(Not the) Austin Gaming Expo

[Snider-man]

Stumbled across an announcement at RGVC. Looks like a game collector/hobbyist in Austin, TX decided to throw caution to the wind and host his own event.

 

GAMER - Classic, Retro, and Extreme Gaming Expo

 

Looks like it's gonna be held August 9 at Norris Conference Center, Northcross Mall. Details seem kind of sparce right now though...

[JellE]

Stumbled across an announcement at RGVC. Looks like a game collector/hobbyist in Austin, TX decided to throw caution to the wind and host his own event.

 

GAMER - Classic, Retro, and Extreme Gaming Expo

 

Looks like it's gonna be held August 9 at Norris Conference Center, Northcross Mall. Details seem kind of sparce right now though...

 

That would be a8maestro from this very forum.

[+Sauron]

Yup, that's his event. It may or may not be a go, depending on interest. So far, though, I don't think it's garnered much.

[98PaceCar]

Same day as the OVGE. I'd attend both if they were on different days, but I'm already committed to be in Tulsa on the 9th.

[a8maestro]

GAMER EXPO happened, was a lot of fun, but needed more people and vendors.

 

Rick D.

Edited August 23, 2008 by a8maestro

[+Sauron]

Hey Rick, just emailed you about this.

[tjb]

I had no idea this was going on until it was too late. I would have gone especially since I'm in San Antonio.

 

tjb

[Almost Rice]

I went and picked up a 130xe ram upgrade. I was in Austin at the time and was only 1 mile away. I only heard about it 2 weeks prior to the event.

[Bruce Tomlin]

...and I had a conflict on that date too. A big anime convention in San Antonio, and I was staff, so I kind of had to be there.

 

Other than the bad conflict on dates (same weekend as OGVE?!), and the mere one month or so lead time on getting the word out, it was a good idea.

[a8maestro]

True, OVGE was that date. It never turned up in searches and no one on chats ever mentioned it until it was too late. Along with other shows on other dates and other types of shows such as VCF. Will usually have conflicts.

 

The 1.5 to 2 months was the final push if there was to be anything. I had already spent 2 years trying to get interest from vendors and feedback, the show website has been up since 2006, talking about it on chats, posting notes where I could find forums(some got removed or never published), emailing those I thought interested, dropping info at as many stores as I could, emailing dealers anywhere I could find. But even the vendors(and home brew enthusiasts) at age2003 seem to have all disappeared, a lot of emails never replied to. But always those interested in having it, though no info on who to contact. Never heard again from those that said they were interested. But it was either do it or drop it(I could move on to other interests). Hence the flurry of posts during the last month and a half.

 

While the feed back is great, saying where and when I should have done things doesn't help and much as how to get people interested BEFORE the event. Maybe I did this completely wrong. What is the right way?

 

Thanks all,

 

Rick D.

Edited August 23, 2008 by a8maestro

[+Sauron]

You did a lot of the right things. However, the problem was that you were doing them yourself. Not much can be done about that if others aren't willing or able to help you, but one person setting up a show just isn't enough. I know there's definitely a market for an event like this here when there's two different used game stores that are thriving. Not to mention the overwhelming interest we saw for AGE back in 2003. If you do decide to put together another event like this (and I hope you do), get some people on board to help with planning and setting it up prior to anything else.

[a8maestro]

You did a lot of the right things. However, the problem was that you were doing them yourself. Not much can be done about that if others aren't willing or able to help you, but one person setting up a show just isn't enough. I know there's definitely a market for an event like this here when there's two different used game stores that are thriving. Not to mention the overwhelming interest we saw for AGE back in 2003. If you do decide to put together another event like this (and I hope you do), get some people on board to help with planning and setting it up prior to anything else.

 

Doing it myself was never the idea. Those that were interested didn't follow through. There was no choice. One person setting up a show is enough, it got done. More people following thru would have made it better.

There hasn't been an atari meeting here in 5 years(You remember the last one?). There doesn't seem to be much going on in any other brand of system(though amiga is rumoured to meet).

I've long since learned that even though clerks at stores are interested, owners rarely get involved. They certainly didn't last year. They didn't this year. I see a trend.

 

Its been five years since AGE, things have changed a lot. Since I didn't hear from them, I have no idea what could have been done.

 

The next show is waiting for interest. I will NOT bite the bullet again, however.

My mistake was thinking interested people were still out there, thinking stores would want to advertise in this way, people would want to get involved, or that having a room and a date would make a difference. Now I need a lot of proof.

 

Getting people on board is great? Who are they? Where are they? What are their emails? They have yet to let me know they are interested from the flyers and signs I left at stores. If they were ever put out.

 

Rehashing what didn't get done doesn't help as much as Who and HOW, to get it done next time.

 

Edit:P.S. Five years ago we routinely had 15 to 20 people on the various chats. We are lucky to get 5 now, and many are only 1 person. Locally, I get people every year wanting me to take their system, sometimes I do, sometimes I send them to Goodwill.

 

Rick D.

Edited August 27, 2008 by a8maestro

[Dan Iacovelli]

rick I know the feeling,

I did VGS on my own from 2003 to 2005, all had great turn outs

it was at 2006 and this year I had help and turn out wasn't great.

you have to be careful who you have to help you as well, they might want to do

one thing and you might not agree.

also 10 years ago there was hardly any shows going on,now you have shows like MGC,CGE,OVGE...

to worry about, which is basically I usually wait until at least Nov. to make a decision I see what shows might be conflicting with mine

in 2006 I had VGS in august ,because CGE wasn't happening,big mistake for one reason: Gen-con was happening on the same day

and that basically hurt our attendance(not to mention that gas prices were high and the weather was hot)