GTS 2009: Friday - Wrap-up and Lessons Learned

Friday, April 17th

Friday morning I checked out and got another ham, egg, and cheese croissant (there was no GAMA continental breakfast this morning). I hung out in the mostly-disassembled space near the GAMA registration area while waiting to take the airport shuttle home. I saw Cthulhu Bob one more time. He told me about a game idea he has (it's a clever Cthulhu game with good competitive/collaborative dynamics) and got to say good-bye. On the airport shuttle, I got to talk to Jeremy from Bucephalus Games. Although I desperately wanted to talk more about the games I pitched to him, I was totally mellow and did not do so. Instead, we just talked about general stuff. Mostly it was about traveling, the industry, and how nice it'll be to get home.

On the plane (Southwest) back to Austin, I sat next to an older woman (70s?) named Maggie. We shared thoughts about politics, social issues, the environment, the world, and gardening. It was a very pleasant conversation. During the flight, I got a good look at the Grand Canyon. I also spotted someone across the aisle reading CthulhuTech. He was probably with Steve Jackson Games. Near the very end of the flight, one of the crew members came to the front of the plane and did an Elvis impersonation. He sang shortened versions of "In the Ghetto" and "Viva Las Vegas" with crowd participation. Turns out that he's an airline attendant three days of the week and a Elvis impersonator in Las Vegas two days of the week. Yes, I have a camera phone picture. Sad thing is that it's probably very, very blurry.

Arrived in one piece to a rainy Austin day. Car was fine. Came home and hugged my Sweetie.

Lessons learned (or reinforced):
* Make better one-sheets. Make them look like real sell sheets that a publisher would use. Learned from Bamboozle-Jay.
* Be friendly, direct, polite, and fearless. Approach publishers with respect for their time. Do not fear rejection.
* Use a wheeled carrying case. My bright yellow satchel was good branding, but killed my shoulders and back.
* Always have business cards. I did, but I met some who did not.
* Write contextual cues on the back of business cards you receive as soon as you get them. Write contextual cues on the back of the business cards you hand out - if you can, do this before you introduce ourself to your target. I do this, and it's amazingly helpful.
* Do your research before you pitch. I did this with Playroom games (picking games that use components that they already use, picking games that fill holes in their product lines, picking games that match their general M.O.), and it worked very well.
* Bring two pairs of shoes or suffer the consequences. The same is true for an array of shirts, pants, and band-aids.
* Bring your cell phone and its charger.

Funny trivia facts: I removed every non-essential item from my wallet before the show and stuffed it with business cards. I gave away every business card I had in my wallet, and didn't have to apologize for not having a business card to give. In other words, I had *exactly* the number of cards I needed. That was fortuitous. A similar, but much less notable piece of trivia: My car in Austin is parked in row C7. My departing gate from Las Vegas to Austin is C7.