New Rules For Setting Up At Origins

This is Steven Petrick posting.

We here at ADB are all abuzz about the new rules that Origins is imposing on unloading and setting up booths in the exhibit hall. There are supposed to be scheduled periods for each company and allocated times for each company to get its vehicle into the parking area and get things unloaded and into the exhibit hall. We have a lot of stuff, and are an essentially two-man operation with some help (always appreciated) from the players, but this year we may actually be pleading for people to show up and help us, at least with getting the van unloaded. (We do not as yet know what loading is going to look like for departure.) Part of this is that Origins has said that the exhibit hall will not provide any carts to assist in the operations (not that that would normally have much affect on us based on past experience, but if no one has carts then everyone is going to be making more trips to occupy their booth space leading, it would seem, to more congestion and delays).

There can be little doubt that the economy is affecting Origins, and they are doing their best to remain viable, and these new rules may well be part of that, so we are not angry at them for doing what they may have to do to survive, but we are seriously concerned about the effects these rules may have on our operations.

There is also a new "meet the retailers" period scheduled on the first day, which will require SVC to be in his booth when we would normally have the "sing-along", and this may force rescheduling of the sing-along.