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PAX Prime 2010 is a great experience for all attendees, but was not such a great time for those exhibitors that were placed in the “Hidden Level”. The name alone should tell you that any company wanting their fans to find them, would not have much success in a place that was hidden. This is our tale of PAX 2010.
We arrived in Seattle on Thursday the 2nd and were all very excited to set up our booth. Our CEO is from the North West and it was a great home coming for him. We have been fans of Penny Arcade for many years and have always wanted to showcase our video game related toys at PAX. After coming back from San Diego Comic Con, where we had huge success, we expected to carry that over to PAX. We know PAX is much smaller, but it is focused on games and has a well deserved reputation for treating attendees well. We put in our request for a booth late and this was where the trouble started. All exhibitors that placed a request late were stuck in a hidden level off the main floor. The problem with this is that it was not only off the main level, but down an escalator and hidden behind the endless tables of D&D and Magic players. We were so far off the grid that no one could find us. Even those that found the hidden level could not see us past the D&D players. We did not think this would be such a big deal as we set up on Thursday.
Friday the 3rd started and attendees started coming in to PAX. PAX is a great attendee experience. If you want to play games, make friends and buy merchandise, PAX is for you. We waited and waited for hours and by 12 noon on Friday we only had 20 attendees come and visit us. All who did find us said they had no idea we were even part of PAX and just randomly found the “Hidden Level”. We had a great sale rate as over half of those who found us bought some merchandise. The problem is, 20 people in half a day is not a good amount of traffic.
As Friday went on we started receiving emails from our customers in the North West asking where we were located. You see PAX originally told us we were in booth TC20, but we ended up being TC16. TC20 turned into a lounge that quickly became a costume changing room for larger companies such as Sony. All day long people would walk in front of our booth, change clothing and walk out. It was not a major distraction because we had no visitors for them to block, but imagine if we did. As emails kept coming in from customers we told them we were at TC16 on the “Hidden Level”. Many of these customers still could never find us. We actually had more customer emails on Friday than we had visitors to the booth.
Saturday morning arrived and the entire Symbiote team was excited to go to the show. We expected more traffic since it was the weekend. Unfortunately, it was the same situation. Not many made it down and those who did were lost in D&D and either sat and played the awesome D&D red box or turned around and left. We were hidden behind the escalator in the farthest corner behind a larger MSI booth and tables of D&D. There was no cross traffic at all. No one stayed down on our level unless MSI was giving out swag or D&D was starting a tournament. The best thing that happened on Saturday was that we were interviewed by several journalists. I actually received four calls from media we had appointments with asking how to find us. They told me they were at the show and could not find our location. It was funny and sad at the same time.
Sunday morning came and we posted some tweets telling our customers our situation and that it was very hard to find us. We were very complimentary of PAX. We still go on record and say PAX is a great show and anyone would be lucky to attend. We just pointed out that we were stuck in the middle of nowhere and our customers could not find us. Within the hour a goon, we will call him “the Butler” (not his real name), came down and started yelling at us for posting tweets telling customers that it was hard to find us. He then threatened that Tycho from Penny Arcade would blacklist us if we did not stop tweeting about PAX. Anyone can feel free to check our tweets @symbiotestudios. The first rule of PAX is to not be a D$CK, but this was very threatening and offensive to us. Why the goon squad came and attacked us is still a mystery. Who knew you would be attacked for tweeting.
After the goon squad left, visitors picked up a bit. It went from four or five an hour to twenty or so an hour. This must have been because Penny Arcade started announcing the “Hidden Level” existed. We also started walking on the main level with product and sending people to our location. One girl, who was very excited about our Sam and Max statue, took over an hour of searching to find us after we told her about us. The day ended and break down was quick. We left Seattle with mixed feelings.
We would like to state again that PAX is awesome for attendees. If you are in the area or have the funds to fly to the show, we recommend it. The enforcer, guy who volunteered for PAX, on our level was a great guy. He apologized several times for our situation and felt really bad for us. We are sending him some cool swag. The exhibitor placement and the direction of traffic was terrible. Instead of getting refunded or even acknowledged all we received was an angry D$ck yelling at us. Penny Arcade might be a great show for attendees, but it was not great for us as exhibitors.
