Gamer Nintendo Signs Up for New E for All

E³ successor announces first flagship exhibitor for October event in L.A.

By Stephanie Corbin -- Tradeshow Week, 4/9/2007

The Entertainment for All Expo, also known as E for All, just got its first flagship exhibitor.

Nintendo has signed on as an anchor for the first E for All Oct. 18–21 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

"It's the perfect target exhibitor that we wanted," said Mary Dolaher, executive vice president of IDG World Expo, which is organizing the show. "For the consumer-friendly event, it's critical for us to have Nintendo."

E for All was born from the ashes of E³/Electronic Entertainment Expo, after the Entertainment Software Assn. decided in July that it would all but eliminate E³, replacing it with the invitation-only E³ Media & Business Summit July 11–13 at the Barker Hanger Santa Monica Air Center in Santa Monica, Calif. IDG also is organizing the summit. Both are endorsed by the ESA, which owned E³.

E3 regularly drew more than 60,000 people to the Los Angeles Convention Center, but Dolaher hasn't estimated attendance at for E for All. LA Inc., the Los Angeles CVB, previously has stated it anticipates no fewer than 25,000 attendees. About 5,000 people will attend the summit.

Dolaher launched E³ and ran every edition until last year's decision by ESA. She then received several offers to launch a consumer show. Eventually, she chose to leave her post as ESA vice president of tradeshows and events to join IDG World Expo as executive vice president, launching both the E³ Media & Business Summit and E for All. Ten other ESA employees followed Dolaher to IDG.

"Obviously, we're thrilled that Nintendo is our first official sign-on," said Pattie Renouard, spokeswoman for IDG, of the electronics game maker that was also an E³ exhibitor. "I think it shows just how viable this event is."

IDG has several other major exhibiting companies signing up for E for All, some of which were also E³ exhibitors. Dolaher said the company is staggering the announcements.

"We have several more over the next few weeks," she added.

E for All bears some resemblance to the old E³, including an 85-decibel noise limit and the same venue, but there are differences too. One, Renouard said, is a size limit. Booths exhibiting hardware are limited to 7,000 square feet or less. All others — software companies, game developers, merchandisers — are limited to 5,000 sq. ft.

Reports at the time were that the original E³ met its demise because major exhibitors were unhappy with the costly lengths they had been forced to go to in order to compete with their rivals' booths.

"We want E for All to work for all of the industry," Renouard added.

The limit allows the smaller companies to be involved without feeling like they're competing with the resources of, well, Nintendo. Renouard also said IDG wasn't releasing the cost of booth space, but the price per square foot is comparable to E³.

"I think with the booth size smaller, this will be different (than E³)," she added.

While there was some speculation about how and where the electronic games industry would demonstrate new products, E³'s downsizing doesn't seem to have driven too many game makers underground.

Another gaming event, the Game Developers Conference, isn't attributing all of its 30-percent increase in attendance at this year's event, March 5–9 in San Francisco, to the changes of E³— but it certainly didn't hurt.

"I wouldn't say it was because of E³," said Tara Gibb, director of marketing for CMP Game Group, which owns the GDC. "That is one of the factors that contributed to the growth."

She also cited the general growth of the gaming industry for the 16,300 total attendees GDC attracted this year. The conference expanded to an additional hall in Moscone Center for the first time.

"That enabled us to accommodate different interests other than our core group," Gibb added.

"The game industry is getting much more complex now with the new platforms that have come out," said Philip Chapnick, senior vice president for CMP Technology, of the reasons for growth. GDC was the place for developers to get peer information about the new systems, such as the Playstation 3, which are more complicated than previous systems.

"We've been concentrating on bringing a stronger international aspect to show," he added. This year saw more international attendees, including ones from China, Japan and Korea.

After 26 years in San Jose, the GDC moved to San Francisco for the first time in 2005, and has rotated back and forth between the two cities since then. However, Gibb said, given its consistent growth, it will likely stay at San Francisco's Moscone "for the foreseeable future."

"We were bursting at the seams," she added. "We really have the capacity for the growth in San Francisco."

Gibb said this year's GDC had a 91,000 sq. ft. showfloor with 262 exhibiting companies, 32 percent more than 2006. GDC had about 72,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space in 2006.

"I can't say we didn't benefit from them..." Gibb said of E³'s downfall, "but the industry itself is growing."