Introducing the Twin Cities Tabletop Games Expo
The Twin Cities Tabletop Games Expo (TTGX for short) is a new expo-style event coming to Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, April 16-18, 2027. The event is a three-day paid event featuring:
- An exhibit hall primarily filled with Minnesota and Midwest board game publishers
- A free-play game library with more than 2,000 board games
- Scheduled events for TTRPGs, learn-to-play events, and more
This first post provides some background on the event and where it came from.
Why Start TTGX?
While Minnesota has many awesome events for playing games, like Con of the North and 2D Con, we felt that there were two gaps in the broader convention scene:
- An event for buying new board games. While there are a few board game market events, they are usually focused on secondhand games.
- An event promoting local Minnesota publishers. Many publishers attend events around Minnesota, but they are typically not the highlight or focus of the event.
Those two opportunities made a compelling case that there was room in the Minnesota convention scene for something new.
What About The Big Cons?
There are tons of board game events around the world: Gen Con, GAMA, Spiel Essen, Pax Unplugged, and UK Games Expo, just to name a few.
One key characteristic they all share, however, is that they’re nowhere near Minnesota. I’ll come back to why that’s important in a minute.
These events are all fantastic and have been staples of the board game scene for many years. While we hope to one day stand on equal footing with them, we are a long way off. So why should someone come to TTGX when these big events exist?
In my opinion there are a few compelling reasons why someone should come to TTGX when these larger events are an option:
- Access to small and mid-sized publishers with amazing games that typically aren’t at the larger events
- It’s a less crowded experience, making it easier to avoid massive groups of people
- Significantly less expensive to attend for those in the Midwest United States. Just $20 for a day, or $50 a weekend with no additional event fees
Even if you go to the larger events, if you live in the Midwest TTGX is going to be a good bang for your buck.
Why Minnesota?
While one reason is pure bias - we are from Minnesota - there is another major reason Minnesota is a great place for a tabletop board game event.
There are tons of board game publishers and designers in Minnesota, more so than in any other place in the United States.
With major players like:
Those publishers already make up a sizeable portion of many board game shelves. Then you add in the 30+ mid-sized publishers and the several hundred independent designers involved in events like Design Days, Protospiel MN, Break My Game, and IGDATC, and you’ve got a serious number of board games coming out of Minnesota.
Minnesota is a hotspot for board game design, and TTGX aims to put a spotlight on it.
Closing Remarks
We hope you’ve enjoyed learning a little about why we are so excited to bring TTGX to Minnesota. Let us know on our Discord what you thought of the post and what you’d like to see next!