Trista Patterson (2019)

Video games have got a very unfair reputation, and when Dr Trista Patterson enters our TEDxArendal stage on November 1, it is to show you some surprising ways these video games can be used to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals and help the world’s poorest.

2.3 billion people play video games, 50% of them are female, the average age of a gamer is in their 30’s. The economic value of videogaming, 140$ billion/yr, is higher than Hollywood, Bollywood and all music sales globally – combined! More people watch other people play video games on channels like Twitch than they watch CNN, ESPN and BBC. People play over 150 billion hours of video games per year, and there amazing ways this brainpower is now being harnessed to solve the world’s most urgent problems such as HIV-Aids and illegal deforestation.

Dr Trista Patterson is local to Arendal (so no carbon footprint to travel), an accomplished, dynamic, and inspiring keynote speaker, recently nominated as one of the most influential women in technology in the Nordics.