GenConUK to GenConEurope?

[Mathew_Freeman]

Having just been to GenCon UK and really enjoyed myself, I was alerted to the fact that in 2003 it will be in April at the Olympia Exhibition Hall for only 3 days instead of four, and thereafter it will move to another European City and become GenConEurope.

Nearly everyone I spoke to was against this, so I was wondering if anyone has the official reasons <b>why</b> this has happened?

We presumed that Hasbro or WotC are trying to broaden their market by attracting more Europeans to the Con, but given that nearly all the UK residents figured that they were much less likely to go I can't see that it's a good move.

And we seemed to have many Europeans at the Con anyway.

Thoughts? Opinions? Links to further information?

 

[S'mon]

Opinion - I won't be going to Gencon in Amsterdam or Brugge, I'm just glad I'll get to go to Olympia again next year, it's good for me living in London as I do now. I expect that running it in central(ish) London makes it very difficult to cover the costs, so even though probably less people will attend a Continental GenCon, the overheads will likely be so much lower, it could be more attractive financially. Good for Dutch or Belgian retailers and all those German roleplayers, anyway - I wonder if Raven will be running Die Schwarze Auge games?
The place (Olympia 2) seemed a bit empty when I was there on Sunday BTW, probably many folks were a bit burned-out, so three days seems sensible.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi Tallarn mate!

I have to admit I too would be less likely to attend if the event moved to mainland Europe; and I concur that was the opinion of most people at the event last week.

In my opinion the turnout will suffer significantly.

I imagine Morrus will approach Peter Adkison for another Chat Night (the last one was at the end of July) sometime in the near future to discuss this and we can hear his views and everyone can relate their opinions on the matter.

 

[Blacksad]

I think that this would be a good idea, especially if it is in the euro zone. No special paper required, and no money change.

 

[LcKedovan]

Thoughts? Opinions? Links to further information?

I am certainly not against it myself, but I can understand how you feel. Some points to think about however:

- The costs in London are outrageous.

- Moving to different European cities has more possibility to "draw" from all over the world. Same reason IT conferences move so much.

EDIT: S'mon also has an excellent point. A huge number of RPG games etc. are developed on the mainland, and it might be my ignorance of any additional English RPG/gaming co's, but it seems the UK lives off of US stuff for the most part with the exception of Games Workshop.

-Will

 

[Morrus]

From what PA has told me (and I could be either remembering incorrectly or only in possession of half the story) the idea is to make the European Gen Con equal to the US Gen Con in size and scope.

It'll be rebranded Gen Con Euro, but will still (as far as I'm aware) be based in London. It'll just be much bigger and better, with many more game companies and far more attendees (plus other events etc.)

 

[StalkingBlue]

Well, I for one would be in favour of changing locations for GenCon Europe.

After all, if they rename it to GenCon Europe, how can they properly continue to hold it outside Europe?

And in all seriousness, all the high-quality conferences I've ever attended, whether of a professional nature or in martial arts or whatever, tend to change locations from year to year.
The method just draws a greater variety of participants, and over the years you catch more and more addicts in your net who'll follow you around from location to location ...

That doesn't mean you shouldn't have a Con UK all of your own if you like, in addition to a "flying" GenCon Europe. We have Cons on the continent just for one country, or even part of one. NordCon, the "North German" Con if you want, is held just a few minutes from where I live, one weekend in May in every summer. It's friendly, it's small, and it's there every year. It's also in its own way peacefully provincial.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I'd be OK with that idea, that a GenConUK continued, even if it was at smaller venue. It was just the way that the whole thing seemed to just whoosh away from us that I was objecting to.

I have a feeling that another convention, say Dragonmeet, may take over the big Con of the year slot in London. But if there were good travel packages available, I would consider going to a Con in another country.

 

[blaster219]

GenCon UK is outside of Europe? forgive me for passing GCSE Geography, but the last time I heard we were part of Europe and something called the EU. I could be wrong though.

 

[oliverhenshaw]

I was actually there when PA etc. was announcing this at GenCon UK, so I'll weigh in with some insight. Probably.

The idea, as far as I understand it is to have GenCon Europe is amsterdam for quite a while. It's well-placed for the big markets in France, Germany (and closer for Spain/Portugal etc) and the UK.

As a member of the floor pointed out, travelling from london (or nearby) to amsterdam is easy - around #10 sterling return from luton airport with easyjet or similar (and I'm reasonably sure it's true for a few other airports - making it cheaper to fly to amsterdam from many parts of the uk than to train to london).

And amsterdam has got attractions of it's own.

Lastly, something that I'm not sure has been reported is that PA also announced that Gencon UK regularly makes a loss, but wait. He also said something along the lines that he intended it to be loss-making for the next 1-2 years at last while it moved and grew and had money pumped into it and (hopefully) joined gencon US as being profit making.

Overall I think it's a good move.