Tunbridge Wells company behind one of the biggest UK gaming expos

KentOnline / KMTV

For gamers, by gamers - that's the mission of the Tunbridge Wells company organising one of this year's biggest gaming expos in the UK.  The To The Moon Expo will be taking place in just a matter of weeks at Birmingham's NEC, and will welcome 15,000 gamers and 150 exhibitors.

Transcript

00:00Back in 2020, myself, I ended up going into eSports. It kind of saved my bacon,

00:05considering I graduated into the pandemic with a music and events degree.

00:08It wasn't exactly useful at that period of time. But from there, I ended up with my friend and

00:13my co-founder, we started streaming on Twitch. And from there, we found our entire journey into

00:16the gaming world. And from there, we ended up going to marketing and we saw that studios were

00:21having to pay quite large amounts of money to exhibit to these kinds of events. And at the end

00:26of the day, we think that those prices are outrageous. And it was really, really important

00:29for us to be able to provide an amazing opportunity for studios and for gamers to be able to come to

00:34an event that doesn't cost the world to do so. I see. And we can see here a bit of the lineup

00:38of some of the companies that will be coming down to the event. Tell us, what can people expect in

00:43terms of activities and speakers? Paint us a picture. A hundred percent. So on the 12th,

00:48we've got our consumer stage. We've got some amazing VIP guests coming down, such as Luke Dale

00:51and Tom McKay from Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. We've also got an amazing retro area,

00:55all the old school retro kind of games. A life-size D&D. You can immerse yourself directly

01:00into the world of D&D and play out those characters. Alongside our e-sports stage,

01:04which is happening on the 13th with our League of Legends tournament, which is absolutely,

01:09it's going to be crazy without that area there. Amazing. I mean, when it comes to gaming events

01:13and other events, I'm sure it can be hard to differentiate yourself from behemoths like Comic-Con

01:18and similar events. So what is different about this festival? In terms of like where we differentiate

01:24ourselves, we are community-focused and community-driven. Everything that we do is built

01:28alongside our gamers. We have our creator crew that are coming along, all of our Twitch streamers

01:32and all of our content creators, cosplayers, and we've built their creators on with them directly

01:36in Discord. So we're not the big conglomerate that just says, we're doing this and that's that.

01:40We are the small indie team, so to speak, the small indie festival, whereby we come together with our

01:44content creators to build amazing experiences for everyone alongside the gamers, alongside the studios as well.

01:50I understand that. And with events like these, I imagine there's a fair bit of challenges building

01:57up to it. And this is the first edition, am I right in saying that? So tell us, how are you expecting,

02:02how are you preparing ahead of that big opening day? A lot of caffeine and a lot of meetings. That's

02:07pretty much it. In terms of the open day, we're obviously two weeks away now, 12th and the 13th,

02:12so we're getting all of our logistics in place, production. It's non-stop meetings, meetings,

02:16meetings basically to get all this lined up for doors open on the 12th. I see. And you mentioned

02:22there about the fact that you're very community based and I'm aware there's a specific emphasis

02:26placed on indie developers. And you also mentioned that there's a League of Legends tournament. So

02:31how are you going to try and balance between these big AAA studios and these indie developers to make

02:36sure that everyone sort of gets a fair piece of that expo pie? A hundred percent. So the way that we

02:40position ourselves with indies is that we wanted to reduce that fiscal aspect, right? It gate keeps indies

02:44being able to exhibit at normal or other kind of events. You're looking anywhere between like

02:49four to eight thousand pounds to exhibit as an indie developer. And for a couple of students

02:52that have just come out of university, that's unattainable. So in terms of where we've positioned

02:56ourselves, our indies come on board with us for 120 pounds and we say, look guys, this gives you

03:00everything that you need to exhibit. And then on the flip side with our AAAs, what we encourage them to

03:04do are immersive experiences that are going to actually generate ROI at the end of the day for them to

03:08attend. Because that was the big thing when we were doing our marketing for a couple of different

03:12studios is that ROI was always the killer. And it was a case of immersive experiences, win every

03:17time. It's why we have Ready or Not coming down to do a SWAT experience alongside ex-SBS members.

03:21And you'll essentially immerse yourself into one of their levels with all the kit included as well.

03:26It's going to be awesome. I see. And I've heard a bit about the accessibility and the diversity that

03:31you're trying to put forward as part of this event. Tell us, what inspired you to include some of

03:36these safe spaces that I've heard about? And how do they differ from neurotypical spaces for anyone who isn't really

03:41familiar? A hundred percent. Well, I myself, I'm autistic. So it's a case of whenever I go to a

03:45Gamescom, for example, or if I go to an MCM Comic Con, I'm always there with my AirPods in because

03:50it provides me with essentially just a bit of a bit of a barrier. And it can get incredibly

03:54overstimulating for people when they go to an event like that. And there's nowhere for them to

03:57decompress. There's nowhere for them to go and sit. There's nowhere for them to just take

04:01themselves away from that. So that safe space, which we're doing alongside safe in our world,

04:05essentially is an area for people to go and decompress and a place for people the way we've got noise

04:08cancelling headphones. We've got lots of stuff there to try and provide support alongside the

04:12amazing team at Safe In Our World who are going to be running that area for us. That's amazing.

04:16And I imagine you're very focused on November, like you mentioned, the first edition. Tell us,

04:21what's the plan after that? If it goes well, a second edition? Are there any plans to expand?

04:25I know this is all early doors, but tell us a bit about if it all goes right. So it all goes right.

04:30We have a five-year plan. So we're aiming to stick around until 2030. We want to go up to about 50,000.

04:34We're here to empower the creative industries. We're here to really bring together because at the

04:38end of the day, we've spawned some amazing IP for gaming out of this country from GTA coming up in

04:42Dundee and that kind of stuff. And I think it's really important that we remember that. And I think

04:46it's really important that we empower the creatives and the amazing people that we have in this

04:49country to do outstanding things. And for global innovation as well, we've got an Australian

04:54exchange coming over. We've got people flying out from Texas to exhibit their games because it's

04:58cheaper for them to fly to the UK and exhibit with us than it is for them to exhibit in their hometown.

05:03Wow, I see. And the audience probably couldn't see, but my eyes lit up when you said D&D,

05:08but not everyone's like me. For anyone who isn't a D&D fan or maybe into gaming,

05:12is the event still for them? How would you sort of pitch it to your average person on Gillingham

05:16High Street? 100%. Well, in terms of who should come, if you are a gamer, if you enjoy D&D, if you are

05:22creative, gaming isn't all just about gaming. There's so many different things that you can do within it,

05:28from the D&D aspect to tabletop, to even the marketing guys behind it. We're here to try and

05:33showcase that gaming isn't all about playing video games at a professional level. It's not what it's

05:37all about. You can get into so many different angles, and it's why we've got so many different

05:41educational partners, such as Northampton University and College of Esports, to really showcase what you

05:46can do and where you could go into the gaming industry from that. Absolutely. I mean, it's a huge

05:51industry, especially here in the UK. We haven't got much time, very quickly. Could you tell us,

05:55how can people find out more? Where can they buy tickets? Tell us about that. 100%. So,

05:59tickets are available on our website. We're also on Eventbrite as well. Find out more on our website,

06:04which is www.tothemoonexpo.io. And then, yeah, we'll see you in November on the 12th and 13th, for sure.

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