Game Hire at Harrogate Convention Centre

Most enquiries we get for Harrogate come from exhibitors rather than event organisers, and that tells you something about the venue. With eight interconnected exhibition halls and a calendar built around major trade shows, this is a place where you're usually one stand among hundreds, working hard for the attention of people walking past. Fun Pro supplies interactive games, branded stand games and arcade machines into events at the convention centre. We don't hire the halls out; that's the convention centre's own team. We supply what goes on your stand or in your room.

We've been doing this since 2009 from our base in Coventry, around 140 miles away up the M1. Delivery, setup and collection are included on every booking.

About Harrogate Convention Centre as an Events Venue

The centre sits on Kings Road in the middle of Harrogate, a five-minute walk from the railway station, roughly 12 miles from Leeds Bradford Airport and close to the A1(M). It's directly linked to the Crowne Plaza and Premier Inn hotels, which is why so many multi-day exhibitions end up here.

The site is genuinely large. Thirteen bookable spaces span a 1,977-seat Auditorium, the Edwardian Royal Hall, two studios and a run of exhibition halls totalling several thousand square metres. Hall Q alone is 3,285 square metres with its own entrance and registration area. Bookings go through the sales team on 01423 537474.

Spaces at Harrogate and the Games That Suit Them

The Exhibition Halls

Halls A, B, C, D, M and Q make up the bulk of the venue, ranging from Hall D at 1,050 square metres up to Hall Q at 3,285. They're the reason most people are here, and they're where branded games do their real work. On a busy show floor, a game gives visitors a reason to stop, and it gives your team a natural opening. Batak Pro with a running leaderboard is the classic choice, and works even better with a prize for the day's top score. Giant buzz wire, Crack the Code, cash grabbers and prize wheels all suit stand-sized footprints. Our exhibition game hire page goes into how these support lead capture.

Studio One and Studio Two

Studio One covers 1,592 square metres and has its own off-road direct vehicle access, which makes it the easiest space on site to load into. Studio Two adds 1,250 square metres of flexible breakout space for up to 1,200 attendees. Both take larger equipment comfortably, so if you're running a conference with a social element or a full-scale product launch, racing simulators and banks of arcade machines are on the table here in a way they aren't in tighter rooms.

The Auditorium and Royal Hall

The Auditorium seats 1,977 and the Royal Hall, a Frank Matcham theatre from 1903, seats 988. Both are fixed-seat presentation spaces, and the Royal Hall in particular is a listed heritage building. Games don't go in either. What works instead is siting entertainment in the adjoining foyers and halls, where attendees spill out at intervals. Hall D is useful for exactly this, since it links the Auditorium to the rest of the complex and has good natural light.

King's Suite, Queen's Suite and the Kings Conservatory

The King's Suite seats 200 theatre-style across 425 square metres, and the Queen's Suite offers 650 square metres that subdivides into as many as ten separate rooms. The Kings Conservatory is a small multi-purpose space next door at 105 square metres. When the Queen's Suite is split for breakouts, individual rooms get small quickly, so the sensible approach is one or two compact games in the Conservatory or a shared area rather than trying to squeeze something into each room.

What Fun Pro Handles, and What We Don't

What we handle:

• Delivering to Harrogate on your event date and getting the games onto your stand or into your room
• Setup, testing and safety checks before doors open
• Designing, printing and applying your branding in-house where you want games wrapped
• Staffing through the event and collecting afterwards

What we don't handle:

• Hall or room hire, stand space or floor plans, which the convention centre manages
• Shell scheme, stand build, stand catering or stand AV
• Exhibitor traffic passes and delivery slots, which are booked through the venue
• Storage between show days, unless arranged in advance

Planning Game Hire for a Harrogate Event

Harrogate runs a formal exhibitor traffic and deliveries process, and it exists because large shows involve a lot of vehicles arriving in a short window. Whatever slot the organiser or the venue gives you, pass it to us and we'll work with you on it. Build-up days are usually the smoothest time for us to install, and it means your stand is ready rather than being finished around visitors.

Power is worth checking too. Most of our games run from a standard socket, but exhibition halls handle stand power through the venue's own ordering process, so make sure a socket is included on your stand order. It's a small detail that occasionally gets missed.

If you want games branded, come to us early. The design and print work is done in-house and needs lead time, and it's the single thing that makes the biggest difference to how a stand performs. Four to six weeks is comfortable for a branded booking around a major show; unbranded and simpler bookings can often be turned around in around two weeks.

Finally, think about what you want the game to do. A leaderboard game that people return to across a day generates repeat conversations. A quick prize game generates volume. They're different objectives and they suit different stands.

Getting Games Delivered to Harrogate Convention Centre

We're around 140 miles from Harrogate, straight up the M1 and across. Delivery, setup and collection are included in the quote, so there's no separate logistics charge to budget for.

Our team arrives within your allocated slot, installs and tests everything, and stays on site for the duration of the booking. Because we own our equipment and don't sub-contract, the people setting up your game are our own team. Our safety and insurance page covers the PAT testing and public liability documentation that show organisers routinely ask for.

Exhibiting or running an event at Harrogate? Get in touch with your hall, stand size and dates, and we'll recommend what will work hardest for you.