Rolling for Initiative is a weekly column by Scott Thorne, PhD, owner of Castle Perilous Games & Books in Carbondale, Illinois and instructor in marketing at Southeast Missouri State University.  This week, Thorne previews the upcoming GAMA Trade Show.

Though pre-registration ended at the end of February (though the powers that be did give you an extra day to sign up) you can still plan to attend and sign up at the event, which is well worth your time, especially if you are on the West Coast and can drive to Las Vegas in a few hours.  There are a lot of good reasons for going.

Let's get the filthy lucre out of the way first.  Each attending store receives a box containing $1400 worth of new product (hopefully salable since part of the pitch is that stores should sell stuff out of the box to cover the costs of their attending the show.  Putting a lot of demo kits and partial games would negate that aspect of the deal).  That's a decent amount of product, and, if it all truly salable, will certainly cover the cost of attending the show, unless you have to book a flight at the last minute.

The main reason to go, however, are the attendees and presentations.  According to the list posted on the GAMA website, almost a hundred exhibitors plan to set up in the display hall., everyone from industry heavyweights such as Wizards of the Coast and Games Workshop, to very small companies such as Cleveland Kids and Nested Egg.  I see at least one exhibitor from last year, AAA Anime, isn't on the list for this year and the producer/distributor of what was last year's hottest product, IronDice, Green River Games doesn't have a booth either, though Green River might have chosen to share a booth with someone else as they did last year.

Probably last year's most popular event, after the poker tournament, was the assorted manufacturer presentations.  This year, Mayfair Games once again hosts its Demo 2 Demo sessions, wherein retailers learn how to play four different Mayfair games and leave the show with a demo copy of each, as well as a slew of promotional material for them, including, if past sessions are any indication, a script on how to quickly demo each game.

Not to be outdone, Wizards of the Coast hosts a total of nine, count 'em, nine hours of presentations.  I expect to hear a lot of questions about what stores can expect from D&D Next and, especially, when WotC plans to release it.  I also expect WotC to respond to said questions with a lot of "Well, we really can't give you any specifics about that," but may be pleasantly surprised.  What I would love to hear is a discussion of their promotional plans for tying in their Battleship Galaxies game to the movie.  Given that they have a $200 million movie based on the game and vice versa, I'd hope they then could run a commercial or two for it.

Other companies making presentations include: Osprey, WizKids, Cryptozoic Entertainment (maybe with a release date for the retitled Big Bang Party Game), Catalyst, AEG, Paizo Publishing, Impressions, Fantasy Flight Games, Topps, Bandai, and Konami.  These all filled fast last year, with standing room only at the ones I managed to get into.  Of course, the fact that retailers got info straight from the manufacturer's mouth and could ask questions about release dates, fill rates and other concerns made these very popular.

Finally, there are the assorted presentations designed to help you run your business better. Industry stalwart Dave Wallace gives multiple presentations on the topics of site selection, multiple stores, negotiating leases, getting the most out of employees and his classic "Bottom Line."  More store owners cite this presentation as having helped them run a successful business than any other seminar I know of.  Other speakers include ICv2's own Milton Griepp, Dean Kao, Jim Crocker, Joanne Gain, Lynn Potyen, Jennifer Ward, Alex Shvartsman, Chip Bowles, Aaron Witten, and Mike Stackpole, (and yours truly), and that's just on the retail track.  There are another half dozen or so speakers holding down the manufacturer track.

The schedule has shifted some this year with the business presentations running Monday and Tuesday nights and Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings, so as to minimize conflict with the manufacturer presentations and exhibit hall hours.  Given the popularity of the manufacturer presentations last year, this is probably a good move.

Getting ready this week, hope to see you in Las Vegas next week.

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.