The German Nationals will be held on the 2nd and 3rd of October (Monday's a national holiday), however, most members of my team won't attend. Don't be fooled; it has nothing to do with the impressive prize support that almost allows you to make enough money to pay for the trip in case you're winning the whole thing...

Nope, we'll be staying in good old Leipzig to attend the modell-hobby-spiel – a fair for model railroads (and other related stuff), all sorts of collectibles and, well, games. Truth be told, when I first heard about the fair, I had quite a few doubts that we would get to meet our target audience there. However, experience tells us that we'll see a very positive reception again, just like we did in years past (likewise, there are many interested visitors at the "Leipzig Book Fair" – ever since manga and animes took over national comic book dealers as well as the TV program, we saw an increase in younger attendees that are generally quite open to all things that are considered hip in the far East – thanks to Yu-Gi-Oh!, TCGs fit that description).

Over the course of 4 days, we'll be giving demos, running Starter Deck Sealed events and do a live coverage to tell the world about our efforts. I'll run you through the whole process of organizing such an event so you can do the same for a fair that takes place near you!

1^st) Learning about the fair

All of this always starts with you learning about the fair in question. You would be surprised how many fairs take place with no one from your community ever taking notice. So try to google the topic and check twice that there's nothing going down in your area.

In our case, it's actually quite simple. We've been to this particular fair for a couple of years now, so we always have it on our schedule. The first time we've been made aware of it, our team member Sven, who also owns our local store, told the rest of the team about the fair (he had been selling games there before) so it was impossible to miss the event.

2^nd) Organizing venue space

This is already one of the harder parts; however, once you've sorted this problem out, you'll have enough momentum to easily deal with all the other challenges along the way! Depending on the fair you're attending, the price for the space to run demos and tournaments can vary quite a lot. I know that the toy fair in Essen is almost impossible to afford for a group of players while we can often work something out with the organizers of the fairs in Leipzig as we're bringing something special to their events.

Don't be scared to talk to people high up in the chain running the fair. In my experience, if you bring a number of good arguments, they'll always be willing to listen to your proposal. If you make it sound like their fair will feature something the competition doesn't, something that they can advertise, they'll give you a special price for the space you're renting. At least this always worked for us; we even got space for free on some occasions!

Additionally, draw in your local hobby store. Chances are they'll attend the fair anyway and if you tell them that you're going to do demos for them so they can grow their player base, they should be willing to do the talking with the organizers of the fair for you and also take care of the costs. Granted, it might not pay out in the 2 weeks right after the fair is over, but if you tell them to look at it as a mid to long term investment, you should be able to convince them. Don't scare them talking about the next 5 fairs to come and focus on the one that's up ahead. Make sure this one works out fine and they'll be happy to do the same thing the following year.

3^rd) Setting up a plan

Once you secured yourself a spot at the fair, you can start to actually get serious. Write a list with all the things that you need to take care of in the weeks to come. Add everything to it that comes to mind; small things like buying some food and drinks for the volunteers helping out on site as well as big things like putting together an event schedule. Also, don't forget to add all the items you can find in this article and add them to the list!

4^th) Putting the team together

If you feel like the fair isn't big enough to support a 5 people demo team, plan accordingly. In our case, we knew that quite a few people would attend the fair, so we have 3 people in our team that can run demos. Another person takes care of Starter Deck Sealed tournaments for all the players that received a demo and who opted to buy some product and giving it a try while a fifth person will provide some coverage so the people who received a demo can look it up online and get drawn into the game.

Don't get mad at members of your team if they can't spend an entire weekend at a fair. If you can't offer them something in return – even if we're just talking about a few boosters here – and they don't have the time, then so be it. Ask someone else instead; one of them will almost always say yes!

5^th) Getting support

You want to be able to offer attendees of the fair something after they received a demo. Granted, most of them will be happy after you've spent some time introducing them to the game, but you only got one chance to make a first impression, so pull out all the stops! I've seen kids running circles around their parents after they received a free promo card, even if it's just something that you, personally, don't consider to be very valuable.

What we can recommend is talking to the distributor who is responsible for your respective market. In the rare case that this doesn't work, you can still talk to Cryptozoic. If you can show them your concept, they'll most likely be very supportive and throw in a few boosters or Starter Decks that you can use to give demos.

6^th) Getting the word out

Make sure people are aware of what you're planning for the event in question. Create a Facebook event and invite your friends. Tell them to invite everyone who might be interested in it too. Ask Cryptozoic if they can mention in their blog that you're running some events at the fair, and so on.

Additionally, try to make sure you'll have something like a coverage going on. Nothing helps to motivate a new player in the making like putting their face on a website and showing the world that they just crushed everyone who stepped in their way. Younger attendees can show this to their parents or grandparents at home, who will then most likely be more supportive when the kid wants to attend a Battleground.

7^th) Running the show

First things first: relax. You've pretty much taken care of all the hard work by now. Actually running the event is a piece of cake if you were able to complete all the steps before this one!

You should have a team on site that knows what it is doing, your respective store owner should handle all the business that takes place between you and the fair organizers and all you need to do is keeping an eye on things and make sure that they go down the intended way.

If they don't, take a deep breath and think before you act. If that doesn't sound too familiar to you, I recommend watching the movie "Limitless" until you really believe in the "thinking yourself out of a situation" part.

Honestly, running an event is pretty much the same. Don't throw a tantrum if something's not going according to plan, it will only make matters worse. Even if you're not in control of the situation, it will be a lot easier to regain control if everyone around you thinks that you're in control. You can then tell people what to do and they'll actually follow your orders as they're under the impression that this is all part of a bigger plan and not just something that flashed through your mind.

8^th) Drawing in more players

Maybe you already forgot what your big goal was in the first place, so let's repeat it: Drawing in more players for your local community! The easiest way is to follow this easy 3 step plan:

1: Give them a demo.

2: Make them participate in a tournament.

3: Draw them into the game.

This is the TCG equivalent of the

Step 1

Step 2

... ?

Profit!!!

memes. Let's add some more details:

1: You have to keep in mind that once someone said "yes" when you or one of your friends asked him if he would be interested in a demo, he's already made the first step to becoming a new member of a gaming community. All you have to do is making sure he's staying on track. So try to show him as many good things about the game as possible, but don't overwhelm him if possible.

2: Suggest that he participates in a Starter Deck Sealed tournament. Kindly point out mistakes you might have seen (if he comes across as someone who wants to learn), but don't be too judgmental. If he's claiming that the game is too complicated, offer some advice and teach him easy lessons on how to make good decisions (like making good trades to maintain the field control).

3: Tell him about the store closest to his home. If you can't come up with that from the top of your head as he's traveled a little farther, exchange contact details, find a store for him to play and send him an e-mail. Suggest products that are both affordable and help him to build a more or less competitive deck.

As you can see, all of this is a pretty straightforward process. Granted, there are some stumbling blocks along the way, however, as long as you think of your ultimate goal and work towards reaching it, you'll end up fine.

If you're interested in the promotions we did for the fair in Leipzig, go check out our website: BootcampLE.de. If you need some help, be sure to shoot me a message and I'll be happy to try and help you out.

- Oliver Gehrmann (soulwarrior@soulwarrior.net)