It's taken a few days to compile all our pictures and reflect on the event but here's my review of the R3play Expo 2010:
THE VENUENorbreck Castle's Norcalympia Hall was the setting, and I would say it was an ideal venue for this event. Blackpool is the UK's spiritual home of gaming so with it's abundance of hotels, easy accessibilty from all parts of the country and lots to do outside of the show, I couldn't have picked a better venue. Some members of other forums complained it should be more central, but even though somewhere like Birmingham is right on our doorstep, having a seaside event puts people in a better mood and I happen to know that places like the NEC are pricey, accessibilty is crap and Birmingham's a moody place at the best of times. Blackpool has a choice of hotels so all revellers had easy access by walking from their hotels and even though it was at the very northern end past the illuminations, this made parking easier for exhibitors and kept it out of the hustle and bustle of Blackpool's main golden mile.
The hotel itself was questionable quality, but they had lots of amenities and the Norcalympia Hall was clean and the perfect size. There was room for more exhibits but a bit of breathing space by the bar was handy with the volume of people at the show, and none of the exhibits had any pushing or shoving, even by people just watching others play. The stage setup was great and created a focal point for the show, and the additional corridor space made for a quieter experience when talking with the computer bods allocated rooms for their gear along the hallway. All in all a great choice of venue all round!
THE ORGANISATION AND ADVERTISINGThe show itself was announced in plenty of time to organise exhibitors, make adequate press releases and promote the event, and a few friends of mine back home said they viewed ads for it in the least likely of places (a customer of ours found an ad in an in-flight magazine during the Summer!) It was a lot to handle though and with some uncertainties and changes (such as the last-minute pulling out of Gail Porter and withdrawal of some of the arcade cab exhibitors) I can understand why communication with exhibitors like us and lack of promotion in the couple of months before started to fall of a little. It's also why the floorplan changed so many times and some visitors were baffled by the lack of trader stalls as originally it was perceived to be more of a full expo with a 50% split of traders and exhibits. To be fair though, Console Passion covered most retro needs, retro t-shirts were available and we certainly had a lot of interest for cabinet orders.
Floor space allocation for the show was mostly OK, with things grouped logically (classic consoles on 1 row, multiplayer and modern gaming set to one side of the hall etc.), and although grumbled about feeling like they weren't part of the show, the cocktail cabinets, racing cabinets and pinball tables seemed very at home in the corridor behind the stage and the more techy people were allocated to rooms leading off there, which gave good opportunity to talk tech without being drowned out by the mic on stage; something I unfortunately lost my voice doing all weekend. Ours and Surface Tension's pitches seemed ideal from our perspective as there was plenty of room for visitors stopping by our stands and we could be seen from everywhere in the room, but I did get the feeling we were kind of dumped there as we had to daisy-chain power leads to get power to our machines. Not a bad layout overall, but the sponsors were treated a little too favourably and we found it difficult to promote our competition even though other competitions were promoted on the big screens. To be fair Dave did say he was grateful for the extra promoting of the show we did and would have liked to have helped us out more.
THE SHOW AND EXHIBITSThe best part about the whole event was the exhibits themselves. Tidy and well-serviced arcade machines, multiple common consoles to keep fond remembered games readily available, whilst rarer and less well-known machines were also left out with selections of games ready to try out. The N64 DD was a nice addition; Console Passion let you try out stuff before you bought (including a blue 'programmers' PS1, Tomy Viewmaster LCD games and other retro machines like Astro Wars and Scramble) and there were some setups that even seasoned gamers may not have experienced, such as multi-player Bomberman, Goldeneye and network-linked X-Boxes and PS2's.
The arcade side of things was a touch under-represented. There were some nice cabs from guys from the JAMMA+ forums as well as a nice selection of cocktail and candy cabs, but nothing really to shout about. Dave did say though that although the organisers offered to pick up and transport cabinets for free, some contributers pulled out with poor excuses and one collection of at least 10 machines didn't make it to the show. Even though a lot of visitors expected to play on some expected genuine machines, ST and us had enough on show to at least allow many of those games to be played with real arcade controls. Considering the initial interest here at BYOAC I would have expected a few more contributors and visitors, but then on the flipside of the coin this community wasn't asked directly so hopefully our input may change that for future events.
The newer console stands like the Wii and PS3 showcases and efforts from Sumo Digital and Sega added a touch more professional feel and they all got involved with the show and offered some great competition prizes. There were plenty of competitions and a raffle to give people opportunity to go home with sme memorabilia and feel really involved with the show. The record attempts and game creator presences (Ocean team, Archer Maclean etc.) made it a very 'involved' experience.
THE PEOPLEThis was my only mixed opinion on the weekend as a whole. On the whole, the organisers and visitors were very friendly people and it was very nice to finally put some faces to names of fellow forum members like Franco B, fellow hobbyist vendors like ST, and important community bods like Andy Warne. Many current and former customers also made themselves known as well as new facebook enthusiast friends and others who had been following us and the home build scene for a long time. Coupled with this, Dave Moore and the guys from the CGEU were a pleasure, host and comedian Iain Lee was very genuine and perfect for this event and guys like Chris Wilkins (Retrogamer magazine) and ex-developer staff like Archer and Jim Bagley were very pleasant and had decent talks with us. On the whole, many people were very interested both in our machines and in the 'build your own' scene and it was great to introduce newcomers to it. ST were very helpful and we helped each other out over the weekend and it was nice to discuss both casual interests and product ideas with guys like Dan and Andy W, as well as Andy over at Console Passion.
However, there is also a slight negative about people involved in and visiting the event, which became apparent the moment we arrived and reared it's head several times over the weekend. The organisers and main contributors to the show were mostly from the same online community and most were severe purists. This meant that there was a very obvious 'clique' that at times was a little unwelcoming and even a few very casual punters commented on. Whilst many were friendly, a few of the more serious purists and those more strongly attached to the clique did seem to frown on the emulation side of things. This is fine and I understand as many times we've had to prove ourselves as real enthusiasts and not just a business, but some individuals were downright rude when attempting conversation and it became obvious from the few things said that our side of the retro scene was frowned upon. One of ST's cabinets was damaged whilst his back was turned and someone intentionally messed with one of our machines, which may or may not have been a bit out of spite that our stalls garnered a lot of attention and although there were several breakdowns elsewhere, none of our machines experienced either mechanical or software faults the whole weekend.
Some of this may be paranoia, but everyone can't be friends and it's a safe bet on who was responsible for these issues. Aside from that, the majority of the people there were a delight and I thoroughly enjoyed the conversations I had with everyone there.
AS A BYOACer AND AS A TRADERIt was a successful event for us and we managed to do some useful networking at the event. We received several orders and did not feel isolated with at least a few other traders being present and helpful. For the most part the whole weekend had a very trustworthy feel and although some had little regard for the hardware (like going a little hard on controls or stacking beers all over cocktail cabinets), there was a general air of trust with games being left out unsupervised and even general members of the public who had just walked in on the day were very considerate. Andy at Console Passion said he did experience a few items go walkies but suspected it was mostly likely misplaced items by kids at the event or the exhibitors swapping and lending stuff round that they failed to keep track of. I would certainly exhibit and have a trade stall again and it would be nice next time to see a few more BYOACers or collectors donate their cabinets for a show, as there were no raised eyebrows about the emulation issues from the big names at this show. All I'd say is keep it sensible and people will respect the home-build side of arcade gaming.
As a BYOACer, I was a little disappointed that more members did not attend or attempt to contact the organisers about exhibiting. This kind of show is all about the roots of gaming that has us all involved in this hobby so I think it's important we get involved, regardless of the hardcore purists and whether directly invited or not. I will hopefully be getting a little more involved next year if a repeat show goes ahead so hopefully more members will respond to requests and have an input.
PICTURES FROM THE EVENT
OVERVIEWThe event was a great experience overall, with a perfect location, correct balance of old and new, good organisation and there was plenty on offer all weekend that meant no-one really had to wait and there was plenty to keep you entertained for hours at a time. Most people were great and the whole north end of Blackpool had a good vibe as you bumped into many visitors and exhibitors in the hotels and promenade on the approach to Norbreck. From what I understand the hotel owners were happy for the business after a slow Summer season and the event itself achieved close to the intended 2000 visitors over the course of the weekend. This is a positive outcome which from what I understand has already pretty much confirmed there will be another R3play show sometime next year.
The only downsides to the event were the apparent clique intimidating some people and the shaky organisation in the few weeks up to the show. There's also nothing can be done about the purists as they have their own opinion but the few bad apples who go out of their way to annoy or damage stuff we could do without. I found out a couple of former competitors were in attendance at the show who intended to cause problems but as they failed to present themselves in person it is not a concern and hopefully they can now see the level of commitment we have to our work and the hobby as a whole - if they don't then tough really and just don't bother coming next time!
I'll sign off by saying all our guys thoroughly enjoyed the whole weekend, made plenty of new friends and relished the opportunity to geek out with like-minded people. We are 100% in for future events and were glad to have been part of the whole experience!
You can check out the rest of our pictures and videos by adding us as a friend on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=14410&id=100001605484104
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Topic: R3play Expo - Blackpool 6/7 Nov 2010 - Reviews and comments! (Read 9825 times)
