One of the temporary structures developed for the London Olympics last year is being shipped out to Australia to provide a home for the 2014 Australasian Gaming Expo, which will be held from August 12-14.
The event will be on a new site at Glebe Island, surrounded on three sides by the Sydney Harbour and with spectacular views of the Anzac Bridge and Sydney Harbour Bridge. The location is providing a temporary alternative to the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre at Darling Harbour, which after 24 years as the show venue, is being demolished and rebuilt on the same site.
The Glebe Island location will simply be called the Sydney Exhibition Centre for its three-year run while the new Convention Centre is being erected. The London building housed some of the Olympics events and is regarded as ideal to house the Australasian show, says the sponsor, the Gaming Technologies Association.
“The temporary structure will have fully serviced exhibition facilities,” said Ross Ferrar, chief executive of the GTA. “We will ship in a range of pop-up bars and restaurants, a complimentary ferry service will operate from Darling Harbour and complimentary shuttle buses will run from the Central Station in the city during the event.”
Ferrar is confident that the show on the new site will easily surpass the 15,000sq.ft available to the organisers at the old exhibition centre. The show in 2013 held 180 exhibitors and attracted over 7,000 industry attendees.