FREE Vol 3 Issue 9 Sept 09
Interview with GAMA Executive Director John Ward ICV2.com - 09/08/09 Copyright 2009 GCO, LLC. Reprinted with permission
We talked to GAMA Executive Director John Ward recently to ask him about the organization's shows, its finances, and its future. How long have you been Executive Director? When did you take your new position? I actually started full time in February of this year, so it’s been a little over six months. How would you evaluate your experience in those six months? I’ve been using the metaphor it’s like drinking out of a fire hose. I had about sixty days before the GAMA Trade Show and then sixty days after that before the Origins show. That first six months has been a definite learning curve. Let’s talk about the shows because I think
that’s the experience most people have with GAMA. Starting with GTS, which was down in attendance this year, what are your thoughts about next year’s show and what are you going to do to reverse that trend? I was pretty excited that our numbers didn’t drop further than they actually did. I looked at some of the other trade shows, and they’re seeing about 20, 25% and we hit about 17% [decline]. It was better than what we had anticipated; I looked that as some good news. Also this coming year we’ve had a lot of increased interest from some of our sponsors and participants in what we’re doing at the
shows. I’m looking forward to going into GTS this year with a full year of planning under my belt to actually start improving what we’re doing for our program. You said there was increased interest from sponsors or exhibitors. What do you attribute that to? I think we’ve been open to a lot of change and ideas. I think any time there’s a change in any organization, that provides an opportunity, and I just think that’s what people are looking for. Ideas in the past that we may have thought about and the staff has discussed, or maybe chosen a different course of action, now that we’ve got new people in place and it’s a little bit of a different team, we’ve got an opportunity to
revisit some of those things. And you’ve got dates at Bally’s next year for the GTS? We’re still at Bally’s next year. We’re still negotiating with dates because I’m trying to see if we can move off the Easter weekend. One of the things that’s helping us right now is that a lot of conferences cancelled in Vegas this year, so they’re very appreciative of the fact that we actually came and we went through with our show. That should hopefully give us some benefit and I continue to remind them about that. Let’s talk about Origins. What was your evaluation of how Origins went this year? I think the show went pretty well. I talked to most of our exhibitors. The hall was very vibrant this year. We did very well in sponsorships, much more so than we did last year. Attendance was (Continued on page 4)
Archie Comics Signs With CAA ICV2.com - 09/22/09 Copyright 2009 GCO, LLC. Reprinted with permission
Archie Comics Publications has signed on with CAA (Creative Artists Agency), the Tinseltown uber-agency that reps Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Brad Pitt, LeBron James, George Clooney, Will Smith, Will Ferrell, and Peyton
Manning. CAA will attempt to create the kind of entertainment opportunities for Archie that it has established for toymakers Mattel and Hasbro. CAA helped Mattel set up its Major
Matt Mason property as a starring vehicle for Tom Hanks, while Hasbro has a number of its properties including Clue, Stretch Armstrong, and Battleship in development. Archie Comics controls a number of widely known comic book properties including the flagship Archie family of comics, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Josie and the Pussycats,
Celebrating Over 1 Year in Publication
Super Duck and Cosmo the Merry Martian among others. Variety notes that the Archie/CAA deal comes “as Hollywood is quickly gobbling up established branded properties as evidenced by Disney’s pending acquisition of Marvel Entertainment and Warner Bros. recent exec overhaul of DC Comics.”