Generating interest in a Minnesota Arcade/ Pinball/ Classic Console Expo

Phetishboy

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Generating interest in a Minnesota Arcade/ Pinball/ Classic Console Expo

Is there any interest up this way for one of these? Would anyone be looking to rent a booth to sell or advertise if there was one? A few of us were talking this morning and realized that the only 'collector' get together is the MOMA auction, which is fast and furious, over too quickly and taxes people in ways that make it an unenjoyable get-together. Besides that, I wouldn't refer to the standard MOMA attendees as 'collectors' or even 'human' in many cases. Now we will eventually have to come up with a platform, assistants/ planners, paying vendors/ sponsors, a host city and a venue. But before we do any of that, we need to gauge interest. If there is enough, we'll go from there. This is in the very early stages, so please don't PM me asking for dates or details. Think of it as an interactive pipe dream at this point.
 
I'm sure that there would be interest - whether it would be enough to justify the staggering amount of work, I couldn't say.

I think that the nearest show is probably the Midwest Gaming Classic near Milwaukee.
 
Why not just make it a large get-together and have a swap meet of games, etc. in another area of the building/ facility?
 
Why not just make it a large get-together and have a swap meet of games, etc. in another area of the building/ facility?

That's probably how it will have to start. If I wasn't so far out from the Twin Cities, I'd hold it in my Gayrage at first. We need someone with a warehouse in the Mpls/St. Paul area. Didn't the building the auction was held in get sold this year?
 
I think so. What about the storage facility that Chris is using? Couldn't that become a working venue under the proper permission?
 
Just some suggestions:
1) Start small. Find a venue like a small Mom & Pop motel that will rent a meeting room for next to nothing. Figure out costs if 6-8 of you start it. Don't expect a CAX first time out of the box.
2) Plan about 6 months out for the first one. Yes, it takes that long to get stuff done. Unless one or more of you are unemployed and have nothing better to do.
3) Advertise the heck out of it. Get flyers printed up. Take out cheap ads in local newspapers. Call into radio talk shows. Bug the local TV reporters.
4) Get sponsors. Talk to all of the route operators you can find. Any repair places. Power companies. Promise booth space and exposure.
5) Set up tournaments and raffles.
6) Get speakers/demos. Find a repair guy to show off monitor capping skills, repair a pinball machine or rehab a video game and raffle it off.
7) Expect to lose money the first few years.

Good luck.

ken
 
This is probably why we don't have one up here. Only a few of us Minnesota boys have the skillz to be on the innernets. Well, I may just hold a collector party at the newly christened Blue Galaxy Gameroom within the next month or so. Maybe we'll try to get a think tank together from that gene pool.
 
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