"ORIGINS moving 2012 dates" Topic

Since moving to Columbus, ORIGINS has always been held at the end of June, beginning of July. Today GAMA announced that starting next year, the dates are moving to the end of May.

I can't help but wonder how this will effect families with children in school, or Educators themselves. I assume some schools will still be in session until June…….

Below is the official GAMA announcment:

Origins Fans,

We have some great and important news about Origins and the schedule for the future. We are moving the dates earlier in the year, starting in 2012. Our new dates are:

May 30 – June 3, 2012
May 29 – June 2, 2013

I am really excited about the move. I have been coming to Origins as an attendee for more than 10 years before I became the Executive Director of GAMA. (Spending almost all my time as a GM & playing RPG's in the Hyatt) Origins is a great event and a time that we enjoy meeting with new friends and old while playing games we love.

We know it's the convention where you actually play games, and we intend to keep Origins that way. It's also always been a family-friendly event. I have been bringing my own children to the show for more than 5 years. As the Executive Director and a father, I promise that we will always be a family friendly event.

You, our attendees, have made Origins a success. We're watching our attendance numbers grow each year. 2011 is the second year in a row that the Exhibitor floor has sold out before the event! Because of your support we've been able to add programs like the Author and Game Designer seminar tracks, expand the art show and artist seminar track. We run thousands of events each year and have been forced to expand our event schedules because so many companies want to run games for you at our show.

There are two main reasons we want to let you know about these changes. First, and most important, we want you to have a full year to plan for your attendance at the show. A lot of folks operate on automatic pilot and we don't want you to miss the show by planning for a June trip when we've moved to May.

The second reason is the most important: we want to make sure you understand what the move means for you. Our move into May has allowed us to cut hotel costs for our attendees—both gamers and exhibitors. With more money in your pockets, you can afford to buy more of those games you get to try at Origins. With having to spend less money to get to the show and stay, companies can afford to bring more staff to run even more events. The move to May means we're ahead of the prime travel season, resulting in lower gas prices and airline tickets.

As we looked at making these changes, I consulted with our Board and Sponsors. We did acknowledge that some schools may not yet have let students go for the summer, and this was a concern. Attempting to account for school schedules when you're drawing fans from throughout the nation is an impossible task—and all the planning in the world collapses when a string of snow days adds class time to the end of the school year. The reason we wanted to give you a year's notice on the changes was so you could more easily make arrangements to fit Origins into your schedule.

We also had to keep in mind the fact that the summer is full of conventions which game manufacturers find very important. Origins has traditionally been the lead-off event for summer gaming. Moving into May allows manufacturers to attend and have time to recover between shows like San Diego Comic-Con, Gen Con and Dragon*Con. By moving earlier in the year, Origins is positioned to get you the new games sooner, so you can enjoy them longer.

Aside from the years when Gen Con and Origins were run concurrently, we've always maintained a six week gap between shows. Most people think that we all get to simply select our dates, but when you have a city wide event like Origins or Gen Con, we really are given limited options as to what the venue, the hotels and the city can support. Because Gen Con has to work around events in Indianapolis like the Brickyard 500 and the opening of the NFL pre-season, in 2015 their dates got pushed forward to July 30-August 2; and that started us looking for dates earlier in the year, so we could maintain the historical gap.

As we looked at the last week of May, we wanted to see what kind of impact that would have on our attendees. In this economy, we are committed keeping your costs and expenses down while you are joining us for a fun weekend. Here is what we found:

The end of May date let us bargain hard with our hotel partners. In 2012 we got the price at the Hyatt Regency down to $125 USD a night, a savings of $100 USD if you're with us for all five nights of the convention.
We know that travel costs are a big part of any budget. End of May means we avoid the higher summer gasoline prices and airfares, making it more economical for you to come to Origins.
Our companies appreciate the earlier lead time for marketing their new releases and enhancing their presence at Origins in their plans to release and market games for the summer.
Origins attendees have long been known to be tastemakers within gaming communities. The new games that they bring back with them become the hits of the summer, which is why companies use Origins to introduce their best new games to you.
And the best part of all; if we help you save money on the things you have to spend money on, it gives you more money to spend on the things you want to spend money on at the show.

While we know we can't please everyone—especially those folks who resist change simply because they don't like change—this move is very important to continuing to make Origins the premiere gaming event of the summer. We have more ideas—more cost saving ideas—that we'll be letting you know about after we recover from Origins 2011.

We thank you for being part of our Origins family.

John

I actually like this, it no longer competes with the family 4th of July vacations.

Nor competition with Historicon.

You'll always clash with something whatever you do !

I like it. I have only been able to make one Origins due to conflicts. No conflicts for me at the end of May.

Selfish aren't I?

Tom

What the H E Double tooth picks?!?!!?…

Dear Origins…
Sorry, you just lost me to your con.

Memorial Day Weekend?…
That weekend I always have more important plans, and it doesn't involve gaming….

Sorry but I am VERY dissappointed at this…Seems that Origins decided to go for the "Memorial Day Fun Time" instead of honoring "The Real Reason"…

I guess it's just Gen-con for me as of next year….

*sigh*

Murphy

I like it. Less conflict with July 4th weekend and bigger gap between it and Historicon. WINNER!

Murph, is Memorial Day that weekend? I thought it's the weekend before?

Great Lakes….

link

2011
Actual Memorial Day: May 30 Monday
Memorial Day Observed: Same (May 30 Monday)

2012
Actual Memorial Day: May 30 Wednesday
Memorial Day Observed: May 28 Monday

2013
Actual Memorial Day: May 30 Thursday
Memorial Day Observed: May 27 Monday

There will be ceremonies on both dates I reckon….

Enfilade has been on Memorial Day weekend for 10+ years. We do OK.

I don't know how this is going to affect Enfilade attendance, but given a choice, I'm heading to Enfilade.

Well, its an improvement for me. The current dates always seem to fall on the same weekend as the RailFest in Dayton. This way it falls right between S Spree and RailFest. Guess I need to plan for more time off in the May-June timeframe.

It does compete with the end of the school year and many, many, many commencement/graduation services. I think this move will hurt the "family" and "teen" markets. I support GAMA in their choice but I don't agree with it. I also understand their decision but I don't like it. Personally, I'll have to find a babysitter for my three girls so I can attend, exhibit, and GM.

I can't win. There are 4 weekends that are a problem for me to get free for conventions, the weekend after X-mas, the weekends that Drums and Advance the Colors usually fall on in mid-May and mid-September, and my wedding anniversary, which will now fall during Origins.

Three great cons, all within relatively short driving distance, and none of them falling on the 48 weekends a year that I can likely get free. What are the odds?

I was thinking about going next year, but this shoots that idea down.

Bummer Bob. Yes, "teachers" will also be affected by this move. I guess GAMA will have less free Teacher Hall Passes to give out.

Well generally I would think that increasing the gap from Historicon would be good.. Plus being farther from the 4th of July…

However the fact that many schools are not out for the summer yet should be a concern?

Golden rule- You never drop an event on top of a holiday:(

You will see a pretty good decrease in the number of young people still in school and the parents that bring them.

Trying to spin the cheaper gas than in the summer is s abig strecth- Memorial Day weekend is a very large increase in fuel prices every year. Gas jumped .30 cents throughout town yesterday in anticiaption of the Holiday.

If they were looking to save money at the venue instead of booking a weekend no other group wanted they should have condensed the show from the three large rooms down to two. That's all they need anyways.

When you know Dervel is not all GaGa about an Origins announcement- You have a problem:)

Well fox, GaGa not exactly something I get at my age…However, I do like this event.

I do not think they have an option to drop the hall since 1. They have the entire place rented, and 2. What else can squeeze in while they are there (who would want too?)…

Plus having the extra space in the miniatures room is kind of cool. Not sure I would vote to give it up.

The change does not effect me much (my kids are college age and older now – both are attending this year), but typically there are a lot of school age kids there that I believe would still be in school?

While I have to agree with you dropping any convention on or too near a holiday seems unwise at best. I would think that the bigger concern here is starting the convention before kids are out of school. It is a 5 day convention, and this would limit some to the weekend only?

They have pretty good attendance data. I hope they know what they are doing.

I just put in for time off during that time for 2012. Doesnt bother me a bit if there are less kids there. It will be the first Origins for me. Looking for a big summer event to have some fun at. I am as much a board gamer now as a miniature gamer so I think this will work well.

Something else to remember, GAMA is the non-profit trade organization for the industry, and they try to support manufacturers and ALL gaming conventions. Yes, the people who run Origins also try to help out other conventions, and try to not compete with other shows as much as possible. It's a difficult goal, but they do what they can.

GenCon had to move up earlier in the year due to events in Indy, GAMA moved Origins earlier to help them out and the vendors that hit both shows. This will also help the spacing for Historicon.

Cheaper hotel rooms is a bonus, not having kids out of school yet is not a bonus. GAMA did the best they could to help out the hobby, which is their stated goal.

Steve Smith
Miniatures Director, Origins '11

I am not thrilled about the date change either. My son and I usually try to attend one or more days on Thursday and Friday. Next year that will be impossible for him. Its hard enough to keep young people in the hobby with excluding them from major events.

Actually as a vendor that goes/displays to all three I really like the additioanl gap- HOWEVER, the single most important factor for a vendor is customers.

Look we are not just talking about kids(which are attached to an attending family member or two) we are also talking college students. No way either group is coming up just for Sat/sun. AND we are talking about family commitments over a holiday weekend. For some a very big deal.

Shows can be a fragile thing- they do not like change. Most cannot survive a bad year and what we could have is a bust in 2012 attendance and then a mass exoduse of vendors for 2013(we do not like to loose money-sad but true). And then Poof!

I guess the Hotel thing is accurate but if you go to the 2011 Origins website the Hyatt Regency is 130.00 a night so the savings of 5.00 a night for next years move I feel does not help cover the very real risk of Memorial weekend(just an opinion)

There are plenty of conventions that share the same time slot and venue- it actually happens often. As far as who else would want the extra room that would be the Columbus Convention Centers problem not GAMAs Since they made an announcment about the next 2 years it sure looks to me like they negotiated a new contract and if so that is when they probably should have said boys we need to cut our cost and one obvious way to me is 2 not 3 rooms. That show will fit just fine in 2 rooms- We could go without it(save money) and go lets say the second weekend in June? I fully understand there is plenty of speculating in this paragraph…..

Let me be clear!!! I am absolutely not wishing this show any ill will-actually the total opposite-it is the shortest drive of any of the 8 shows I attend and is very affordable, oh and is run by a very professional bunch(not just saying that- they have very much impressed me) As a vendor I am concerned about one thing only- CUSTOMERS!!!

Steve- I am not trying to start a fight but as far as moving to Memorial weekend because they are an oganization that is doing what is best for the hobby by doing what is best for Gencon-???? :)

FYI-I would say they dropped a pretty good size anvil on Nashcons head:)

In my opinion-like all organizations(and they are a very good one) they are trying to do what is best for them and trust me when I say this "I also hope they know what they are doing" :>

Folks attending Origins can walk down the street to Marcon too. For the Sci-Fi and fantasy crowd, this wil be an added bonus.

One too many times the Columbus Gay Pride Parade was the same weekend?

That's right-Marcon

- sadly that may have been the poof I heard-

By the way, just so everyone is clear, this is the weekend after Memorial Day weekend.

fox, I am not seeing anything negative in your comments. Just facts and reasonable opinions so far.

And as you already pointed out I would be the first to comment if I did .. I think Steve is pointing out that they have a lot of factors to balance, true.

Convention scheduling is no picnic… and the only thing you can be sure of is that somebody will be unhappy. We have pages of that on this site alone to prove it.

Technically it is the weekend after Memorial day weekend as Dave points out. Memorial weekend is Monday and the con starts on Wednesday.

I do think the biggest issue is that Origins is heavily attended by school age kids. And as you point out they do not attend alone (the wallets come with them).

We will just have to see how it goes. I am already geared up for this year, and started packing up the games.

Duly noted.

It's the weekend following Memorial Day Weekend which means everyone gets Monday before off… then possibly go to work for a day or two and then go to Origins? Or take your vacation for the whole week?

I still think not having as many kids, families, and teachers there because the school year is still in session is going to be a huge blow to vendors and game attendance.

And Marcon felt the pressure and is moving to Easter weekend next year… which is most certainly a poor move for them.

And a bright note, AnCon (www.anothergamecon.com) that normally runs the weekend before Memorial Day is taking Origins dates for the next two years. I can personally vouch for this show and would love to see more vendors and games run.

Hard for me to attend this as a family event when my kid is still in school, but I'm sure they know what they're doing.

Honestly-It may just be me. The more my hair turns gray the more I react in a negative way to change. I HATE CHANGE:(

2 years ago, regardless of a bad economy, all three of the big summer shows were very solid- then:

-Last year H'con and the new move- some people upset, attendance down:(
-This year they duck a big bullet and get the space they really needed at the last minute, thank goodness:)
-Next year who knows what/when/where/how:/
I feel for them/us

This Year I heard Gencon is moving the vendor hall to the back room that they used for gaming last year(construction issue)- no longer the prime spot and a pretty good walk. Hope they get the traffic flow right and I hope that it does not hurt sales:(

Next year lots of change for the big three- worry, worry, worry!

Wait a minute- Big personal breakthrough- I may have discovered possible answer to source of previously mentioned gray hair:) Darn you TMP!

Hello Everyone,

The Origins Game Fair in 2012 and 2013 has moved to the weekend after Memorial Day. Each show will be the last couple of days in May and the first weekend of June.

Steven Verdoliva
GAMA Sales Director

To foxfoxfox Gen Con Exhibition Hall is in the brand new expansion right by the new entrance to the ICC in Halls I, J, and K. In years past the Hall had been ABCD, those halls will not be used this year. I've been in the new hall and it is outstanding so attendees will really enjoy it.