I thought I post my experience in the USA Pinball Expo 2010. I arrived first in L.A for a couple of days where I caught up with some relatives and stayed in the centre of Hollywood only a few minutes away from the Main Attractions such as Kodak Theatre, Grauman's Chinese Theatre and too many other attractions to name.
After a couple of days of LA I left for Chicago which is approx 4 hour flight, from there I went straight to the Westin where I stayed for 5 days and where the expo was held. This ended up been a good decision because it was a beautiful hotel and gave me the flexibility as my room was only minutes away from where all the action was. The Wednesday was mainly just setting up and then there was dinner later like a buffet style for the opening night. Fred Young did some character voices that entertained us for a little while and then we had some guy sing for a little as well. I sat on the same table as Greg(RTBB), James(Pinball Inc) and some other guys which where really nice as well.
The following morning we lined up to go to the Stern Factory where they had yellow school buses waiting for us. The trip took approx 30 to 40 minutes from the hotel, it gave us a chance to see some of the sites along the way. Arriving at the Stern Factory we where greeted by Gary Stern who gave us a little talk on the direction of stern. We where then separated in small groups for the tour, our guide was Jody Dankberg who is in charge of Media and press. Jody was very informative and gave us a real inside on the stern factory which was buzzing with multiple machines in production. Pinballs like Iron man, Dark Knight, Spiderman and Avatar. The factory was full of workers and the confidence of stern was a lot higher than last year with no machines in production. Stern where loading container after container of pinballs that where getting ready to be shipped to the local market as well as the International Market including Australia. The tour lasted approx 30 mins and before exiting we where all given an Avatar toy and some other little gifts.
After Getting back to the Hotel there was an hour break before the first seminar started with Gary Stern. The seminar room was quite large and fit everybody quite comfortably and they also had water and popcorn on hand as most seminar went for approx 1 hr. After that is was wave after wave of speakers which is highlighted in the pinball expo web site. I went to most seminars as I enjoyed that the most to hear and meet some of the people within the pinball industry. One of the highlights of the seminars was when they had Larry DeMar moderating some of the legends of bally/williams designers. This seminar went for approx 3 hours and it was chock full of great stories including our own Cameron Silver stories.
Later that night at approx 6pm the main hall opened where all the exhibitors set up there stands and tables, this was quite a sight with so many parts and pinball machines for sale and exhibit. Once you walk away from the entrance there was another room full of pinball machines which where set up on free play. Some where for sale and others for exhibit, there was approximately 80 to 100 pinballs in this room and you could not even hear anything but the pinballs themselves. The rooms where appropriately lit for the maximum effect and light shows on the pinballs.
The following day was more of the same with various tournaments been staged on modern pinballs and classics, as well as different divisions A, B as well as women and children. Saturday was a great day with Autograph sessions with some of the speakers of last few days as well as the buffet dinner with speaker Python Angelo who was a charismatic speaker who had us captivated with his outrageous speech. I was on the same table as fellow Australian's Michael Shalhoub, Dan and Craig Koschel, it was great to see Michael Shalhoub inducted in the hall of fame. There was also a dress up as your favourite pinball.
This pretty much wraps up what went on at the pinball expo which is really a condensed version before I flew to LA for a couple more days and dropped into Universal Studios which was great. I also included some photos as well.
