Nicky Wightman is director of global occupier trends at Savills. It’s a grand job title for a very down-to-earth person. We haven’t known each other long but whenever we meet my heart lifts because I know I’m going to have one of the most interesting conversations of the week. And that’s because Nicky is essentially curious. She’s fascinated by what she doesn’t know.

In the last couple of years, Nicky has spent a great deal of time learning about gaming and e-sports. She’s convinced that it is not only an important sector in its own right but one that will impact on almost everything else we do in our working and leisure lives.

Some 37% of people in the UK call themselves gamers of some kind – from those who play Candy Crush on the bus on the way to work to the folks who have parallel existences “in-game” through hugely sophisticated community-driven franchises like Eve Online and Fortnite. The gaming industry is worth $150bn globally – bigger than the entire music and film industries combined. Yet who among us understands how this industry and its reach are going to affect how we operate in the built environment industry, let alone every other business? Perhaps we are not curious enough?

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