Overall my summary of the event’s opportunity for testing new games out as a first-time board game player since I was a kid, was really organized and fun. I managed to meet other people who have been playing board games as a passion for years and got an insight into what got them into it in the first place, I noticed a lot of people who are still playing board games had started with playing at family gatherings and with siblings.
The event gave me an amazing opportunity to network with other brands and designers. The board game community was very friendly and welcoming even when we were being competitive with one another during a game they were very accepting that I was a beginner to it all.
As I was mainly there for networking and capturing social media content I was speaking with a lot of other designers and people working at the stalls. This was a new approach for me as I am usually used to connecting with new people through social media so approaching people who are established within the community for a chat and photo was at first quite nerve racking, but after meeting a couple of cool people I was quite comfortable with it. My favourite person I had encounter at UK GAMES EXPO was Bez (@stuffbybez) who was also from north London like myself so showed what a small world it is and how close to my home I still was being surrounded by people from the same borough so far away from home. Which was another cool thing about the event I met people from many different cities such as Manchester and Coventry.
I had also managed to speak with a games designer (Robert for @physicalgaming) who had asked me for some advice on how my generation and the general public are now utilising social media to market products and services and even themselves. He was really fascinated with all the cool features of geo maps and hashtags on Instagram to utilise your pages reach. So even though my first games event I was learning a lot of new things, it was refreshing to meet someone who wanted to learn about something from my world which is something I’m always open and passionately preaching.
It was my first time attending a gaming event and Birmingham city, and being from such a diverse part of London it was so refreshing to be able to see the culture in Birmingham. The people are extremely friendly even the people I met that was working in the shops or restaurants I went to, which in London is rare to find due to how hectic it is all the time, so I really enjoyed my time in Birmingham the NEC (https://www.thenec.co.uk)
also had a cool atmosphere around it was a beautiful arena which had a waterfall in front of it. I also visited the city centre which was very similar actually to the architecture in central London with all the big buildings and tourist attractions.
Being a twenty-one-year-old male from London I wanted to see what the nightlife was like in comparison and also what the people in my age group get up to out there, and the differences was actually quite a shock. London is known for everything being expensive and posh and in comparison to other parts of the UK it’s very true, the locals in Birmingham have a really unique accent which I found sounded really satisfying oddly.
The experience was one of a kind and look forward to attending gaming events in the future, as the crowd is all so friendly and passionate about expressing their feelings about game boards, even the people who were selling merchandise or games at their stall would happily partake in a conversation and even a photo. Some were even dressed in cosplay to entertain the kids who are fans of some popular characters they’ve idolized.
