iGGi Research Retreat "Unconference"

For the second year running, we've assembled a group of 30 people at a remote Holiday Village near Matlock (Derbyshire) to connect individuals over their shared research interests, and to exchange ideas and experiences.

The retreat spanned over 4 days (3 nights), and participants were made up of 16 iGGi PG Researchers, 2 iGGi Alumni, 9 Games Industry Members, 2 iGGi Academic Supervisors, and 1 iGGi Admin.

The format:

The first session of the day is always a "pitching" session. Each participant can put forward the topics they would like to see investigated and invite other participants to join their group. Groups with at least 2 members then retreat to a breakout space on site (e.g., their cottage's living room, outdoors seating, the common room) to work on their project for the rest of that day. The day's results are shared with everyone in the evening, and a larger, more detailed presentation is held on the last day before event close.

This year, we had set simple rules as to who can pitch ideas on each day in order to give everyone a fair chance for gathering a group and to foster the creation of new connections.

Some of the groups' outcome has been made available in summarised format via these dedicated pages/articles!

Given the enthusiastic feedback we've so far received, we aim to run a similar retreat in 2026, and we're already excited for it!