Thousands expected at UK's 'biggest' games event

A convention for board game enthusiasts is expected to attract 45,000 visitors over three days this weekend.

UK Games Expo at Birmingham's NEC is the largest event of its kind in the UK and one of the biggest in the world, organisers say, and this year will be its 20th show.

The event was set up by a church minister from Kidderminster and a retired GP from Sutton Coldfield and will have 900 exhibitors across six halls of the exhibition centre - a 15% increase on last year.

The growth has taken even its founders by surprise, with one of the pair, Richard Denning, saying: "We thought we could do something, but we never really thought on the scale that it's got to."

Over the NEC and the nearby Hilton hotel, the event will use more than 72,000 sq m of floor space and Denning said that makes it "genuinely one of the world's largest shows and cements our position on that world stage".

The expo features all forms of tabletop games - which are games played on a table, such as board games, roleplaying games, or miniature wargames.

The event, from Friday to Sunday, attracts exhibitors from around the world and also includes shows, seminars, re-enactors and cosplay.

One of the attractions for many visitors was the chance to try new games, or ones they have not seen before, organisers said.

Denning said the UK tabletop games market was estimated to be worth somewhere between £450m and £500m and was growing all the time.

One of the biggest board game companies in the world, Asmodee, is among the exhibitors and will have 10 stands, demonstrating 160 games.

A spokesperson said the show was "one of the most important dates in the calendar" and gave a "rare opportunity to meet thousands of board game and trading card game fans face-to-face".

Marketing director Roger Martin added that the expo was also a chance to "engage new audiences and shine a bigger light on our titles, while giving existing fans early access to upcoming releases and plenty of hands-on play".

The first UK Games Expo was held in a masonic hall and had a more modest attendance of about 900.

Denning said it cost just £18,000 and that included the £5,000 he borrowed from his wife, "who had just had a bit of an inheritance".

This year's event is projected to have a turnover of about £2.2m.

But both men said they got just as much pleasure from the event today as when they started.

Hyams said there was a "lot of satisfaction" knowing they had done something that was "often the highlight of lots of people's year".

Denning added: "It's probably about seeing something work and be a success and people having fun and when you see them just enjoying themselves then you think, that's been worthwhile."

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