Geekway After Action Report

It’s taken me a few days to muster the wherewithal to report on Geekway mostly due to the enormity of the con itself. It was exhausting and thrilling and eye-opening — Geekway to the West was flat out extraordinary.

How many thousands? Thousands of board gamers filtered through the tiny vending area. The populace of this con was really fun too — curious, inquisitive, insightful people. Board gamers are the best — even if they don’t wear as many ears and tails as the cosplayers of Visioncon. It was a pleasure to share the wheel with all these attendees and again, my fellow vendors were universally generous with advice and suggestions for product design as well as retail strategy. I am grateful for the Geekway experience and all the people I met. My neighbors at Foam Brain Games, the designer of Ghosts Betwixt whose name I can’t summon right now, and Roger from Ohio who created the Dungeon Crusades game — these were my immediate neighbors and I hope to run into them again at some future convention. The vending life might not be as disreputable as carnival barking, but it’s just as glamorous.

My only regret was that the vending life kept me from playing games. With envy I listened to tales of all-night gaming sessions, and how the attendees would rise early for more. It wasn’t until Sunday after 3 o’clock that I actually had a chance to try a game. My daughter and I selected “Root” from the Geekway library, mostly figured out how to play before giving up with fatigue. It wasn’t until yesterday that we were able to pick it up at the Miniature Market on Manchester to finish what we’d started. Love that game.

I’ve got one more con on my schedule for the summer, then I will shift into other marketing avenues. Maybe a few tweaks could help me into local retail or maybe a Kickstarter. We’ll see.