UKGE 2025 Report

On Friday, 30 May 2025, I attended the UK Games Expo in Birmingham for the second time. Last year was a strong success and I was hoping this year would be similar, but things didn't turn out that way.

My wife and I drove down from North Yorkshire the day before, on Thursday, 29 May and set up the booth Thursday afternoon. The drive took us about 3.5 hours, including a stop for lunch.

As previously, I wanted to document my experience as a TTRPG exhibitor, covering the highs and lows, expenses, revenue, and set-up/breakdown process.

Costs

The base exhibitor space cost was up slightly from last year, as was the corner stand supplemental charge. The furniture cost was less since we brought our own chairs. We were in Hall 3 this year (which was essentially one huge space that opened into the other halls as well), opposite the sprawling Chaos Cards block.

I have mixed feelings about the location, as I'll get into later, but the actual size of the space worked well for us.

These are the costs solely attributed to UKGE 2025 and don’t include things like meals and petrol. I chose to stay at the hotel closest to the venue, the Hilton Metropole, like last year, but the hotel cost increased almost £200 so I'll definitely reconsider whether to stay there again next year.

Sales

Total amount of revenue: £1576

Some interesting things to note:

• Midnight of the Century Primer was my number 1 seller; this was likely because it was my a brand new release and something different from my other games.
• Runecairn Wardensaga Remastered was still a strong seller, thanks to the Runecairn hardcover bundle deal and eye-catching CROM cover.
• We Deal in Lead was still popular but I need to release more supplements for it.
• Buttons sold OK but I need to find a better way to display them, along with clearer pricing and maybe some different designs.
• Some interest in the patches but nothing amazing.
• T-shirts and prints were an absolute non-starter and I need to re-think how to display these on my stand.
• Some of these sales were to retailers and were sold at wholesale prices (50% off).

Profit

In contrast to the 1 day of Dragonmeet, UKGE is spread out over 3 long days. Friday and Saturday both seemed equally busy at different points, with lots of foot traffic but not a lot of sales. Sunday was quieter but sales picked up in the afternoon, buoyed by a few bulk sales to retailers.

These numbers were down significantly from last year. We brought in almost £1000 more in 2024. Couple that with an increase in hotel costs and slight increase in stand costs, and my profit is down over £1000 compared to 2024.

Setup/breakdown

We drove down from North Yorkshire on Thursday morning, arriving at the NEC about 15.00. Setup had been open all day and getting the car to the right spot was pretty straight forward, though I had to book a slot with NEC’s loading system beforehand. Drive to the staging area and then wait for the green light to park at the entrance door. We had an hour slot to offload, which wasn't quite long enough due to a long queue for our exhibitor lanyards. My wife had to park the car as our 1-hour slot expired during setup.

Unlike Thought Bubble or Dragonmeet, UKGE doesn’t include the stand furniture so I had to hire two tables, one long and one short, replicating the sort of stand we had at Dragonmeet.

I couldn't find any details on the UKGE website for breakdown procedures, and didn't remember what we'd done the year before. However, on Sunday morning UKGE staff left a paper copy of the breakdown procedures on our stand; would've been nice to have these in advance or on the website for more convienent reference.

I used a collapsible hand trolley, which did an amazing job getting boxes from the car to the table with minimal fuss. There are multiple loading doors around the two halls, which made setup and breakdown really easy. There was a delay in getting the car to the loading doors for some reason, so we didn't find loading up until close to 17.00.

Stamp Quest 2025

• The UK Tabletop Industry Network ran Stamp Quest 25 for this year’s UKGE and my table was once again included. I used my stamp from last year, a red Runecairn bonfire.
• Most people asking for stamps immediately moved on after getting one, but maybe 15-20% of others looked around or asked questions and about 5% actually bought something.
• My wife was especially good at engaging with the Stamp Questers and everyone seems like they enjoyed the process!

Observations

• Profit isn't everything when it comes to conventions. A big part of them is getting my name and books out to a wider audience, making connections, and getting involved in industry events. A lot more people know about Midnight of the Century now, and the Primer's in a lot of people's hands, which will hopefully help with the launch of the full book later this year. That said, it feels bad to bring in £1000 less than last year.
• Midnight of the Century Primer was a bit of an experiment for me; I wanted to have something in print for UKGE, with the Itchfund running at the same time, so I did a small print run from Mixam and made sure the Primer was good enough to sell and stand on its own. I have a feeling I would've sold more copies if I'd had the full book available, even at a higher price tag (the Primer was £10 and the full book will likely be £30-35). Some people mentioned they'd wait for the full game.
• Friday and Saturday were warm days, Saturday especially so, and my wife and I were extremely thankful we were directly under an air conditioner; we had to watch the table to make sure stuff didn't fly off though.
• Having Chaos Cards, a big boardgame retailer, directly across from us seemed to bring more negatives than positives. There was almost always a queue 1 or 2 people deep, which left less space in front of our table, and less room to manoeuvre for people passing by. We were also between board game/card game tables, which may mean we got lost in the shuffle as a TTRPG table, or it could mean we stood out more. Lower sales numbers leads me to the former.
• We saw a lot of foot traffic over all three days but that didn't translate to sales, or even to a lot of browsing at the table. I think we answered more questions over the 1 day of Dragonmeet than we did the entire 3 days of UKGE. Do I need to rethink the layout or visuals of my stand for next time? Maybe.
• On Satuday, I added tags under each of my major books with a little description and price. That seemed to help quite a bit with folks who just look at stuff and don't pick it up, so I'll make nicer ones for next time.
• Navigating UKGE this year felt more difficult than last; I spoke to a handful of people who said they'd had trouble finding my table and I had problems finding other people's tables as well.
• Each morning at 09.00 there was a stampede and a queue for a table further down from us. They were selling an exclusive game, limited to 25 copies per day, and folks queued directly in front of our table for 20 minutes on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Not great, dudes.
• We attended a Kickstarter Pledge Manager event on Friday night, with snacks and free drinks. The actual presentation was a bit corporate (though featured an appearance from the Kickstarter CEO!) but it was great catching up with a bunch of TTRPG and board game creators. Shout out to Shawn and Jess from Allies or Enemies, go Oilers! I also got to meet more of Stockholm Kartell: Trevligt att träffas, Pelle.

• Saturday night was the unofficial Rowan Rook and Decard industry meetup at the Hilton bar and it was great chatting with more folks.
• I don't know why it's taken me this long to clue into the idea, but I decided to try to sell some extra stock to retailers on the last afternoon of UKGE. I also dropped off some distribution stock for the Canadian market.
• I took LOADS of business cards this time but barely got through one box. Another indication of less interactions?

Improvements for next time

• Bring extra price sheets; the more info you can convey silently the better, as some people prefer to find out for themselves rather than asking.
• Buy a new stretchy tablecloth for smaller tables; I've got one for the primary table but still use a non-stretchy one for the other table.
• Design and print info sheets for books; include something like "For fans of X!"
• Place bagged prints in boxes for people to browse and grab.