Xbox Helps German Video Game Show Break Its Own Records
Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 9/5/2005
August was a strong month for computer and video game tradeshows — with one German trade and consumer show surprising many by breaking all of its previous records.
The annual Games Convention Aug. 17–21 at Leipzig Trade Fair in Leipzig, Germany, attracted 134,000 visitors from 28 countries, a 28-percent increase over its previous year. The showfloor spanned 861,113 square feet (an increase of 270,000 sq. ft. over 2004) with 270 exhibiting companies.
Organizer Leipziger Messe expected the show to attract 110,000 attendees, 5,000 more than its 2004 record. However, the show reached this goal by its third day.
"This has surpassed our expectations. The sector is evidently 100 percent behind us and the choice of Leipzig as host city," said Leipziger Messe CEO Josef Rahmen.
Leipziger Messe also credited the show's growth to the 50-percent expansion of the GC Family show section, which displayed child-friendly software products, and the presence of the GC Developer Conference.
Microsoft's announcement of the price of its Xbox 360, which it introduced in May at E3/Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, is also credited with the high attendance rate.
Stefan Brechtmann, director of the home and entertainment division for Microsoft Deutschland, called GC "an investment which has completely paid off. The fact that Microsoft chose GC to announce the price of the Xbox 360 for the upcoming Christmas season underlines just how important we rate the show."
Microsoft wasn't the only exhibitor lauding the show. According to a Leipzig Market Research Institute show survey, 92 percent of exhibitors said they would return to the next GC August 23–27, 2006. Also, 90 percent of GC 2005 attendees said they would revisit the show.
Indianapolis was also abuzz with gamers last month. The consumer show Gen Con Indy attracted 25,000 attendees to the Indianapolis Convention Center Aug. 18–21.
However, the 53,000-sq. ft. ECTS 2005, one of the United Kingdom's largest computer and video games shows, was canceled. It was pulled in May from the September calendar for London's Earls Court & Olympia Center.
