Game Shows / Trade Shows?

I went to GenCon a few years ago to talk to a few people about my game with some different companies. Almost all of the companies there only deal with table top war games and pen & paper role playing games. Unfortunatly, I have a more traditional board game with some new twists. The only person that had any interest in my idea was dressed like a Klingon and kind of creeped me out.

On the other hand, I looked into that TGIF event. It seems more based on regular games and has some fairly big companies coming to look for stuff from people like us. I

Having just came back from the show, I can tell you it's definately an event worth attending. As far as getting a signed deal to publish a game, that wasn't the place, but from a designer point of view it was wonderful. Like Gamemaker said, the dealers were there to sell games and push product, not look at submissions, BUT the show was from 9 or 10am to 6pm, and if someone perceptive took the time to notice, most of the exhibitors (people working for the companies) could be found after the show wandering around and gasp...PLAYING games. So I took my prototype and proceeded to setup games at much as possible and suceeded in luring many designers and exhibitors to actually playtest my game! That in my mind was bigger success than a submission, which may or may not get played, signed NDAs, yada, yada, yada. And while it's true that I didn't get any contract offers, I did get insider info, contacts, and new friends inside the industry. Even if you weren't looking to get published at all, I still think any designer who really wants to make their game great should go because you have an inexhaustable supply of playtesters. The simple fact is the hardcore gamers are almost rabid in their desire to play games and try out new things, after the lights start to dim and the light gamers go off to sleep they prowl around the hall looking for anything to keep them occupied and excited, why not your game? People that otherwise would NEVER have played a game like mine sat down and played, women, children, you name it, I played with them. And you never know exactly WHO it is you are playing with, I found out later that a guy I played a game with was an undercover recruiter for Mattel, and although my game isn't exactly "Mattel Material" maybe he knows someone who wants it. You just don't know who you could meet or what the results could be until you attend the show.