The Internationale Spieltage Spiel ’22 or Essen Spiel is the world’s largest board game trade show and convention. This will be its second year back after closing its doors in 2020 for Covid, and it looks to be bigger and better as the world recovers.
Essen Spiel is located at the Messe Essen convention center in Essen, Germany.
This year’s dates for the 4-day convention are the 6th – 9th of October.
Ticket prices vary depending upon whether you’re attending as a fan or as an industry expert.
Day Tickets
13 years+: 19EUR
4-12 Years: 11EUR
Family Day ticket: 44EUR
Family Day Tickets offer 2 adult passes and 3 passes for children 4-12 years old but are only available at the east entrance.
2-Day Tickets
Day tickets are broken into 2 different groups, the first two days and the last two days, and the prices are the same for either.
13 years+: 34EUR
4-12 years: 18EUR
Safety
In the wake of a global pandemic, medical grade masks are still required to be worn at all times during the convention and are subject to additional security measures depending upon any additional Covid measures that may be passed and enforced.
Educator’s Day
There are plenty of tournaments and different events going on throughout the convention, but I’m personally most excited about the programming on the 7th. The 7th is Educator’s Day, which started in 2019. It’s where leading experts in education host various panels on bringing board games into classrooms.
It was a huge success in its first year and has been a staple of Essen Spiel ever since.
If you’d like to know more or want to learn more about programming, you can check their website here.
Before starting GameCows with his wife Kendra, he used to teach English Language Arts in the US. He combined his love of gaming with education to create fun game-based learning lessons until he eventually decided to run GameCows with Kendra full-time. He’s known for pouring over rulebooks in his spare time, being the rule master during game night, and as the perma DM in his DnD group. Bryan loves board games, writing, traveling, and above all his wife and partner in crime, Kendra.