This is a very cool story and one it is a pleasure to report on.

Dan,(who works for EA in Guildford),  and Vicky Holman from Reigate, Surrey ran in the Virgin London Marathon on Sunday 25 April 2010 in aid of Make-A-Wish Foundation^®UK, the leading wish granting charity that grants magical wishes to children and young people fighting life-threatening illnesses.  There are 20,000 children living in the UK with a life-threatening illness and Make-A-Wish believes that every one of these children deserves to experience the magic of a Make-A-Wish wish. Make-A-Wish needs to raise at least £5 million this year in order to grant the wishes of the 1,000 children who will turn to the charity in 2010.  Granting all these magical wishes relies solely on the generous donations of the public and fundraising challenges like the Virgin London Marathon.  Dan and Vicky have certainly played there part in helping…..as we will see.

Well done Dan & Vicky.  People like you truly make a difference.

This is Dan’s story in his own words.

“Yes – we did it!

The 5 months of training, come rain or shine and plenty of snow too worked out for us on what was our first marathon run together or individually for that matter. There were definitely times when we questioned our own sanity through the dark winter months training. This all washed away yesterday as we made our way round London.

We had some technical issues to overcome before we even crossed the start line. Like how to smuggle Vicky into the Red start zone when she should have been in Blue – this proved simpler then we thought and our cleverly hatched plans of posing as a blind runner and guide were not needed as the age old “whats that over there and point technique” seemed to do the trick with security as she ran by undetected.

We donned our expensive and hi-tech sports jackets to keep the rain off (see picture) so much for the sunshine that the BBC promised! Then joined the Incredible Hulk, Rhino, Batman & Robin, Thomas the Tank Engine and 30,000 other fools in a very ordily British queue for a run.

Our timing plan went out of the window after 5 mins when I realised in chatting to some nurses I’d become distracted and managed to stop my watch.  Well we were never going to break any records so we just relaxed and got into it, enjoying the crowds shouting your names out – go Vicky, go Den – Bloody Den, can’t they read! High fiving various kids, some that looked like they may nick my i-pod if I got to close and taking Jelly Babies from the well wishes – at least that’s what I think they were, some of them had just fallen out of local nightclubs…

We only stopped for the loo once, in hindsight should have done again as running when you need to go is not fun for 16 miles. Running all the way to mile 21 before we had to adopt a walk 5 mins and run to the next mile marker to see us home on the 26.2 mile course. We actually crossed the finish line together on 5hr 20mins, both to knackered and emotional for any last minute high jinks to cross the line first.

So in rounding up, we have had a terrific journey of highs and lows over the past 5 months. All of which was made so worthwhile with yesterdays incredible experience. Thanks to all our family, friends, colleagues and some people we have never met but were touched by a good cause for all your support along the way, it really meant the world to us. You have given so generously to Make-A-Wish and we thanks you for helping us smash our target and making wishes come true for children that are fighting life threatening disease”.

Dan & Vicky

“Marathon Runners”

Obviously we love working at EA.  But we are biased.  It is always great to receive external recognition about EA being a great place to work.

Let’s take a look at some different awards announced recently.

First up at the prestigious ‘Recruiter Awards’, EA was delighted to be awarded the recognition ‘Highly Commended’ for the most effective Employee Brand development.  What makes this special is that the recognition comes in a category that included hundreds of applicants across different industries eg financial services, pharmaceutical, public sector, retail, consumer goods etc.

Every year, Universum surveys students and asks them questions about their career expectations, how they perceive companies as employers and what they associate to those employers. Universum asks students to pick the employers they would consider working for and then choose the employers they would most like to work for, that is the companies that they perceive as being “Ideal”.

The Universum Top 100 Ideal Employer Rankings reflect the frequency with which these employers were selected as being ideal by the students who participated in the surveys. The Universum Top 100 essentially measures the level of employer attractiveness that a company/organization has on the recruitment market vis-à-vis other competing employers. In other words, how many students perceive you as a “best place to work” company or organization and where do you stand in the crowd of all those employers needing top talent.

The Universum American Student IT Survey results are out.

And……..

EA are in the Top 10….at number 8!!!

Very cool.

Now what makes this exciting is that this is the opinion of students…some 56,900 were polled from 345 leading US Universities.

Other Universum results have also been announced.

In the UK, some 11,637 students from 65 leading Universities were polled and EA were ranked at number 15in the Engineering / IT Sector.

And in Sweden, 16,791 University Students were polled from 34 leading Universities.  DICE, (an EA Company), were voted in at number 5.

These votes mean a great deal for us at EA.  Especially as they are voted by students.  Thank you.

© 2010 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

You can sense the excited tension at Animation 09 as schoolchildren wait to see if they are a winner

Hey all.

Just back from judging Animation 10.  Wow the standard is high this year.  There is no shortage of animation talent lining up for jobs in the years ahead.

As EA are title sponsors again, we are very proud of this event and the effort that Manchester University goes to in ensuring it is a great success. 

596 schools registered from all  across the UK – from Cornwall to Shetland, with 1234 entries. A total of 36 prizes awarded to 28 winners.

As a reminder of what Animation 10 is all about:

-   UK schoolchildren aged 7-19 are invited to create an animated film using their computer, and submit it to the competition.

-   Entries can be from individuals, or groups (of up to 4 members).

-   All entrants receive certificates, and winners will receive prizes ranging from laptops to gift vouchers.

-   Winners will be invited to the exciting Animation Festival and Prize Giving day at The Lowry, Salford Quays, Manchester.

-   Entries are submitted in 4 age categories (KS2, KS3, KS4 and 16-plus).

-   The maximum duration of an entry is one minute.

-   Animations must not be interactive – they must run as standalone animations.

-   Entries must be created using one of the following programs: Alice, Scratch, Adobe Flash, Serif, and Greenfoot.

As you can see the goal is to ensure that schoolchildren see that using computers can be fun.  Manchester University has the vision that capturing children’s imagination through competitions like this, will result in more children wanting to study Computer Science at University in the years head.  This is a primary reason for EA’s involvement in this great competition. 

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