Mike,

A lot of people seemed to be down on the game turnout in the free play area this year, though the number of overall games at the show for play was pretty solid. The perception of the small number of games was due to two factors:

(1) The free play room space grew last year when the games were moved from the rear of the vendor hall to the former seminar area. This year, the number of games were down to former levels and made the larger space feel empty.

(2) The number of games for free play in the vendor hall has grown significantly over the last few years, with expanded booths by all the game vendors (Stern, Jersey Jack, Heighway, CGC/Planetary, Dutch Pinball, and Multimorphic). Then add in the project games for P-ROC and FAST, your and Rob's games, and the games we brought in for our booth this year. It's grown to the point where the vendor hall competes with the dedicated free-play area.

Some other shows like Texas combine the space and the perception is one of a more unified show with a larger number of free games to play. That's lost when the space is divided into two distinct functional areas. My suggestion to Rob at the show was that you consider trying to reallocate the space to better merge the vendor and free-play areas. This could still be done in two rooms but with a mix of vendors and free-play games in both areas. The key would be to have highlight attractions in both rooms.

I realize this creates new challenges for dealing with the banquet and the Pinbrawl tournament, but it might be worth some brainstorming to see if it can be made to work. I think the end result could be a more cohesive show where attendees see the show more in it's totality than broken down into individual parts.

Randy