Re: Origins attendance

Hey there cbudoris,

Actually we've had steady attendance for the past three years and most exhibitors tell us that their sales have been quite good. The impression that you're getting is just that--an impression. It's not an uncommon one, though. Here's why...

With the creation and growing populatity of the Board Room (added to the already popular War Room) and company rooms such as Mayfair's (added to such favorites as Looney Lab's), board gamers are just not in the big hall as much as they used to be. Because of this, it looks like we're moving those bill hall sessions down to part of E/F. We'll still have just as much great board gaming, we'll just make sure that it's taking up the right spaces (not less space, just different space).

The Exhibit Hall actually had more vendors this year than last year (and the same could be said about last year vs. 2006). The main reason that the hall looks smaller is that folks are taking smaller booths. Most companies you are used to seeing at Origins were in the hall in 2007, they just had smaller footprints. Those smaller footprints make the hall look less full. Where number of vendors is concerned, this is not the case. It's just that they have smaller booths. This is because companies are spending more money trying to create new gamers. They have bigger booths at comic book cons (and the like) to try to attract new players to our hobby. At Origins, compies like Wizards of the Coast have stepped up their event offerings rather than their booth presence in support of what they think that the core players really want at a convention. They still strongly support hobby gamers, just with events rather than big booths.

We are looking to increase both attendance and booth presence at Origins, however. We are doing this with our Game Fair concept where the pubic can get into the Exhibit Hall for $3 a person and $10 a family.

I hope that helps and thanks for your concern!

Anthony J. Gallela
GAMA ED

St. George,

Indeed they are thinking about it. What's for certain is that they will be strongly supporting their games with events. I have to imagine that those events for WotC will include 4E stuff, but the deadline for submission is still ahead of us so we do not know.

Anthony J. Gallela
GAMA ED 

Hi Davechri!

WotC staff will be on hand this year to make sure that the end of LG and all of the transitions to 4th Edition happen smoothly. The bullk of their events will be run by their TOs and RPGA folks, which is pretty much the same as any other convention. We're in great hands, as always.

We always have official WotC events and tournaments on the schedule. The WotC staff works with us to make sure that Origins has offerings that are different from GenCon, to entice gamers to come to both shows and make each show unique.

Origins booths have remained roughly the same number (with slight increases each time) in the exhibit hall, but many of them have reduced in size. Anthony tallked about that a bit above. The reduction in size is probably what's fueling your perception.

Attendance - we're holding pretty steady there. Some years we're a little up, and some a little down, but we're holding at around 13,000 unique attendees. Unique means we count each attendee only once, regardless of if they're there for one day or four. Some conventions report their numbers in turnstile, where you count each attendee each day, so it's important to look for how the numbers are reported when you make comparisons. The trend in attendees is to pre-reg earlier to save money, and to come for the full show to make the most of your dollar. That increase in full show badges will make for turnstiles that increase, while unique numbers stay the same.

I got a little long-winded in there, but I hope it helped!

-Trey