| What You’d Like to See… |
What You Want Not to Change |
How I See It… |
| More Vendors/Vendor
space 13: I did not like your Vendor
room. It would be nice to find a way to add a bit more space
in the Vendor Area. I love walking through there each year to
buy new games, but it’s often times so crowded that you can barely
move around. |
Status Quo 20: I really enjoy the vendors in their current limited
space. / I like having the vendors there as much because it’s
an opportunity to talk to reps as for the shopping (I try not
to buy too much there except for family gifts, and family gifts
are not really the WBC vendors’ strong point). / I like the focus
on actually playing games rather than big vendor displays and
such. / I particularly look forward to the vendors’ arrival on
Friday and spend quite a bit of time circling the vendor hall
throughout the weekend. |
There are only two
locations at Host suitable for Vendors due to the need to secure
the room after hours. Our only other option is to replace the
4,000 sq ft of Ballroom A with the 23,500 sq ft of the Expo Center
which is far too big for the number of vendors WBC attracts. |
| More Vendor Demos
2: I would like to see more vendor
demos in addition to their sales…which would necessitate a
larger area to accomodate that. Cafe Jay was always hopping when
he was in attendance, but, in recent years, it is frequently
unmanned with players left trying to fumble through rules on
their own or just give up. |
|
We also would like
to see more in the way of publisher demos and offer free space
and scheduling to that end. Publishers however have limited staff
and time for shows and have been slow to take advantage of the
opportunity. |
Open Vendors Earlier in Week 8: Allow dealers to have more than just a Friday, Sat,
Sun. Give them the whole week.
Shorten Vendor hours 1: While they are restricted to the last 3 days, focusing
them on 4-5 hours/day would put more sense of
urgency into the buyers, and would also allow scheduling vendor
room time around events easier. |
Restriction of Vendors to
late in the Week 2: I think the vendor
arrivals are perfect and they are there just long enough. |
Publishers have many demands
on their time and time is money. There are far more game conventions
than most can afford to attend so they tend to concentrate their
efforts on the largest trade show where they can sell the most
product. That is not WBC. To attend WBC at all, they need to
concentrate their sales in as few days as possible. So, lengthening
the vendor room commitment would have the opposite effect—and
keep more vendors away—by making it more expensive for them.
In short, most vendors would prefer shorter hours—not longer. |
| Move Vendors to the Expo Center
3: I’m also wondering if that would
be a good place for vendors, as I’ve seen at other cons at the
Host (although I will admit that there are far less vendors at
WBC than at Historicon). |
|
The vendors would not like such
a move since it would result in far less foot traffic if not
located in the center of the hotel. So, barring a change of venue
or a great increase in number of interested vendors, the vendor
room will remain as is for the forseeable future. |
| |
Free Access to Vendors: 1 |
Many shows put guards on their
vendor room to check badges since that is their biggest attraction.
WBC does not charge for access to the vendor room because we
want our vendors to have access to the most potential buyers.
That means WBC has two attendance figures—paid attendance by
those who purchase badges and unpaid attendance by those who
come only to observe and patronize vendors. The latter can only
be estimated. |
| Why is Decision Games the
only Early Vendor? 1 |
|
We do not have the space to allow
multiple vendors all week long and if we did, they would likely
find their sales not worth the time commitment if they had to
compete with other vendors for the limited attendance early in
the week. So, we select one vendor who carries many lines to
have an exclusive sales opportunity for the first four days before
the other vendors arrive during the peak attendance days. |
