“How awesome is that?” Palumbo exclaims. “You are so lucky to be one of the first to remember that shift.”
Jefferey Palumbo, Lenovo’s Global Esports Solution Manager, is speaking of the shift from an era when esports offered only the riskiest of job opportunities to now when esports offers more and more stable careers. Although I cannot see him on our Teams call, I can hear the genuine excitement in his voice. He is passionate about young people getting into esports careers, and Lenovo, an innovative technology company which manufactures consumer electronics, is helping students achieve just this feat.
“The products do not make people successful,” Palumbo says. That is why his team’s approach to scholastic esports entails more than just supplying technology demands, but consultancy for brand-new programs, including free consultations on product recommendations, financing options, and more.
Another one of Lenovo’s objectives is to “move away from manual problems.” For instance, through a partnership with esports software company ggCircuit, Lenovo can equip clients with resources for automatic updates, security, and custom servers.
Partnerships like these are all about “lay[ing] out what these goals are and what success actually means,” Palumbo says. “We bring in partners who are already great at that.”
This is a compliment to us at Cibergator, as we also offer consultations to schools in and around Louisiana. “We do not work with just anybody,” Palumbo adds.
In less than 50 years, the video game pastime has given way to million-dollar competitive events boasting millions of fans. Palumbo remembers when pinball machines and Pong were the craze, and now eagerly wonders, “What are VR and AR going to look like?” The prospect of students graduating into a new technology and entertainment-focused industry is inspiring to him, especially as Lenovo assists in making these prospects into realities.
