UKGE 2026 Exhibitor Review

2026 marks our 3rd year as being exhibitors at UK Games Expo, and I just wanted to share a few thoughts one week later.

Firstly, even though this is our 3rd year, I still don't feel like we've 100% nailed down the best store setup for our products. Year 2 was incredibly successful for us, but mistakes made in the early planning led to us not having the space I was thinking we'd have to be able to replicate year 2's layout. Nevertheless, we adapted and the introduction of a "till point" was a big win for me, as it felt like it's own little mini shop. However, the lack of a table at the front didn't draw people in as it had in year 2, stay tuned for an update on that!

Starting at the beginning, arrival on Thursday was very smooth. I loved the fact we were in hall 3A again as it has the best/bigger unloading area. We had a car and a van this year (shared with our co-exhibitors Midlam), so being able to park both near the doors was a huge bonus. Not so much, the heat. It was UNBEARABLE inside, to the point of after 3 Gatorades I just had to stop and sit down before I passed out.

Our stall requires a lot of physical set up, and I have to say by the time 8pm rolled around we were no where near finished, and I honestly couldn't think straight anymore. This ended up being a costly mistake, as some of the exclusive new design products I'd gone out of my way to make for the show ended up at the bottom of the stock baskets behind the stall, so never even saw the customers I'd intended them for! 

We headed in early on Friday morning to finish off, and I was still not feeling 100% so it was just a case of get the stock out and prices added to everything. Hindsight is amazing and I would do so many things differently looking back, but I just need to take the hit and move forward. We opened for business and it wasn't a great start, with very few people stopping by, and Friday ended up being one of our worst days for sales at UKGE. Deflated, we retreated to the pub to regroup and plan for Saturday.

I'll pause here to add a bit of context, our plans for the stall this year included a demo of our own game, Brink of Collapse. 80% finished, we were hoping to just show off the game, explain the premise and get some feedback to help us finish off the game. It became pretty clear on Friday afternoon though that the banner and display table for the game weren't working, it was blocking people from seeing into the stall and no one was interacting as we'd hoped.

We made the difficult decision on Saturday morning to put it away, and move stock onto the display area to create a more open stall, and I'm not saying it worked but on Saturday we had the sales I'd been hoping for on Friday, and it really helped me feel better about all the cost and efforts leading up to the show. Yes, we missed out on hopefully starting to gain a following for the game, but we needed to sell some stock to actually pay for everything!

We had some lovely interactions with folks, and ended up selling out of some of our table accessories like token pots and card holders, which honestly made me feel so good that folks like our stuff (a special thank you to people who came back and got more too after using them!)

Sunday rolled around, and while expectedly quieter, we reflected on the fact we had a good Saturday, and began working out what we needed to do in order to repeat the success of year 2. Thankfully, it was a cooler breakdown day than the build day, and we were able to pack up and make it home to Newcastle whilst it was still Sunday (just!) with only one incident, someone poured a full can of Pepsi into one of our stock baskets, thankfully it wasn't the notebooks or the premium dice bags, but it did sadly ruin 2 wooden dice towers and about 40 token pots. I am saddened that a fellow exhibitor would do this, and combined with us not being as successful as the previous year it did leave a few bad thoughts swirling around as we sat in the traffic jam on the way home!

I'll wrap this up by reflecting on a few wins and losses, wins being selling out of token pots and card holders, the lovely feedback from folks both new and returning, and selling some of our Notebook Dice Trays which I'm incredibly proud of making!

Not so successful, our tea towels, which sold out in 2025, only sold a 3rd. We sold less of our "Dungeons and Animals" range of bags and trays, again sold out last year. We also sold less Bloodbowl themed items, Arkham Horror accessories and dice sets, I think this just marks a change in what folks are playing as trends etc change.

I was also a bit disheartened to see so many folks buying items that are just a copyrighted sticker stuck onto a mass produced bag or tray. As someone who handmakes our stuff, and uses non-copyrighted designs I have to try and focus on the positives, but it still gets to me from time to time.

We'll most likely be back next year, but we need to make quite a few changes!