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This year was the first time Flatlined Games was present at the Spiel game fair, and while there are lots of articles on the new games released, not so much is written about the organization of the fair itself, so I thought some of you might be interested in an insider's report, especially from a first-time exhibitor.
Spiel 2011 ran from Thursday, October 20 to Sunday, Oct. 23, but preparations for attending the fair began way earlier, around March 2011.
Having attended the fair as a visitor for the previous eight years, I had some knowledge of the game fair's infrastructure and rhythm. Also, Belgium is a small country where most game designers and game publishing companies know each other, so I asked a lot of questions to the nice people at Repos Production (makers of 7 Wonders, Ghost Stories, Time's Up and many other fine games) and Pearl Games (makers of Troyes and Tournay), who kindly shared their knowledge of the previous years attending the fair as exhibitors.
Spiel is a very special game fair because it's simultaneously a public event where exhibitors sell their wares to "regular" people (lots of people, with an attendance of about 150,000 for the four days of the fair) and a professional event where all players of the boardgaming industry meet, greet and deal: designers, publishers, distributors, manufacturers, agents, fullfilment agencies, amateur designers, self-publishers, and some weird people with green hair or a suit and bow tie.
Preparing for the Fair
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The fairgrounds are huge, but most exhibitors ask to stay at the same place from year to year, which makes it easier for fair regulars to locate them. Of course some exhibitors come for only one year, and new exhibitors arrive each year so the overall fair map changes every year but only so much. Each hall has its atmosphere, so getting your booth in the "right" hall is quite important. Halls 12 and 5 are near the main entrances of the fair and guarantee a lot of visitors; Hall 9 is the historical home of Heidelberger Spieleverlag (which carries the German line of Fantasy Flight Games' products among other things), Z-Man Games, Lookout Games, Fragor Games, and a few others; Hall 6 is the place to be for role-playing (tabletop and larp), miniatures and wargaming; Hall 4 is home of the Asian publishers (Korea, Japan, Hong-Kong, ...) and the new publishers; and in 2011 a new hall, Hall 7, opened to allow for the massive arrival of the Russian and eastern European publishers.
I asked to be placed in Hall 9 but it was sold out already, so I opted for Hall 4. You can have worse neighbors than the fine folks of CBG and Rebel, those from Japan Brand, and the Belgian fellows from Pearl Games!
There are several kind of booths you can get when attending the fair as exhibitor. They have a "standard" starter booth of 5x2 meters in a U-shape, with a fixed price that's expensive, but yet affordable for small companies and even self-publishers. For 50% more, you can get a 5x2 meter L-shaped booth at the end of a row – a bit more expensive, but there is a gain in visibility as you have two sides of the booth open to the public. Beyond the basic "standard" starter booths, any other size is possible but you are billed by the square meter at a price that is double the "standard" starter's booths.
The German efficiency does wonders here as Merz Verlag sends you a catalog listing all the possible options for your booth. You can rent furniture, of course, as well as appliances (Fridge? Beer tap? Plasma screen? Name it, they've got it); running water, electricity, compressed air, and sewer connection for the booth; carpeting; ceiling suspensions (and heavy-lift devices); and a huge lot of nifty options. The catalog also has a plan of all the halls, with the sizes and weight allowances of all doors, passages, and lifts so that you can plan your set-up and dismantling in excruciating detail. All these options cost a little fortune, of course, so you better be very conservative unless you're named Hasbro or LEGO.
I booked an L-shaped "starter booth", with electricity in the booth for our lamps and TV display.
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Setting up prior to the start of Spiel 2011
After that, I spent a lot of time planning as many details about the set-up, fair, and dismantling as I could. ("A plan is just a list of things that don't happen." — The Way of the Gun) However, the more you plan, the more time you have to deal with problems as they occur.
We had two games on display for this first attendance: Dragon Rage, a fantasy wargame from Lewis Pulsipher in which dragons and mythical monsters attack walled cities, and Rumble in the House, from Olivier Saffre (aka, Ken Rush), which is a silly and frantic party game in which tenants battle in an overcrowded house to throw others out and keep the house. This meant organizing the booth as two separate booths in order to give each game a fair space.
Furniture was limited to the bare minimum: two plastic shelves attached together to make a counter, and one plastic shelf in the back to display our wares; a couple of foldable chairs, and a demo-table for Rumble in the House which I crafted and painted. The demo-table is held together by bolts and wing-nuts to make it easy to assemble and disassemble without requiring tools. This minimal setup would allow us to stock a good supply of games in the booth and work conveniently during the fair.
I also ordered vinyl-printed banners from a printing company to decorate the booth and T-Shirts with the company logo to give the team an uniform look.
Last but not least, I bought a small television to display slideshow images from a USB key and created slides to display in the booth during the fair. The thinking was that so many people attend the fair that while you're demoing the game to one group, lots of other people pass by and just glance at your booth, see that you're busy, and move on. If they see a TV showing info, it may catch their attention long enough that you can eventually include them in a demo. It's hard to tell whether this was efficient or not, but I remember seeing people watching the screen quite often during the fair, so I guess it's a good thing to have.
I hired a small team of volunteers: Mark, Stéphane and Pierre, three fellow gamers from Brussels whom I know and whom have been supportive of my game publishing efforts since the beginning. It was a real blessing to have them, as you'll see later on.
Other preparations included booking the accommodation and a small truck to drive all our stuff and merchandise from Brussels, Belgium to Essen, Germany. (Only 220 Kms as we're blessed to be relatively close to Essen.)
The last few days before the departure were frantic, checking and rechecking lists. It's important to keep a running total of your expenses in such times as it's easy to lose track of that. If attending the fair costs more than it brings, you have a problem.
On the Way to the Fair
Loading the van highlighted the first omission in my preparations: While the van was big enough to hold most of my stock of games, I hadn't checked the overall weight. A quick calculation revealed that we had stuffed 2.2 tons of materials in the van, while its max weight allowance was 1.2 tons, so we had to offload product before we could start. Eventually we took 504 copies of Dragon Rage and 1,890 copies of Rumble in the House, still way more than what could be expected to sell to visitors at the fair. However, distributors and corporate buyers are also present so there's always the possibility of selling a good chunk of it during the fair. My reasoning was that it's better to bring some stock back than to miss sales for lack of product!
The lesson learned here: When you use something bigger than a car, you must think in terms of weight, not volume.
Tuesday – Travelling to Essen and Setting Up
We departed on Tuesday, two days before the actual fair opening. Set-up starts as soon as Monday for some of the biggest exhibitors, who have lots of things to set up before the fair.
A press conference takes place on Wednesday morning during which all journalists are presented the new releases for the year. This happens in the upper floors of the cafeteria hall (Hall 11) in a space reserved for press members. Retailers and professionals can also access that space during the whole fair, so it seemed important to be present with our products, and this is why we departed one day earlier than we could have.
Access to the press room for set-up is allowed only on Tuesday afternoon from 15:00 to 16:00 and on Wednesday from 09:30 to 10:30, so you better not miss these slots. (And the German security guards have a strict sense of time. We missed the Tuesday slot by a few minutes and were told to come back Wednesday morning.)
I planned a light structure for the stand – basically a couple of pine beams assembled with bolts and wing-nuts to which we could attach the banners and lights) – so we set up shop fast once on the premises.
I learned that it's possible to park the truck near the halls, which makes it convenient to move product from the truck to the booth and vice versa, but also quite expensive. There was some budget left and it was quite convenient, so I went for it. This proved useful during the whole fair and was well worth the expense.
Last but not least, we packed a few foldable chairs and drinks for the team at the booth.
Monday and Tuesday are special days as the biggest booths are built by contractors, so the halls are full of a strange mix of board game professionals and hard hat-wearing construction workers, pallet-pulling logistics agents, painters, electricians, and security guards.
Once the booth setup was complete, we headed to the hotel for a good night of rest...
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Display in the press room
Wednesday – Press Conference and Early Beginnings
Wednesday morning, we got up early and arrived on the fairgrounds to set up the press room display, which went quickly as this was a simple arrangement: a couple of wood rods supporting a vinyl printed banner used as background, and a copy of our games on it with a stack of business cards. I realized that most other displays prominently featured the booth location, so I jotted that down on a business card back and added it to the display.
The press show started at 11:30 in another hall, then journalists proceeded to the press rooms where most publishers were present to answer their questions and hand over press review copies to some of the journalists. I expected this to last about an hour, but it lasted a bit under three hours in all. I manned the press display with two volunteers, while the third one watched the booth.
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We also sold a few copies on Wednesday, as other exhibitors having finished their set-up were shopping around, and we traded a few copies of Dragon Rage and Rumble in the House with other publishers for copies of their games, something I already knew was common between publishers: We're all gamers, after all.
Thursday to Sunday – the Actual Fair
Thursday morning, we arrived early at the fairgrounds. (Exhibitors are allowed in one hour earlier than the visitors in order to be able to set up shop.) As soon as we had readied everything, I left the booth to my volunteers' capable hands and dashed through the mostly quiet halls. My goals were to get a quick overview of the fair – before the visitors are allowed in, you can visit a whole hall in only a few minutes, making mental notes of the places you need to visit later on – and to secure business contacts, making the most of the fair's opportunities.
Big companies often have a second booth at the fair, completely closed with a small door, that they use as a business office for meetings. Some companies even have nothing more than that small closed booth as they have no goods to sell but hold lots of meetings. Two such examples are the guys from Alliance and ACD, two of the main U.S. wholesale boardgame distributors. These booths are unmarked, and unless you are invited or have some business there, you're not welcome. The fair organizers sell a catalog of all booths and the companies who hired them, so if you know what you're looking for they're easy to locate. I did, of course, purchase a copy of the catalog right away to know where to head.
Throughout the fair, I visited several of these closed offices, either waiting at the door to grab someone going in or out to briefly introduce myself, give a thirty-second elevator pitch, and set up an appointment for later during the fair, or taking a chance and knocking at the door for a brief interruption.
All professionals present at the fair are very busy as there are lots of opportunities, most industry "players" are present, and you have only four days. Therefore it's important to be considerate of other people's time, and to be quick and to the point when they allow you time. Haste is usually appreciated and allows you to get the ball rolling on deals that will actually be closed by email after the fair.
My main goals were to establish contacts with distributors in the U.S. for Dragon Rage, and in Europe for Rumble in the House. My secondary goals were to find new games from authors to publish, and from other publishers to license. I also contacted some publishers active in other regions – as they might be willing to license our games for a local version – as well as press members, and so on.
After a while I saw the people density rising in the halls, and a quick look at my watch showed the main gates were now opened. I went back to our booth, and shortly after that, the first visitors arrived at Hall 4. I repeated this morning exploration every day of the show, and it proved quite efficient.
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We demoed our games a lot, but between the appointments arranged before the fair and the numerous ad-hoc encounters, I realized that I wouldn't be very present on the booth. I was fortunate to have my volunteers manning the booth as otherwise I'd have missed a huge number of opportunities during the fair, and that was the big lesson here: There is no way you can man your booth and attend to business at the same time. Some people will come to your booth for business, but you have to go and meet the others, so you do need help in the booth.
Regarding sales at the booth, I needed an exact count of merchandise sold and stock status from day to day, so we used a simple system: Each man had a small notepad and pen and tracked his sales during the day. At the end of the day, we tallied the counts to get a status. This worked quite well overall.
Another thing that I knew would happen a lot at the booth is press members requesting review copies. Yes, it's important to give some away to get coverage, but you have to be tight, too, as with over 700 card-bearing press members at the fair, you cannot afford to hand a copy to each and every requester. To manage that, I had a stack of "press review copy request" forms at the booth and briefed my staff that only I could decide on review copies. The requesters were asked to complete a form and either come back to the booth later or wait to see whether they'd be sent a copy by mail after the fair if their request was accepted. This process also worked well, although I still have to process some of the requests and get in touch with the requesters after the show.
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The wonderful article from Ted Alspach on BGG News – "Seven Years of Spiel for Bézier Games" – explains that each day of the fair has a different mix of visitors, and I'm glad I read that before the fair as otherwise I'd have been much more worried after that first day.
I had a chat with my German distributor, Brave New World, on Friday morning and asked him whether his Dragon Rage sales were better. He made a big smile and told me, "Oh, yes, we sold a lot yesterday." It turned out that visitors came to our booth for a demo and explanation, but eventually went to buy the German version at their booth. (The German version is limited to 200 copies and was sold at the same price.)
Friday was better in terms of sales for both games, and we had the nice surprise of seeing Dragon Rage soar at the top of the BoardGame Geek "Geekbuzz" chart for most of the day.
We saw some visitors from Thursday who had attended demos and jotted down notes on a piece of paper come back to buy the games, as well as new visitors. The overall crowd was similar in kind as Thursday's, mostly gamers looking for specific games or browsing the new releases.
I had the pleasant surprise of seeing Friedemann Friese, author of the well-known Power Grid game, stop by our booth because "Rumble in the House in on my list". It's always nice to know established authors have some interest in the games you publish.
Saturday was quite different from the previous days: fewer gamers, more families. You see parents and their children wandering down the halls as if they were visiting a museum, only seeming remotely interested in the games on display. We made more demos, but sold a lot less than the previous days.
Sunday was even worse: mostly families, with the gamers becoming scarce in the mix. That said, a lot of retailers and distributors came to buy tens or dozens of games directly from us, so sales-wise Sunday turned out to be the best day overall.
Miscellaneous Thoughts
During the whole four days of the fair, I ended up being present at our booth for only one full day at the most, spending all the remaining time chasing deals and contacting business leads. This was eventually fruitful as I found a deal for distribution in the French speaking markets with French publisher/distributor IELLO, and contacts for distribution in the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark/Sweden/Finland/Norway, Israel, and the U.S. which might later on turn in done deals. I also had interesting contact with Asian and Eastern European publishers interested in our games, as well as with some authors and publishers of other games I might want to license. We joked about this with the team: "You sell individual games at the booth while I try to sell pallets of games on the fairgrounds."
The foldable chairs proved to be a great idea: Whenever I met a business contact on or near the booth, I grabbed a couple of chairs and we headed to an empty space in the nearby galleria hall. That way we could discuss matters in a quiet surrounding without eating up valuable demo-space from the team, and my visitors were grateful for the opportunity to sit down for a short while – not as good as a private office-booth, of course, but yet much appreciated.
I also had interviews for podcasts such as The Little Metal Dog Show, made a nice video appearance at the BGG booth (videos of Dragon Rage and Rumble in the House), and managed to snatch a few games to bring back home. (Who am I kidding? Lots of games!)
I learned some amusing factoids during the event, too. For instance, one of my appointments was with a group of professionals representing a company. They had bought passes to access the business lounge during the fair, a quiet and cosy place that is accessible only to people who bought access. However, the guards were so strict that they were not allowed to access the business lounge with the various exhibitors and professionals with whom they had made appointments, so it was useless! Quite a bummer if you ask me. I also learned that Wifi access at the halls is possible for a daily fee – a fee that costs more than two new games at the fair! After that I won't complain about the prices charged for food and drinks any more...
The booth has been dismantled and everything cleaned. Dinnertime?
Sunday evening, once the visitors started to go away, we dismantled the booth, packed everything in the truck, and headed to a restaurant for a well-deserved meal with the whole team to celebrate the successful event.
We shared some stories, then went back to the hotel for a last night in Essen before returning to Brussels, unloading the truck, and going back to our normal lives.
All in all, this first time was successful, thanks to the great help of my three volunteers. Without them the fair would have been hell for me as everything gets much more difficult when you're alone. Thanks, guys!
Eric Hanuise
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