There are 4 clearly marked exits (2 of them are 10' x 20' overhead doors), an industrial sprinkler system, and 2 fire marshal inspected fire extinguishers that are up to code and certified by Fox Valley annually. If a fire somehow broke out in our cinderblock and steal beam building, everyone would be out the door in under 60 seconds; way faster than a movie theater. EMS not able to get in if someone slipped? We have 2 huge overhead doors you can drive a semi through, literally. EMS could drive into the building if they wanted to. Leave it to Clay to be Clay.

I'm not saying there are no potential issues or no potential hazards. This comes with the territory when putting on any sort of public event. Potential issues get addressed before and after each year's event. Risk assessment is always a factor. I have a year to sort out the concept of what we will be doing for next year, if anything. The event has changed a lot in the past few years. Part of me likes the direction it has taken and part of me does not. Crowd management is definitely the biggest factor, but I'm still not sure how to deal with that.

Terry.

at this point in my life, i am in risk avoidance mode. someday you'll understand... hopefully before someone gets hurt...

seriously though, at least you have a plan and you've thought about things. that's probably enough.

It's really pretty simple. You need to buy more space. Your welcome and I'll see you next year.

Bigger would still need good flow to get people out fast if needed. Bigger with poor flow can end badly.

I have seen places where they don't really due to much to keep track of the number of people in the place.

Anyone with a firefighting or fire inspection background knows about this disaster:
http://www.nfpa.org/safety-information/for-consumers/occupancies/nightclubs-assembly-occupancies/the-cocoanut-grove-fire

Terry should just take over Expo.

That's a lot of cake and meatballs!

Terry is already a mini-expo

Banquet: check
Freeplay pinball: check
pinball Parts: check
Other vendors: Pinball refinery brings games, ryan claytor sells comics. If you killed off the row by the back door maybe a few tables for other vendors
Tournament: One ball tournament on a Stern every year
Seminars: Nope, but maybe the top of the stairs could double as a podium for speakers, pipe a microphone into the speaker system up there, project a powerpoint onto one of the walls

I believe this year it was a 'one ball, one handed' tournament on a P^3, although at little different than most, since in this case you could still use both flippers, since the P3 has multiple buttons on each side, so would be great for Jason pierre-paul -- the football player who blew off two fingers in a fireworks accident).

So, double flipping while still holding a beer in your hand -- a perfect fit for Terry's event.

I have brought between 2-4 games to expo for several years. But stopped in 2014. I live about 35 miles from the venue, so that's not the issue. But moving games out of my basement, renting a truck or just loading a van with 2 games, is a lot of work. Once I get games to the hotel, its become a major pain to go through the loading dock. They last couple of times I did bring games, there was nobody from the hotel to open the doors, doors inside the hotel are locked sometimes along the path from the dock to the hall. I'm a collector - I'm in my mid 50's - I can't do this all on my own anymore.

Jon Pederson did a huge service bringing his EM, high quality, large # of pins in 2014. Its one of the reasons 2015 seemed empty by comparison - When Jon doesnt bring dozens of his EM's it made a big difference. I also noticed the absence all of Brian Bannon's cool Bally's from the 80's, in prestine shape.

You combine us 3 guys no longer bringing games , that's 50 fewer games right there. And if Pheobe and Larry stopped bringing games - you'd lose some of the coolest modded, and best playing games of the show.

1. Movers at the site, would be a great help.
2. Some ideas I've read here about incentives to bring games, run by a dedicated person for just beefing up the free play part of the show, would go a long way.
3. Maybe an hour bar gathering for all those who brought a game, it would be nice to meet other game-bringers, and have Mike/Rob throw a little $ towards a bar tab as a thank you. I'd be much more likely to consider bringing a game or two, the few $ back is nice - but I buy a packet anyway, and its hard to find MIke to get the $ kickback anyway. (edit: "hard to find" in the 2011-2012 era, when I last brought games - Mike paid out a lot to those who brought games this year.)

Starting in 2014 we took care of #1. We have staff working or available the whole show during day/evening hours.

Working on #2 for future shows. This kind of includes #3, though no one yet has suggested this specific idea.

Regards,

Andrew

#3!!

Earnhardt!!

I still suggest finding a way to make the freeplay area profits go to charity.

If the freeplay area can sustain itself and run as its own entity and then have ALL profits go towards charity then you can count me in on bringing a game or 2. I look at what game bringgers are doing as a charity act and liek to see when that can continue on.

What I would like for freeplay and what would convince me to haul games down the 2hr drive for the weekend.

1. Free wristband for freeplay area and vendor hall for each day my game is there. 1 Wristband per game.
2. Free play closes down each night at 2-3am to give the games a break
3. Pinbrawl continues on. Opening at 1pm for general public is just fine IMHO. If people want earlier pinball access to freeplay then they should sign up for golf.
4. Help with load in is always nice
5. Transparent cost and donation to charity based on profit brought in by freeplay. So many great causes in the pinball family and would be great to see freeplay support these each year.
6. Nice Best in show prizes for a variety or categories to incentivize cool, nice games to come
7. Games coming in should be checked for safety (grounded properly) and working. Non-working games get removed and no benefits for owners. Incentive for people to bring and maintrain games in working state.

Bonus for some sort of giveback/ open bar/ mingle thing for ONLY game bringgers.

It is not a must to have all these suggestions, merely suggestions.

Andrew,
Thanks for the efforts the past couple of expos and taking this on. Hopefully I will have a change of heart for 2016.
Dan

My company just gave a huge series of talks on how the trend lately is for companies to also have charitable giving as part of their "product", often termed as Social Responsibility.

Some examples are Toms and the Honest Company.

Even small engagements like pinball expo need to latch onto this concept. It works.

How does the freeplay room generate it's own income? Are you talking about separating the admission cost so part of the charge is specifically free-play and part is specifically vendor hall? I'm confused.

that would be my suggestion.

Similar to how you can already buy a Vendor/freeplay wristband and a seperate one for seminars.

Just make it an option for

$15 = daily freeplay
$15 = daily vendor

or
$25 = daily freeplay and vendor

more specifically I woudl have 3 writband colors and then use special lanyards for the seminars.

Red = free play only
Yellow = vendor only
Oraneg = vendor and freeplay

Lanyard around neck = seminar.

Easy for door people to keep track off.

Easy to determine exactly how much $$$ the free play brings in.

Security is already kinda whatever, now we need folks to super check everyone to make sure everyone is in the right place and has the right credentials to get in whatever room? eek.

The banquet auction goes to make-a-wish.

I would want my money going to a charity that doesn't spend 90% of it in "overhead". If i know this is a case and whatever i do will be wisely used, then i have no problem donating whatever incentive i get for bringing multiple games to this.

-c

Why are you insistent that this part of Expo suddenly be charitable? You've never brought a game or supported the free play area in any way in the past, and you're not a part of Expo. If you're so concerned about charity, why not focus on making part of MGC (a show you're much closer to) a charitable event and leave Expo to us?

Or is it that burning desire to take money away from Pacak talking again? You are SO predictable

Funny part is, I did bring a game to expo this year. Presold, but because of me it came and stayed on the floor the entire weekend with lots of play. Without me there was 1 less game at expo this year, but glad you know it all...

Aside form that I run a pretty decent charity event each year (4 years now) and this last one raised $3600 for charity and 100% donated (never-mind the fact I spent over $500 putting it all together and treating game bringers to a private party with beer and food out of my own pocket).

My suggestion for charity is a good one. By and large there is a common denominator in why the actual locals are not supporting expo and bringing games in droves. I am providing a very viable way to get people behind the cause (and in result benefit expo, make more MONEY for Mike and crew, bring in more people, and make expo even better). I suggested you fap out that hardon you have for me and realize that I am providing suggestions to HELP expo and even expand the profitability of the event for those putting it on. The event needs some change and a little social responsibility goes a LONG way in helping to lubricate that change!

Being completely fair here, in a vacuum it's a great idea.

The problem is that there is nothing so easy. At a minimum, this idea requires additional wristbands, additional security personnel, and a bunch of background stuff. I'm sure that renting the room isn't cheap.

Additionally, shows are like giant hulking beasts, and trying to make a change like this isn't so easy. It will take at least a year to change the perception of the game hall, and then it will take at least another year to start to generate the additional attendance that would follow, so we're looking at 2018 before anything like this actually starts to work. In the meantime, you have two years where you are taking 50% or so of your money and saying you aren't going to get it.

I don't know how much money Expo makes, but I know that if someone asked me to spend 50% of the money for MGC on something that would make the show double in size in two years, I still doubt I would be able to do it.

On top of this, it limits you because, for instance, if they get the vendors with the cool new stuff to move them into the game hall after hours, it now becomes even less lucrative to buy a vendor pass. It would be pretty easy for someone to argue that because you're going to buy with the vendors, the vendor pass should just be free. Hell, I've had people argue that at the MGC - "I just want to buy stuff, so I'm not going to pay for admission. It benefits them!" Well, yeah, it does - but we also set our vendor prices at a point where if we don't have people paying to come through the doors, we lose money.

Again, when you're on a scale so massive as Expo, the ideas seem really great until you start trying to implement them and the swing in how it makes everything else work is sort of seen. This works for you because you created your event around it. Expo wasn't created around it.

It doesn't mean it's a terrible idea - perhaps if they like the idea, they could do something like make Sunday all for charity and game-bringers are told that in hopes that the machines stick around or something - but I honestly don't know how it could be workable as proposed.

For the record, 100% of the proceeds of Tom Taylor's Open House go to the Milwaukee Rescue Mission. More than $10,000 donated to date!

Hilton said lubricate. Hehehehehehehe

I can guarantee you that doesn't even factor into whether I didn't bring a game this year and I haven't heard anyone else express that sentiment either.

Last year you couldn't get a game in. This year was pretty-weak. Not donating the proceeds to charity had nothing to do with the decline as far as I could tell.

Dan, no worries! If I can do anything, let me know.
Andrew

Sorry if it was not clear. The charity idea is a great way to demonstrate social consciousness of a for profit event where people have stated they dont bring games because of how they were treated in the past. Regardless of how things have changed/ are changing there are many people in that local scene which have been clear why they are not bringing games and I am positive many of them would quickly get behind the effort with heavy support if it had a charity component.

Reality is that people like to have a reason to do a bunch of work and support a pinball show. It is apparent to me that while many are still supporting expo for the love of pinball, there are others which have been soured on helping out because of the for profit nature, the hassles from previous years, being cussed at by staff, etc... Expo needs to find a way to GIVE these people a reason to support. A good charity and cause is a great way to bring people back together and reinvigorate the previous supporters while encouraging new people to support.

By and large I have found pinheads to be pretty well off people with HUGE hearts. Hit em in the heart is all I am saying.

I speak from experience here and am continually amazed how just the locals in my area are more than happy to put in TONS of work to make out local charity event a huge success and even better each year! If it was not for charity but for profit it would easily be a different story.

Thanks for the time everyone is putting into this feedback. It is great.

I don't think changing the fee structure for a cause is going to work. Dan alludes to some of the reasons, and I agree with him. I am sure Mike and Rob will as well.

Last year Rob brought a BBB and put it on money play with the proceeds going to a charity. Perhaps we can go that kind of route?

Andrew

Dupe.

I'm really glad to hear you guys all talking about the charitable things you do and are even open to doing at Expo. Keep it up! The world needs more of that!

Any thoughts about moving EXPO to a different hotel, perhaps one with more room available and more amenable management and staff?

I know that Expo has a contract signed with the hotel for a few more years.

I noticed that the folks in the BOH on the dock were way more surely than usual this year.

Harvey and the facilities team at the hotel are FANTASTIC, so it is not all bad!!

Andrew

I agree and definitely have no complaints about the format or the Westin as the location and can't see any reason to want to move other than finding a parking space can be challenging.

I think the main issues most people would like to see addressed are common-sense and pretty-easily remedied. Other ideas for improvements are good too. I'll be there next year. I always am.

having more pricing tiers makes no sense to me, there are already concerns with folks getting in places they have not paid for, lets not add confusion to it. I suspect only a small minority would think separating vendor and game room makes sense. Not sure how charity has suddenly come into it. Not saying that is a bad thing, but, not sure why that is a concern/issue. Also, profit is not a bad word. Here we are talking about better compensation for those who bring multiple games, but the idea of compensation/profit for those running the show is blasphemy?

While there are some gripes with the hotel, certain better than the last place. By all accounts rooms are nice and reasonable priced for what they are the distance is reasonable to O'hare, plenty of food choices. Also keep in mind not every hotel can handle the power requirements of expo. Overall, while there a few things that could be improved with the hotel, I think the hotel is least of the concerns. No decent hotel is going to have al that is needed and just lets everyone do whatever they want.

Does seem that more promotion is needed regarding the improvements in the free game room for those who bring machines. Andrew and his crew have done a great job with that, and folks still think it runs the way it did before he took over.

OK, how about this? Have the vendors at one end of the large room and all games everywhere else in the room. We know there are doors at each end of this large room, right? During the times when the vendor section is attended by vendors, have the only attendee entrance and exit (other than fire exits) be at the vendor end of the room, a door that has the people walk past the vendors to get to the games, to come and go. Then, make it so that when the vendor section is closed, it can be sectioned off with those huge fake walls. During those times, the previously mentioned entrance door is locked and nobody can access the vendor area. Attendees must then enter the large room via a new entrance door at the other end of the room. A door that brings them directly into the gaming part of the room. A door that was previously unavailable during vendor hours. That way, the vendors always get the foot traffic they need whenever they are present, they can have a locked door when they are not there, and the games will be available for any hours we want.

Sorry if someone already said this.

So your idea is to make expo more expensive for the average joe who just wants to go play pinball? Hrmm travel costs, hotel fees, food, entry fees, guess it just isn't enough.

Ok, so I finally freed up some time to check out this thread so forgive me if I am a little late..

I want to Personally thank Rob Berk for inviting me to Expo this year. 10 years ago..even the thought of just simply attending EXPO was a pipe dream However, ..not only was this my first EXPO but I was also asked to be a speaker..which was truly an honor in itself.

(For anyone interested in listening..it's here: http://www.pinballnews.com/shows/expo2015/joedirusso.mp3)

So thank you Rob and Mike for hosting this great event.We will be back next year for sure.

From what I understand attendance was down a bit and this years show was not a good as previous. Well I can tell you that the PinGraffix crew had an absolute blast!

Sure we drove 15 Hours straight... each way..but to us it was so well worth it..

I finally got to meet some of my long time friends and associates in person:

Rick from PPS
Joe from Laseriffic
Steve Hemi of Pinball Refinery
Terry at Pinball Life
Rare Hero
Justin Kelly
The Mezels
Curly from Little Shop
Kim from Kimballs Pinballs
Andrew Barney
John Borg

The list goes on and on. Some of the coolest people without a doubt.

Shoot... Jersey Jack and even ....Gary Stern... very cool..

There were a few things that drove me a little crazy and made me wonder...

Like...My presentation was done on a MAC...but the AV guys did not have the proper jack connector for the Projector..In hindsight..maybe I should have not relied on them..but I figured ..."Hey everyone does Mac presentations...this is a hotel that host these things all the time..surely I am not the only one who uses a Mac laptop"???
Thankfully ..a person in the audience saved my ass..ran up to his room and grabbed the proper AV jack..Thank you dude!! You know who you are. (Drop me an email..please!)
The whole setup is very archaic ..they need to spend a few bucks on upgrades. Still, I managed.

The Schedule is crazy!.. Sat night we were literally still selling stuff at 3am...we finally went up to our rooms about 5:30. The part that kind of bothered me was that we were practically the only nut jobs still at their booths..At the same time you have attendees just walking around with free reign on anything they pretty much wanted. Hence the stolen goods.
The guy at the door who is suppose to be security..nice guy and all..but he was sleeping most of the time.

The Hotel staff guy at the hotel dock area was totally arrogant and not very helpful at all.

For the first time ever..We had to kick some guys off our MET PRO that we had setup. We bring the game for you to enjoy. Not for you to practice martial arts on.

Overall though... IT was one hell of a time and we cannot wait until next year.

And next year I will not get talked out of Going to Pinball Life Party.

Gotta try out the VORTEX!

-Joe

Great meeting you Joe! See you next year!

I think I missed you at Modern Pinball last week by a few hours...

Andrew

Bump for 2016 Expo.

lest we forget

had a blast !!
huge success.
thank you for all the time & effort to make it happen for all of us.

Just edited thread title for clarity: this one was created after 2015 expo, and refers the one organized a year ago.

Pincades

I have a few recommendations for things I see as a vendor. And a few comments for others.

First off I would like to thanks Andrew and all his volunteers, On Wednesday when I showed up with a trailer load of stuff (Pinball Machines, Parts bins, Back Alleys booth walls Etc.) everybody jumped right in and I was unloaded and inside with in 30 min. Thanks a bunch fellas and ladies!!!!! If I didn't thank you at that time I am now.

Vendor hall hours for Thursday are great.
Friday 10-12 is a long ass day on your feet. It was nice to be open later on Fridays in the past, it gave us vendors some time to stay up late on Thursday (which I did till 1:30 anyway LOL) and sleep in a bit, as well as take a trip out to PL and hang out. Don't get me wrong we had some sales on the daytime Friday hours but. It would be nice to open around 3 or 4 instead!.
Sat hours no complaints there. It was nice to be open during the banquet this year for making sales.

Sunday: I always tell people don't waste your time coming, everything is getting torn down!

Respect of others games!!! I seen some asshole pick up a game in the free play area and drop it to dislodge a ball.

I think everyone who brings a game to free play should make sure they leave there name and a contact number, that way if there game goes down they can be contacted to either remove it or fix it!!!!!!

Sat night was pathetic on how many games were off already!!!!

Attendance was horrible in my opinion like last year!!

Garbage: We need more garbage cans in the vendor hall, i picked up so much garbage around My booth, BAC booth and the JJP booth it was ridiculous. I even threw away a half eaten sandwich that was under a DI Pin. DON'T BE PIGS!!!!!

Maybe we can get right gard, old spice, or a deodorant company to pass out samples as well upon entering expo!!!!! Please bathe stinky people.

I do give rob and mike credit as well for putting on the show year after year,

But from what I hear there maybe a new show coming to town!!!!!!!!!!!

Mike P. we need to get you a muzzle and note pad!!! it would be so much quieter that way. LOL
Stop being such a prick to people!

All in that said, see you all next year or at another show!

Pincades
Chicago Land JJP Dist.!!!
JT

Might be a touch late, but noon or 1PM would be better.

Agree on garbage cans, felt like I had to search for one when I had something to toss, and then would I find one, it was overflowing

The shocking part is when it is 10AM and someone walks past and they smell so bad, that as the late George Carlin would say, "it could knock a buzzard off a shi* wagon", I can see after a long day in a hot game hall, but 10AM people, you hare paying for a hotel room, use the freaking shower.

and really down from two years ago, especially on Saturday. The daily admission has gone from $10 to $30 in what seems like a very short window of time. Prior to being an exhibitor, I used to just come by on Friday's after work, for $10 or $15 which was a decent deal. At $30 a day, I can see a lot of local guys not coming at all, and have spoken to at least three guys this week that said that was the reason they have stopped coming, they figure that even with the new games, someone they know will likely get it and they will get their chance to play it. Assuming that has resulted in some drop of attendance, the revenue to mike might be the same, with the higher price, but that does not apply to vendors. Hard to know how much of attendance now and in the past were 'daily' folks. Seems pricing for Thursday and Friday should be lower than Saturday, since most folks coming for the day, are not there for the whole day and they may better see the value.

The hotel happily rents wastebaskets (with liner) for $15.00/day to any booth. The larger cans probably cost $25/day with four "included" per meeting room.

MGC was $35 last year (and that hotel gets so crowded you can't walk). I don't think the price is the issue, it's value of your money.

That is basically what I said, the value is not there, and that has pushed folks away. MGC keeps raising their price, and since the place is so darn crowded where you can barely walk, maybe that is a good thing, to thin it out a little bit

Are the larger cans big enough to sleep in?

For most of us, yes. If not, you could always sleep in one of these cars. Note the WMS truck in the background...

20161013_140717 (resized).jpg

Loved the fact that the vendor hall was open during the banquet!