I assume a larger venue is called for, with more pins on the floor?
For me the dinner seemed to go well and would be worth doing again. The biggest disappointment in regards to the dinner was that Alan Tate didn't speak about his plans for the pinball museum; I enjoyed everything else (OK, the trivia just proved I don't know much about pinball history...). The food was of good quality for the dollars paid and the price was low enough not to exclude anyone who wished to attend.
A larger range of vendors would be great if it can be arranged. My understanding was that last time around other dealers were excluded from selling pins off the floor (presumably to assist with the auction) and so some dealers did not think it worthwhile attending?
The auction didn't bother me (apart from its timing) as I can understand that for the first time organisers the event was a big financial risk. I don't think the auction really drew out top dollar from the crowd except for a couple of titles that always do so. As to the timing, in my opinion it should have been held last as once the auction was over the machines were no longer available to play and people who attended the Expo post-auction had nothing to do, really (and it was advertised as finishing up at 5pm - the auction finished around 2pm or 3pm I think).
I was pleased to be able to assist AP with promotion of the forum at the Expo and apart from one individual who wanted to have a go at me about AP there was a good feeling between members of the different forums. We all have pinball in common, and I do think pinball was the winner with the amount of publicity that was generated for the hobby. I was particularly impressed by how much coverage was able to be generated in the media.
It would be worthwhile to think about drawcards for the event; having a couple of big-name speakers in a separate seminar room might help; maybe having a door prize of a pinball machine could be a winner if permits could be arranged (for example, you could have 5 machines and the door prize winner picks a coin door key out of 5 - whichever machine the key fits is theirs); but I guess overall people came last time because they could play pinball and talk pinball.
May seemed to be a good month of the year last time weather wise (not too hot, not too cold).
