Final report: Games Industry Staying in Leipzig for 2009
(News from: 24.08.2008)
- Exhibitors and Trade Visitors Vote for the Traditional Venue for the Industry's European Benchmark Fair
- Clear 'yes' to Leipzig from Gamers
- New Record: 203.000 Visitors Flocked to the Leipzig Exhibition Centre
“The GC – Games Convention will be back in Leipzig again in 2009”, as Wolfgang Marzin, CEO at the Leipziger Messe GmbH, has announced on the last day of Europe’s biggest games fair. “The industry and visitors are giving us their clear support to continue with the fair in Leipzig.” He named
19 to 23 August 2009 as the dates for the next GC – Games Convention.
In a representative survey carried out by the Leipzig Institut für Marktforschung, the vast majority from the games industry and of visitors voted to keep the GC – Games Convention at its traditional venue in Leipzig. To the question
“Do you think there should be a GC in Leipzig in 2009?”, only ten per cent of exhibitors answered “no”. And out of the 14.600 trade visitors at the GC – Games Convention, only 13.2 per cent responded with “no”.
Private visitors voted with a clear “yes”, with more than a third of them having travelled over 300 kilometres to be here: 82.1 per cent of them want a GC 2009 in Leipzig. “It’s a clear picture”, is how Messe boss Marzin described the outcome.
City Mayor Promises the Industry his Full Support
Burkhard Jung, mayor of Leipzig City, was pleased with the clear vote of confidence from the industry. “Anyone who has experienced the enthusiastic mood in the exhibition halls over the last seven years knows: this fair belongs in Leipzig.” Jung, who is also chairman of the board at Leipziger Messe GmbH, assured the games industry of his full support for the future. For example, four new hotels with 1,500 beds were to be built and would also be available in future for other trade show events. “The fairs and conferences in Leipzig are becoming increasingly international and attract more and more visitors. We’re pleased with this development. I completely agree with the governor of the Free State of Saxony, Stanislaw Tillich, that we will do everything to help this new cultural sector and the GC – Games Convention to achieve further success.”
The European benchmark fair for interactive entertainment, infotainment, edutainment and hardware was launched in 2002.
Alongside the Tokyo Games Show, Leipzig’s GC – Games Convention is the biggest computer and video games fair in the world.
Next Level: GC global
At the same time, CEO Wolfgang Marzin announced that the GC – Games Convention will continue to expand its international portfolio. An off-shoot was started last year in Singapore in the shape of GC Asia, and was an immediate success for the industry. The second GC Asia is being held in four weeks’ time in Singapore from 18 to 20 September.
The GC could be adjusted to suit different markets, said Marzin. “The concept is flexible and the network of the global games industry permits us to be active at different locations.
After the Southeast Asian Games Convention, we are now focusing on the North American market.”
New High Score for Europe’s Benchmark Fair: 203.000 Visitors
For the seventh time in succession, the GC – Games Convention ended in Leipzig on Sunday with a visitor record: over the past few days, 203.000 trade visitors and game fans have flocked to the biggest European fair for interactive entertainment, infotainment, edutainment and hardware. The Leipziger Messe saw record attendances from the start of this year’s GC – Games Convention. The number of exhibitors had risen from 503 to 547, the area occupied from 112,500 to 115,000 square metres, and the Games Convention had n...
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