This year, as Dragonmeet gears up to celebrate its 15th birthday on Saturday 13th December at Kensington Town Hall, a new management team has been announced. Chris Birch, the founder of Modiphius Entertainment and long time music business entrepreneur Jonathan Rowlands have acquired the much loved convention from previous owners Cubicle 7 Entertainment.
“I love Dragonmeet,” said Dominic McDowall, CEO of Cubicle 7, “but making great games is what Cubicle 7 is about. The success of our games, especially our Doctor Who and Lord of the Rings ranges, means that they need to be our focus and we can’t give Dragonmeet the attention it deserves. It’s been a difficult decision – we are all tremendously fond of the show – but it has made it a lot easier to be handing over to such a talented and experienced team. With Chris and Jonathan, Dragonmeet is in very safe hands, and I can’t wait to see what they have planned!”
Together, Chris and Jonathan plan a revamp of the London based tabletop games convention promising ‘more exhibitors, more games, more tournaments and more entertainment’. Expanding in to four new spaces in the Kensington Town Hall, and extending the opening hours till 11pm the team are specifically introducing more boardgames, tournaments, miniature wargames, cosplay and a programme of evening entertainment.
Hotel deals and a lunchtime 'meet up' the next day will help entice those travelling to make a full day of the event, whilst a healthy wargames offering will provide plenty for the miniatures fans.
“I’ve been a visitor to Dragonmeet for years,” said Chris Birch, the founder of Modiphius Entertainment, “and now I’m looking forward to bringing some of our Modiphius magic to the event. London is right in the middle of a huge number of gamers so I’m really excited to build on Dragonmeet’s success and give everyone a world-class games convention in the heart of the Capital.”
Chris Birch has 20 years experience in events, starting a series of youth events aged 16 in his home town of Leamington Spa, working in the music industry running music festivals before launching the Joystick Junkies video game parties and a series of costume balls. Chris launched Modiphius Entertainment in 2013 with the massive Achtung! Cthulhu and Mutant Chronicles Kickstarters and now plans to help Dragonmeet reach a much bigger gaming audience.
Jonathan added, “I came to Dragonmeet last year met Chris and got caught up in the excitement and fun of the whole event” So when the opportunity came to get involved - I was in!"
Jonathan Rowlands has been involved for the last 40 years in music, arts, shows, concerts and festivals, which along the way has included managing Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart, PR for Tom Jones, Nina Simone etc, working with Jeremy Lloyd (Allo Allo, Are You Being Served, Captain Beaky and His Band) and helping set up Dickensworld and Red Redemption (a video game developer with his son Gobion). Jonathan just sold the Bakewell Music Festival after having run it successfully for four years and is now looking forward to being “actively retired” managing the Dragonmeet convention with Chris.
The new Dragonmeet website will launch in June, with early bird tickets on sale until the end of the month. Plenty of announcements will be released over the coming weeks and months so keep an eye on www.dragonmeet.co.uk
For more information contact Chris and Jonathan via our contact page or call 0207 460 1776