July 27, 2007 - The UK Government's UK Trade & Investment has chartered a train from Train Chartering. The UKTI Train travelled from Manchester's Piccadilly Station in the north west of England to Brighton on England's south coast. The passengers were the senior managers of the world's gaming software companies and software developers from the North West.

The purpose of the charter was to allow the developers exceptional networking access to the key VIPs from these software corporations.

The final destination in Brighton was Develop 2007, one of Europe's leading expos for games designers & developers.

The journey in the first class train permitted the developers unparalleled opportunities to meet the leaders in the industry from many nations.

On boarding, the VIPs & the developers were served a chef-prepared 3-course lunch in their own first class carriages at each end of the train. This gave the passengers an opportunity to share news and views face to face with their peers; both groups realised that this was an unusual occurrence in an industry which habitually communicates electronically.

Following the meal, inter-group networking began in the central portion of the train, which continued until arrival in Brighton. There were not only formalised business meetings but also less serious events; the Russian delegation set up a disco with music from mobile phones and the Brazilians challenged all comers to a Nintendo DS competition.

Simon Pielow from Train Chartering says "Any train journey is perfect for developing relationships; The UKTI Train was a fascinating extension of this to a whole sub-sector of the IT industry."

Go here for a press release.