Running WoW TCG events at your local Convention

By: Michael Lum

Many of you may have felt the excitement of rolling into a gigantic convention like GenCon. There are so many events and things to buy! If you’re anything like me, your main reason to go is to check out the gaming scene. In our case, that gaming scene is the World of Warcraft TCG.

Sometimes you find out that your local area has a convention somewhere nearby and it doesn’t have the World of Warcraft TCG. We can’t let this slide – we’ve got to start calling attention to our game and getting it out there!

I interviewed Evan Hatch, co-founder of GottaCon, who has embraced the WoW TCG due to popular demand by our local community. This is its fourth year of running events for our game! Maybe with some of the insight Evan shares, you can help convince your local convention organizer to run WoW TCG events.

M) What made you decide to run a convention?

E) The creation of GottaCon all started when the founding partners, all of us ardent convention goers and involved in the gaming industry professionally as well as fans, were inspired into create a broad spectrum gaming convention that everyone could participate in. In October 2006 we began the construction of a comprehensive and professional gaming convention that all gamers on Vancouver Island and the surrounding areas could enjoy for years to come.

M) What made you decide to have WoW TCG events at your convention?

E) The WoW TCG is a very popular game around our area, not to mention around the world, and when you offer a broad spectrum gaming convention you have an obligation to ensure the popular games are present. Also Cryptozoic Entertainment has been very supportive of WoW events at our annual show and with their support we are able to offer quality events.

So, if you were trying to convince your local organizer about running WoW – remind them about the popularity of the game – and how supportive Cryptozoic Entertainment is about conventions!

M) Do you play the WoW TCG yourself? Do you have any experience with the game?

E) Personally I do not as I just don’t have the time to play another game on top of my family, regular work and running the convention. My business partner and co-founder, Carson Upton, does though. My experience with the game extends to a few nights playing with friends as they showed me how it works and from what I experienced it was good game.

M) What is involved in acquiring support for your events? Particularly in the WoW TCG?

E) Acquiring support as a convention from local and or international companies is one of the hardest and most demanding things we do. These companies probably receive hundreds of requests for support each year so you really have to stand out to get noticed. Some of the most important things we have found companies look for is experience, professionalism, reliability, media exposure and high attendee counts. Cryptozoic has been a great supporter of our event for a number of years now, each year they give us events that we make sure run well and that all expectations are met.

M) Do you find that you get personally involved in running your events?

E) Given how fast our convention is growing each year we just can’t get that involved anymore. We find the best people we can that know how to run the events in question and contract their services to deliver quality events to our attendees. As much as I would like to be involved with every little thing it just isn’t realistic anymore.

M) What type of support and events will you be receiving at your convention?

E) It is still pretty early but we have a number confirmed sponsors which include, Cryptozoic (Spectral Kitten Safari) as well as side events. Hopefully we’ll be able to run a regional qualifier as well. Games Workshop, Days of Wonder, Fantasy Flight Games, Wizards of the Coast, Howard Johnson Hotel Victoria, Kingston Memory, Future Shop, Privateer Press, and numerous other local supporters and others we are still in discussions with. Also we haven't announced our major events yet publicly but we will be soon so keep an eye on our website (www.gottacon.com).

M) What has been your attendance levels throughout the last few years at your convention?

E) Our convention has been steadily growing. Here’s our stats for the last three years and this year’s expected attendance.

First show (GottaCon 2009) attendance: 600

Second show (GottaCon 2010) attendance: 900

Third show (GottaCon 2011) attendance: 1100

Anticipated attendance at GottaCon 2012 show: 1300 to 1500

M) What percentage of your attendance, do you believe, has attended at least one trading card game event at your convention?

E) In a single year, I would say between 25 and 30 percent as we run quite a few TCGs.

That concludes our interview with Evan. If you’d like to know more about this convention that takes place in my hometown of Victoria, BC, you can find more details at their web site:

http://www.gottacon.com/

Or you can e-mail Evan directly with some questions at ehatch@gottacon.com.

That’s it for now! Thanks and happy gaming!