UK Games Expo

1) I'd sure like to!

2) I AM ALL THE INTERESTED

Seriously, volunteering for you guys is something I've wanted to do for a long time.

You can put me down as Definitely Yes If I Can Find A Cheap Hotel Room. ;)

You can put me down as a 'Definitely Yes!' who already has a hotel room!

And a smartphone. I have a smartphone now. I may do dumb stuff, but I learn from my dumb stuff!

I'll work something out hotel-wise. Boyfriend seems surprisingly keen to go to Expo so at least I can share!

Paul, what dates are we looking at? I know it's 3-6th June but presumably being there for setup and takedown would be good, right? I'm totally free for extra days as long as I know what's happening...

I'm staying at the wonderfully titled 'ETAP (soon to be Ibis Budget) Birmingham Airport', which according to my research a while ago, was the cheapest hotel that is still within walking distance of the NEC and the Hilton. Rooms are about 90 pounds a night without cancellation/food, if they still have any.

Thanks Julia, I'll check that one out. :)

Airbnb, guys! It's where it's aaaaaat

Where is this Expo thingy? Is it in London? If it is, maybe I can come along...

It's in Birmingham.

From where I am, it weirdly enough is cheapest to fly from Cologne to London Heathrow, take the train from Euston to Birmingham International and then fly from Birmingham Airport back to Düsseldorf and take the train back to Cologne.

I said 'cheapest', not 'most convenient'.

Luckily I'm only an hour and a half from Birmingham, which of course takes longer on a train. Still, pretty short journey.

Birmingham? Bahhh, I got all excited there for a moment :(.

Paul, can you confirm what dates you need people? Want help with setup, etc?

If this is just demos and not a booth we're talking about (and I have the feeling we are), there probably won't even be anything much to set up or take down. 

If it was a booth, you would probaly look at a Thursday daytime set up and a Sunday by 6pm takedown (some of my friends will have a booth, that's how I know).

But I still don't think there is a booth. That would be so much work for them.

Um...I've never been to Birmingham and I just checked the train website and it looks like there's about four stations there so I wouldn't know which one to go to. If it takes two hours to get there, that's about half a day just on travelling so I probably wouldn't be able to be there for too long, plus it's probably really expensive to go all the way up...erm...wherever exactly Birmingham is (somewhere near the middle, I think?). I also may be going on holiday from the 6th of June but it's not confirmed just yet. If this meet-up was in London I wouldn't mind going and would even be okay making the journey by myself. Still, never mind. Maybe there will be one in London that I can get to at some point, some day ;).

Maybe there'll be one on the north of England at some point, some day.

FTFY

@ Ameena (or anybody else travelling to UKGE by train who doesn't know where to go)

The train station you'd want is called 'Birmingham International Station'- it's the one near the airport. And the UK Games Expo Venue (well, one of them, anyway) is sort of attatched to the station. That won't make the train journey itself any shorter, but it's not like you need to deal with buses or cabs or anything else once you have made it to the station.

It would still be a total journey time of maybe five hours, including there and back, from where I live about 30 miles east-southeast from London, so I'd have to leave ridiculously early (therefore the train fare would be even more ridiculously expensive than it would be off-peak) to even be able to spend a decent couple of hours there before I'd have to head back down again and try not to get home too late travelling (probably) all by myself on scary trains :(. I just looked up the car route in case there's any chance I could persuade my sister to go for a day out randomly all the way up in Birmingham but the journey time is still nearly three hours.

If ever there is a >G thingy in London I'm sure I'll be able to come along (Ja'Ph' and I made the one up in Leisure Games in the north of London a couple of years back and we go to the monthly meets around central London to play with various people from the forum), but otherwise it would probably be somewhat tricky :(. If it was in London I probably wouldn't even mind coming up on more than one day if it was at one of those conventions that runs over a weekend or something.

Paul,

Not originally going, but tentatively interested in volunteering. Whether I can make it will depend on what you need and what I can get off work.

Okay, confirming my attendance! Booked into the hotel Julia suggested (thanks Julia).

I'll take a train down on Thursday and Michael will be joining me on Friday, and we're there all weekend. Yay! :)

I'll be there as we always go (and last year I got 3rd place in the cosplay contest in my Legacy costume!), but won't be able to commit to a time for doing demos.  I will however, rave extremely entusiatically about SotM when I'm at the booth and help out at the time if it's wanted.  I may even have to break out the Legacy cosplay again ;)

You can see the cosplay on this UKGE page btw (scroll down) :D

Just to echo Julia above... The NEC is accessed from Birmingham International. The great thing is that if coming by train, you barely need to step outside once off the platform as you are effectively in the NEC once you are out of the station. It is one long skywalk straight to the NEC itself and a quick wander across to the hotel where the show is. If you want to save a couple of quid and make getting in and out easier (depending on how busy the car park is), park at the train station as recommended on the UKGE website. The multistory at the train station is safe, easy to park in and it will keep your car dry and we all know how important that is!

Travelling up from London should be easy. Virgin make the journey in 1hr 20mins ish and currently is only £8 each way. Bargain. London Midland are generally cheaper but their trains are slower and stop more with it taking nearly 2 hours to make the journey. Trains leaving Euston are direct. 

Sorry for the travel guide but some may find it useful..

I wish I could go to all the cons and help you guys out! :P

I could potentially be going to this for the Saturday and Sunday; I'd love to help you guys out if so!

Not a chance for me to make it up there and do so stuff for you, I am sad.

I will be there! Woohoo!

I mean, tip top cheerio and all that!

We need a SotM Cosplay meetup too!

Paul,

Not to nag, but any progress on that e-mail? It's under a fortnight to go and I'm one of those personality types that realy likes having things planned out beforehand.

Hey, I like doing stuff!

Looking forward to it very much. :)

Train ticket booked. Will arrive around 4 on Thursday.

Which stand number will you be at please?

>G isn't listed in the Exhibitors in the program

I don't have a number, but unless anything major has changed, >G should be with Eclectic Games.

Is there any new information? Did I miss anything? Getting really antsy here...

Thanks :) Eclectic Games is E43 so I'll be marking that on my map now :D

Two days to go. Still no idea where or when i'm supposed to be demoing whatever it is I'm supposed to demo. No idea if there's even a badge for me and under what name it's reserved. I am moving out of anxious towards angry. I really do expect better from a professional outfit.

I am actually half-expecting that we will get some form of update today.

Prediction is based on 70% good faith and 30% on "Well, it might be two weeks late but yesterday was Memorial Day and today it's not even 10am yet."

Julia,

I hope so. But as you said: two weeks late.

Consider me worried at this point.

https://twitter.com/GTGChristopher/status/737579538968780800 - that's an update, I guess?

Oooh, an implied vital sign!