I took the opportunity this Queen’s Birthday long weekend to attend the Australian Games Expo in Albury on the NSW-VIC border.  This was a really fun event (I would have loved to stay for the full 2 days, but needed to get back for a another event in Melbourne on Sunday).  It was well promoted online and within the town itself with Rich Uncle Pennybags (the character on the front of Monopoly) wandering the city streets (he was elusive enough however for me to miss out on a photo of him!).

There was plenty of opportunity to play games (I played Blokus, Trans America and Syll-a-Bull), or watch others play in the exhibition area, plus meet with local and international distibutors and designers.  And, of course, plenty of opportunity to buy games (and here I must give a special thank-you to Phil and Sal Davies and the gang at Mind Games Albury for their fantastic service!). 

Besides the exhibition area, the games expo was running the Australian Championships for Settlers of Catan (which has to be one of my all time favorite board games), Carcassonne (another fantastic game… and one I’m just introducing my 3 year old to due to his love of jigsaw puzzles and the jigsaw quality that forms this game), Blokus and Diplomacy.  I managed to sit in on a couple of rounds of Settlers which was fantastic to watch (especially to see the diversity of the players and quality of play).

The Australian Games Expo is a fantastic family event and a great way to play games, socialize with others, meet publishers and designers, and to generally have a fun time.  I’d highly recommend it to anyone who loves games, particularly board and card games.

Players of all ages enjoy games in the Exhibition Hall.

The Settlers of Catan Championships.

Links

Australian Games Expo: http://www.austgamesexpo.com
Mind Games Albury: http://www.mindgamesalbury.com 

This entry was posted on Monday, June 11th, 2007 at 10:36 pm and is filed under general, conferences, board games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.