Had a great time at my first expo. I think it struck a great balance of seminars, parties, free play, vendor representation, etc. Are there better examples of any one of these some place else? Maybe in some cases. But Expo pulled it all together. Loved being able to see, hear, and talk to so many of the folks that drive this industry and community. I agree with Kaneda that it lacked any huge earthshaking announcements which was in some ways disappointing (was hoping to see a RZ reveal). That said, having the GOT machines everywhere were great. I preferred to skip the lines and pump dollars into the charity machine in the hall. It played great and I'm sure will be a success.

And we got some smaller "reveals" from Heighway. I also was really impressed with Full Throttle. It's tough but the platform feels great. Really solid. Andrew struck me as extremely passionate and personable. Wish him and his company best of luck.

Hobbit looked incredible. Played a game and watched a few too. Still not sure how I feel about the gameplay, but it's the best looking and most visually immersive game out there imho. It has a shot at getting me to pull out my wallet.

Was nice to put my hands on a TBL finally. This has the potential to be an awesome machine. Doesn't seem like much has changed on the outside from what folks saw last year, though it's clear that they've made significant progress moving from a true prototype to a ready-for-production model. Putting several machines on site builds some confidence too and ensured that anyone who wanted to could get some flipper time.

And even though we didn't see RZ, we got some small hints and details there beyond what I had heard before.

For me, seems like we are about to see some quality competition in pinball production like hasn't occurred in decades. What a great time for pinball.