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More than 53 people in Las Vegas
June 25, 2008

Still live from Las Vegas--Jamie Kennedy was quite funny tonight as host of the EMA awards, and his jokes about the limited number of people in the audience came across as all in fun. Kennedy remarked at one point that there were 53 people in the audience, and then when a few more folks entered the Pearl theater here at the Palms, he good naturedly upped his estimated to 56.
In reality, there were more like 200 warm bodies in the audience, including a sizable and vocal contingent from Allumination Filmworks all in matching shirts. (A show of team spirit before they are absorbed into Peace Arch?)
But the 200 might have seemed like 50something from the stage of the cavernous theater that looked to seat about 500.
There were also about 200 people in the morning's opening business session, also held in the Pearl, but there seemed to be about 53 people in each slow elevator to the open suites in the Palms Tower. And that illustrates why it's so hard to get a handle on the success of this (mini?)convention.
Rumor has it that EMA expected to register about 3,000 people. Based on that, about 500 were expected in the opening business session. So does the fact that only 200 turned out to hear a pretty high profile panel, featuring Blockbuster's Jim Keyes and Fox's Mike Dunn, mean that registration is way less than expected, or just that people were elsewhere this morning?
Hard to tell. The show seems to be selectively successful. As I said, the elevators to exhibitor suites are uncomfortably slow and packed. Summit hosted about 75 people at its screening of Never Back Down this afternoon, which it considered a success, given that the theater booked seated only 100. I moderated a panel on consumer research this afternoon that filled at the last minute to near its 60-seat capacity. The studio-hosted cocktail parties seem to be busy. So why no more interest in the big events?
The Palms is definitely a venue with pros and cons. People seem to like the compact space, but hate that they have to sleep over at the neighboring Rio. 
Perhaps most telling, the EMA board took up the issue of how to change the show for the better next year on Monday--before this show even started.

Posted by Marcy Magiera on June 25, 2008 | Comments (0)