10:30am–4:30pm
Saturday 20th June, 2026
Doreen Bazell Hall, NW1 1UG
St Pancras, London, UK
Google Maps link
Info for Attendees
(If this page is updated, I will try to note the updates here.)
When to Arrive (and When to Leave)
The event officially runs from 10:30pm until 4:30pm.
You’re ultimately welcome to arrive and leave whenever you like during the event, though – this isn’t a comedy gig, so you won’t be hassled for arriving late or heading out early.
You are welcome to arrive from 10:30, however, and it’d be ideal if you can arrive by by 10:50 because that’s when I’ll do a little welcome talk. We’ll be creating most of the day’s schedule (see below for more info about that) right after that.
Following a quick wrap-up at the end of the event, I’m planning to chivvy you all out by 16:30 (so that I can tidy the venue and return the key by 17:00).
If you want to continue hanging out with one another after the event finishes, I’ll endeavour to recommend some nearby pubs and/or park spaces.
What to Expect
On Arrival
If you arrive before the welcome bit at 10:50, I’ll probably be hanging around in the entrance area to say hello and note down who’s arrived.
There will be a table with sticky labels and pens, and I’ll ask everyone to make themselves a badge for the event. This should include the name you’d like people to call you by during the event, and your pronouns.
I’m intending for there to also be two colours of lanyard available. You don’t have to wear either of them, but if you do, the colours are as follows:
- Yellow lanyard = ‘I’m particularly keen to meet new people today, and really want you to say hello to me!’
- Red lanyard = ‘Please avoid photographing me where possible. If you find that I’m in a photo that you’ve taken, please crop me out or obscure my face before uploading it to any social media site or similar.’
This information will be printed and posted next to the welcome table, along with the code of conduct.
Once you’ve made your name badge, you can poke around the venue and its garden, make a drink, say hello to others, submit sessions to the day’s schedule, and indicate your potential interest in each proposed session.
Sessions: Creation & Scheduling
Before everyone arrives, I’m going to draw out an empty timetable for the day and put it on a wall. Nearby will be a pile of oversized post-it notes.
A few people have pre-submitted session ideas, which I’ll write out in advance and stick next to the schedule outline.
On arrival, folks will be invited to add their own session ideas to the collection.
After I’ve done the welcome and housekeeping bit, we’ll all gather around the schedule outline and, as a group, populate it with sessions (and probably create some more ideas for it in the process).
The current plan for the day allows for five ‘session slots’, each 40 minutes long.
The venue should allow us to accommodate 2–3 simultaneous sessions in each slot, which means we can potentially have 15 different sessions over the day if we want.
(If you’re familiar with multi-track conferences, it’ll be a bit like that.)
We’ll try to arrange sessions so that the sessions which look the most popular don’t clash with each other.
Sessions: Content
This is a bit of an unknown and something of a free-for-all – I don’t expect to be policing session content unless it conflicts with the code of conduct.
Unconferences are great for group discussions that are focused on specific topics, and I’m anticipating a fair amount of that, but attendees are welcome to do all sorts of things.
To give you some quick ideas to start with, you could:
- Gather folks to swap notes on good and bad printers.
- Give a mini presentation about dice materials (but please note that we don’t have an AV system at the venue).
- Run a 40-minute game jam.
- Lead a workshop on poetry games.
- Ask for help with a tricky design issue that’s plaguing your prototype.
- Play a game of Flotsam Fight while discussing international tariffs.
- Host a ‘cake and chat’ session with no particular topic of discussion in mind.
- Draw a big dungeon together while dissecting your respective UKGE experiences.
Or, of course, you could do something else entirely!
The main points are:
- This won’t just be a load of traditional talks.
- Your session doesn’t have to be entirely serious in nature.
- It’s fine for us to have too many proposed sessions – we can whittle them down, or even split some sessions in half.
What’s Being Provided
I intend to provide the following for folks to use during the Unconference:
- Sharpies
- Biros
- Big sticky notes
- A pad of A1 paper
- Chalk pens
- Sticky labels
- A bell (to mark the start/end of sessions)
- Some small games (most likely Oink games and similar)
I’m also hoping to supply some tea bags and fruit squash to encourage hydration.
If you think you’ll need something beyond this, please bring it along.
Event Vibes
This is going to be a very casual event.
Think ‘packed lunch and doodling in a village hall’, basically.
You can bring business cards and suchlike if you want, but this is more about getting to know people and helping each other to solve problems, have new ideas, discuss projects, and so on.
As the organiser, my aim is to simply run an event that lets tabletop game-makers meet and chat with one-another. I’m trying to make it low-stress and accessible for attendees, in the hope that you might find it energising and inspiring.
If something kind of sucks when we try it on the day… well, we’ll just do something else instead.
Timings
I’m currently planning for the day to look a bit like this, time-wise:
| 10:30–10:50 | General arrivals, making name badges, etc. |
| 10:50–11:10 | Welcome, housekeeping info & schedule creation |
| 11:10–11:20 | Mini break |
| 11:20–12:00 | Sessions slot 1 |
| 12:00–12:10 | Mini break |
| 12:10–12:50 | Sessions slot 2 |
| 12:50–13:30 | Lunch break |
| 13:30–14:10 | Sessions slot 3 |
| 14:10–14:20 | Refreshment break |
| 14:20–15:00 | Sessions slot 4 |
| 15:00–15:20 | Tea break |
| 15:20–16:00 | Sessions slot 5 |
| 16:00–16:10 | Refreshment break |
| 16:10–16:30 | Wrap up & thanks |
I’ve included lots of little breaks to give you time to make a drink, stretch your legs, etc. in between chats.
There’s also 40 minutes for lunch, which should be plenty of time to amble over to St Pancras (which is a 5-minute walk away) or similar to acquire some sandwiches and/or coffee, drift back, and eat.
If most attendees decide that this timetable isn’t working for them, though, we can scrap it and do something else!
What to Bring
You don’t have to bring every item on this list, but you might like to consider bringing:
- A Packed Lunch
- There will be a break long enough for you to go and acquire lunch from St Pancras station (or similar) if you want to do that instead of bringing something with you at the beginning of the day.
Note: the venue kitchen has a fridge, freezer, microwave, and kettle.
- There will be a break long enough for you to go and acquire lunch from St Pancras station (or similar) if you want to do that instead of bringing something with you at the beginning of the day.
- Any drinks or snacks that you’re keen to have – or want to share with others!
- Suncream, if you think you might want to sit outside.
- A small fan – I can’t testify to the venue’s air-conditioning, and it might be ~27ºC in London on Saturday. 🔥🫠
- Loop earbuds or similar, if you usually wear them – much as I can’t vouch for the venue’s AC, I also can’t vouch for its acoustics, so best to be on the safe side.
- Any medication you might need during the event.
- Any projects or materials you want to incorporate into a session.
- Any (small and short) games you think might be good to play as part of a session.
Further Questions?
If you have any particular questions for me ahead of the Unconference, feel free to give me a shout on BlueSky (which will probably get the fastest response) or drop me an email at sarah@patchworkfez.games.