A bit about Jason
Ever since I was young, I’ve always been fascinated with Space – the vastness, the emptiness, the beauty and the physics behind it all. Board games then became my second passion – it started off with TCGs such as Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! and Klaus Teuber’s Settlers of Catan and developed into organised Magic: the Gathering tournaments, twice-weekly Dungeons and Dragons sessions and a board game collection that could sink a small ship. You can imagine how excited I was when Nigel Scarfe, owner of Imagination Gaming, asked me to help him run an educational board game event at the National Space Centre in Leicester!
The Setup
I arrived on Friday evening with seasoned veteran, Emma Upright, to set up our Family Zone – eight tables of demo games along with all the shelving for stock. As this was a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) event, our selection of games for sale and for show were focused on long term-planning, logical thinking and mathematical strategy, bonus points if the game had a space theme! Our life-sized Gigamic demo games and Upper Story’s Turing Tumble and Spintronics were the main attraction, with five tables of these games consistently filled.
The event!
The atmosphere was incredible – what a pleasure to see so many like-minded, enthusiastic people. From the doors opening at 10am on Saturday morning, the debut event was a huge success. From science-fiction role-playing games to interactive social deduction games, dexterity based space battle games to create-your-own-adventure books, lightsaber and painting academies to brand new game releases, the 16 other exhibitors that joined Imagination Gaming filled the Space Centre with a wonderful day out. Families, couples and individuals, along with some incredible Star Wars cos-players, came through our Family Zone to play, learn and chat – and we had a blast.
Final thoughts
It was particularly enjoyable speaking to teachers and parents about what we do in schools, and how to adapt these STEM games into their school’s curriculum. To see so many children excited about learning in such a fun atmosphere, talking to them about their strategy for the next game, and seeing them so deep in thought was the icing on the cake.
Thank you to everyone who came along to see us, as well as all the other exhibitors and Space Centre staff for making this such a memorable event. Thank you Nigel for letting me join you at this special (hopefully recurring!) event – I had such a blast! And finally, thank you for reading this – if you have any questions, thoughts or comments about the To Boldly Game event, or about us at Imagination Gaming, please email them to nicola@imaginationgaming.co.uk
