Richard Denning Says Ukge Draws 45,000 to Birmingham NEC
Ukge is expected to draw 45,000 visitors to Birmingham's NEC over three days this weekend, with the event running from Friday to Sunday. The 20th show is using more than 72,000 sq m across the NEC and the nearby Hilton hotel, a scale Richard Denning says has moved far beyond the founders' original plan.
“We thought we could do something, but we never really thought on the scale that it's got to,” said Denning, the co-founder of UK Games Expo. The event now has 900 exhibitors across six halls, a 15% increase on last year, and organisers describe it as the largest of its kind in the UK.
NEC space and six halls
900 exhibitors give the expo a very different footprint from the first event in 2007, when about 900 people turned up in a masonic hall and the whole thing cost £18,000. Denning said he borrowed £5,000 from his wife, “who had just had a bit of an inheritance”, to get that first show off the ground.
This year’s version is projected to have a turnover of about £2.2m. That gap between the first event and this weekend’s operation shows how the show has grown from a small gathering into a major commercial date for the tabletop sector.
Tabletop market at £450m
£450m to £500m is how Denning estimates the UK tabletop games market, and that figure helps explain why the expo now stretches across six halls with shows, seminars, re-enactors and cosplay alongside the games themselves. Asmodee alone will have 10 stands and will demonstrate 160 games.
Roger Martin, the company’s marketing director, called the show “one of the most important dates in the calendar” and “a rare opportunity to meet thousands of board game and trading card game fans face-to-face”. He also said it helps companies “engage new audiences and shine a bigger light on our titles, while giving existing fans early access to upcoming releases and plenty of hands-on play”.
Richard Denning and Asmodee
The practical takeaway for visitors is simple: the event has outgrown its roots and now operates like a marketplace for the UK tabletop business, not just a fan gathering. With 45,000 people expected and 900 exhibitors on site, the pressure is on every stand to turn footfall into sales, visibility and repeat players over a single weekend.
