The GAMA Trade Show in Las Vegas has opened huge this week, with retailer attendance variously estimated as from 50-100% larger than the 2002 turnout.  Bill Murray, Assistant to the President of GAMA, told us, 'We've easily broken all previous attendance records.'  He said over 2000 badges has been issued to attending exhibitors, retailers, distributors, and other attending professionals.

Among the big draws that helped boost attendance this year was the WizKids feedback session at which it gave each attending retail organization a MechWarrior dropship (see 'Major Announcements Planned for GAMA Trade Show').  According to WizKids' Jon Leitheusser, the turnout for the event was so large that it had to be done as two shorter events to accommodate all of the retailers.  'I think we had about twice the attendance we were planning on,' he said.  'I think we had 350 to 400 planned for....I don't have the final count, but it had to be 650 to 750 retailers that showed up.'  This would be about double the number of retailer organizations that attended the 2002 GAMA Trade Show.

The first Wizards of the Coast event at the show also drew far more retailers than expected.  WotC's Kathryn Jones told us that they'd planned to have the over 50 WotC employees sit at each of the retailer tables, but that all of the space was needed for the attending retailers.  'Fifteen minutes into it we realized that we needed more space,' she said.  'There were so many people in line.  We all stood up and went to the back of the room.' 

In addition to great retailer turnout, the exhibitor buzz is very positive.  Several told us they've had a great start to 2003 -- far better than expected.