EduSpark Summit 2022: Day 2 saw expert professionals and young leaders discuss AVGC industry nitty-gritties with respect to metaverse, gaming, education, and hiring

The first edition EduSpark Summit organised by AnimationXpress witnessed some amazing panel discussions on the second day of the two-day virtual sessions. On 14 May, schools, universities and presenters from AVGC studios will gather at The Lalit, Mumbai for the on-ground version of the summit.

Get yourself registered for the on-ground event here: https://www.animationxpress.com/events/eduspark2022/event-platform/registration.php

Leading animation filmmakers, Metaverse experts, hiring experts and young talents who made it big in the industry enlightened the audience on day two of the summit.

The event raised its curtains with the first session titled as the Balancing Art and Commerce. This session mainly focused on how to choose projects which will benefit commercially without compromising on the artistry/creativity of the studio. The speakers spoke about the importance of being driven, enthusiastic and passionate about their creativity which will eventually lead to commercial success.

The panel included Vaibhav More Films founder Vaibhav More, 88 Pictures co-founder & chief operating officer Aby John, Studio Eeksaurus founder E Suresh, Paperboat Design Studios Pvt. Ltd co-founder Soumitra Ranade and Vaibhav Studios director Vaibhav Kumaresh. The session was moderated by Abhijeet Kini Studios founder Abhijeet Kini. 

The panellists laid emphasis on the need for artists to be excited about their work, nurture their creativity and learn how to make themselves visible in this era. 

The next session was on ‘Growing need for gaming, esports and metaverse learning/course‘. The eminent speakers of the panel were Boolien NFT behavioral designer Simran Bahal, Gamitronics founder Rajat Ojha, Whistling Woods International vice president and business head, CTO and head of emerging media Chaitanya Chinchlikar, GuardianLink Analyst – Office at CEO Tanmay Kanth and the session was moderated by AnimationXpress founder, chairman and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari.

The panelist shared how metaverse will completely shift the entire landscape and how the value of NFT can shift with the community preference. The worth of NFT which is in millions today can be double digit too going forward. Lot of awareness and knowledge is required around NFT and Metaverse.

The basic understanding of Metaverse and Web3  should be there so that users could understand whether they are interested in pursuing the metaverse as a career or not. The institutes should be open for the students to select their topics that they want to have in their curriculum so that they can choose the future direction that they want to opt for.

Day two of the Eduspark Summit included a bunch of interesting panel discussions. One of them targeted at ‘understanding the hiring process at the AVGC studios’, which saw HR professionals from various fields spanning across the AVGC sectors share insights into what it takes to be hired! 

The HRs from the well-known studios also shed light on how challenging hiring the right candidate for the right position is. They went in-depth in discussing the required skill sets they look for before fixing on a potential candidate. The prolific speakers were: HR professional Aditya Pillai, Famulus Media & Entertainment HR manager Geeta Khatwani, ACK group art director Savio Mascarenhas, Technicolor Creative Studios talent acquisition manager Ashok Rajavel, Gamitronics operations manager Astha, and Games 24×7, VP U-Games Avin Sharma. The session was moderated by AnimationXpress founder, chairman, and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari. 

Every speaker on the panel could not stress enough on the fact that being a team player goes a long way in ensuring a potential employee’s longevity within the same organisation. Collaboration within a group can help solve difficult problems. Brainstorming is a good opportunity for the team to exchange ideas and come up with creative ways of doing things. By working together, teams can find the solutions that work best. 

Despite being bright, sometimes fresh graduates lack vision and are less patient. The sense of entitlement and disconnect with reality makes them set unrealistic goals. HR experts recommend that they should invest more time in making themselves better suited to the dynamic world. Undeniably, over the past couple of years, the number of skilled talents are increasing but there’s still a need for a lot more talent.

The day two of the EduSpark Summit concluded with an engaging panel discussion titled ‘The Young Leaders’, where the young creative minds shared about their creative journey and how they are going to pursue their career in AVGC industry.

The panel included young and enthusiastic speakers like GamerGage Studio LLP founder and CEO Kushal Baid, Agarthian Games co-founder, leader, developer, designer, director Saksham Dwivedi, Thrissur government college of fine arts student and freelance animator Deepak Kumar EP, Podar International School (IBDP) student Armaan DadyBurjor and the session was moderated by Toon Club founder Tehzeeb Khurana.

The creative minds shared about their love for creative arts and how they started their content creation journey from their childhood. They also highlighted the lack of facilities and courses for digital arts, animation and game creation in India. 

The session threw light about the work being produced in India; be it games, animated content, comic books or VFX and how they are inspiring the young minds in pursuing their career in AVGC industry. The panellists shared their work experience while creating the games and animated contents and how they became self taught gamers and creators.

~ See you on ground on 14 May and do wait for EduSpark Summit’s second edition!