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 and Settlers of Catan, the winners of which will represent Australia for only the second year at the 2007 World Championships in Essen. Likewise the winner of the Diplomacy tournament represents Australia in Canada as his/her prize.

(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 and possibly from some members of EurogamesFest (a group of board game players from Albury, Canberra, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne who volunteer to teach people how to play in order to promote Eurogames. Refer to www.eurogamesfest.com)

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 7 June & Sunday 8 June (Queen's birthday weekend)
Venue:	AlburyCity Convention Centre, Swift Street. also accessible from Dean Street
Hours of operation:	9am to 6pm (Sat) 5pm (Sun) Exhibitions open to the public. 10am to 7pm Saturday) Championship Tournaments 10am to 5pm Sunday ) run simultaneously
Cost:	Family oriented event so only 1 Day: $10 per person or $20 per family 2 Days: $15 per person or $30 per family Children under 8, school teachers (with ID) and media are FOC.

5. Exhibitors & sponsors

After the success of the inaugural Expo in 2006, the exhibition space was sold out early this year. The public can visit 38 booths (up from 18 last year) and 26 different exhibitors including four from the USA. The world's largest game company Hasbro, is the major sponsor of the Expo, as are other important businesses in the Australian game industry.

6. More information

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