OK. So then I guess I'll start without sharing the presentation, which is not essential. Uh But yeah, uh first of all, I'm going to introduce myself. I'm down at the beer. I work as a business developer for products. Interactive.We one of the well is becoming now one of the most relevant uh video games companies worldwide. Uh We've grown a lot in the last four years. Uh We are over 600 employees and the company is publicly listed since 2018. So uh never in my dreams, would I have imagined that I was going to be able to work in the video games industry, much less in such an important company? And, and uh this is easier to understand. Uh if, if one knows about my, my origins, hopefully you can still see me and I have not frozen because in my, in my screen, I'm frozen. But well, as long as you can hear me, it should be all right. So I was raised in the middle of nowhere. Literally, I am originally from, from Spain and I grew up um in the mountains. We didn't have any landlines, of course. No, internet in the eighties or nineties. Um, I didn't have a tech savvy family that could guide me in some way. We didn't have any money. We were quite poor actually. So I never even had a console, not even a portable console.

I had to just be content with playing at my friend's house or at my cousin's house. Um, but I could never, you know, have one of my own. I was so happy when I was um gifted um a computer for the first time, uh by my parents, but it was, it was not for playing video games. So that was like a kind of eluded me even though I was really, really interested. I, another bad point to, you know, something that it's very important. And some people, well, many people I found that, uh did not consider it is that they never think that video games can be a career. I certainly didn't think so. I just was thinking about, you know, being a doctor, being um a pharmacist, an architect, a teacher, consider any of other, these kind of things as viable professions, not even as professions even. So that was not in my mind. I would have loved that and I would have loved to know that, but I didn't, I had no idea and I had no one to guide me. So I, um I always, I've always had a passion for science and technology, but also for the, for the humanities. Right. I, I'm, you know, like, um um humanistic kind of person from the, from the Leonardo Da Vinci era in which everything to me was very interesting.

So when it came to uh what degree to study I was open to everything and I just, you know, did what many people do. I followed my mother's advice, business administration because it will open many doors. It is a very versatile degree. But the truth is that I dreaded it and I didn't like it at all. So after that, I went on to do an engineering and computer science, which, which I much preferred. It was not my first choice. My first choice would have been an engineering and chemistry. Uh But my mother would not agree to that. So, you know, computer science was like the middle ground uh in parallel, I became a semi professional e sports player. So e-sports for those who don't know, are electronic sports. And at that time, uh it was not a real profession. That's why I say uh semi like, I wouldn't, you know, tick all the boxes, but we still didn't have like a regular salary. We didn't have an employment contract, we didn't have a manager, we don't have anything which now they do. Right. So, yeah, I was doing that in parallel to my studies sometimes, you know, taking a bit too much time from my studies, I have to say, and I still kept my passion for, for reading and writing and telling stories.

And, um, and that's a very interesting thing as you will see in a few minutes after I finished well, during my degree and after I finished my degree, I worked in the it sector in Spain. Um I found it terrible um among other things because it was um very misogynistic. So I decided to find uh to found my own IC T company, which went quite well. But uh then I decided to sell it. Uh And um because I thought it was too much work um for, for the fruits that, that I was uh collecting, so to speak, because Spain is not uh a good country to, you know, to fund your, your company. It's a lot of work, paperwork, bureaucracy and things that I really don't like. So what I did is I moved to uh to London. So from Spain to the UK and in the UK, they are more open to new businesses and then I, I had more, more opportunities to succeed. So uh once there, I worked at an IT lab. But uh then I thought again about uh founding my own company and at that point, it had dawned on me that actually uh video games could be a professional career.

And partly that happened because I was in London and there is a uh quite a healthy um video games network in the UK. And I learned about that. Uh you know, uh thanks to the, to the two trade bodies that they are over there for video games that are Uki and Taiga. And, and then I said, OK, why not? Like I have experience funding companies? And I really, I'm really very passionate about this. So I started working as a programmer. Uh but then uh hired other people and moved on to become a games designer because I, I love to, to create stories and the mechanics. In the end, everything around it. And um at the end, I became a trans media producer and production. I like very much because I am a very executive type of person that uh make things happen. And that's a great role for you if, if you like that kind of things uh in parallel to this, I became a stem net ambassador. So um so I would go to schools and high schools to promote science and technology and also video games, like they had a specific branch uh to promote games and how you can uh healthily use video games for your education and for your growth as a person.

Um because I'm, I'm very passionate about video games and I think that they can really, really help uh as studies prove I'm, I'm always relying on, on science and science supports this. So uh my main challenges at that time, I just think that I'm just um working at an indie video games company either funded by me or by someone else. But it's a very, very small company. So my main challenges that I had found so far in my professional career was basically being a woman in a male dominated industry. It doesn't matter if it, is it in general or video games in particular, I actually uh found less resistance to me being a woman in video games than in the whole of the it. So that's a good point for video games. And then another problem that I had that I found that was very big and I had never thought about that before the founder of my own company. And I'm the CEO there's no one above me and I have no one that's ranking higher than me to vote for me, references to others. And the only people that could give references about me were my business partners.

But at that time, I considered that that was not very appropriate. I, I disagree with myself in the past right now, but at that point, I thought that that was not appropriate. So I was not using that, that kind of lifeline. Uh And then the other thing is that if, if you're the CEO of a company or a founder, it doesn't matter what you're going to be uh involved in a lot of bureaucracy that take away from the actual video games part. And I didn't like that, that actually my main reason to want to go for, for someone bigger so that I could just remove myself from that and just devote myself to the part of video games that I enjoy. So, so I actually have to say that I achieved my goal. So my career progressed uh towards becoming a business developer in a, in a video games company. Uh But yeah, people would say, yeah, this happened because and hard working and you persevered and all of those are true. But the key of the matter was not exactly that what happened is because there's always uh you know, a circumstance that that pushes you and that helps you uh get your, your break.

Uh In my, in my particular case, it was that um Paradox Interactive had uh purchased an, an intellectual property that I was a fan of uh maybe, you know, it uh it's called World of Darkness. And I had been a fan for all of my life since it was released. Um back in 1991 I'm actually uh right now uh wearing a T shirt for that. So it's World of Darkness. And then you have Vampire the masquerade, which is one of the Game Lanes. And then in the back, I have one of the, of my favorite art pieces for this. So what happened is that I was actually an expert for this IP and they needed people that could do trumped and could do, could understand this brand and the, and the community around this brand. And the situation around this brand that had been dead for, for a while because the previous company that was owning the IP um had had um had not taken advantage of the of the brand. So it was kind of dead. So that, that was one of the main points like, yeah, hard work and everything. But I was also lucky that this situation happens and I could basically insert myself on it. Uh Just so, you know, how much time do you have? Yeah, a little bit more.

So just so, you know, for example, I was organizing events like um uh the events that were non official at that time for, for this brand. So um I, I had opened my, my own publishing company for these books in my spare time, like in parallel with the video games kind of thing. I was publishing uh these books in Europe because there were no European publishers and uh to market the books better and just to meet my fellow fans of the brand, I was also organizing events in, in the Netherlands, in Spain and in Germany and actually in Germany is where the where the main people for this brand met for the first time, like in one of my events.

And of course from there, um the relevant person that was looking who to hire, thought, thought of me because I was doing this already. So I was super, super proactive, being proactive is always good. So that's how, how this happened. And this is my, my summary of my story is a little bit more complex, but I think you get the gist of it. And what I'm the whole point of this talk is if, if I made it, you can make it too for sure because I have, I, I had almost everything against me. Like no, no connections, no technology at my hand, no money um raised in a place that was in the middle of nowhere. And you know, so and in the end I made it maybe it took me a little bit longer than one could expect. But uh but I'm super happy now where, where I am. So I don't know if you, oh so I I I'm not seeing the chat and I see that at least uh Nadia is oh Nadia and maybe Maala are, are also fans of World of Darkness. So now I'm opening the floor to questions if you have any, any questions.

Um I'm, I'm of course super glad to, to answer because I always like to, to help, you know, people get into the into the games industry also, you know, um promote it and and let people know how, how it really is. So yeah, also if you have any world of Darkness question, I can also answer maybe, I mean if it's, if it's not a secret, I can say so, yeah. So Mafalda says not only fun of the IP but you, I must say I'm trying to go down your path. OK. So, so I don't know if you have any specific questions. What I can tell you is that you can, you can make it for sure because I could and I, you know, I it was, I, I never thought it would be possible at all. Oh, Bruno says, very inspiring. Thank you so much. Thank you. I, I have to say because I hadn't mentioned this. I was feeling very lost most of my journey, like very lost. I don't know what I'm going to do with my life. Even when I found that my company is like, I'm not sure I'm doing the right thing. I don't, I'm not sure this is the right direction. And then I had to also, uh so I had a position from, from my close, close friends and family.

I could say, I mean, some of them were like, you are spending so much time on this and this is going to, you know, to do nothing for you because I was really, really working very hard, maybe, maybe too hard. I don't know. But it's just so, you know that if you find yourself in that position, uh that happened to me too and I persevered and I succeeded. So, so Cornelia uh says, um how is it to work within the video games industry? What does a day look like in a specific programming languages? Skills that is needed. What experience should I have? So, so, Cornelia, every, every kind of um knowledge that you can garner it's going to help. I found that in my, in my job uh in my several different roles, everything that I knew I was drawing from here and there, it gives you confidence and it gives you a more ample view of, of it wouldn't um I wouldn't. So as for programming languages and skills keep up with the, with. So uh I would recommend you to look at the video games. You would like to work for like video games and companies and check out what are the technologies that they use? Are they using, for example, the engine and real for, are they using unity something else? And then you learn about that and then you become the expert that they want, that the company that you want to work for wants. Um Then what does a day look like?

So video games industry, I think it's quite, I would say it's quite ideal. Uh Actually you can dress as you like. I have two more minutes dresses you like have purple hair. Um It's, you know, it's, it's quite flexible. I know it has a, it has a fame for crunching which is working over time and that's terrible. But for example, my company doesn't do that. So there are companies that don't do that. And um and it's amazing to just be able to pour your whole creativity there and how difficult do you think is to have a start in a game industry in a small place where you not have the desire to relocate and it's becoming easier and easier and actually COVID Times is going to help you uh because companies are, are thinking about hiring more and more now about hiring people that are not, um you know, in the same place.

Like, for example, I'm, I work half of the time I work remotely. My my base office is in Stockholm, but half of the time I'm in Madrid like for example, today, uh shout out to C Sky and Prison architect. Yeah, those great games uh on that courses. What do you mean by that? There are too many and ah and I don't know where to start. So I would recommend I would recommend what do you want to be working on and then go backwards? Like I want to be working then what, what do I need to be working in that instead of doing just random courses? Try try to, to make a like a a studies plan for yourself. If you want to be, for example, let's say um a two D artist or a concert artist. What or a programmer, what does for a certain company? What are the skills that they have? I would recommend go to linkedin and check what skills the people that you aspire to be have and then study to get those skills. And then Nadia says, uh, video games geek and nerd and I try to listen to. Uh, yeah, I have to say I have one minute, I'll say I sent a lot of CV. Si had no answers, no answers. So don't get discouraged. I had no answers to any of my CV.

Si was, that's one of the reasons why I felt I was feeling lost. Uh But in the end, persevering, I so don't, don't worry if you don't get answers when you apply for, for positions. Do you have any suggestions for researching companies? Um I don't, I don't know if I have more time to, to answer because it's um uh it's already my time is up and I'm not sure how, how this works, but I'll say that uh researching companies try to think about the style of a company that you want. Uh do, do they allow to work from home? Do they, do they do crunch time? The kind of uh video games that they release? Are you passionate about that? And then, and then research based on that? And then when you find that company uh become the expert that they need to hire, that's what I would tell you. And then I'm not sure if, if I need to leave now myself or if I'll be disconnected at some point because I am past my time. I would, I would say, I think this was only a 20 minute talk and we're, and we are over. I mean, I can keep talking. I love talking and, and I, I think that you're that you're asking super clever questions. So, so let's go back up. Oh, thank you very much. Oh, thank you. Thank you all for being here. Um I'm, I'm so happy, feel free to connect with me on, on um linkedin.

Uh It's down, be like same name as this year and then, and I will, will accept, I'm, I'm not super picky and feel free to ask me for more advice. You message me and, and I will answer your questions. Thank you so much. Um So happy to have been here and talk to, to you all.