Quoted from APB_Enterprises:

There is not enough promotion. Mike knows it and was working on changes before all of the madness.
Andrew

Quoted from pinballlife:

Remarkably low interest in this thread. Goes to show where "the center of the pinball universe" may actually lie (or not lie), IMHO.
Might be time to move operations to Wisconsin.
Benton-Pooluza anyone?

Quoted from Whysnow:

Would be great but I dont think Benton could hos a couple thousand people at the local pub

Quoted from FrankJ:

One BIG-ass tent! Like our summer church festivals in Wisconsin. Get the church to sponsor it and we get drinking, gambling, and pinball.
Before anyone that doesn't know about asks, Wisconsin Catholic churches have huge summer festivals with live music and include they above (substitute bingo for pinball).

Quoted from epthegeek:

Without big news, fast, about which show specific vendors and manufacturers will be at, and what the shows will offer this year in addition, I would imagine attendance from people having to travel a good distance will be down hard. Unless everyone is on auto pilot and just goes to expo because it's expo.

Quoted from toyotaboy:

And as usual, Pinball expo schedule of events probably won't be updated until a month before.

Quoted from FrankJ:

One BIG-ass tent! Like our summer church festivals in Wisconsin.

Quoted from toyotaboy:

I get that it often takes time to book guests, but MGC seems to be able to keep a running list updated on the website:
https://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/vip-guests/

Quoted from epthegeek:

Without big news, fast, about which show specific vendors and manufacturers will be at, and what the shows will offer this year in addition, I would imagine attendance from people having to travel a good distance will be down hard.

Quoted from toyotaboy:

I emailed Rob yesterday early before it was known that expo was still moving forward. I told him every show needs a hook:
MGC - mixture of all gaming, plus cosplay contest
Pinball life - feels like a party, bangerjay olympic ride, free food / drink, cheap prices on parts
Arcade Expo - crap ton of pinballs and video games
Clay's VFW show - great selection of all era games, that are upkept throughout the show with techs standing by, camping and hot dog stand just outside
Expo used to be one of the few shows around. I don't think it's enough anymore to simply bring in some pins, book some guests speakers, and cater a dinner because there are a ton of other shows doing the same thing and more. I think everyone that has wanted to tour the Stern factory has done so (though I suppose if american pinball or JJP Chicago office opened it's doors, that could draw people in).
I'm not saying it's easy to run a show, but I AM saying if someone puts out a better product than they are going to go to a different show. And as many have already said, UPDATE YOUR FREAKING WEBSITE. If Rob won't do it (especially now with the breakup), then ask him for the web login credentials and hire someone to update it, why make excuses? Hell, I know there are amateur web guys on pinside that could revamp that site better than it is now.

Quoted from jfh:

Email from Mike:
Greetings!
To all past, present and future Pinball Expo vendors and attendees:
As many of you may have heard, Rob Berk and I have parted ways after 33 years of putting on the Pinball Expo. Rob decided that he no longer wanted to be a partner and chose to go his own separate way. This decision was completely of his own choosing and wasn't brought up for any type of discussion. Because of this change, I just wanted to clear up any confusion there may be on the status of the show. In our separation agreement we both have the right to do a show. There WILL be a pinball show taking place, as advertised in the past, at the Westin Hotel in Wheeling, IL on Oct 17-21, 2018. These dates were planned and set for two years already. Contrary to what you may have heard about this show, people are NOT "jumping ship." Many have already planned their vacations and booked their travel to Chicago for this. Contracts with the hotel are in place for both 2018 and 2019. All of the vendors and attendees I have spoken with so far have expressed their interest and commitment to continuing the show as planned. For those wondering if there will there be a change to the name of the show, there will be. The new name has yet to be determined but will be announced shortly. In light of the recent events, changes are in the works for those involved with organization of the show. My son Lonnie Mihin, who ran the game hall last year and who has been a part of the Pinball Expo since it's inception, is going to be taking on a greater role in the planning and execution of the show. I am also currently in talks with several other's who are interested in becoming a part of the show. A new website with more information detailing this will be available soon. The changes that are being implemented will ultimately help in achieving the goal of making a bigger, better and much smoother running show for everyone. In closing, I would like to thank you all for the many years of support that you have shown and I look forward to seeing you all in October.
Sincerely,
Mike Pacak

Quoted from jfh:

Email from Mike:
Greetings!
To all past, present and future Pinball Expo vendors and attendees:
As many of you may have heard, Rob Berk and I have parted ways after 33 years of putting on the Pinball Expo. Rob decided that he no longer wanted to be a partner and chose to go his own separate way. This decision was completely of his own choosing and wasn't brought up for any type of discussion. Because of this change, I just wanted to clear up any confusion there may be on the status of the show. In our separation agreement we both have the right to do a show. There WILL be a pinball show taking place, as advertised in the past, at the Westin Hotel in Wheeling, IL on Oct 17-21, 2018. These dates were planned and set for two years already. Contrary to what you may have heard about this show, people are NOT "jumping ship." Many have already planned their vacations and booked their travel to Chicago for this. Contracts with the hotel are in place for both 2018 and 2019. All of the vendors and attendees I have spoken with so far have expressed their interest and commitment to continuing the show as planned. For those wondering if there will there be a change to the name of the show, there will be. The new name has yet to be determined but will be announced shortly. In light of the recent events, changes are in the works for those involved with organization of the show. My son Lonnie Mihin, who ran the game hall last year and who has been a part of the Pinball Expo since it's inception, is going to be taking on a greater role in the planning and execution of the show. I am also currently in talks with several other's who are interested in becoming a part of the show. A new website with more information detailing this will be available soon. The changes that are being implemented will ultimately help in achieving the goal of making a bigger, better and much smoother running show for everyone. In closing, I would like to thank you all for the many years of support that you have shown and I look forward to seeing you all in October.
Sincerely,
Mike Pacak

Quoted from frolic:

Upon pondering this, in my opinion if "Rob quit the band" then he should stand down. Putting on a competing show in September won't work. Unless the goal is to run Mike out of the biz completely, through destroying everything since both shows will fail in their own ways.

Quoted from Whysnow:

Two sides to every story and in this case they seem to be quite different. I would not chastize either without knowing the whole story, and unlikely any of us ever will.

Quoted from frolic:

Sides doesn't even matter. What matters is there will apparently be 2 pinball shows scheduled in Chicago a month apart and no one wins there.
I get that a lot of people don't like Mike and want him annihilated.

Quoted from jfh:

Email from Mike:

Quoted from Whysnow:

Would be great but I dont think Benton could hos a couple thousand people at the local pub

Quoted from mikepin:

I had help writing it LOL . Big anoucements coming soon . stay tooned you will be happy ...

Quoted from mikepin:

stay tooned you will be happy ...

Quoted from frolic:

Sides doesn't even matter. What matters is there will apparently be 2 pinball shows scheduled in Chicago a month apart and no one wins there.
I get that a lot of people don't like Mike and want him annihilated.

Quoted from Marvin:

Directly from the twisted head of Mike-
"you dont know whole story about rob a he DEMANDS shows give him free space and free room thats why he is not set up this week he feels he is an attraction and he is some however when he only fixed games and boards he was ok but when he turned into a flea market for pinball crap he also pissed off paying vendors which sold the same things like leds for one he was originally a service service he went too far on selling and expecting everything free "
You really know the right things to say. No clue what "he is not set up this week" has to do with anything either. Mike do you think expo is now?

Quoted from Marvin:

Directly from the twisted head of Mike-
"you dont know whole story about rob a he DEMANDS shows give him free space and free room thats why he is not set up this week he feels he is an attraction and he is some however when he only fixed games and boards he was ok but when he turned into a flea market for pinball crap he also pissed off paying vendors which sold the same things like leds for one he was originally a service service he went too far on selling and expecting everything free "
You really know the right things to say. No clue what "he is not set up this week" has to do with anything either. Mike do you think expo is now?

Quoted from MrBally:

The post quoted above is about Rob Anthony and his split from Expo (not having a game/board repair room along with parts and game related items for sale) after the 2016 event. This thread is about Rob Berk and Mike Pacak's split from partnering to run Expo after the 2017 event.

Quoted from KoolFingers:

Wow I'm kinda surprised at this update.

Quoted from goatdan:

Well, I guess I might as well let this come out now then...
The other show at the Westin was going to be a second Midwest Gaming Classic.
I'll take a minute to explain, and then I have a ton of stuff to do for the MGC in Milwaukee in a couple weeks, so I'm going to go back to doing that.
Gary and I have been toying with running a second MGC show in the Chicago area for a few years now. As a matter of fact, both Rob and Mike knew of this plan and I've talked with both of them (as well as some people who run video game shows) and told them that the goal was to run a show like the Milwaukee show, but potentially smaller. We've looked at some locations and were hoping to start a show either in the second half of 2018 or 2019.
When Rob made his intentions known, that same day Mike called me and said the he knew that I was interested in running a second show in the Chicago area, and that instead of running a second show to compete with Rob, would it make sense to turn the Pinball Expo Westin contract into the MGC "South" contract. Rob had made it clear that he did not want the contract at that point in time, and since the contract was executed by Mike it was believed Mike was left "holding the ball" so to speak for a contract that required them to sell an incredible amount of rules. Mike, completely understandably, was worried about how splitting the market at best would work, and if he could fill the contract, which was why he was hoping to work with us on it.
Gary and I talked and were all for it. It would have solved a number of issues for us with the show being *exactly* six months later so we wouldn't have to work around the traditional Expo dates, and we could mold our show for whatever worked. If coin-op wanted to remain a big part of it, we could do that. If not, we could change up the contract to ensure that it was filled and Mike wasn't left holding a contract potentially for six figures from Rob having left.
Mike was excited about the idea of us coming in to run the show. He had agreed to become an ambassador for us for the show, leaving Gary and I in charge of everything regarding the running of it. Mike would still bring in some of the traditional material that he supplied for Pinball Expo, but would otherwise get to kick back and do what he never got to do at Expo before - enjoy the show. Those that had issues in the past with anything Expo could instead work with Gary and I to hopefully feel comfortable with coming back to the show, and those who had wanted to remain doing the Expo thing could still feel like that was there.
It felt perfect to us - a way to start the second show that we've been working on and solve the issue of trying to have Mike run a second show needing to sell hundreds of rooms more than the show did last year. We were all but agreed...
And then... There was apparently a pre-existing deal in place for them to buy out Expo from one another, and from what I understand, Rob exercised his rights to do so. The purchase of the rights to Expo also purchased him the rights to the contract at the Westin, which based on all of his announcements and things that he had said he did not want. We had Mike talk to the hotel for us about changing the contract over to us if Rob bowed out like we expected.
Rob apparently decided not to bow out, but instead to move his show to those dates.
Ultimately, this means that I don't believe that there will be a second show this coming year, because the second show was intended to be a second show by us. Mike was completely understanding in agreeing to step down and hand over the control of the show. He wanted the show that he had helped build to continue in some way, and he wanted to be a part of it. Rob wants Mike to have no part in the show, and from what I understand has told him that he is unwilling to let him attend.
I don't get it. I like Rob - heck, Rob and I talked about me coming in to help run Expo, but that didn't work out, but there seems to be a lot of petty stuff going on behind the scenes. I know that Mike is quite hurt by it all, and I get it. He feels like what he worked to build for so long has been completely taken from him. I also understand that Rob felt the need for the change, but I don't get why so much of this was done the way that it was. In talking to Mike, Mike was willing to step aside and bring in new people. I wish that had happened in one way or another so this all wouldn't feel so crappy.
With that, I guess that the good news is I don't have to spend a bunch of time printing up flyers for a late 2018 Chicago based show. I'm glad the contract is going to be filled, and Mike isn't personally on the hook for six figures if it didn't work out. Although I definitely don't like how it all went down, I wish Rob and his show the best - heck, he'll be at MGC in a couple weeks and I'll tell him the same thing. It just seriously pains me to see a show that I looked up to so much go down in the way that it has at this point. I thought there was a solution that could make everyone happy, and it seems like that isn't going to be the case.
Having said all that, if you like what we do up in Milwaukee, I have a strong, strong feeling that we'll be having a 2019 show in the Chicago area, dates TBD. The goal won't be to compete with Rob's show (or the video game fan shows that still exist ), the goal will be to do our own thing. And, while it will feel too late, I will welcome Mike (and Rob if he wants to come) with open arms to celebrate something that to me feels like the logical extension of the show that they started. We were heavily inspired to start the MGC after Pinball Expo after all, and one year a conversation that saved our show happened in the lobby of Expo.
See you in 2019. Or in, like, 10 days, I suppose

Quoted from goatdan:

Rob wants Mike to have no part in the show, and from what I understand has told him that he is unwilling to let him attend.

Quoted from goatdan:

Rob wants Mike to have no part in the show, and from what I understand has told him that he is unwilling to let him attend.

Quoted from LTG:

Well that plain sucks.
LTG : (

Quoted from GravitaR:

Wow what a bombshell. Thoughts later after this is all digested.