used in rehabilitation and live performance.
• A tabletop game designed to explore themes of social inequality.
• Playful engagements with club culture and nature.
• A project using game development for digital youth inclusion.
• An experience that uses a bike as a game controller.

This is a fantastic opportunity for the wider Scottish games community, policymakers, and the public to see firsthand how the skills and technologies from our industry are being applied to create positive change. It’s a chance to move beyond the conversation and see tangible examples of applied games in action.

The Scottish Games Network strongly encourages everyone to visit this free, drop-in exhibition to support the incredible work being done at Abertay and to see the future of the More Than Games ecosystem.

Event Details:

• What: Play for Good (Exhibition)
• When: Saturday 6 September – Saturday 14 September 2025
• Where: The Royal Society of Edinburgh, 22-26 George Street, Edinburgh
• Cost: Free, drop-in (but booking is essential)

For more information on the exhibition and the full ‘Curious’ festival programme, please visit the Royal Society of Edinburgh website.

Photo by lhon karwan on Unsplash

#appliedGames #Curious #edinburgh #games #MoreThanGames #RoyalSocietyOfEdinburgh #RSE #scotland

Unleashing the Power of Game Tech: A Must-Attend Event for Scottish Businesses

Boosting Your Business With Games Technology: Videogames are changing the world. The tools, technologies, and techniques from the games ecosystem are transforming almost every aspect of our digital world and giving almost every business new ways to engage with customers, clients, and staff.

On Wednesday 27th November, Abertay University’s CyberQuarter will host Boosting Your Business With Games Technology exploring the diverse applications of game-based technology beyond the gaming realm.

This event is a unique opportunity for companies and organisations across Scotland to delve into the potential of games and discover how a more playful approach can benefit their business. From enhancing employee training to creating immersive customer experiences, the possibilities are endless.

Key Highlights of Boosting Your Business With Games Technology:

The focus of the evening is a discussion panel featuring speakers and experts from across Scotland’s games ecosystem. Jamie Bankhead, the co-founder and CEO of Konglomerate Games, will discuss the studio’s approach to applied and serious games in areas from physiotherapy to conservation. Eliza Ralph, tech founder, PhD researcher and experienced game developer will highlight her approach to games and technology outside the normal definition of videogames. Brian Baglow, founder and director of the Scottish Games Network and creator of the More Than Games event, will outline the increasing potential for businesses and organisations to understand and work with games more effectively.

Why Should You Attend?

• Innovation: Discover innovative ways to leverage game technology to solve business challenges.
• Collaboration: Connect with like-minded professionals and explore potential partnerships.
• Skill Development: Learn new skills and techniques to enhance your team’s capabilities.
• Future-Proofing Your Business: By embracing the latest technological advancements, stay ahead of the curve.

Whether you’re a seasoned game developer or a business leader looking to explore new opportunities, this event offers something for everyone. Don’t miss this chance to unlock the power of game technology and drive your business forward.

Book now.

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#BusinessGateway #dundee #games #MoreThanGames #scotland