I just got back from the GAMA Trade Show in Las Vegas on Friday. I finally have my head screwed mostly back on, and I'm ready to report in. Here's what happened.

I showed up on Monday and raced off to a seminar I was supposed to be at, only to find it was delayed an hour. The seminars had many problems. First, they ran three times each with many during show floor hours. This meant that kind souls like myself who volunteered to help with a couple panels found themselves running three times as many events at inconvenient times. Fortunately, Seth (my loyal boothmate) covered for me well and enough of the seminars were unattended that I wasn't gone too much. The GAMA staff assured me that this year was an experiment and that they'd make changes for the future.

One lucky aspiring writer managed to get Mike Stackpole and me to himself for an in an otherwise empty seminar slot. Mike and I spent the full hours answering the guy's questions and giving him assorted pointers. Later we joked that anywhere else he'd have had to have paid $1,000 for the same kind of treatment.

The seminars, registration area, and banquets were held in the same old part of the hotel, while the show floor was in the new arena, a long hike away. It was at least a 10-minute walk--if you hustled. This shouldn't be a problem next year, as the show will move to the Riviera.

Some people complained about the Riviera before the show, but once we got there, I didn't hear many grumbles. First, there's the fact that the Riviera has enough space for seminars, banquets, registration, and expo floor all in one area. Second, a number of companies got stuck up in the arena's mezzanine, the interior walkway around the stadium seating, halfway up the arena. To get to the main floor, you were supposed to go up the escalator to the mezzanine, then walk down the stairs to the main floor. Most of us realized you could cut out the up-and-down by slipping outside and coming into the arena through the exterior doors, so few people made it up to the mezzanine. Those companies stuck up there (like Pokemon USA) surely won't mind being in the Riviera next year instead.

Our booth was in the rear corner of the arena's loading dock. While that sounds rough, it wasn't all that bad. We were in good company, and I don't think many people--if any--missed coming back to see us at all. At least we weren't in the mezzanine.

Better yet, many of the booths in the main arena were on a platform standing over the ice rink. Before and after the expo hours, when there were fewer people around, it got chilly in there. Our only hazard was being next to the door through which the smokers slipped out to execute their habits. Just more traffic for us.

The show itself went well. We talked to lots of people and told them all about our products. Green Ronin co-hosted the Tuesday breakfast banquet, and in their PowerPoint presentation they announced our publishing deal, along with Dracula's Revenge and our next upcoming boardgame. Everyone I talked with was excited about this and happy to hear they'd be able to get our products through all the major distributors.

Everyone I told about our plans for new games seemed excited. Many people told me they'd be able to sell a lot of Dracula's Revenge. They all loved the cover posters we had on display in our booth, especially the roleplaying game we're working on for this fall.

There seemed to be fewer d20 companies stumping around. A number of them had made deals with larger publishers over the past year or simply faded away. I saw some small company presidents helping out at other booths. They ran around doing business when not shilling for someone else. Pinnacle wasn't there (on purpose), but there were few other notable absences.

Boardgames seem to be on the rise. Lots of companies are promising them this year, maybe as a means of avoiding the d20 hangover. None of the retailers I talked with mentioned a glut though. Instead, many of them were excited about being able to push and sell a more stable and varied product lineup.

Jon Leitheusser invited Seth and me to the WizKids breakfast, although he couldn't find any leftover Galactuses (Galacti?) for us. We ate in the larger of the two showrooms from last year (Hall A), and it was packed. The show has skyrocketed since it first came back to Vegas. That year, all the exhibitors fit into just a part of that one hall.

I left Vegas on the Thursday night red-eye and made it back to Wisconsin safe and sound. Overall, it was a great show, and I'm looking forward to all the conventions coming up this summer and to GTS 2005.