This is part three in a series breaking down our process as first-time exhibitors. This section addresses set-up, pack-down, and overview of each day.
The Convention itself
We arrived on Thursday morning, and started setting up at midday, the appointed time that PAX had assured us our space would be available for us. It was…but we were lucky. If our table had been on the other side of the poster, we would have had to wait another three hours before those tables were provided.
Setting up took way longer than we expected. If like our booth buddies you are only bringing your game, this probably won’t be the case, but we had anticipated an hour or two and took closer to five. That was fine though, we had all afternoon. By the end of the day, our booth was ready for its close-up.
Friday opens at 9am for media, and then 10am for general visitors. As an exhibitor, you are expected to be there when the hall opens, so we had an early start on Friday, but as a small creator we weren’t on anyone’s media radar and basically had that first hour to ourselves.
The rest of Friday was a whirlwind of activity, and we were snowed under with very welcome attention. By 6pm we were in dire need of a break/clock off. This occurred again on Saturday, and then once again on Sunday.
One thing to note here is that the tabletop hall stays open until 11pm. As much as it would have been nice to have run a few more playtests in those hours, we really needed some time off by that point – which means our booth needed to be ‘closed down’. We did this by buying a second tablecloth (plain, thick black cotton) to drape over everything, and used our tablecloth clips to fasten it in place. Then we left our flyers and a ‘vote for us’ competition QR code on top, collected all our tech in our backpacks, and could walk away.
Finally Sunday evening came around, and at 6pm all visitors are invited to leave the hall as PAX is over. Bring your high-vis clothing this day or you too will be invited to leave. There was a general sigh of happy relief around the indie showcase tables at this moment, I think we all felt deeply grateful for the experience and also totally exhausted. This was almost our first chance to socialise with our booth buddies as we all packed up our various booths. What lovely people! We got on great!
Packing up took much less time than setting up. All our items were in boxes within less than an hour, we headed off for dinner, then brought the car around to the loading bays and about ten minutes later everything had been stuffed higgledy-piggledy into the car. Success!
Things to note:
- Give yourself enough time to set up.
- Make sure you know what hours you need to be there, and how to secure your property while you’re away.
- Be prepared that a successful convention might mean not getting to see the convention.
- High-vis on the first and last day.
Now to the interesting stuff…
For setting up, bring high-vis
The Aethermon PAX staff – assistant Fil, game dev Chris, and creative director Sarah
One of our many lovely playthrough groups
