If you’ve ever organised events, you’ll know it can be a real rollercoaster ride…
We’re really grateful to everyone who has attended our two GamePad events so far in 2019. The year got off to a great start with our New Year gaming celebration in north London. Being an events organiser means signing up to a rollercoaster of emotions in the lead up to the big day itself, and this was no different.
It’s pretty much anxious balance between managing logistics of the event, keeping a close eye on tickets sales, and crossing everything you’ve got hoping that people turn up…
And turn up they did! We had one of our best turnouts since launching GamePad and as always, it’s exciting to see so many people of different ages, gender and race enjoying the same passion!
There wasn’t much time for back-patting though. Just like your favourite ride at an amusement park, we got back in line and hopped on the rollercoaster once more to prepare for the summer GamePad event in June.
And all the usual feelings were there. Even with one successful event under your belt, you can never be sure people will turn up again, but being proved wrong is not always a bad thing. The summer event saw our best ever GamePad event!
With over 100 people packed into the Redmond Community Centre venue for a second time, it was finally time to celebrate. We’d put on not just one, but two successful events and made great progress in growing our diverse community of gamers – woohoo!
It’s such a cliche, but sometimes you really have to look back to see how far you’ve come. We began GamePad in a furniture shop in west London, where we barely managed to squeeze a handful of consoles in a space filled with an eclectic mix of refurbished tables, chairs and drawers…it wasn’t the best place to start, but it worked for us…mostly!
We’ve really upgraded venues since those early days. Now the only furniture in the event are the ones that we decide goes in! GamePad has moved from west to east (and back again), holding events in north and south London in the meantime. All the while picking up more members of our gaming community while still seeing some of the same faces from those first few events.
We’ve also been able to partner with great gaming groups (NGI Events, MonHun Offline and Nintendo Social Group) as well as industry giants that include Ubisoft and Nintendo. In addition to our own gaming activities, we’ve been able to offer other gaming communities a platform to run games and reach a new audience.
Through GamePad we’ve even been able to give young gaming enthusiasts an opportunity to gain work experience. The positive feedback and constructive criticism attendees have been great too, especially from those who have been with us from the beginning.
It’s been a journey and the latest leg has brought us to Lambeth Town Hall, where we’ll be hosting GamePad in the biggest venue so far! On Saturday September 28th we’ll be running more games and tournament than ever before in a 250 capacity venue.
It’s a big step and one we hope our community will join us for, as well as new faces. We want to keep growing GamePad into London’s biggest community gaming event, making the gaming experience that’s fun for everyone!
We hope you see you at an event soon. With the autumn event just around the corner and exciting plans for 2020 in the works, it’s going to be a thrilling journey filled with ups, downs and great times playing games as a community.
Time to get back in line.
