So by the way guys Enforcer applications are up, I'm signing up this year on a count that I have shit talked doing it ever year after the first one. Also because I don't have a badge this year but that is another matter entirely.
Today my friend was able to snag a few rooms that opened up at the Residence by Marriott Boston Seaport, across the street from the BCEC. So those of you who are still looking for rooms, don't give up!
aaaaaaaah the indie megabooth people pushed back the date for telling us if we got a booth or not a week. i wouldn't learned about it tommorow otherwise.
I got a call from a Virginia number yesterday. Busy when I called back and no voicemail. Wonder if I missed an Omegathon call? People on twitter saying it was supposed to show up as a blocked number, but who knows.
Right now your best option is to get a SIM card from t-mobile. The data will be crappy if you leave major cities, but you won't. Also the data won't work well in the convention center, but that's true for everybody. Welcome to USA!
Right now your best option is to get a SIM card from t-mobile. The data will be crappy if you leave major cities, but you won't. Also the data won't work well in the convention center, but that's true for everybody. Welcome to USA!
Also, AT&T GoPhone. I don't know about a weekend, but a month is $60 to me. Unlimited talk and text with a 2GB data limit.
I have AT&T and don't remember having too much trouble in the BCEC w/ data connection last year. It does step down to 3G or even the dreaded Edge network at times, but you can get what you need, just a bit slower.
If you're just in the country for a little bit, you'll want a prepaid or pay-as-you-go deal. I think T-Mobile has the best deals for the service you'll get.
Virgin mobile is also a nice choice with 300 minutes and unlimited data and texting for $35. Issue is that you would need to pick up a burner to use it.
I'm in the US for about 2 months and will be on both the East and West coasts. I'll never be outside a major city with the exception of travelling between major cities.
$60 a month is not totally unreasonable! I'll look into that and the T-mobile prepaid. I'm way too heavily reliant on expensive smartphone features to go the burner route, ahaha.
I'm in the US for about 2 months and will be on both the East and West coasts. I'll never be outside a major city with the exception of travelling between major cities.
$60 a month is not totally unreasonable! I'll look into that and the T-mobile prepaid. I'm way too heavily reliant on expensive smartphone features to go the burner route, ahaha.
the $60 a month AT&T go phone is a burner, not a SIM card.
I'm in the US for about 2 months and will be on both the East and West coasts. I'll never be outside a major city with the exception of travelling between major cities.
$60 a month is not totally unreasonable! I'll look into that and the T-mobile prepaid. I'm way too heavily reliant on expensive smartphone features to go the burner route, ahaha.
the $60 a month AT&T go phone is a burner, not a SIM card.
No, that's a sim card for a smart phone. That's the service I use for my nexus 4.
So the expo hall floorplan leaked. No surprises, as expected. The only notable booth that wasn't there last year is Oculus VR, which I would love to try on, but I'm not about to wait in THAT line. Maybe if I get in early for media hour or something it'll be reasonable, but otherwise I can wait.
IIRC (I may be completely wrong), T-mobile coverage in the convention center was spotty, but not terrible. $30/month (cheaper if you buy minutes on ebay), "Unlimited" 5GB data before throttling, unlimited texts, 100 min calls.
Actually I DON'T recall seeing a Firefall booth when I gave the floorplan a quick over. Haha maybe that's how Oculus got room in Expo.
The only other thing I noticed was the back-and-forth shuffle of whether tabletop companies want the publicity of being in main expo, or prefer to be in Tabletop where they can get more after-hours attention. Greater Than Games (the Sentinels guys) moved from TT to main Expo. I also didn't see an FFG booth, though I thought they were supposed to be back this year. If so, it must be in TT. They've done both in the past.
Actually I DON'T recall seeing a Firefall booth when I gave the floorplan a quick over. Haha maybe that's how Oculus got room in Expo.
The only other thing I noticed was the back-and-forth shuffle of whether tabletop companies want the publicity of being in main expo, or prefer to be in Tabletop where they can get more after-hours attention. Greater Than Games (the Sentinels guys) moved from TT to main Expo. I also didn't see an FFG booth, though I thought they were supposed to be back this year. If so, it must be in TT. They've done both in the past.
FFG seems to put all their effort into GenCon, and doesn't seem to care too much about PAX. Normally I wouldn't care, but now they have suddenly become the most important company in tabeltop gaming for me, so...
Their booths were pretty small in 2011 and 2013, only sending a 2-man demo crew and such. The only reason they didn't come last year was because of an overlap with the GAMA trade show, which is a must-do event for every tabletop publisher. It's a private con with game store owners where a ton of their orders are put in and represents a good chunk of their business.
Last time I spoke with FFG they were saying how they understand PAX is bigtime for tabletop now, but I still would not expect anything more than the 2-man demo crew with some tables.
Their booths were pretty small in 2011 and 2013, only sending a 2-man demo crew and such. The only reason they didn't come last year was because of an overlap with the GAMA trade show, which is a must-do event for every tabletop publisher. It's a private con with game store owners where a ton of their orders are put in and represents a good chunk of their business.
Last time I spoke with FFG they were saying how they understand PAX is bigtime for tabletop now, but I still would not expect anything more than the 2-man demo crew with some tables.
You know, when more than one person works at your company, you can be in more than one place at a time? SHOCKING.
They should definitely have a presence in both places, I agree. It's a dumb decision to skip PAX, so I'm not presenting a defense, but rather where their logic is faulty. The physical booth setup itself can be very expensive. Companies tend to package that up to ship around from con-to-con, using it for years until it's worn out. They also run a very tight payroll and don't have many public-facing employees. These should be non-factors but I guarantee they play into the decision of which cons to attend.
I'm starting to do booths at events and shows for various things... I guarantee that the above factors are big considerations for any company.
In paintball a lot of times we have to choose one event out of many going on in a given month, and going usually costs more than the return in sales but does a lot to boost exposure. It is always fun, sometimes leads to great new contacts, and usually is a chance to hang out and have some adventure. But we have a hard time figuring out which events are most worth the effort.
In light aviation, our choices are much easier, there's maybe 4-5 major events a year with months between them.
I would have a hard time between GAMA and PAX. Both is better, but if there can only be one, which yields the better market mix?
No. Last year the new Es did not hear back until around Feb 7th, and PAX was a few weeks earlier that year, so I def wouldn't expect it to have happened yet.
I probably won't even be going to PAX Prime this year, or maybe for one day to play some boardgames. I'm tired of things on the floor, none of panels are really interesting anymore, and I'd rather just go eat good food and listen to music at Bumbershoot then deal with huge lines to stuff.
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stress brain eating bleeeeeeeh
Ideally I'd want lots of data but I'm told data is very expensive over there...?
$60 a month is not totally unreasonable! I'll look into that and the T-mobile prepaid. I'm way too heavily reliant on expensive smartphone features to go the burner route, ahaha.
The only other thing I noticed was the back-and-forth shuffle of whether tabletop companies want the publicity of being in main expo, or prefer to be in Tabletop where they can get more after-hours attention. Greater Than Games (the Sentinels guys) moved from TT to main Expo. I also didn't see an FFG booth, though I thought they were supposed to be back this year. If so, it must be in TT. They've done both in the past.
Last time I spoke with FFG they were saying how they understand PAX is bigtime for tabletop now, but I still would not expect anything more than the 2-man demo crew with some tables.
In paintball a lot of times we have to choose one event out of many going on in a given month, and going usually costs more than the return in sales but does a lot to boost exposure. It is always fun, sometimes leads to great new contacts, and usually is a chance to hang out and have some adventure. But we have a hard time figuring out which events are most worth the effort.
In light aviation, our choices are much easier, there's maybe 4-5 major events a year with months between them.
I would have a hard time between GAMA and PAX. Both is better, but if there can only be one, which yields the better market mix?