TGIFCon?

Could I express my incredulity without sounding like I’m just trying to be a naysayer or something?

TGIF wants $1,400.00 just to register for their conference! Add to that hotel, airfare, meals, and all the other costs of exhibiting. It sounds like a lot to spend on a very long shot, to me.

Does anyone have any figures for attendance versus how many people actually come away from these things with a publishing contract in hand?

TGIFCon - $1400 (£800) for a long shot? Are you suggesting that you think this is some sort of exploitative rip-off? Just look at a few of the threads on this forum about “agents” and what they promise. What they cost, and what they deliver. You are often talking ‘thousands’ for assessment and prototypes – and min 40% of your royalties if your ‘baby’ is licensed.

I have no brief for the organiser of the TGIFCon, Carol Rehtmeyer – but I think you are being grossly unfair.

Setarcos asks – “Does anyone have any figures for attendance versus how many people actually come away from these things with a publishing contract in hand?” For goodness sake – nobody comes away with contracts. The best you can hope for is to show your “invention” to senior executives of four major companies in the toy and games business, for them to like you – and what you show them, and for them to want to take things further with you. That will mean you will have shaken their hands, you will have been given their personal business cards, you will have been asked to get in touch with them or send things to them, and you will be on first name terms.

So, if you are right, and you have something that the toy and game business wants - you have achieved the impossible. That is, the “impossible” made possible by Carol Rehtmeyer and her team at the TGIFCon.

What more do you expect? Are you like some of the awful contestants of “American Idol” who think that turning up should guarantee success?

Of course, there is a lot more to the conference than “one-on-one” meetings. To clear up a couple of points – the covered tabletop for presenting your game is free and several meals are included in the price.

Let me say that, at last year’s conference, at no time did I feel “ripped off”.

Hello Setarcos – I think there has been a misunderstanding, so let’s sort it out.

Super-ape started this thread. Unless I am mistaken he has a mainstream, family game that he is trying to bring to a mass-market one way or the other. He asked if anybody had any experience of TGIF. Well, I happened to go to the conference last year and posted a couple of first hand observations that might be useful to anybody thinking about going. I made no recommendation. In fact, I hope you agree that the message was almost cautionary in parts. I also made further statements of fact – that you meet nice people at the conference, and my wife and I had a great time.

Now you, as far as I understand it, have no experience of the conference. Yet you expressed your “incredulity” that TGIF wants $1400 just to register for the conference. You said it sounded like a lot to spend on a long shot.

Having used the word “incredulity” I asked if you thought it was some sort of exploitative rip off – that was a question using my own words. At no time did I put any words into your mouth.

You also queried how many people leave with publishing contracts in hand. I answered that point directly, and at length, because I thought it betrayed extreme naivety. Now you say you didn’t really mean it. Well, if you had said what you meant in the first place I would have responded differently!

Now you do say that TGIF seems forthright enough - and nothing about their reputation gives you cause for concern. If you had said that earlier we could have saved a lot of time because I would have just agreed with you!

Should you go? No. There is nothing there for you or anybody else who wants to talk about designer or German games, game design or mechanics. The conference is for people who are interested in mainstream toys and games – and how to get them to a mass-market. It’s for people who are fed up just “talking the talk” and want to “walk the walk”.

Just to clear one thing up. I know that certain members of the TGIFCon team post here from time to time – usually in threads that mention “agents” in general or Rehtmeyer’s in particular. I have nothing to do with any of them. I did talk to Carol Rehtmeyer at the conference - for about thirty seconds. I genuinely hold no brief for the TGIF or Ms Rehtmeyer. I am posting here solely as somebody who dips into this forum from time to time who went to last year’s conference. All I can talk about is my own personal experience.

If anybody is interested to hear it I will come back – otherwise I will leave it there.

Rob,

OK, so we both could have expressed ourselves more precisely. I spoke figuratively about walking away with a contract in hand, but sounded like I was being literal. And you were not just asking rhetorically, much less accusingly, if I was implying that TGIF was some sort of exploitive rip-off, you only meant it as a simple question.

Whatever. Let’s just kiss and make-up (or maybe just shake hands) and not let this thread turn into one of those arguments about who said what how and when or why...

Yes, your experiences at the conference are exactly what I (for one) would like to hear about.

While I truly am incredulous that people would pay $1,400.00 for what TGIF appears to be offering, people obviously are. (They’ve been doing these conferences for a while now, haven’t they?) Maybe you could give us a few more details about what we’d be getting for the price of admission.

And, at the risk of belaboring the point, it would be very encouraging (as far as I’m concerned anyway) if anyone could identify a few games we might have seen on the store shelves that got there as a result of contacts made at TGIF. Then we’d know that at least there’s a chance that attending might eventually lead to getting to “walk-the-walk”.

Darke – hello old friend. You will remember that I usually attract a bit of flack when I post here. This time, unusually, it has not come from a moderator! Life must have been so dull for you while I’ve been away.

Setarcos – consider that manly handshake an end of the matter.

The good thing, I think, about this forum is its diversity. There is even a place for me – and others like me who have no interest in combat mechanics. Designers who are just interested in finding a way to get their “inventions” into the shops – one way or another.

Of course, to do this is bordering on the impossible these days. You can go it alone like Dave Rockenbaugh who I mentioned earlier in the thread - or you can try to licence the product. Perhaps you can offer it to an agent. What about going direct to a company?

All these routes have been discussed at length in this forum – and elswhere. I did not want to start a business and no company would see me, or what I had to offer. That left licensing through an agent. Assuming I could somehow get an agent interested I knew that there could be considerable up-front costs to pay with no guarantees of any success. And if anything was licensed, I would lose close to half the royalties. I didn’t like any of the options - and that is why I decided to go to the TGIF at the Disney Contemporary Resort Hotel in Florida last year.

I thought I had some unusual and unique things to offer – and, hopefully, this was a way to show them to senior executives of some of the big companies. If I could get somebody interested, and turn that interest into a licensing agreement, I would not have to share my royalties with anybody - except the tax man! Furthermore, it would be a way to introduce myself to these people, and showcase what I could do. I was just fed up with being an “outsider” – a nonentity to everybody who mattered in the industry.

That was my motive for going. Trying for exposure on national television did not interest me. Neither, particularly, did the main conference program. But the “one-to-ones” I had come for were at the end of the conference, so I joined the daily proceedings - albeit as a periferal figure.

It cost more than $1400 last year ($1700 I think) – but a multiple occupancy room in the hotel for two nights was included in the price. By far the cheapest way to get to Florida from the UK was to take a standard two-week package holiday for two, including hotel and hire car. So my wife came with me (neither of us had been to the States) - £1070 for the two of us. So, we spent the first four days on International Drive, the next three at the conference hotel (where we had been seriously upgraded into the main building rather than the garden annexe). Back to our base at International Drive for a bit of shopping – over to a seafront condo at Daytona Beach for four days to top up the tan – back to base for the last weekend (and some serious wining and dining) – and home.

Now ….what was…oh yes, the TGIF.

Although I arrived early at the conference hall there were many there before me setting up their tabletop displays. I thought the position I had been alocated was great – I wouldn’t have swapped with anyone. I set up what I had – and posed for a couple of photographs at the request of the resident photographer. We all then assembled in a nearby room for a welcome breakfast (I think) where we sat round large tables seating about 10. It gave us the opportunity to introduce ourselves. That is when I realised that, although everybody listened politely, the exhibitors were really all self-centred egotist looking for an opportunity to monopolise the table and tell you about their “baby”. At last - somewhere where I fitted in!

There was a dinner on the first night where my wife was able to manipulate our “free drink” tickets so that they were never “spent”. It was a fun evening – nice people and an endless variety of interesting internationally themed buffet food. Later on in the evening we were called from the dining room one at a time to an area where the conference team displayed cards with the names of those companies available for “one-on-one” meetings. You could reserve two meetings. I didn’t have my specs with me so I couldn’t read the cards - I just asked if I could see Hasbro and Mattel. I was told I could have Hasbro but Mattel wasn’t there or was unavailable (I can’t remember). I took my next choice – Ravensburger.
When everybody had been called – they started again from the beginning. So I got another two meetings. I couldn’t think of anybody I wanted to see in particular – so, I was advised to see Spinmaster – and a couple of young guys who had recently started their company in Hong Kong.

Now, I had banked everything on these meetings. That was why I was there. But, for others, the opportunity to meet fellow travellers and share experiences was really important. Most in the hall were eager to explain their game – and a casual nod of interest gets you treated like the buyer of a major store – and you leave with business cards and every bit of literature on the table (after everything has been explained in detail, of course).

The boardgames on display were what you would probably describe as mainstream America - party games, monopoly style derivatives, abstract strategy etc. There was one fantasy combat game with a large modular board – each player using a standard pack of playing cards to drive the game. There were one or two games with religious themes and others targeting minority interests. Anything unusual that might make it big in the shops? Not that I could see. But nothing on display was chosen or vetted by the TGIF – and I think that’s a good thing. Nobody has any idea what you are bringing to the conference.

Each day there were seminars and various speakers on various topics. I’m sure you can find the sort of topics covered by looking at this year’s itinerary. To be honest, most were informative – but the presentation was often quite dry. Some were competent public speakers – others were betrayed by a lack of preparation. In my opinion there was no excuse for that.

Jay Leno’s people had taken over a corner of the hall to film the exhibitors as they pitched their “inventions”. Each presentation was a small production job with several ‘takes’ until the director was happy. I was probably the only person there who declined the opportunity to be on national television.

The “one on one” meetings were conducted early on the last two mornings (two on each morning). Everything was organised with military precision – tickets checked before being put in the right line – and then I was being ushered between rows of black curtained booths before being introduced to the senior director of new product acquisitions at Hasbro, who is sitting behind a desk – and the booth curtain is drawn behind me. Ten minutes is a very short time – believe me. I didn’t waste a second. I had six things I wanted to show him – but I only managed five before the curtain opened and I was literally wrestled out of the booth by a member of the TGIF team. The stuff that I had shown was swept off the table and dumped out in the corridor. I was left to pack it away.

So, my first meeting was over – and things had gone well. “Good presentation, Robin” he had called after me as I was dragged from the booth.He wanted me to send him four of the five things he saw. I said they were too delicate and he said he would arrange for me to present them to Hasbro in London.

An hour later and I was in another booth for my second presentation. I shook the hand of the product manager for games at Ravensburger. We were both on our knees on the floor searching for a lost game component when the curtain opened and I was again manhandled away. He wanted me to send him the same things that interested Hasbro.

The next day’s meetings also went well – and something I had not had time to show previoulsy was taken away for assessment.

So, that was it. The conference was over. Time to say goodbye. A final drink in the bar with with my wife and we were on our way.

I went to the conference without a single contact in the toy and game business – and no way of showing any of my stuff to anybody who mattered. You will know how frustrated I was. I started the Hippodice thread on this forum – trying to find some way to move on.

Now I am on first name terms and in regular contact with several senior executives of major companies. I don’t want to tempt fate, but indications at this stage suggest that some of my ideas will find their way into the mass market under major brands. And if I have any ideas to show in the future I know people who will probably want to see them.

But I would never suggest that anybody in this forum could repeat my experience. I was showing some unusual, unique things. It is probably true to say that if the person looking at you “invention” has seen anything remotely like it before, he will not want it.

Robin

Soulbeach

For the mass-market yes, unique is everything - in my opinion. I have expressed as much before on this forum. Thank you for your kind words. But, if I were you, I would not buy anything designed by anybody who can’t spell peripheral!

Robin