Conventions and Expos and Fairs, Oh My!

Back at the end of April, we attended our first ever convention as a company at Calgary’s Comic and Entertainment Expo. It was a blast! The sheer volume of people that moved through the BMO Centre was surreal, with event organizers logging a record-breaking turnout of more than 100,000 attendees over the four days of the show [1]. While the Expo was by no means specific to trading cards or local game stores, we still had a fun and productive time chatting with all the many interested (and often costumed) fans who showed up to engage with their chosen domain of nerdiness.

As we were busy in Calgary, The Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) was hosting their annual GAMA Expo in Reno, Nevada. While we were not able to attend this year (there’s a crazy-long waitlist 😢) our long-time customer and friends at Red Claw Gaming based out of Edmonton, Alberta, ended up winning the Business of the Year (Retail) award, which is very exciting [2]! Hopefully we will be able to attend the next iteration of GAMA Expo when it hosts in Louisville, Kentucky in 2024.

Next on our roadmap: Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio! This will be a much smaller event as compared with the Calgary Expo or GAMA Expo, but Origins is targeted toward game-industry businesses, so it should make for a great networking event. If you happen to be in Columbus between Wednesday, June 21st and Sunday, June 25, please come and say hello!

References

1. T. Fedor, "'Find that sense of belonging': 100K turn out for Calgary Comics and Entertainment Expo," CTV News Calgary, 30 April 2023. [Online]. Available: https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/find-that-sense-of-belonging-100k-turn-out-for-calgary-comic-and-entertainment-expo-1.6377865. [Accessed 31 May 2023].
2. The Game Manufacturers Association, "Power Retailer Awards," The Game Manufacturers Association, 3 May 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.gama.org/page/power-retail-awards. [Accessed 31 May 2023].