The Scottish Esports Network is hosting the country’s first National Esports Forum, with the aim of ‘connecting professionals and growing a productive discourse on the future of competitive gaming in Scotland’.
Organisers say the online forum is open to anyone interested in attending, and will ‘provide an opportunity for solution-driven conversation’.
The event was created following the news regarding Esport Scotland’s delayed payments from SEL5 last year.
The National Esports Forum will take place online at 2pm on January 11th 2024. Those interested in attending can email [email protected] for an invite.
A separate in-person event will take place in Glasgow in February – there are more details on that at the bottom of this article.
Who are the Scottish Esports Network?
The Scottish Esports Network was created in February 2023 by the former Creative Director of the Scottish Esports League, Dale R Murray.
Dale said that after five years of working in Scottish esports, there was ‘a real lack of community and industry growth domestically’.
“Whenever there is an esports event in Scotland, there’s a fantastic buzz and a feeling of community that fizzles out very quickly afterwards.” Dale said. “In creating the network, we wanted to change that. England has great events like ESI London that bring the industry together, so why shouldn’t Scotland!
“I wanted to primarily host regular opportunities to enable networking and conversations, and that remains our number one goal. Adding the online forum into our calendar should enable more direct conversation and opportunity to network for those that can’t travel to our meetups.”
Dale R Murray, Scottish Esports Network
“Scotland has a thriving game development industry, being the home of heavy hitters like Rockstar, 4J, and countless fantastic indie studios. Add in the fact that there are more football fans per capita in Scotland than any other country in Europe.
“We’re a nation that loves games and competition, so there’s no reason our competitive gaming ecosystem shouldn’t be able to thrive. But to make that happen we need to work together as an industry in order to make that a
reality.”
The Scottish Esports Network aims to run regular networking events, as well as panel discussions, guest lectures and more.
If you’re interested in attending a more casual meetup, the Scottish Esports Network’s one-year anniversary is being celebrated on February 9th 2024 from 5.30pm at Barclays Eagle Labs Glasgow. It’s designed to help attendees meet like-minded esports professionals and fans alike, with more details over at scottishesports.net
Update: Here are some of the outcomes from the forum:
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.
