 Now, next Wednesday, the 14th, the Spray Yoggers Sports Digital Creative Lab is inviting young gamers in the show to play and create and share. It's a collaboration with the Irish Youth Foundation and McDonald's, and it's an initiative called Gaming for All, and I'm delighted that Anya Kelly, who is the coordinator for the programme, now joins us in the studio. Anya, tell us about Gaming for All. So, Gaming for All is an initiative, as you said, down the Digital Creative Lab in Spray Yoggers Sports. We're based in Cairndona, just below Supervalu. So, in our Digital Creative Lab, we've kind of been doing workshops at primary schools, secondary schools, and various topics, such as digital fabrication and electronics, and we've kind of gone into STEM activities, but now we've seen opening for gaming, gaming development, playing games as well, so we've kind of wanted to dabble in that now for a bit. The want is there. Children are enjoying playing games, but also developing games. Absolutely. What would you say to those that say, oh, this is just a place for kids to go and hang out and play games? We kind of wanted to say that that could be it, yes, but we're also educating them how to develop games, how to code games, but also gaming can be like a social aspect too, that your child could be on playing games in the room in their own, but talking to 20 other people, whereas we want to say, come on, our safe place. We have staff there that are educated in programming games, that staff is there to encourage them to talk about what games they enjoy, sometimes what they don't enjoy about games, maybe what they're scared about gaming, but also we want to make sure it's a safe place for everyone, that we're also inclusive, that it's a place for everyone of all abilities, of all needs, of all backgrounds, want them to come and play, create and share. When you say opportunities, what sort of opportunities within gaming are there? Well, there's many aspects of gaming. Even if you asked me a year ago, I would have been like, oh, it's just coding, I'm not interested in that at all, but there's so many aspects of gaming, like if you're into art, there is animation, there's creativity, there is problem solving, there is also the gaming side of it, like the programming, developing, but there's also the testing, there's marketing, there's so many aspects. And there's so much to gaming that I think a lot of people who don't play games don't fully understand. I mean, it's as big as the film industry. Well, that's it, there is stats out there and rather showing the gaming is bypassing the music and film industry. But the only thing is with Ireland is they're missing a beat, that the skills aren't there for people to go into that industry. But there are trading opportunities available here and in Derry. Yeah, no, exactly. So I mean, there's a gaming company in Derry that are flying us, you know, and that's where we'd like to see kids getting them skills and seeing companies like that to go and pursue a career and that, that even if you're sitting at home, be like, I love playing, you know, getting PlayStation Xbox, you can't get a career to that. You're not just, it could be your hobby, but you want to enjoy your job too. So that's why with our Club Now workshop, we're gonna do on a Wednesday that we want to show that. So we are aiming at 12 years and up just to kind of have that age of the ability for it. But we've had a teenage boy coming since he probably is about 10, 11, and he's got autism. He's not into sports, he's not into music, but he loves games, loves being on the PC. And it's been great to see him progressing because he's been coming up through like, we hadn't had a lot of these workshops, we've done certain camps and maybe we used to have it once a month. So he's been coming up through them and just seen the progress of him. He loves coming in, you know, he wouldn't be that social. So this is like a social outing for him. He can, you know, talk to others about the games, talk about what they develop in the games, but then at home then he could continue to progress in skills, come in, he could show us a thing or two probably, if I sat down for an hour, I'm sure I could walk away with plenty of skills. So we wanted to be open to everyone, but like, you could be in the gaming, you could just have an interest in gaming, you might be interested in the art side of things, you might be looking into the code inside, or you could just be looking for a social outlet. You know, there is, you might, if you're not into sport, you're not into music, there might not be a lot there, whereas free in general, we are, we always try to say we're inclusive. We wanted open to everyone, so it's not different in the Digital Creative Lab. We wanted to be open, any ability, any ability, any negate. You're more than welcome. And you'll have access as well, I would imagine, to, you know, state of the art gaming facilities. Yes, so in our Digital Creative Lab, on its own anyway, we have plenty of equipment. So when people come in anyway, they'll kind of get a feel that it's not just a space that you could find everything in. Like in our Digital Creative Lab, we have got like laser cutters, 3D printers, vinyl cutters, but when obviously the workshop's on as well, we have PlayStation setup, we'll have VR headset setup, and we'll have computers, laptops, and we'll also be developing on a gaming development website called G-Develop. So just even having that feel of an environment, you know, that you're not just in a hall, like an empty hall, but you're in a creative space, you're in a digital place, you're in, it's like, it's somewhere different for children to come in that they might not see it everywhere and anywhere. So we're open for like, for new people to come in too, that we have, we do offer other camps in our Digital Creative Lab, like, you know, we've done like digital fabrication, we've done electronics, but with gaming, it's still in the Digital Creative Labs, we want new faces to come in to see what we could offer. And if you're in the gaming, you might have a look around and be like, Oh, I'd love to make a cup for Mickey Caring, so we could have other workshops down the line that they might be interested in. Okay, could be an introduction to Sport of the Spree. Yeah. Probably a lot of the young people, you know, gaming is their thing, and it's perceived as being just a bedroom activity, but there's so much more, it's an industry, and this could be an introduction to it. Of course, yeah, because there's so many skills you can learn with gaming and game development, like, you know, there's communication, there's problem solving, all them different things, there's like creativity, you know, what's all them things that you might think, oh, they're just playing a game, they're just making noise, whereas that could be the case, but also they are learning skills, they're communicating, that's teamwork, there's cooperation, you know, what's a different environment, and when you look at the other side of things, you have to play in it, but once they learn how to develop, they might make a game that maybe they've never seen, that people say with additional needs, they might think, oh, I've never seen a game with someone like me in it, this is their opportunity for that to make a game like that. And apparently there is a skill shortage in the industry, so you know, there's plenty of opportunities. Yeah, I know exactly, so we would love to give children that stepping stone, like children and teenagers, that stepping stone to be like, I really want to do this, but I don't know how to start. So people like, you know, going into secondary school might be thinking, oh, I'm thinking of a career in this, but I don't know how to start. This could be a good stepping stone, and we're hoping to learn as much from them as we can teach them, because they're going to come up with new technologies, new thoughts, new processes, we could be like, oh, we never thought about that, or oh, is that a problem? Maybe we should start addressing that, you know, and we want them to drive this workshop as much as we can, like we can only set out so much to kind of say, we'd like to show you this, we'd like to teach you this, but we would like feedback from them also to be like, oh, we'd love to see this, or could we touch on this topic, you know? So you never know what direction it might go in? Yeah, exactly. So I mean, it's starting next Wednesday in the 14th, but it's going to run every Wednesday from four to six for during school term time, but I mean, like we might have, you know, four or five weeks planned out, but the next four or five weeks the children could, you know, the teenagers could like, steer us in the direction they want to go, which is perfectly fine as well. So who knows? Who knows, I know. And you know, young person could go along and they could end up maybe working in an industry that they love, and then doing something that they love, day to day. Yeah, no, exactly, like, and we want to encourage as many people to come as well, like girls, girls, boys, everyone, because like we've seen stats as well, like half of the gaming, half the gamers out there are women, but like a lot of girls might take a step back, but like, oh, I don't want to do gaming or it's not for me. Like, but you want to encourage that as well, because, you know, the, it's a good industry to get in. And as I said, there's so many different skill sets to go in. You don't just have to be into computing or into coding if you're into art anything. And we do want to encourage both males and females to come in. The beauty of this is it's not just sitting around playing games. It'll obviously be some of that. But if anybody's interested in taking it to the next level or learning some new skills, there will be those opportunities. Of course, yeah, like I said, we're not just going to bring your kids in and let them run around and play these games. It's, you want to let them play games to kind of get, you know, an icebreaker and stuff. But we want to obviously educate them. We want to kind of build on skills. And we do know that the want is out there because I was actually on with Greg there before, before Christmas, because we had an event called meeting code, which was on a Saturday. It was an all day event. And we actually had a girl travel up with her mum from the west of Donegal up to Cairndonna. So she'd talk about two and a half hours up to us for that event. Her granny had actually heard me on with Greg, which is great. But it just shows you the demand. Exactly. Yeah. So like she had to travel two and a half hours for that because it's something her granny's seen that her grandchild enjoyed. She suggested it to her and the mum was like, definitely because there's been no hand around like that for them. But it's great too. For you guys, it's really a good sport. You see, you see a gap, you see where there's a demand and then you're able to step up. Of course, yeah, because that's why I said like we would deliver workshops around and a show and to our primary school, the secondary schools and a massive thanks and a show and co-op for their corporate sponsors. So with them and with their support and with our skill set and our staff, we're able to go to primary schools and provide these six week workshops with digital skills from digital fabrication, STEM, electronics, because there's a want for that as well. Like obviously teachers have so much they have to cover in the year, they sometimes can't get into that. So we're happy to look at the school curriculum, look at what's needed in the STEM side of things and we can provide that. And it's also fun by learning like we're not going in and being like you to be quiet and listen to us. It's a very hands-on approach and we're going to be the same with the gaming for all. Okay, next Wednesday evening four to six and every Wednesday evening then turn the school term after that at the same time. And anybody interested can just show up or do you have to register? We're best to register. So we are looking like something very popular. So they can book online on our website sprogesport.ee. There will be spaces there but there also will be a witness because we are, as I said, we are expected to be popular. So if the demand is there, we're hopefully put on another evening. So if you are interested, definitely add your child to the witness and we'll get as many spots as we can. And if anyone has other further questions, our contact details will be on the website. So if they want to call the office, sometimes people don't know what, you know, what could definitely be involved. They might have some worries about their child coming. And as I said, I aimed at 12 plus and it's at that reason to make it a space where like teenagers feel comfortable coming in because if we opened it up to say six to 15 year olds, 15 year olds aren't going to come in the fear of sexual abuse. So we do want to keep it at say 12 plus just for that reason that it's a safe place, comfortable place. It's a chill out zone. It's kind of like a youth club. You can come hang out. If you want to come for one week and it's not for you, that's fine. We're not going to we're not going to tie you into all six weeks. We would love to see you come back. But also if you're thinking it might be something I'm excited, I'm interested. I'm excited about give it a try. And if you don't like it, that's fine. You know, we'll have to take you back. But you know what's something different for them on Kelly from free yoga sports. Thank you very much. The best look good. Thank you very much.