Background Information - Media Briefing

1. Event history

Each year in October, a staggering 150,000 people flock to the Essen Games Fair in Germany. In 2005, Phil Davies, Managing Director of Mind Games Albury and Mind Games Canberra traveled to Germany to join the hordes of games enthusiasts. Now in its 21st year, the world's largest game fair attracted a mere 1000 visitors in its first year (as did the inaugural Australian Games Expo).

As a result of that trip, Mind Games Albury and Canberra established and are promoting the Australian Games Expo. Based on the massive Essen Games Fair (Spiel Essen) in Germany, Spellenspektakel in The Netherlands and the Chicago Toy & Games Fair, the Australian Games Expo is not a trade fair, but is a retail event, open to the public and significantly, is a family-oriented event with an educational focus.

The World Championships of the Eurogames Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan are conducted annually at Essen, but until 2006, there were no Australian competitors. This has now changed and Australia was represented for the first time in 2006 and again in 2007.

In 2007, the Australian Championship tournament for Diplomacy - the game of international intrigue - moved to Albury from Sydney, to run in tandem with the Australian Games Expo. The Australian Blokus championships were also held at the Expo.

2. How the Expo will work

The Australian Games Expo is organized around three main areas of activity:

(a) The Australian Championships for Carcassonne, the winner of which will represent Australia for the fourth year at the 2009 World Championships in Essen.

(b) Trade stands provide the opportunity for patrons to play, try or buy hundreds of board and card games. Retail exhibitors are able to sell the games to the public.

(c) An educational opportunity for patrons to learn how to play games with the assistance of experienced instructors from the Exhibitors.

3. Target markets

Our target markets include families, schools, universities, and home educators - in short anyone aged from about 8 upwards. As educationalists know, play is important to a healthy society and it is getting left behind in today's world. Games are not just fun - they're a recognized teaching tool and can raise a child's IQ by up to 16 points.*
(*source: CHITAG website)

4. Event outline

Date:	Saturday 23 , Sunday 24 & Monday 25 Janaury (Australia Day weekend)
Venue:	Exhibition Park in Canberra (EPIC) Flemington Rd, Mitchell ACT 2911 Tel: 02 6241 3022
Hours of operation:	9am to 6pm (Sat, Sun) 4pm (Mon) Exhibitions open to the public. 10am to 6pm Saturday Championship Tournaments 10am to 6pm Sunday run simultaneously
Cost:	Free Entry

5. Exhibitors & sponsors

After the success of the Expo in 2006 and 2007, AGE had one major sponsor and 24 exhibitors with exhibition space sold out. The public visited the 24 different exhibitors including three from the USA.

6. More information

You can find out more about stakeholders, participants, contributors and the events mentioned at:

Similar Events:

Essen Spiel

Chitag

UK Games Expo