Dispatches from UKGE, the British tabletop front
Amidst familiar sights, the convention’s new faces make all the difference.
My first impression of the space around UK Games Expo 2025 was that it all felt very American. The National Exhibition Centre, or NEC, sprouts from the fields and forests outside of Birmingham and nestles against both an airport and a train station. The latter connects directly to the convention building, meaning visitors arriving by rail (as I did) don’t even witness the Birmingham skyline as they wend through halls and escalators and directly into the NEC's bowels.
Exiting through the main doors delivers con-goers into a commercial park flanked by hotels, an entertainment venue, an artificial lake, and Resorts World Birmingham — this last feature is home to a casino, plenty of restaurants (including a TGI Fridays), a shopping mall, and an IMAX-equipped cinema. The nearby Hilton Birmingham Metropole is ostensibly hidden behind a copse of trees, which was being actively hollowed out to make room for glamping spots. Every square centimeter is dedicated to entertainment and commerce. I might as well have been in New Jersey or Florida.
But my experience of UKGE escaped such a clean comparison. As the largest tabletop convention in the UK, its transatlantic counterpart would be the overstuffed Gen Con. Having now attended both, I can admit that UKGE’s attendance (an estimated 42,000 unique visitors this year) provides an impressive crowd without making anyone feel like a frog trying to cross rush-hour traffic. If numbers are all that matter, Gen Con retains its crown as top tabletop dog. But a convention is always more than ticket sales.
