GenCon 2016 is now over. What a blast. As first time exhibitors we didn’t know what to expect, but man we really had a great show!
As new publishers we wanted to make a good first impression, so we worked extra hard to have a booth that would stand out from the crowd. Going into it we felt like it may have gone over the top, but wow we sure are glad we went all in. It was well worth it.
Our Jack of All Trades, Wes, was the mastermind of the booth’s construction, costume design, and general logistics. It was a lot of work. He’s been working on the booth itself for about 6 months in preparation for Gen Con. It was certainly a challenge getting the booth and product in place. We went up early Tuesday morning to make sure we had plenty of time to get everything set. We’re glad we did.
Having a great booth certainly attracted a lot of people to take a closer look at what we had. When they did stop and look they saw the great art work in both games and a lot of times stayed for demos. We also dressed the part in the booth wearing 1920’s attire to fit the Cthulhu theme.
The exhibit hall was packed! We were lucky to have one of the hottest new games Scythe on the same aisle as us. Many times people were shoulder-to-shoulder. Our booth was constantly filled. The only time it slowed down was during the lunch hour. It was crazy busy the whole time. I don’t think I talked that much in my life.
We loved having some of our Kickstarter backers stop by our booth to pick up their goods. We could not have done this without them. It was great to put faces with names.
However the absolute best thing about Gen Con was the people we met. We made some great contacts with industry people that will probably propel Wyvren Gaming into the future, but it was our neighbors on Entrepreneurial Avenue that we’re just awesome.
- The guys at Card Caddy have a great product that we cross promoted with, their card tray product is very useful. Check it out.
- Michael at Twistocity is a great guy! His social tongue twisting party game is a LOT of fun! It had our team cracking up.
- We also made friends with the good folks at Lay Waste Games who had Dragoon for sale and the show.
Of course we have to thank our volunteers, our friends and family that greatly helped make all this happened. Thank you.
For other start-up companies that are considering making the jump to Gen Con next year, do it. It is well worth it. I recommend going big!