The UK Interactive Entertainment organisation (UKIE) is working with the department of trade and industry (and Scottish Development International) to provide UK companies with a presence on the GamesCom showfloor, with the return of the successful UK Games Pavillion in 2013.
UKIE is offering marketing support, discounts on the event – and drink to take the edge off. SDI is also planning a whisky reception on one afternoon, to fly the flag and show the rest of the UK who does networking events properly…
If you’re in two minds about this, allow us to remind you that GamesCom has been remarkable for not only the number of visitors to the event (Gamescom is the world’s largest games event with 275,000 visitors, more than 5,500 journalists and 600 exhibitors from 83 countries attending the show, according to Wikipedia), but also the quality of the participants and exhibitors. Many companies who spurn and eschew the normal US/EU shows for their own events, such as Blizzard, Bungie and Sony are exhibitors or announce new projects at the show.
Be there or be woefully uninformed about the current state of the mainstream games industry!