Tips for SPIEL Essen from a small publisher!
It was our first year at SPIEL this year, and we had an absolute blast!
However, planning for the trip felt very daunting, especially as it was our first time at SPIEL. We’d been for events before, but nothing of this scale. It’s quite a big investment travelling to Germany from Singapore, and we wanted to make our trip worth it!
Reading tips from other small publishers and designers really helped us feel more prepared for the trip. (In particular, these two helped a lot.) But there were some questions we had that we couldn’t find the answers to online, and we’re hoping this post can help supplement the other stuff you’re reading to prepare for your next SPIEL.
Before the event:
Payment methods
While most people at the con prefer using contactless payment methods, it’s important to have cash as an option. To determine how much change to bring, we envisioned a “worst case scenario” where everyone would pay €100 bills, then decided on an amount based on our total stock. (This worked for us because we only had one product to sell.) We were nervous about travelling with such a large amount of cash, so we split it among ourselves – that way we wouldn’t lose all our money if one of us misplaced our share.
We used Stripe as our contactless payment method after exploring some options. It would’ve been smoother if we had a card reader, but it was our best option at the time. Paypal was another popular payment method. If you’re already using a payment gateway for your e-commerce, check if it has contactless payment options!
Paper bags
Many convention-goers come armed with huge backpacks and massive trolleys, but a few will still require a bag – especially for a bigger game like Fly-A-Way. Paper bags can be pretty pricey and add to baggage weight, so this was something we were mulling over. We catered for about half of our stock, which ended up being a good estimate!
Set aside review and business copies
Other than talking to convention-goers, SPIEL is a great time to network with other publishers, distributors, manufacturers, content creators and even board game stores from all around the world! We were very grateful to be approached by many other companies interested in localising Fly-A-Way or bringing the game to other countries. They will often request a copy to get a feel of the game, so it’s good to set aside copies for business enquiries.
During the event:
Get there early!
Although the con started at 10am each day, we would leave our hotel at about 8am so that we’d be done with the day’s set-up by 9am and could roam the halls for an hour before the doors opened. (It worked out well for us because jetlag meant we were up before 6am anyway.) We were incredibly busy throughout the convention’s opening hours and didn’t otherwise have time to walk around. The empty halls made for a much more relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere, and it was a good time to get first dibs on some of the games and make friends with other exhibitors (provided they weren’t also roaming around).
Scout out the halls
With all the booths set up, the Messe’s multiple halls can feel like a massive labyrinth. It gets even more disorienting when you’re squeezing through a packed crowd. If you can, spend some time familiarising yourself with the halls during set-up day. Take note of the exits and, most importantly, locate the nearest bathroom to your booth!
Quick Food
While most of the food trucks have pretty long lines, it is still possible to get something quick. Try to avoid the peak lunch hours, typically between 12 noon and 2pm. Get a sense for which stalls clear queues quickly, and you can reliably get fresh meals each day. Ham and cheese pretzels were my lunch of choice for 3 out of 4 days – there was never a queue when I went, since the pretzels were made in large batches (as opposed to other foods like currywurst or crepes that were made to order). They’re really delicious, too!
Yes, there is coffee!
Russell and I are very caffeine-dependent, so access to coffee was important to me. I couldn’t really find information about this beforehand, so here’s the scoop from one caffeine addict to another: There were a couple of booths selling coffee along the food aisle, and more scattered throughout the halls. Water was harder to find; there were few drinking fountains, so we recommend bringing at least a 1.5L bottle per person each day. (On average, each of us made it through about two a day!)
What we would have done differently:
Include your booth number in your flyer
Some people passing by our booth were interested enough to take a flyer, but too busy to stop at that moment. Others had spoken to us but needed more time to mull over committing to a purchase. Although the SPIEL app has a built-in booth number search function, a decent number of visitors asked for and appreciated the convenience of having it written down.
Clearer calls to action
We had hoped to drive mailing list sign-ups for Prowl, and included what we thought were massive QR codes on our banners and flyers. However, it seemed like they weren’t obvious enough, and we ended up having to direct people to them anyway. It can look like a bit of an eyesore, but we think calls to action take precedence over design in this case – which might mean bigger, more eye-catching QR codes and calls to action on our collaterals.
The QR code seemed pretty big when we were laying out the banner design, but alas it was not big enough.
Clearer prices on banners
We had many questions about whether the games at our booth were for sale, even though we had printed the prices and stacked brand new, shrink wrapped boxes of Fly-A-Way on our display table. We saw some other booths with clear, dedicated sales areas including glass displays, that we thought worked really well. For a lower-budget option, we think having a table with a different height and display might have helped the crowd differentiate between our “sales area”, “display area” and “demo area”.
What’s your advice for someone going to SPIEL for the first time? Let us know in the comments!
