[Deptheads] Dealer Room Update

Tue May 4 00:23:27 PDT 2010

Before posting, I understood the decisions had been made and weren't changing. 
My goal of these post is to update the staff as to my progress and prepare them for the fallout. 
If traffic is down and sales are low you are going to hear from both sides. 

The dealers are going to complain that the positioning sucks and there wasn't any traffic. 
Some especially the new vendors will have to make a decision based on this con; do I come back? 
When I was talking to Battle Foam, Black Army and Game Ogre the first thing that they ask is what is the con population? 
Or more plainly, is it worth my time and money? 

Eric asked me for deeper discounts from the manufactures that I represent (Gryphon, Eagle and Three Sages Games), and I have put in the request. 
I was working off the premise of having some prime high traffic real estate. 
Somehow I doubt they will appreciate lowering the price and seeing less sales, you can't have them both or at least not for long. 

The Guest will continue to complain that the dealers are selling the games at close to full retail. 
And well yes that will probably be true especially if traffic is down, as I said before it's easy to be generous when your doing well. 

Yes, both of us believe that good signage and map in the con book are critical, hopefully the payout station will help. 

You asked, so here is a challenge for you, RJ and I have cut the cost of the dealers room by hundreds of dollars. 
(one less room, replacing the dinner with a lunch, and no alcohol, for all I care you can get rid of the donuts to but apparently it's a well like tradition) 

I challenge this staff to take some of that savings and turn it into dealer dollars but not by increasing the current programs. 

Drive some of the non tournament people back into dealers room. 

When I go down into the bowels of roleplaying or stay up to see who's playing werewolf, "I'VE NEVER SEEN THESE PEOPLE BEFORE!!!!" 
(or at least never in the dealers room) 

It's like going to someone else's con, and this is my 10th or 11th StrategiCon, I should have seen these people. 

Give DD's to the GM's and organizers, give them the authority to pick the best player, have a vote, Rock-Paper-Scissors, I don't care. 

I know these are the cheapest of our guest, but I think getting a little from them is going to be easier that squeezing more out of our board gamers and CCG'ers. 

Monitor it, put little marks on the new programs and see how many come back? 

I may be completely wrong, it wouldn't be the first time, but I believe that it's only fair that you give them some DD's, they paid the same amount to get in as everyone else! 

Think about it, Roleplayers are so cheap that it would give them an ulcer not to spend free money. 

Steve Ong 
Three Sages Games 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tim" <tim at stugiii.com> 
To: deptheads at strategicon.net 
Sent: Monday, May 3, 2010 11:00:24 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific 
Subject: Re: [Deptheads] Dealer Room Update 

The reason we need someone who is a dealer in charge of the dealer's room is precisely because that experience is valuable. The problem with the changing the room was that it meant splitting up the boardgames layout to multiple rooms (and increasing their staff to deal with the increased space). While we might make it work for Gamex, it wouldn't work for Orccon. Rather than moving the dealer's room each con, we all felt that it would make more sense to make the existing location work. Granted you weren't at that meeting and it may be inexperience on our part, but it would seem with clear signage and the payouts taking place right outside the dealer's room, that should keep the traffic up. 

What can we do to make the current location work? 

Tim 
----- Original Message ----- 
From: stevenong at comcast.net 
To: deptheads at strategicon.net 
Sent: Monday, May 3, 2010 10:15:21 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific 
Subject: Re: [Deptheads] Dealer Room Update 

Sorry some of my post got chopped off. 

The guest and people who run this con are the nicest I've ever met and as I told Eric that is a factor why I continue to come down from NorCal. 

But in the end, I'm responsible to my partners and my decision and I would expect other vendors make up their minds completely on cost and work versus profit. 

I don't know what Janice has said in the past, or what RJ will say in the future. 

But, I'm not a politician, I'm rather blunt most of the time. 

I'm not here to argue with anyone. 

I'm not here to change the order of things. 

And lucky for you, I'm only running the dealers room for one con. 

But some of these store owners have had a rough couple of years, I don't see these changes helping, and most importantly some of them are my friends. 

So as long as I'm doing this the vendors will have a voice stating their side. 

Steven Ong 

Three Sages Games. 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: stevenong at comcast.net 
To: deptheads at strategicon.net 
Sent: Monday, May 3, 2010 9:54:00 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific 
Subject: Re: [Deptheads] Dealer Room Update 

When I agreed to do this I was told that decisions were made and that they would not change. 

They did change, and not so much as a courtesy call was made, I find that unprofessional. 

I did not ask for anything to change, I'm stating my opinion. 

As for the last GameX, that really has no bearing on anything. 

We were under the impression that this was a one time deal. 

And if you really want to know my numbers and probably others were down with noticeably lower traffic. 

Not everyone has had the experience of being a dealer. 

I'm stating opinions based on my experience as a manufacture and dealer and as such my decision tree is different than most. 

Each dealer is different, but for the paying and potential new dealers, placement, traffic and the bottom line is really all that counts. 

Who here currently or in the past owns a game store or company? 

The opinions that I'm stating I hope are representative of those stores and manufactures that count the StrategiCon events as part of their yearly income. 

I'm sure you know that some of our dealers are not hobby businesses, but have you considered that this is how they put food on the table, pay their rent, 

or maybe the difference between going on a family vacation or not this year? 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robyn Nixon" <dragonladytoo at trackrecords.net> 
To: deptheads at strategicon.net 
Sent: Monday, May 3, 2010 8:33:29 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific 
Subject: Re: [Deptheads] Dealer Room Update 

Additional security was also discussed: 

    1. The air wall is only goes to the Video game room. 
    2. The Video Game room is Staffed at all times it is open (there is too much expensive electronic equipment to leave it un guarded). 
    3. The Video game room will be locked at any time that it is un-staffed (participants MUST leave the room if Staff need to leave due to breaks, whether restroom or food). 
    4. Therefore there is either a locked door or actual person based security on the air wall side., meaning it is probably the most secure room at the convention. 

On 5/3/10 8:26 PM, "Tim" < tim at stugiii.com > wrote: 

This is where the dealer's room was last Gamex. The airwall door was blocked by the Warhouse's rack, effectively preventing it from being opened from the computer room side. The racks hide it preventing it from being opened from the dealer's room side. Demo's and dealer dollar payouts will be right in front of the dealer's room door, which should facilitate their prompt spending. 

What is the problem with the dealer's room being where it is? 

Tim 

stevenong at comcast.net wrote: 

Dealer Room Status: 

1) I’ve emailed dealer room contracts and room layout to the list Janice gave me plus three others. I have interest from two of the three new vendors 

(1 manufacturer and 1 store). 

Hotel Confirmation: 

1) Hermosa, Malibu and Laguna meeting rooms are 33 feet by 49 feet each, combined room size is 99 feet by 49feet. 

2) The Airwall Door between Malibu and Redondo does not lock. 

Opinion: 

a) I believe the new position of the dealers room is not equivalent to the placement at the Radisson, and will directly effect sales. 

b) If sales drop, dealers will be less inclined to make deals or be generous to our guest and staff. 

c) If sales drop, dealers will evaluate whether or not participation is profitable enough to justify the work. 

(Conquest in Northern California moved to another city and put the dealer room off to one side of the hotel, several dealers including my company decided not participate in the convention) 

d) I suggest that as much signage as possible be produced to offset this possible problem. 

e) I was not consulted on the room move so if anyone ask about the airwall door that doesn’t lock, I will give the following statement. 

“The airwall door doesn’t lock, this was brought to the attention of the owners and staff. They have decided that it’s an acceptable risk.” 

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