It is Leipzig’s position in the middle of continental Europe that has made it a centre for commerce since the Middle Ages, with the Leipzig Messe known as the oldest recorded trade fair of its kind. CEO Wolfgang Marzin oversees the company’s many events, including the famous Leipzig Book Fair, and lists his greatest success career-wise so far as, “Having transformed a trade fair corporation in the USA from a company making enormous losses into a profitable business.” “On the personal level,” he says, “my greatest success so far is to have got my wife interested in me. (But) both in one’s private life and in one’s career it’s always true to say that any success is the team’s success and can hardly ever be ascribed to just one individual.” Marzin studied Business Administration specializing in foreign trade, beginning his career in 1989 as project manager for Overseas Trade Fairs at the International Trade Fair and Exhibition Service in Munich. In 1991 he moved to the Munich trade fair corporation and six years later to Dùsseldorf Exhibition Centre. From there he took over the running of the subsidiary in Chicago. In January 2002 he became chairman of the Board of the crafts trade fairs corporation GHM and he has been Chairman of the Board of Leipziger Messe GmbH since 1 April 2004. Asked about the evolution of the Games Convention, he says that until 2002, games development companies had been sidelined as only a small part of large computer trade shows. “They needed a platform to showcase gaming,” explains Marzin, “and thus a totally new event concept emerged. It was not just B2B or B2C, but a combination of both, with the public invited to try the newest games, and a business section where retailers could buy the games proving popular with the public.” The show takes place in August; games are showcased in time for Christmas – with that holiday period accounting for 70 percent of game sales. Marzin says that 2003 saw the introduction of the Games Convention Developers’ Conference, boosting attendance to 70 exhibitors and over 90,000 exhibitors. “The show has seen double digit growth every year since.” The main challenge when it came to gaming, Marzin explains, was that (power gaming in particular) had a dubious reputation as an activity for anti-social loners, teenage boys locked away in their bedrooms fulfilling violent in-game fantasies. “Therefore we introduced events like GC Family, for kids and parents alike, highlighting the educational possibilities of gaming; not just entertainment but edutainment.” Continues Marzin, “We’ve seen steady evolution of the target demographic, from 95 percent teenage males (summed up in Europe as ‘fat, male and pale’), to a mix of male and female, young and old, casual gamers and power gamers.” He says there’s also been a steady move from console , to portable to digital – hence the creation of GC Online, a trade show specifically for the online gaming industry. This Asian-born phenomenon offers games ‘free-to-play’ on-line, with revenues derived from in-game advertising and micro-transactions – whereby players can pay to upgrade their team, avatar or on-line entity. And so, to the third GCA Games Convention Asia which will take place from 17-20 September 2009 in Singapore with the first day reserved for media and trade visitors. “GCA is looking to cement its position as an established industry platform that bridges the gap between the global and Asia-Pacific games industries and also where they can gather and discuss relevant topics, such as business models, IP issues and localization,” says Marzin. “Singapore is evolving into the hub of the gaming industry in the Asia Pacific region with the establishment of most of the leading global game publishers and developers in the city state. Building a bridge between Europe, Asia Pacific and North America is our vision for GCAC (GCA Conference) and its accompanying trade and public exhibition.” Asked what he hopes people would say of him, Marzin concludes, “He got things moving”. TVAplus