Rolling for Initiative is a weekly column by Scott Thorne, PhD, owner of Castle Perilous Games & Books in Carbondale, Illinois.  This week, Thorne talks about the reasons to go to the GAMA Trade Show.

If you are like our store, you have probably already received a number of emails reminding you about the GAMA Trade Show next month in beautiful Las Vegas Nevada.  All of the emails we have received focused on the $1000 plus dollars (retail) or product attendees receive.  While that is certainly a nice benefit, and if a store can sell it call, will cover most it not all of the cost of the trip (especially if you stay at a cheaper off-Strip hotel, better for your pocketbook but not so helpful for GAMA).  However, the better, in fact best, reason to attend GTS is the seminars offered by manufacturers and other retailers.  

In order for a store to claim that $1000 worth of stuff, store representatives must/get to attend presentations by Bandai, WotC, Mayfair Games, new kids on the block Sandstorm Productions, AEG, Cryptozoic, WizKids and Osprey Publishing (which has made a real push the last couple of years outside of its decades old military uniform and battle history niche with books such as The Good Life on a Budget and the Fields of Glory miniature rules).  Since each company is making multiple presentations, here’s a great chance for store owners to find out what they have coming up in the pipeline, .why they made the marketing decisions they did (I know I have several questions for Wizards of the Coast regarding recent decisions the company made concerning their Dungeon & Dragons line), and make suggestions for products you would like to see or promotions for them to implement (I’ll suggest to WotC they move D&D Encounters to Saturday or Sunday and that Bandai implement some form of league play for their Resident Evil deck building game).  That’s stuff I would sit in on even without the inducement of the $1000 gift bag.

But wait, there’s more!  Not only do you get $1000 in stuff just for listening to presentations from the top companies in the industry but you get to listen to a raft of retail specific presentations from a Murderer’s Row of the best game store retailers in the industry.  Thinking about diversification?  Listen to Jim Crocker discuss the advantages (and difficulties) of adding comics to your product mix.  Want more ideas about how to get the word out about your store?  Here’s one of the best promoters in the industry, Marcus King, talking about guerilla marketing and creating a spectacle store.  Want a better handle on profitability?  Aaron Witten will cover than in his Accounting 101 and 501 presentations. Desirous of getting the maximum out of your credit card use?   Here’s Barrett Moy on affinity programs.  Using social media but think you could probably use it more effectively, not to mention more efficiently?  Where else will you get to hear New York Times best selling author (OK so he’s not a store owner but he’s a NYT best selling author, so I’ll cut him some slack) Michael Stackpole show how he uses Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, et cetera, to make himself even more of a best selling author.  You’ve also got the only store owner I know who has successfully franchised his business operating model, Dave Wheeler, discussing store design.

Finally, one of the longest operating store owners in the country, Dave Wallace of The Fantasy Shop, presents not one, not two, but three seminars, including his classic "The Bottom Line."  I can think of no two hours that have had more of an effect on more retailers than this presentation, as a number have remarked over the years that they significantly changed their store operations after listening to the "Bottom Line" seminar.  Every game store owner should listen to it at least once, if they wish to improve they way they approach their business.

That’s the reason stores should go to the GAMA Trade Show.  Not for the thousand bucks in product, not because it’s in Vegas, baby (actually I dislike Vegas and  keep lobbying for it to move to a new location but so far my suggestions of Omaha or Paducah have not borne fruit) not really even for the manufacturer presentations or exhibit hall.  It’s for the opportunity to listen to other successful retailers talk about how they got there and allowing you to steal their ideas and expertise, not only during presentations but also over dinner, demos and even while standing in line waiting for events.  That’s The Real Bottom Line.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely  those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.