First info on VGXPO 2006

[ed_fleming]

FYI on VGXPO 2006.

 

We continue to plan for 2006 and hope to give everyone the official dates and location(s) soon. Info would have been released at the start of the year, but the Fort Washington Expo Center recently announced that it is closing in June -- our show was planned to run there in the fall...

 

The closing of Fort Washington required us to look at alternative locations and go through a new RFP and bid process. In the Philadelphia region there have been three expo closings in the past year: Fort Washington, Lehigh and the Adams Mark. Thus, large space (over 50,000 sq feet) is very hard to find in the region & prices for space have more then doubled.

 

For 2006 and 2007 we are evaluating proposals from convention sites near Philadelphia and "outside of the region". Plans are in the works to do great things with the next set of shows - an official announcement is forth coming.

[ed_fleming]

From a post on Digital Press Events Forum

 

This is probably something you looked in to but how about the Valley Forge expo center, or whatever it is called?  Also, have you checked across the bridge in South Jersey ?

 

Dave

 

Indeed, we are in talks with Valley Forge, the PA Convention Center in Philly, and the NJ Convention and Expo Center in Edison. As mentioned, however, space costs have gone up significantly after the closing of Fort Washington, Adams Mark and Lehigh expo centers.

 

Honestly, we got wind that the Fort Washington Expo Center was closing only a week before the official announcement, and its been a 'pain in the rear' trying to work with the other conventions in this region. It would seem that the expo center industry is run by supply and demand - right now there is a lot of demand from show managers that were working with Fort Washington.

 

There are a few options on the table and we are trying to craft the best deal for 2006. We'll have an update in right around the time of GDC.

 

Ed

[Bruce Tomlin]

So is there going to be one in Dallas this year?

[doctorclu]

So is there going to be one in Dallas this year?

1027307[/snapback]

 

Yeh I would like to know that too. I think it would be interesting to see about holding a JagFest there.

[ed_fleming]

So is there going to be one in Dallas this year?

1027307[/snapback]

 

More details... I hope these teasers are getting you pumped for VGXPO...

 

Dallas does not look like an America's VideoGame venue for 2006. NBC has not set plans for a Philadelphia or Dallas consumer event in 2006. Our relationship with NBC is still strong, however at this time we are working on venue selection without major NBC participation.

 

To meet the needs of NBC we have developed a new line of business called America's VideoGame Experience. We'll be traveling with NBC to cities across the US providing a number of sports related game stations at their fitness events (DDR, Football, Baseball, Hockey, etc). We also plan to give America's VideoGame Experience its own legs and will tour the event at large consumer conventions, sporting events, malls, and other locations. All the while, these new events will be used to promote the large VGXPO events in Philadelphia and future locations.

 

We plan to also use it as a vehicle to hold mini-conventions (a 1000 to 1500 people show), LAN parties and gaming competitions. The first 'Experience' event will take place with NBC at the Philly FitFest (late April), where we'll provide them with a VGXPO preview & DDR content pavilion. Other NBC fitness events are planned for Road Island, Ohio and Washington, DC. We are in the early stages of development for events in northern NJ and at the Home Depot Center, outside of Las Angeles.

 

This year's VGXPO is not going to be part of any NBC Consumer Show. Plans are in the works to hold a 2006 VGXPO in the Philadelphia region this October. There are additional cities that might be added to the 2006 schedule, but we may wait until 2007 to hold more then one VGXPO.

 

The major reason for waiting to bring VGXPO into more cities is that we need to be sure that the vendors who have participated with us in the past are ready to commit to two or more events a year. Also, as we engage the videogame industry we also need more game companies to understand the value of public game shows, and then have them develop internal events management groups. While companies like Red Octane and NCSoft have full time event teams, many developers and publishers do not. We have made significant headway in getting the attention of the game industry, and look forward to 2006 and 2007 bringing more game publishers into the VGXPO.

 

Last, we need as much lead time as possible to work with convention centers to schedule events. I have traveled to 10 convention centers since the end of last year. Each center has its own unique features and each one has its own rules for labor related issues. Some have what's called right-to-work, while others require a union to do any labor task, including moving items form a truck or car into the convention center. In the case of union convention centers, the costs for labor can be much more then the cost of a booth or table. While this might not be a concern for a large company, many of our vendors are small businesses or individuals, and those labor costs would overwhelm them. Because of this we are being very selective on how we move forward.

 

If you are wondering about future VGXPO locations, I cannot reveal them just yet. But, I can provide you with some clues. We are looking at locations that are in, or near, popular tourist destinations. We are tending to look at locations that have warm fall and winter climates. We are looking at cities that you would want to fly into to participate in the VGXPO and then stay at for a mini-vacation. In addition, the locations are places where you would want to bring your spouse & kids and can let them go have touristy fun while you're at the VGXPO.

[Bruce Tomlin]

If you are wondering about future VGXPO locations, I cannot reveal them just yet. But, I can provide you with some clues. We are looking at locations that are in, or near, popular tourist destinations. We are tending to look at locations that have warm fall and winter climates. We are looking at cities that you would want to fly into to participate in the VGXPO and then stay at for a mini-vacation. In addition, the locations are places where you would want to bring your spouse & kids and can let them go have touristy fun while you're at the VGXPO.

Meh, I don't want to fly places for vacations (maybe Japan someday, and that's it), and like most of the folks here, there is no spouse, and as a result, no kids.

 

Texas and surrounding states always get back-shelved by anyone not from the area. And to the New Yorkers and L.A. folks, Chicago and Florida are no substitute.

 

Between anime/SF conventions and SCA events, I have plenty of things I can do without ever having to leave the state. I'd just like one of the things I can do without having to leave the state be a video game convention of some sort, even a mini one like a comics convention.

[minorleagueguy]

If you are wondering about future VGXPO locations, I cannot reveal them just yet. But, I can provide you with some clues. We are looking at locations that are in, or near, popular tourist destinations. We are tending to look at locations that have warm fall and winter climates. We are looking at cities that you would want to fly into to participate in the VGXPO and then stay at for a mini-vacation. In addition, the locations are places where you would want to bring your spouse & kids and can let them go have touristy fun while you're at the VGXPO.

Meh, I don't want to fly places for vacations (maybe Japan someday, and that's it), and like most of the folks here, there is no spouse, and as a result, no kids.

 

Texas and surrounding states always get back-shelved by anyone not from the area. And to the New Yorkers and L.A. folks, Chicago and Florida are no substitute.

 

Between anime/SF conventions and SCA events, I have plenty of things I can do without ever having to leave the state. I'd just like one of the things I can do without having to leave the state be a video game convention of some sort, even a mini one like a comics convention.

1027614[/snapback]

 

...so do one yourself...Get a small banquet room from a hotel, give yourself up to 3-6 months for advertising, hit all the people YOU know who are gamers, including some "flea market"guys, maybe see if the "chain" game shops want to come out.

...charge a small fee for the venders (for the tables), then charge the people coming in...if a hotel is out of the question, use a church, community center, fire hall, VFW....it works...

 

minorleagueguy

[maibock]

...so do one yourself...Get a small banquet room from a hotel, give yourself up to 3-6 months for advertising, hit all the people YOU know who are gamers, including some "flea market"guys, maybe see if the "chain" game shops want to come out.

...charge a small fee for the venders (for the tables), then charge the people coming in...if a hotel is out of the question, use a church, community center, fire hall, VFW....it works...

 

minorleagueguy

 

1027723[/snapback]

 

Exactly, I have a few thousand square feet at my disposal and have been thinking about at least throwing some sort of classic gaming event, be it a beer and gaming get together to a mini Philly Classic of sort..

[+Allan]

So is there going to be one in Dallas this year?

1027307[/snapback]

 

More details... I hope these teasers are getting you pumped for VGXPO...

 

Dallas does not look like an America's VideoGame venue for 2006. NBC has not set plans for a Philadelphia or Dallas consumer event in 2006. Our relationship with NBC is still strong, however at this time we are working on venue selection without major NBC participation.

 

To meet the needs of NBC we have developed a new line of business called America's VideoGame Experience. We'll be traveling with NBC to cities across the US providing a number of sports related game stations at their fitness events (DDR, Football, Baseball, Hockey, etc). We also plan to give America's VideoGame Experience its own legs and will tour the event at large consumer conventions, sporting events, malls, and other locations. All the while, these new events will be used to promote the large VGXPO events in Philadelphia and future locations.

 

We plan to also use it as a vehicle to hold mini-conventions (a 1000 to 1500 people show), LAN parties and gaming competitions. The first 'Experience' event will take place with NBC at the Philly FitFest (late April), where we'll provide them with a VGXPO preview & DDR content pavilion. Other NBC fitness events are planned for Road Island, Ohio and Washington, DC. We are in the early stages of development for events in northern NJ and at the Home Depot Center, outside of Las Angeles.

 

This year's VGXPO is not going to be part of any NBC Consumer Show. Plans are in the works to hold a 2006 VGXPO in the Philadelphia region this October. There are additional cities that might be added to the 2006 schedule, but we may wait until 2007 to hold more then one VGXPO.

 

The major reason for waiting to bring VGXPO into more cities is that we need to be sure that the vendors who have participated with us in the past are ready to commit to two or more events a year. Also, as we engage the videogame industry we also need more game companies to understand the value of public game shows, and then have them develop internal events management groups. While companies like Red Octane and NCSoft have full time event teams, many developers and publishers do not. We have made significant headway in getting the attention of the game industry, and look forward to 2006 and 2007 bringing more game publishers into the VGXPO.

 

Last, we need as much lead time as possible to work with convention centers to schedule events. I have traveled to 10 convention centers since the end of last year. Each center has its own unique features and each one has its own rules for labor related issues. Some have what's called right-to-work, while others require a union to do any labor task, including moving items form a truck or car into the convention center. In the case of union convention centers, the costs for labor can be much more then the cost of a booth or table. While this might not be a concern for a large company, many of our vendors are small businesses or individuals, and those labor costs would overwhelm them. Because of this we are being very selective on how we move forward.

 

If you are wondering about future VGXPO locations, I cannot reveal them just yet. But, I can provide you with some clues. We are looking at locations that are in, or near, popular tourist destinations. We are tending to look at locations that have warm fall and winter climates. We are looking at cities that you would want to fly into to participate in the VGXPO and then stay at for a mini-vacation. In addition, the locations are places where you would want to bring your spouse & kids and can let them go have touristy fun while you're at the VGXPO.

1027445[/snapback]

 

This all sounds great but I just can't help thinking that your spreading yourself to thin. I know Dave Neuman put a lot of time and effort into just putting on one show. I just wish one person/group would concentrate on putting on one great CLASSIC GAMING show in the north east once a year and leave all the other stuff for other people.

 

Allan

[ed_fleming]

FYI Posted on Digital Press:

 

VGXPO is an equal opportunity gaming event. Like E3, there will be rival gaming companies and associations at our event.

 

We have 50,000 sq ft of space planned for Philly 2006 (and even more for 2007), and in planning booth layout, we will make an effort to keep rival groups as far away from others as possible. With this much space and thousands of gamers at the show, there should be no problems - the vendors will have to many other things to worry about.

 

Additionally, VGXPO is a business and it serves the gaming community as a whole. We exist to provide gamers with the best experience possible, we have no right to block any game related companies or organizations form requesting space at shows. If gamers want a vendor at the show, then that vendor should be there. If Sony asked me not to allow Microsoft to the show I would have to decline there request, even if that meant Sony wouldn’t come to the VGXPO. The same goes with this situation.

 

VGXPO is a gaming event for everyone!

Edited March 6, 2006 by ed_fleming

[SteveW]

I can understand why they're passing on Dallas this year. Last year's show wasn't exactly a great expo. I don't recall hearing anything about the show on NBC beforehand (but then, I rarely watch local networks anymore). When I went to the convention center, I couldn't even find any info about the game expo on the lists of current events. I almost left, when I decided to check out one of the conventions being held, and it turns out that the VGXPO was at the back of it. It was kind of slow on Saturday, and when I dropped by again on Sunday, there was almost nobody left. No vendors were there except the Atari Age booth. After seeing that, I knew that there wouldn't be another event in Dallas.

[Big Player]

What Steve described for the Dallas show was mostly the same in Philly. We watched the NBC Station on Friday night and they mentioned the NBC Consumer Expo but not a word about the vgXpo. At the front of the Fort Washington Expo Center, again not a word about the video game show in the back.

 

The difference from Dallas is Philly had a lot of vendors and a large crowd throughout both days. I'm not sure how they found out about it, but it was great that they made it. There was generally more people in the vgXpo in the back than the Consumer Expo in the front of the convention center.

 

Good to hear it will be a stand alone show next year.

[Bruce Tomlin]

Wasn't there also another classic gaming convention on the west coast on the same weekend as the Dallas VGexpo? Not that it mattered, because I recall hearing that that one was poorly attended, too.

[SteveW]

Hasn't there been a gaming expo in Philadelphia for a few years now? They must have had repeat customers for their show, whereas Dallas hasn't had a game expo in a long time (since the mid-'90s, if I recall).

[atarian1]

Wasn't there also another classic gaming convention on the west coast on the same weekend as the Dallas VGexpo? Not that it mattered, because I recall hearing that that one was poorly attended, too.

 

That would be Classic Gaming Expo. Poorly attended? I don't think 1500+ attendees is poorly attended!

 

Ed, I hope you exercise some persuasion and/or some independence from NBC to insure this will not happen again. Although I doubt having the Dallas VGexpo on the same weekend as CGE really affected the attendence of either, it REALLY looks bad for the classic gaming community as a whole. It makes the community look disorganized, splintered, and divided. Trying to have two large classic gaming shows within a month of each other may force people and vendors who normally attend both shows to choose which show to go to and which not to go to.

 

The smaller shows sound interesting. Kind of like a Videotopia but not just restricted to arcade games.

[ed_fleming]

I'll be the first to admit that NBC did not understand how to work with us. When we started working on them in Dallas we were told that they were marketing the game show, but in reality they never did. As far as running the show at the same time as CGE, we had our hands tied. The Dallas event was first planned for fall 2005 but was moved up to August. At the time I had already signed a contract with NBC and could not get out of doing the show. In retrospect I wish that we could have had run that show later in the year.

 

For the Philly show VGXPO was featured in a commerical that ran about 20 times. In addition, we did our own marketing. We ran ads in news papers, had 40,000 post cards distributed to 120 EB Games stores and other marketing. NBC reported to us that over 25,000 people attended the Consumer Fest, however, as most folks at the show noticed, most of the attendees were at the VGXPO.

 

It was nice working with NBC in some ways, but not having them with VGXPO in 2006 is going to be great for us. The 2005 shows were great learning experiences for us and have given us a lot of ideas for how to make 2005 really rock.