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8 lessons from Essen: A practical guide for exhibitors

Eight practical tips for first time exhbitiors at Spiel As regular readers will know, I took Magnate to Essen last week. I am glad to say it was an absolute blast; even if it was also so tiring that I needed multiple early nights just to bring myself back to full human functioning. Overall, I think we did a good job. We had a ton of email sign-ups, lots of reviewers visited the stand, and I handed out every flyer we had. But there were some things we could have done better. The following lessons come from my reflections on the most intense show of my life. If you are not already an "old hand" at this and intend to...

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Magnate news round-up: October 2018

October proved to be just as busy as September, not least because of all the prep for Essen, which - at time of posting - had just started. The first big show is under our belt: Tabletop Gaming Live Coming only 4 weeks after Tabletop Scotland there was a frightening amount to be done to get the game from Lego prototype to an attractive looking production game. As I wrote last time, it was all a bit nail-bitingly close but I am glad to say we did it! It was not only a huge success but a very useful learning experience. We knew going into it we were going to make mistakes, but we also knew that this show would...

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Essen is nearly here... This is how to play Magnate at Spiel

With Essen nearly upon us and all the final preparations going on at Naylor Towers, I thought it was a good opportunity to give you the lowdown on playing Magnate: The First City (5C132) at the show. Magnate, the game I've been working on for the last few years, will be live at the biggest boardgame convention on earth, all show long. What an awesome sentence to type! Where can I play Magnate? We're at stand C132 in Hall 5, conveniently located right on the edge, on the way to Hall 6. Here's the very official convention map (its literally what I was sent in the post by the organisers) plus a discreet addition from me: We've got three decent...

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