Just curious - were the seminars taped and if so, are they posted somewhere?

Move it to November. Lots of stuff still happens in October for family and outside activities.

Great to hear !

LTG

Excellent show this year. I really can't say anything bad at all out of the ordinary.

Seemed like a lot more vendors this year. The games in the free play room were great and there were many ! Only a few were off. The room was packed. I brought in 2 and they both sold later Saturday.

A special THANK YOU Mike for getting my hotel pricing fixed up. Really appreciated ! Me and my son had a great time.

Rob Anthony got a bad deal from the hotel from hanging some wall hangings. That was sure disappointing. There were scratches and pin holes already in that wall before he got there..

Ive got a couple comments/suggestions.
Dont know how to implement them, but i was able to be there from thursday till sunday. Thursday and friday were great, lots of machines to enjoy. but saturday was awful. So many machines were off or for the most part removed. I think that there was 145 machines on friday evening and less than 50 saturday night. As many will say, it is pretty bad that the hall is closed so much on saturday. There are many people that cant get there until then and miss so much of the show.

Also, as for machines being sold. Once again, not sure how to change it, but i know that you have times that the public is not allowed in the hall, but if you happen to walk by, there are alot of people running around the area. It seems that by the time the hall was open to the public, many of the machines were sold already. Those that had sneaked in or "helped" someone set up a machine were able to walk around and buy machines before anyone else was even allowed access/ I know alot of us are like vultures for good deals, but I know several people that used expobrawl as a chance to get the deals. I personnaly think that expobrawl is nice, but i think that the show caters to them so much that it forgets about the public. The tournament players get so much more access to the games. I think that it would be better to have the hall open to the public all day and have the tournaments through the night

Also, the hall being down for the banquet just doesnt seem right. Maybe close the vendor area so that they can enjoy the banquet, but use the same door as expobrawl to let people into the freeplay area during banquet times.

Lastly, I think that there should be better packages for purchasing the entry fees. I did not do the banquet or tour, so my best price was to pay daily entry fees. I dont mind paying the 20.00 to get in, but really think that there should be a different structure like 20 for a 1 day, 35 for a 2 day and 50 for 3 day. Its not much of a discount, but at least it makes you feel like your getting a better value.

Great show as usual Mike.

My biggest suggestion and complaint deals with the free play area. It should be free play. If you are not setting your games on free play they need to be in another location at the show....or not at the show at all.

My only suggestion is to make sure you spell "pinball" correctly in the title of the thread!

Why close the exhibit hall on Sat night from 5 to 11 maybe move that activity to Friday so everyone can get there fix of pin playing before leaving Sunday. I know I wasnt the only one confused and I read the large posted poster on the wall several times while waiting for it to open but it was time to leave at 1 when wife came and picked me up form 2 to 11 was to have been all my time. It just didnt happen that way.

This was our first Expo- and honestly we had a great time. So many games (both in the free play area in the vendor area), vendors, and the seminars were great.

One way to make it better, would be to have the main game room closed alot shorter than 8-6. We basically had a lot of time to kill. And someone else mentioned that alot of games were out of commission, even Friday night. I know that is hard to police.

Besides those two things, again we had a great time!

Online preregistration with paypal payment in advance.

More working games in free play for the duration of the event.

Single day seminar passes please or even better a combined single day exhibit hall and seminar pass.

I had a good time!

The vendor area had some great products, but not many show deals IMO. The free play area was a disappointment compared to past Expos. There is no doubt that The CPM & Phoebe carried the free play area. Hats off to them for bringing solid machines that could make it thru the entire show. Many of the other free play machines just couldn't make it all the way and it was disheartening to walk in and see a large number down for the count.

The lack of show deals & free play problems made this a good show, but not a great one.

The Pinball Expo classified list was a mess this year. Maybe a locked down method to post administered by someone so that people don't play games with the list. I'd be willing to help with that effort next year if people found it useful.

oh, also the hours of operation that you had posted more clearly the week of would be nice to have that listed when the 2013 event schedule is furnished. I know of a few guys that took Friday off to go play games ahead of time and then found that hall didn't open until 6PM.

Show was good.. I don't know if its just the times I've gone in the past but this was the first time the lights were actually all on in the main hall.. was nice to see

At the end of the day, it was a good show. Better than last year! I can't complain for I walked away with a few good deals. I agree with STARFIGHTER about CPM & Phoebe carrying the free play area. Always solid machines and maintained very well.

It was a bummer to not see Mr. Steve Kordek roaming the halls this year. Indeed he was there in spirit.

I agree that the free play area room of games should be OPEN during banquet. It was not available for far to long that evening. The doors were easily locked between the vendor rooms no problem there to have it open for people.

It was a great show, Mike! As others have already said, I'm not a fan of the free play area closing for such a long stretch on Saturday. I arrived around 4:00 with my brother, sister-in-law, son and nephew. I completely forgot about everything closing at 5:00, and we ended up paying $60 for about an hour of play. My brother and his family were pretty bummed, as they had schlepped all the way from the city and were really looking forward to playing for several hours. There has to be some other alternative, as this is a prime time when non-pinheads and kids can attend the event.

The issue with games being removed by Saturday is a tough one. It's easy to say that people should be required to leave the games on, sold or not, for the duration of the show. The problem is that many people who buy the machines don't stay for the whole weekend, and they need to take the machines with them when they leave. I don't see how this can be avoided.

The only way I could think to get people to let games sit would be making it a nice financial incentive. Perhaps for those who have games still left on Sunday get a drawing to win a Expo used stern game. What do they do with all those used X-men after all?

I like this in theory, but in reality I don't think it's a feasible solution. People would create fake sales with their friends for the sole purpose of entering the drawing. As pathetic as this sounds, I guarantee you it would happen.

Do you feel if the free play area was open that a lot less people would attend the banquet? I don't think this is true. I'm guessing that a vast majority of the people who attend the banquet are die-hard hobbyists. These people are playing plenty of pinball throughout the weekend as it is.

Free play area needs to be larger. That's only reason i went. I got there at 6 on friday thinking i'd have to have my buddy drag me out of there at 2-3 AM but voluntarily left at 11:30ish. Maybe i'm just spoiled by the games locally.

No sale required - if you have a game on Sunday you get a chance if you don't then you don't. However, Stern just started loaning out games to the expo - So i don't see them doing this. Its a wild idea just might help.

I would also like to see the free play area open during the banquet. I understand you want more people to pay for the banquet, but that 5 or 6 hour block is an awfully long time to eat a meal. My friends and I used that time to go out to dinner and kill time at Gameworks. We saw other Expo attendees doing the same. Just to give you some perspective from more casual attendees there mostly to play the games...

Why not have a policy that all games need to remain and be on, regardless if they are sold or not?

I was also disappointed that there were only 3 xmen in the vendor area when you mentioned there were 20 at the event. Where were they all?

Oh, I see what you are saying. I thought you were talking about using the drawing as an incentive to get buyers of games to leave the game there all weekend instead of taking it with them. It sounds like you're envisioning the drawing as a way to get more people to bring games to Expo in the first place. I think you're on the right track.

I think its hard to regulated what people bring for free. Yes they get a discount to do so but not enough to force them into a agreement that does not work for them. People are taking games out for a number of reasons. A they have to leave early or b they don't want them to be at a show after they paid Expo pricing for them. If you clamp down on them it would fail in my opinion.

Raffeling off a "new" Stern for all the machines in the free play area on Sunday, is a great idea. I'm on the bubble about bringing games, this would definately do it.

As I mentioned before, a lot of people buying the games don't stay until Sunday. It's a tough situation. If every person who brings a game is forced to keep it their until the end of the event, it will limit their ability to sell a game.

They had 8 X-men to my knowledge. Three on the front of Marco's / Three on the Back, one hooked up to mega speakers and one in the tournament. Not 20, but the lines were never that bad. I never waited more then one deep. Loved the game by the way!

I hope I didn't take this out of context, but it would also limit my ability to bring a game. My game is there from when I arrive until when I leave. I don't sell games, but if I was forced to bring my games (again not for sale) from noon on Wednesday until 4pm on Sunday, then I'll leave them at home.

BTW, I was one of the games as part of the CPM row.

so if it breaks it needs to stay on an get more screwed? If someone buys a game the new owner has to agree that can't have it? That won't work, can't force the new owner to leave their game there.

+8?

Saw a ton of games leave prior to the banquet... people might be more likely to stay longer if the hall was open.

Nobody would force you to leave your games there through Sunday. Obviously, anyone who is willing to bring a game for any amount of time should be applauded. You simply wouldn't be eligible for the bonus drawing at the end of Expo. I think this ideas has a lot of merit, and it would almost certainly entice some people to leave their games at the show longer. Perhaps the idea could even be tweaked so that every day you have a machine at Expo you get one entry into the raffle. If you have a machine there for the entire duration of the show, you could get a couple more bonus entries.

I agree that it would be nice if there was some sort of incentive for people to bring and leave games for the duration of the show.

I got the impression that this is a for profit event and likely brings in a hefty profit. It only seems reasonable to have some sort of real incentive for anyone to bring a game to any event and to leave it for the duration.

What is the typical cash incentive? Free entry for the day?

I know with MGC a large incentive is the late night event which is reserved for folks that bring games and help.

Just from Memory, doesn't MGC give "MGC Bucks" or something for a period of times that games are actually working / present?

and entry to the exclusive event as Hilton points out.

The temp in the seminar room and hall was good. Please keep it low like that for next year.

I believe that's how it currently works. For every day that you have a machine there on free play (not for sale), you get free admission to the show. This includes the seminars but doesn't include the banquet.

Maybe having an event for those that brought machines late Saturday night (similar to MGC) would offer incentive to not only keep a machine, but keep it for the entire weekend.

Also, it seems like some rearranging to the main hall may allow a portion of that to remain open and create more space for machines. There are some games that can't be accessed Thursday or Friday night, if those machines were positioned near the entrance to the game room, the rest of the vendor area could be blocked off.

UStream seminars like they did at the NW Pinball Show. Also I would make the vendor area smaller and put more games in there to play. Maybe a tailgate flea market thing in the parking lot? More events to attract young players. But busy this year and noisy!

Great idea, any sort of streaming or online source for future viewing would be nice.

Some of the games were just stupid loud.

I was able to buy a one day seminar pass on Saturday morning with Expo admission for $15.00 ($35 total).

I thought it was game room only, not the seminars. In that cane I didnt need to preregister for 320 total just to get back 150 for keeping games there.

It's very possible that I'm wrong about the seminars. If they're not included, however, they should be.

It seemed like it was less crowded this year, Not sure what was going on but last year it was close to impossible to wheel my Seawitch over to Gavin's area in the main hall. This year i pretty much could have done this at any time. If ticket sales are an indicator of success then i have to assume that expo made less this year.

I would like to see people bring more games. Looking at MGC and Allentown the free play area is packed and now are overtaking expo in sheer amount of playable games. For some reason i had a bug up my ass this year to bring 3, but maybe something extra could be done for those bringing over a certain amount above and beyond the one needed for admission? The Ohio crew brought a whole row which was pretty awesome and they should definitely get props for that.

The vendor area was pretty good, I would like to see more junk for sale but that's just how I roll.

The CC in Rob's repair room was awesome and king of the show IMHO. It's cool to see so many new games coming and to talk to their creators (Predator, P3...etc)

All in All i thought everything went smoothly. I packed up 3am Sunday morning because after 4.5 days of pinball I like to spend a day with the family before going back to work.

-c

For y'all saying the games need to be there an on longer, easier said than done.

The MGC is shorter, and we still have a bunch of trouble keeping games there the whole time... but I get it. We make incentives for the longer you keep your games there, but we also don't overly penalize people for removing the games earlier. This year, I was able to make it to Expo on Wednesday only. Made an offer for a machine. If I got it, I would have had to go home with it, taking it off the floor and away from play. Which would have sucked for those who were there, but if it was the only chance the seller had to sell the machine, wouldn't it have sucked more if they were told they couldn't sell it to me because I couldn't take it home?

Why would I as a buyer want to go to Expo until Sunday otherwise? If that's all that I'm going for, it's a disincentive if I can't take the game with me.

Don't get me wrong - I want machines to stay at shows as long as possible, but it really isn't just looking at it from the standpoint of wanting there to be more there. You have to look at it from all sides, and in that case... it's a tough nut to crack, and one that we *always* look at with the MGC. Having a four day show makes it even harder to keep them all there all the time.

I love Expo. I get why it is when it is, although that makes it really hard for me. If I had one wish, it would just be to change the dates so I could better attend, but realistically that's a bad option. Beyond that, I get why the hall closes Saturday night for the banquet. If you keep the free play area open, there really will probably be a considerable number of people that don't leave it otherwise, and the way the balance works out that is really important to consider.

Any show is tough to run. I can honestly say that I've greatly enjoyed *every* Expo I've been to, and that it *always* has some nifty things to offer attendees that other shows don't. While I understand the frustration that people have with some parts, I think at the end of the day it's been working for nearly 30 years now, which proves that the show has been doing something great for a long, long time.