The Forge Reference Project

 

Topic: [GenCon] How does the booth red-tape work?
Started by: TonyLB
Started on: 8/22/2006
Board: Conventions


On 8/22/2006 at 7:02pm, TonyLB wrote:
[GenCon] How does the booth red-tape work?

Clinton wrote:
If we could, on the other hand, build some sort of indie shanty-town of booths, well, that'd be amazing, but it's not going to happen.


I don't for a second doubt that this is an accurate assessment of what can be done and can't be done at GenCon.  I hear rumors of seniority systems, and points, and quite possibly virgin sacrifices for all I know.  It is very intimidating.

But part of that is ignorance on my part.  I just don't know what's involved.  Is there any chance that the people who actually know this stuff can cast a bit of light on how the GenCon booth process goes?

To the extent that it's a comprehensible system, maybe some of us clever gamesmen can work up a multi-year plan that will end up with a 2010 GenCon experience worth putting in three years of effort to reach.

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On 8/22/2006 at 7:13pm, Blankshield wrote:
Re: [GenCon] How does the booth red-tape work?

First, go here and read the linked documents.

After your eyes uncross, come back.  Now be aware that GenCon LLC will (and has) changed those rules on a year-to-year basis to resolve problems or block loopholes or just to guide Exhibitors into a new direction or behaviour pattern that the LLC wants to see.

That being said, they dont' change a lot, and they don't do wholesale willynilly reworking the system stuff (much), but any kind of plan for several years out based on what the rules are now could crash and burn in a bad way.

I've read all (or at least much) of that stuff, and stongly suspect there's some other factors involved "above and beyond" the rules, but I'll let someone who has actually been involved in Exhbitor registration speak to it, if it's relevant.

thanks,

James

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On 8/22/2006 at 7:39pm, Justin D. Jacobson wrote:
RE: Re: [GenCon] How does the booth red-tape work?

There's a reason the "Forge" booth is actually the "Adept Press" booth: seniority points. If you really wanted to do this shanty-town thing, you could just have Ron order a large enough booth to accommodate all the sub-booths and then subdivide on your own. The divisions would be on our end, after the fact, having nothing to do with GC LLC. You'd have one big booth number on the map, but all the individual publishers could be listed as they were this year.

Frankly, I'm with Clinton in not liking this concept on a visceral level, but it is doable. If you want to sub-divide, I'd go with the suggestion I proposed earlier in another thread: Blocks of multiple demos as scheduled events.

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On 8/22/2006 at 7:54pm, TonyLB wrote:
RE: Re: [GenCon] How does the booth red-tape work?

Okay ... yes.  We could continue to co-op under the Adept Press banner.  It's worked, and I like it.

Let's be clear about the consequences, though:  Every year we do that is a year that no other company is getting Priority Points.  Yes?

Now I totally agree that being flung to God-only-knows-where, floating in a little booth like flotsam in a stormy sea is not an attractive option.  But, as best I can understand, there is no other way for any other organization to ever accumulate Priority Points, and thereby to become more able to pick and choose the location of their booth.

Indeed, the priority point system as written seems powerfully slanted against the idea of co-ops (certainly, I hasten to add, not by intent).  There's no way for a company to leverage the ability to work with others in a way that will make their first year on their own any easier.  For each company, the first year is sink or swim.

Am I reading the structure correctly?

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On 8/22/2006 at 8:59pm, David Artman wrote:
RE: Re: [GenCon] How does the booth red-tape work?

Jonathan wrote: People are suggesting that Adept (or whoever) buys like 8 booths in a central area and then sells them off to groups of designers.  Of course, that would require a lot more long-term planning, since I'm sure they have to reserve space pretty early.

Not having read the REAMS of GenCon Exhibitor rules, yet, I will nevertheless issue a preventative warning about this statement.

We might not want to characterize any such plans as "Adpet Press selling space at a booth to others." That all-but implies a form of subletting that I will bet is verbotin at GenCon--otherwise, the Priority Points are a bit... pointless.

I think a safer diction might be "Adept Press will coordinate a combined space, so as to be able to host all affiliated designers who commit to come and share the costs." It's a subtle distinction, but it might be a very important one, to GenCon.

And knowing, now, the general gist of how Exhibitors get floor space, I'd like to say another hearty Thank You to Ron for letting all of us (err, well not me, yet, but...) ride on Adept Press's coattails. Without someone willing to risk (and, yes, sacrifice) their own professional identity, we'd be in the equivalent of the nose bleeds every year.

Maybe the time is come to think... dependantly? Form a nonprofit cooperative or something, just for such "industry-facing" needs like convention priority and, perhaps, group pricing for print runs (not POD) or booth collateral, and such? I am thinking of something like Mutual Drugs, where every owner is "independent," but they stay in business because of cooperative practices in the back office and purchasing arenas.

Just spitballing, now... sorry if I distract.

As for the claim of "major $$" in the thread from which we've been booted ( :-) ), I'd say that's a matter for the commiting designers to decide. Get the database up soonish, and I suspect you'd get commitment from MANY folks to the tune of a couple hundred bucks. And if the issue is the whole "huts and shacs" sets, I doubt we'd havemuch trouble knocking together something sufficiently "shanty" out of insulating board, some MDF, and normal sheving systems.

Yep, it's time to think about off site storage, then, too! ;)
David

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On 8/22/2006 at 9:00pm, LordSmerf wrote:
RE: Re: [GenCon] How does the booth red-tape work?

One thing that's going to be important to notice because it's pretty counter-intuitive: Booths get more expensive per square foot as they get bigger.

Let me repeat that: booths get more expensive as they get bigger.

This is an inversion of expected economies of scale, and thus bears careful examination.  What this means, and this is interesting, is that it's actually cheaper for four separate companies to get four separate booths than it is for one company to get a 4-booth block and then split it four ways.  Of course the scattering problem rears its ugly head here, and there are some serious problems there (though I think there are some potential neat ways to bypass them).

Thomas

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On 8/22/2006 at 9:13pm, Jonathan Walton wrote:
RE: Re: [GenCon] How does the booth red-tape work?

Yeah, if we can't do the Indie Games Shantytown, I'm all for going solo and then setting up piratical treasure maps that guide people to the various Indie Islands where there be booty to be had.  Heck, I will personally co-design a short adventure game to be played at GenCon that will lead people between various associated indie booths.  In fact, I may do that anyway.

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On 8/22/2006 at 9:35pm, Ben Lehman wrote:
RE: Re: [GenCon] How does the booth red-tape work?

LordSmerf wrote:
One thing that's going to be important to notice because it's pretty counter-intuitive: Booths get more expensive per square foot as they get bigger.

Let me repeat that: booths get more expensive as they get bigger.


As far as I can tell, this isn't true.

For example, the Forge booth spent several years at Endcap size: 10x20, with three sides exposed.  This costs $2400.  This year, our shared space was a 4 booth peninsula (20x20, three sides exposed), which costs $4750, slightly less that two Endcaps.  Further expansion would probably be to a 6 booth peninsula (20x30), which costs 6950, 250 less than three Endcaps.

You're not the first person who made this mistake, and I think I know why.  Are you misinterpreting the discount on 10x10 booths with one facing side to be "the cost of a 10x10 square?"

Now, if we wanted to declare next year (or 2008 or whatever) to be "the year of exodus" we could really rake in on the discounted booths for first-timers -- once.  But let's plan that carefully, and talk with Peter Adkinson while we do it, shall we?

yrs--
--Ben

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On 8/22/2006 at 9:36pm, Valamir wrote:
RE: Re: [GenCon] How does the booth red-tape work?

I don't think people are taking into account what a destination the Forge booth has become.  It is a recognizable place that generates traffic because 1) people know about it and intentionally seek it out, and 2) large crowds of excited gamers playing games attract attention.

Breaking up the booth loses both of those advantages.

Seriously, while its fun to brainstorm and a whole lot of electronic ink has been spilt discussing booth "problems"  lets not lose sight of the fact that what we have rocks.  What we have works.  What we have just generated more revenue in a day than most other booths generated the entire convention.  

Need I remind people that sales were up north of 70% for the second year in a row?
What we need is some fine-tuning, not a bulldozer.

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On 8/22/2006 at 9:51pm, Joshua BishopRoby wrote:
RE: Re: [GenCon] How does the booth red-tape work?

Jonathan wrote: Yeah, if we can't do the Indie Games Shantytown, I'm all for going solo and then setting up piratical treasure maps that guide people to the various Indie Islands where there be booty to be had.


While I actually don't think this is the best idea for the reasons that Fred just mentioned, wouldn't it be awesome if we did this and then equipped each one with an airhorn -- whenever a booth hit a $100 mark, they'd sound off on their airhorn, and the other booths would airhorn back in response.  Heh.  That amuses me.

However -- Forge Booth as destination is a big huge point to consider, and for me, it's the trump.  In my ideal world, Forge Booth sticks together until it's an aisle on its own, like White Wolf / Wizards / Giant Company X.  Think back to those big "booths." Once you get to a certain size -- a size that Forge Booth is very quickly approaching -- you cease to be a booth and become a space.  You get to divvy up the space however you like.

What I would love to see is the Forge taking a big chunk of an aisle, setting up the bookshelves and registers in the middle of that space, and setting up four "pods" at the corners.  Each pod is a little group of designers who are responsible for demoing a subset of games available at the booth.  We can flavor them (fantasy, sci-fi, relationships, superheroes, blah de blah blah) however we like.  Hell, the pods could even overlap or be mixed up mid-con if things need to be adjusted.  What this gets us is the same effect of all the "islands" without losing the destination status.

Indie is great and all, but indie also, ironically, needs to stick together sometimes.  I like organic produce, but I don't buy it at the farms it grows on; I buy it at the farmer's market.

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On 8/22/2006 at 9:55pm, TonyLB wrote:
RE: Re: [GenCon] How does the booth red-tape work?

Ben:  You won't get any newcomer discounts on a booth that has more than one main product.  And, frankly, I don't think fissioning down to a booth-per-product is in any way feasible.  Yeah, I'd love the lower prices, but not if it comes with a strait-jacket that makes it impossible to organize an effective booth.

Ralph:  I would question the sanity of anyone who was talking about breaking up the Forge booth.  It is absolutely working like gangbusters.  The point of a diaspora (which I'm not quite at the point of suggesting, but definitely at the point of thinking about) would not be to replace the Forge but to supplement and diversify.  I can see manifold advantages:

• Distributed Priority Points:  The more we rely on Ron to be the sole interface with GenCon the more we impinge upon his freedom.  Some day he might, y'know, want to not attend, and I think it would be a great thing if that day could come and we could collectively say "Wow, that's going to take some hopping logistics to reorganize our other booths to cover the absence of the central booth," rather than say "Ack!  Without Ron we are powerless to continue!  Ron!  You can't go!  We'll eat you up we love you so!"
• Geographic distribution:  It's a minus, but it can also be a plus.  The basic fact is that we gleefully freeload off of the booths around us by clogging the aisles and spreading beyond our borders.  I would hate, hate, hate to be trying to sell right next to the Forge.  How can you compete?  But, the larger our booth, the less we'll be able (proportionately) to do that.  The surface area becomes less and less by comparison with the interior area.  If we hadn't had the Full Metal Alchemist photo-wall this year I think we'd all have immediately noticed that simple geometry.  Spawning new booths each radiating enthusiasm into their general area lets us reclaim our ability to prevail by superior coolness.
• Experience and Darwinian Selection:  Diversifying means that if I want to I can go out and do something radically different and possibly stupid ... and if the forces of the market conspire to squash me and I lose all my investment then you guys can mourn my passing, learn from my mistakes and go on.  The more people are dependent upon a given booth, the less easily that booth and its administration can take the big risks.
• The power of the referral:  In all seriousness, consider the power of the following recommendation:  "Y'know, there's this great game over at the Forge booth that sounds like it would be right up your alley.  Let's walk over there while we talk.  You can get a demo there, and see whether it's right for you."  That's powerful sincerity there.  It's one of the powerful lessons of Miracle on 34th street.

Now ... like I said, I am not convinced that these advantages come even close to outweighing the huge advantages of the centralized booth.  I'm thinkin'.  And, personally, all of the incoming information and opinions is really helpful, so thank you, all of you.

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On 8/22/2006 at 10:04pm, Blankshield wrote:
RE: Re: [GenCon] How does the booth red-tape work?

Jonathan, good idea.  It was done a couple years ago (in a fashion that would now violate the 'no flyers' rule) by a map of the exhibitors hall that had only the indie designers on it.  By-the-by, there's a lot of indies out there that aren't here.

I think it's really really important to consider some of the other significant effects of suggestions so far.

First: booth size.  I think the 20x20 penisula was a fucking awesome size this year, and probably is still a good size for next year.  One of the things that drives more of our sales that people might realize is that the booth is always crowded and hopping with a pile of designers waiting on a free table to demo the first person that even looks crosseyed at the booth.  If we went up to the size White Wolf had, I think it would kill us.  Too big.  We'd rattle around in there, and probably lose money, or barely turn a profit.  As opposed to every year so far, where I will lay strong odds that the forge booth has a profit margin that kicks the crap out of everyone else at the show, with the possible exception of the food court.
-Too many tables=designers standing around looking desperate instead of hungry
-a big sales area with several people browsing=looks empty instead of hopping,
-too much space around stuff=looks sparse and bare instead of 'street cafe'
All of those add up to us looking just like every other frickin' booth at GenCon.  Part of the draw of the forge booth is that it's different; it's a little bit too small every year, it's always got more cool shit that you can absorb.  I'm not one of the primary sponsers, but I strongly suspect that's a deliberate effect.  I know ferdamsure it would be if I was one of the sponsers.

Second: cost.  White Wolf's booth cost them over 10 grand, just for the booth.  Floor costs would double, furniture costs would at least double.  Setup and tear down issues would magnify, storage concerns, transporting all the stuff and the list goes on.  HUGE.  Doubling the booth will cube the headache and the cost, too.

Third: anything we can do... This is a much bigger and more subtle issue than it might look like.  Anything really 'out-there' like a shanty town of booths, or a two-story plan or a collective of booths that we can do, GenCon LLC has to either shut down, or let everyone do.  Didja notice where the EVE booth got shoved with their very cool second story?  So what if we do something cool and innovative like is being suggested, and manage to pull off a 'forge town square' or something where we've got a bunch of conceptually-tied booths grouped together in a square around a 20x20 of just demo tables.  Pretty fucking cool, right?  So then what's stopping Wizards of the Coast from taking that same concept and sucking up a full quarter of the dealers hall the next year?  What's stopping EVERYONE from doing it and shutting out the new single companies that aren't part of one of these funky new collectives?  You can be damn sure that these are the kinds of questions that Peter Adkinson asks himself every time something off the status quo happens or is requested.

Now please note, I'm not saying that doing something new and cool is bad, or that throwing ideas out there is bad, but be aware that the dance floor is crowded and there's a lot of important people with open-toed sandles.

James

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On 8/22/2006 at 10:08pm, Justin D. Jacobson wrote:
RE: Re: [GenCon] How does the booth red-tape work?

Well, as long as we're dreaming...

The idea I had back when I first proposed an IPR/Forge/Wicked conglomeration was that the added purchase power would allow us to get a much bigger space which we could, in turn, use in more diversified ways. One of those ways was a "lounge" area. Some comfy couches and rugs for floor-sitters, where people could sit around and flip through some sample copies of books and actually talk about gaming. If permitted (and I don't think it is), you could even have some free coffee and donuts/granola bars, etc.

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On 8/22/2006 at 11:51pm, Troy_Costisick wrote:
RE: Re: [GenCon] How does the booth red-tape work?

Distributed Priority Points:  The more we rely on Ron to be the sole interface with GenCon the more we impinge upon his freedom.  Some day he might, y'know, want to not attend, and I think it would be a great thing if that day could come and we could collectively say "Wow, that's going to take some hopping logistics to reorganize our other booths to cover the absence of the central booth," rather than say "Ack!  Without Ron we are powerless to continue!  Ron!  You can't go!  We'll eat you up we love you so!"
Geographic distribution:  It's a minus, but it can also be a plus.  The basic fact is that we gleefully freeload off of the booths around us by clogging the aisles and spreading beyond our borders.  I would hate, hate, hate to be trying to sell right next to the Forge.  How can you compete?  But, the larger our booth, the less we'll be able (proportionately) to do that.  The surface area becomes less and less by comparison with the interior area.  If we hadn't had the Full Metal Alchemist photo-wall this year I think we'd all have immediately noticed that simple geometry.  Spawning new booths each radiating enthusiasm into their general area lets us reclaim our ability to prevail by superior coolness.
Experience and Darwinian Selection:  Diversifying means that if I want to I can go out and do something radically different and possibly stupid ... and if the forces of the market conspire to squash me and I lose all my investment then you guys can mourn my passing, learn from my mistakes and go on.  The more people are dependent upon a given booth, the less easily that booth and its administration can take the big risks.
The power of the referral:  In all seriousness, consider the power of the following recommendation:  "Y'know, there's this great game over at the Forge booth that sounds like it would be right up your alley.  Let's walk over there while we talk.  You can get a demo there, and see whether it's right for you."  That's powerful sincerity there.  It's one of the powerful lessons of Miracle on 34th street.


-Ugh, for one year everyone should have to run a 10x10 booth of their own and learn what a real pain in the ass it is.

Peace,

-Troy

PS: sorry if I sound condescending.  i truly am.  i'm not trying to be derogatory at all.  it's just that running a booth, even one right-next-to-the-Forge is super hard work in a cramped and undertrafficed environment.  it is way harder to break even than any of you think.

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On 8/23/2006 at 1:17am, TonyLB wrote:
RE: Re: [GenCon] How does the booth red-tape work?

Troy, if you could be specific in terms of your experience, that would be very helpful.

Assume that I can, for instance, do basic arithmetic.  I can figure out how hard it is to pack people into a 10x10 space.  I can calculate roughly (given a specific spread of publishers, their cohorts, group support, the saleability of product and our likely location/traffic during the con) what our odds of making back our investment are, at various levels of investment (corner vs. end-cap being the main division).

If I can do all that, coldly, rationally, and not just on a wish-and-prayer "If we get a booth at GenCon it will all somehow turn out alright!" basis ... what have I overlooked?  You've got experience, I'd love to benefit from it.  What are the other obstacles?

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On 8/23/2006 at 2:40pm, David Artman wrote:
RE: Re: [GenCon] How does the booth red-tape work?

I'd just like to point out that a few ideas are being clumped together in ways that (a) are not necessary and (b) were not proposed initially (that I have read). To whit:
1) The shanty town need not increase the booth size more than is already being considered for the anticipated 100+ game volume next year. It is merely a different organizing structure, themed a bit to pick up on the "garage, punk, shoestring budget" flavor of our type of indie productions.
2) Coupling individual costs to commitment and product volume levels is not identical to separating everyone into isolated mini booths.
3) Restructuring costs does not necessitate restructuring physical proximity.

In those three "points" lie about eight actual elements, each of which is mostly or entirely independent of the others.

That said, I think there's a lot of merit to James's points about perceived crowding and cluster. But do not, please, lose sight of it being perceived. I do not think it is a necessary truth that a larger booth will not appear "full and eager" or that the booth is a static construct that can't adjust as necessary to tune perceptions.

Even if one merely shifts free-standing curtains around, to close in or open up the area surrounding what the enclose, that can make for intimacy-on-the-fly. Or, abandoning the shanty town notion for more of a "maze" notion, sightlines across the booth space could be occluded by aisles, off-angle shelving, or more curtains/posters/walls. The last GenCon I attended, Wizards had a HUGE central area, with demo tables kicking off every fifteen minutes, with plenty of empty chairs and wide, walkable aisles (I cut through there routinely, to avoid the main aisle traffic). Did it ever seem "desolate" or like folks rattled around in it? Not to me, because the space was carefully divided off and screened, and they were clever about ringing the space with their most popular products, to create the appearance of crowding while interior spaces were all-but-empty.

What I believe would REALLY go wrong with up-sizing the booth is if the space was not fully leveraged or if a large portion of it was "inaccessible" to boothgoers. Every inch of the place should go to either sales, sales support, or demoing. As nice as a lounge area sounds, would it end up being a place demoers congregated when they should be out demoing or pushing for demos? Would sales folks retreat to that space, leaving punters unattended? Would boothgoers treat it like a "free" rest stop, with no interest in the games but only wanting to get off their feet on a comfy chair for a while? Biggest question: who would tell any of those above folks to shift it, and how, and after how long? Ick...

As for storage, I think anything that lets you stack to the sky is key: it would be IDEAL if the at-booth storage area was no more than the size of an upright filing cabinet or two, with restocks of the stock from hotel rooms. I saw that sketch of the booth this year, and I admit (even if not to scale) I was surprised that storage was almost the same size as all sales area. At the price of booth space--plus given how little of a hotel room is actually USED (especially at cons!), it seems a no-brainer to get as much stock into the rooms as can be done. One just has to always have a runner to grab more stock as the storage area runs out/low on a particular product. Conversely, you can, as much as is reasonable--some folks come WAY over prepared for their likely sales volumes--go with an "all stock on theshelves" policy, with a maximum and minimum stock level (say, no fewer than five copies of a product, no more than fifteen). Then, you don't need ANY storage area, but your runner for restock needs to be very watchful for the appearance of those "placeholder" laminate that show what would be on the shelf at that point, if it weren't out of stock.

Or.... hmmm... what if the storage area was one of those way-out, cheap-ass booths, with nothing but a locked cage of stock and directions tot he "main booth?" After all, if the central areas are coveted and valuable, while the edge of arena areas get almost no traffic, then leverage that cost differential and shift the unprofitable contents to the cost-effective space. Just a last second though before Posting.

But all that's practical, and we are still roaming the conceptual spaces, here. Perhaps there are resources or studies somewhere that talk about convention space setup, manipulating perceptions of spaces, traffic flow in crowds, and related stuff that could tell us, point-blank, whether its better to do a central sales area surrounded by demo tables or a central demo area with focused sales areas at each corner, or some maze-like flow-through pattern, or something totally different from what we've so far imagined?

The main elements *I* would like to champion are theming and proximity: what better way to say "we're fun" than the former, and what better way to say "we're BIG and here to STAY" than the latter?
David

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On 8/23/2006 at 2:50pm, TonyLB wrote:
RE: Re: [GenCon] How does the booth red-tape work?

Guys, I'd totally welcome (and join) a discussion of improving the large, central booth.  It should go on a separate thread.

Here and now, I'm trying to gather objective information (not judgments, sorry ... I can make my own judgment, once I have all the facts) about what it takes to make and run a new booth.

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On 8/23/2006 at 5:03pm, Troy_Costisick wrote:
RE: Re: [GenCon] How does the booth red-tape work?

Heya,

TonyLB wrote:
Troy, if you could be specific in terms of your experience, that would be very helpful.

Assume that I can, for instance, do basic arithmetic.  I can figure out how hard it is to pack people into a 10x10 space.  I can calculate roughly (given a specific spread of publishers, their cohorts, group support, the saleability of product and our likely location/traffic during the con) what our odds of making back our investment are, at various levels of investment (corner vs. end-cap being the main division).

If I can do all that, coldly, rationally, and not just on a wish-and-prayer "If we get a booth at GenCon it will all somehow turn out alright!" basis ... what have I overlooked?  You've got experience, I'd love to benefit from it.  What are the other obstacles?


Sorry it took me a while to get back to you on this, Tony.  I wanted to do my best to recall my experience at GenCon and what I learned from it.  Preet much, it went sorta like this.

The Convention

Myself and two other authors of our game came up to Indianapolis on the Wednesday before.  We pulled around the front of the convention and picked up our badges.  That was actually surprisingly easy.  I’d been an attendee at other conventions and registration was always a pain.  Unfortunately it kinda went down hill from there.

Now let me preface the rest of what I’m about to say with this: we were so very very very lucky that year.  I can’t imagine anyone having the same strokes of luck we did.  So anyway, we pull around back in the minivan and the parking lot is packed full.  It is wall to wall people, boxes, and equipment.  So one of my friends and I quickly unload all the stuff we *have* to set up right away while the other guy went and parked at Circle Centre Mall (we hadn’t checked into our hotel at this point). 

While one guy stood with the stuff, I started hauling it in to the convention hall by myself.  I was SO grateful to see that our booth was second from the loading gate indoors.  I couldn’t believe it.  Some of the other vendors had booths that were clear on the other side of the hall.  They had to lug their stuff all over the place, which is really tough.  I’m sure you’ve been there during set up time.  There’s carts and rolls of carpet and dollies and all kinds of stuff just left out in the aisles.  It can be a super big pain to wheel a cart all by yourself through that maze of junk.

After I get half the stuff inside and under the table, the third guy with me shows up.  We finish carrying it inside and work on setting up our booth.  It’s hot in there.  Real hot, and all that carrying caused one of my friends to have an asthma attack.  We got him to a cool place and let him rest while the other two of us finished the job. 

Instead of renting a table and chairs from GenCon we brought out own.  It was a nice big card table with padded seats.  We also brought a book case and picture stands for our books.  That was important and I’ll state why later.

Then the first day of the convention came around.  Guess who we were next to.  The Forge Booth!  It was such a crazy stroke of luck.  Having our independent booth right next to “THE” independent booth was so fortunate.  We talked to Ron, Jake, Jared, Matt, Mike Miller, and a few others.  Ron gave us a few pointers then the conventioneers were let in.

The first day wasn’t too bad I guess.  After the first few pitches and demos were done, the jitters went away.  Jake would check in on us once every couple hours when he wasn’t busy. By the end of the day, we had sold six books total I think.  Our goal was ten.  The traffic in our area was decent.  We had the Forge booth close.  Our other neighbor was a Magic The Gathering booth which had the new 8th edition cards and was selling a whole mess of moxes and Type II power cards.  Behind us was a soft porn trading card booth with scantily clad ladies shilling their game.  So really, we ended up with a decent spot.

Friday and Saturday were horrendous.  The lines to get in were huge!  By the time people got into the convention hall they were in no mood to listen to us pitch our game let alone spend time playing a demo.  We actually did decent business, IMO, but being a non-corner booth really hurt our visibility.

Sunday our area was a ghost town.  We probably sold 3 books that day, one to Ron.  We were wiped out tired, the convention goers were tired, and traffic is always light on the last day anyhow.  So how did we do?  We sold 32 books at $25 each.  I’d ay about six or seven of those, though, were sold at half price to guys who owned stores and were looking for new stock.  Still, that’s awesome by Forge Booth standards.  But you know what, it really wasn’t.

The Aftermath

After the convention we took a look at things. 

First: The Money.  It cost us about $900 for the booth plus $60 for the extra badge.  We grossed around $700 from our products (two books).  Now granted, our product really wasn’t all that great, so sales of something like Burning Wheel, Capes, or Dogs in the Vineyard would probably get better results.  Still, 32 in 4 days isn’t bad.  But it still didn’t cover the cost of the booth.  Nor did it cover the cost of our hotel stay, food, promotional items and so on.  However, if we had bought into the Forge booth, think about how far ahead we would have been paying only like $100 to get in.

Second: The Promotion.  We handed out stacks of bookmarks w/ our company info on them to about seven different booths at the convention including the Forge Booth.  Of course we reciprocated and took fliers and whatnot from other booths and handed them out.  The only booth that ever got mentioned to us as handing out a book mark and talking about us was the Forge Booth.  I didn’t mind giving out the bookmarks or cross-promoting with other booths, but it didn’t seem like it was all that fruitful.

Third: The Set-up.  Setting up the booth actually wasn’t too bad.  We got there at a decent hour and were very close to the loading bay.  We got real lucky with that.  Other first time boothers I talked to had to drag their stuff halfway across the hall.  And in the summer heat of Indianapolis, that’s no fun.

Fourth: The Booth.  Our booth had several things going for it.  Proximity to the Forge booth, proximity to a good MtG vendor, proximity to a booth full of half-naked women all played in our favor.  Plus, the huge Upper Deck booth was within sight.  Besides location, our booth caught attendees’ eye.  We had a huge poster promoting our game on an easel.  It had what the game was about, price, and an offer for a demo.  We had a really cool bookcase in the back.  Having our games stacked on the shelves really looked professional and we got a lot of compliments on it.  Also one of the artists for out books did some sweet drawings of weapons based on reenacting arms.  It attracted a lot of SCA types.  Lastly, we had a guy who was fluent in Korean with us.  He made a bunch of signs in Korean for out booth and that attracted all kinds of people.  I’d attribute eight sales to that alone. 

Fifth: The Product.  I’ll shoot strait with ya.  Our game was a good example of a Fantasy Heartbreaker.  It was obvious after the con that we needed to do more for the game.  However, selling the product at $25 was probably a good idea.  If it were a few dollars less I doubt we would have increased sales an appreciable degree.  Our goal of 40 wasn’t met, but looking back years later now, 32 wasn’t bad.  It just wasn’t enough.

So what can you learn from this?  Here’s my honest advice:

- Get there early to set up, if you’re far away from the loading dock it will take a long time

- Plan on losing money.  It is very, very difficult to break even.

- 3 guys max at the booth at one time.  It is so cramped that you can’t get anything done with more people present.

- You can really only give one demo at a time.  There’s just not room for any more.

- Develop a good pitch.  Demoing your game takes time away from talking to other customers.  A 10x10 booth is not demo friendly.

- Have lots of attention grabbing items at your booth.  You will not be on a corner or a main aisle.  The people who find your booth are back there looking for something other than you.  You have to make them notice you.

- Bring your own table.  Renting is just another added expense.

- Cross-promoting is good, but don’t count on it from more than a handful of sales.

- Work as much as you can.  Every minute you spend cruising the con looking for games or checking out Indianapolis is a minute you aren’t selling any games.

- Have a good product.

- Prepare to be completely exhausted every night.  I mean, more exhausted than you are working the Forge booth now.  It’s extremely hectic running your own booth.  Eat well and get plenty of sleep.

- I don’t know if this is still the case, but every third person who came to our booth was either an artist or store owner who was not interested in our product but in getting us interested in theirs.  Be prepared for a third to half your pitches and demo invitations to be a waste of time.

- I want to say bring only one or two products.  But I can’t say for sure.  But we had two and it was difficult to do them both justice.  We finally just had to concentrate on one and then mention the other in passing.  My experience says bring only one or two, but other people might have different results.

- Finally, don’t expect to replicate John Wick’s success.  That was my biggest problem.  I figured if he could do it, so could I.  John has built himself in to such a huge brand.  There are all kinds of people who follow him from his days with L5R and 7th Sea.  There is no way any of us can have the kind of draw he does.

So anyway, that’s my experience and what I’ve learned.  I don’t want to sound too negative, but the blunt truth is that it’s very hard if not impossible to make a profit running a solo booth at GenCon.  This is why I tend to discourage it and offer the best piece of advice I can: “If at all possible, buy into the Forge Booth.”

Peace,

-Troy

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