Live Company Group PLC (LON:LVCG) Executive Chairman David Ciclitira caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss Bricklive Education’s agreement with ImmersiveMinds.
Q1: David, can you tell us how Bricklive Education was first created?
A1: From the very beginning, I’ve always felt that BRICKLIVE was both about entertainment and education and I think wherever we’ve been, the educational pull of BRICKLIVE has been very key so we’ve been in discussions for some time to really formalise our ideas on the educational platform.
So, Bricklive Education was formed 3 or 4 months ago, and we’ve been working with Stephen Reid on thoughts on how we might make that more than just a thought. So, I’m delighted that yesterday we finally formalised our relationship with Stephen and I believe that this will be the beginning of quite exciting things going forward.
Q2: So, why is education important for BRICKLIVE?
A2: As I said, if you look at a country like China or Korea or Japan where we’ve been obviously with BRICKLIVE for some time now, the educational element is crucial in these countries. If you look at the coding issues that we’ve already started in Korea, coding is on the curricular in schools, Minecraft as a game has just been released in China, there’s a lot of things that are happening at the same time as BRICKLIVE.
The thing about BRICKLIVE is it’s now a network, it’s a global network and by the end of next year, I envisage that we will be in 100 different locations and the growth opportunity could build on that, educationally-wise.
So, the reason for the announcement today is that we’ve now got a partner who we can build things that can go global.
Q3: What has Bricklive Education done to date for the company?
A3: Well, as I said just now, we’ve basically created some education classes, we’ve worked with Stephen in both Birmingham and New York. In China, we’ve started to add educational pieces to our centres and in Seoul they’ve pioneered a coding class using LEGO as a base.
Q4: Can you tell us who ImmersiveMinds is and about the agreement that you’ve announced with them?
A4: ImmersiveMinds is a company that specialises in education and Stephen’s a very talented individual who’s basically worked with Microsoft and has a formal agreement with Microsoft to work using Minecraft and other Microsoft activities to build digital education amongst kids. Obviously, we saw the ability to team up with him based on the fact that we use Minecraft bricks and I think that’s been very successful, it’s something we wanted to expand and now we have a partner who we can work with.
Andrew Smith has known Stephen for a long time, they worked together at Insomnia, and is going to be our key person in the company who will help Stephen create what I believe will be a global educational platform. I think his relationship with Microsoft is crucial, we’ve had several meetings with them and the Minecraft folks and everybody is extremely excited by the opportunities that we have.
I think I go back to the global network is the crucial thing, the fact is that we can introduce these educational products almost immediately in key markets. I think it’s fair to say that the first outing of the newly formed Bricklive Education will be in Dallas at the end of next January, we’re very excited about creating something very special there and from that, we’ll roll it out globally.
Q5: Are you tapping into an older demographic with this agreement?
A5: Yes, we are but I think what everybody is excited about, if you look at the Minecraft game and the education, we offer a younger audience. If you go back to the announcement we made 10 days ago, which was about our relationship with Live Nation in the US, Live Nation is in fact the largest promotor in the world of music concerts, their audience really starts at 12, 13, 14 and the latter, our audience is 5-14 really.
The reason they were excited to build a relationship with us was the educational and entertainment element for an untapped audience, I think if you look at the Minecraft people, they’re looking for younger audiences and I think the fact that we’ve linked education and put education right at the front really has excited them.
I’ve always felt BRICKLIVE is not just about LEGO bricks, obviously LEGO bricks and everything we do with LEGO is the key asset at this current moment but going forward, we will obviously seek to introduce complementary activities that are basically for BRICKLIVE Kids.
BRICKLIVE’s a brand, if I go back it’s now established in markets across the world and I think if I was to fast forward my thoughts on what we’re going to see in 2019, which is just around the corner really, is this extension of the content within BRICKLIVE at the same time as BRICKLIVE building its network.
The digital side obviously is crucial to today’s kids and as long as it’s informative education and fits in with our vision, I see a great extension in that. With ImmersiveMinds, there’s a VR element, that’s something that we will be seeking to extend, and they’ll be more announcements in that area in the short future.
Q6: You mentioned earlier an integration with Dallas in January, what can visitors expect there?
A6: Dallas is obviously an important step for us, the relationship that we have with our partners who obviously are extremely clever content people and Live Nation, obviously speaks for itself, we’ve had tremendous support from the host at the Dallas Cowboys folk. Everybody is extremely excited about this project.
We’ll be going live with the tickets in the immediate future and I just think it’s going to be something very special. We are upping our game in terms of content, we will be taking a full edition of Animal Paradise as part of the show and it’s Star Wars 20th anniversary linked with LEGO, the brand of Star Wars so we’ll be focussing on that. The other focus will be the Bricklive Education and working with ImmersiveMinds.
Q7: I think with all of these things, your timing is spot on, isn’t it?
A7: I don’t know about spot on. Live Company Group, if you go back in time and think we went public last December, we’ve done a huge amount this year, there’s more to come and I look forward to talking to you about that as I said in the not too distant future.
The reality is I’m just surprised that everybody seems to want a piece of BRICKLIVE, wherever we go the success is evident. I think we’re obviously going to increase and improve our content, we’ve got so many shows coming up in the last quarter, it’s just an incredibly busy time.
Live Company Group PLC (LON:LVCG) operates as a live events and entertainment company. The Company offers sports marketing, media, and management services. Brick Live is a network of partner-driven fan-based shows using BRICKLIVE-created content worldwide. Brick Live Group is not associated with the LEGO® Group and is an independent producer of BRICKLIVE.
