The Association for Continuing Education in Esports (ACES), a group of university academics from across the UK, has announced its industry advisory board.
ACES was established in October 2019 ‘to advance the evolution of esports
education in a sustainable and industry-led manner’. ACES aims to provide a platform to connect industry with academia, promote industry best practice and help facilitate further esports research.
The industry advisory board includes:
- Esports Inaider MD Sam Cooke
- Psych-Chek founder Edgar Chekera
- Hotdrop MD Heather Dower
- Hitmarker MD Richard Huggan
- Promod CEO Rob Black (chairman of the advisory board)
Two further positions will be announced in the coming weeks. Rob will be chair for a two-year tenure.
Dr Richard Oddy, chair and co-founder of ACES, said: “We firmly believe that esports education must be fit for purpose, therefore it’s imperative to best equip courses and programmes in order to be able to drive the sector forward.
“The fusion of industry and education in the form of ACES will do some amazing things and have an impact for years to come.”
Dr Richard Oddy, ACES
Rob Black, CEO of Promod Esports and chairman of the ACES industry advisory board, commented: “I’m honoured to have been invited to sit as chair for the inaugural two-year term. I believe there is a lot of work to be done around esports education in the UK and beyond.
“Our sector needs a strong pipeline of talented and skilled up professionals and all of us at the industry advisory board are very excited to begin working on bringing academia & esports closer together.”
ACES says that linking education and industry is a core principle of what it’s trying to achieve, and the advisory board was formed to offer the executive board ‘non-binding but informed guidance on current and future industry trends to enhance links between academia and industry’.
ACES will host its first virtual symposium on Wednesday September 9th 2020, and people can register their interest for that here.
The association has called for anyone interested in the direction of esports
education and research in the UK to join the ACES directory.
ACES was founded through a partnership between six academics based at
UK universities. You can see more info on the ACES website here.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
