Toulouse Game Show: “The MEETT is bigger, more comfortable but more expensive” confides the boss of the pop culture show
The 14th edition of the Toulouse Game Show takes place on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 November at the new MEETT Exhibition Center in Toulouse-Aussonne. The co-creator and patron of the Toulouse Game Show, Frédéric Devèze, takes stock of the economic health of one of the biggest events of the year in Occitania.
This is the 14th edition of the TGS, would you have imagined it in a place like the MEETT?
Initially, we left to invest the village hall in Ramonville. Finally, we went to Diagora Labège, a mythical place for us. After ten editions at the Parc des Expos on Île du Ramier, the move is welcome. The new MEETT is more accessible, the circulation of visitors is smoother, brighter, the aisles wider.
MEETT is also more expensive …
Coming to the MEETT Exhibition Center will cost us much more, but we will obviously bet that the show will be full. We have increased the entrance fee by € 1. This does not increase the rental price of the MEETT, but we are counting on the recovery after Covid to offer a beautiful, ambitious show. We increase our investment, and therefore the financial risk, knowing that we are an independent, self-financed trade fair.
How is the TGS doing?
The economic situation of all the exhibitions in France was difficult in 2020. We had to postpone the TGS 2020 to early 2021, then to the end of 2021. The “TGS Evenements” exhibition in Montpellier was postponed too, Lyon was suspended. We have refocused on our flagship, the TGS Toulouse Occitanie. State aid did not arrive until November, it was necessary to pay the providers, the deposits paid. For 6 months, we had to “juggle”, our employees were on partial unemployment. Fortunately, at the end of 2020, everything was unlocked.
Video game publishers are failing you because of the Covid, how to replace them?
On the exhibitor side, only video game publishers are completely invisible. At home or elsewhere, since the start of the Covid crisis. They are mostly Japanese, and absolutely do not want to appear until the crisis is definitely behind us. It is a radical decision, which we are forced to accept. There will be no support, no gift. They are very fearful. There is a shortfall for us, but mainly because we let’s invest in video game stands, to replace it, with services from associations.