Remember I was looking forward very much to the biggest fantasy event of Europe; the Elf Fantasy Fair? Unfortunately it turned out to be a big disappointment... Maybe that's why it took me a long time to post something...After our demonstration in the American Book Center, I kept in contact with a manager that was very eager to help us get a spot on the EFF. We didn't go to the EFF for Day & Night before because the prices for stands are exceptionally high and this target audience doesn't really buy products (after the high ticket cost and travel expenses). We tried for a free spot, close to the ABC stand, where we could give demonstrations to visitors and redirect them to the ABC, so we could mainly promote. This didn't work out, but the organization was willing to sell a discount booth in the art section.
We decided to just try it, since it has so many visitors and Day & Night is, of course, interesting for the fantasy audience. I was a bit worried though, if game enthusiasts would go to an art tent. The organization ensured me that the main route would go through the tent and we could promote Day & Night on their website. So we prepared everything; we made a selection for the art we would bring and we bought 2 nice little tables for demonstrations (I figured that most people wouldn't really want to try and play the game, because they're not on a gaming event so 2 tables was enough).
Some days passed and still no Day & Night on the website. I began to worry more; would my main target audience, game enthusiasts, go into an art tent - especially if there was no announcement or any mention in the program?? I decided to sent the organization an example message that they could place on the website, to save them some time. But days passed, and all the calling and emailing didn't work. On the day of the event, Day & Night was still not to be found anywhere on the website and we were completely dependent on the visitors that would pass by our booth... It's not nice to start a big 2 day event disappointed. Unfortunately, this disappointment continued to grow through out the day... The main route was next to the tent; and not through... Barely 5 % of the people that passed the tent, passed our stand. But... As the only 'game' stand on the fair, how many people would visit our stand if it was announced on the website?
In the end, Sebastiaan and our help on sunday Alexander (thanks so much!), and I decided to enjoy the sunny days with actually playing the game ourselves. Against Sebastiaan, I won two times with Day, one time with Night and Sebastiaan won two times with Night and one time with Day. And we did enjoy ourselves a lot!
In the end we didn't even sell 10 games and we decided to pay half the bill (after a big discussion the organization agreed..) and... To never go to the Elf Fantasy Fair again.
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