Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Tech Watch

PAX sees growth in move to new Boston event space

By Rodney H. Brown

Not that New England residents are competitive or have a chip on their shoulder when it comes to the West Coast, but local nerds should know that Robert Khoo, president of Penny Arcade Inc. and show director for PAX East, says that in just its second year, the upcoming PAX East 2011 will be bigger than the main PAX show in Seattle.

That show, now dubbed PAX Prime, is in its seventh year, and its record attendance was 62,000. The first PAX East gaming conference last March drew more than 52,000 to the Hynes Convention Center, stretching the boundaries of the venue’s capacity.

“It’s no longer just on par with PAX Prime,” Khoo said. “This will be our biggest show ever without a doubt.”

To handle the expected larger size, Khoo and the team at game-focused web comic Penny Arcade, which launched the first Penny Arcade eXpo (PAX) in 2004, moved the conference to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in South Boston. In one stroke, that tripled the exhibit hall floor space from about 25,000 square feet to 75,000 square feet. Khoo had no problem quickly filling that space with game and technology companies.

“Last year the expo floor was 24,000 to 25,000 square feet, which is a good hall,” he said. “This year the show floor is completely sold out, and we have, I think, 75,000 square feet at the BCEC.”

In addition to the massive show floor, PAX East — March 11-13 — will have a mix of game industry panels and consumer-targeted new game demos. That combination has been a challenge for both East Coast and West Coast shows, Khoo said. “No facility is built for a show like PAX,” he said. “I get it. Most facilities are made for dental conferences or things like the boat show. It’s either one or the other — it’s either all expo or all meeting rooms.”

Like last year, PAX East will showcase local independent game developers and studios in the Boston Indie Showcase. This year, the three companies featured are Team Uncertainty, Owlchemy Labs and Retro Affect. Team Uncertainty will be showing off its PC game “Blinding Silence,” in which you play as a blind man that must work through a puzzle landscape by seeing through sound. Owlchemy Labs will be featuring its much-talked-about multi-platform game “Smuggle Truck,” in which you drive a truck smuggling people across the border while running over armadillos and staying away from the authorities. From Retro Affect comes “Snapshot,” which has the player using a special camera that doesn’t just take pictures but absorbs objects that you can use to solve puzzles.

Khoo knows he has his hands full in managing the crowds. One of those areas that needed management this year is food. Moving from the Hynes, in the heart of Back Bay, to the BCEC, at the edge of the parking lots known as the “mud lots,” means the number of eatery choices facing attendees has plummeted. One way Khoo plans to address this is by taking up some of the massive floor space for a second food court, in addition to one in the BCEC.
However, even Khoo said he will miss the area around the Hynes.

“I’ve been bitching about it,” he said. “I love being able to walk outside and hitting up Newbury and go shopping and I love going into the mall and getting whatever I want to eat.”

But he said it was easy to get the approval for the extra food vendors and to arrange for shuttle buses and other amenities to make the transition to the BCEC as easy as possible.

“Boston has been really great, they have been incredibly easy to work with,” Khoo said. “Boston has been the most friendly city we have worked with in terms of running shows.”