AAMA HEATS UP PIZZA EXPO 2008

Press Release:

Elk Grove Village, IL – April 17, 2008 – International Pizza Expo 2008 reported another record-breaking success and AAMA was there.  With nearly 6,000 pizzeria operators from around the world in attendance, this show was the second best attended in the show’s history as reported by show management.  Held in Las Vegas, NV, the sold out trade show floor consisted of 1,000 booths containing everything and anything you might see in a pizzeria, from equipment to food to coin-operated games.  

The AAMA pavilion made its presence known at this ever-popular trade show on behalf of its members and the overall coin-op industry.  As in past years, the Pizza Expo directly followed the Amusement Showcase International, both events being held in the Las Vegas Convention Center.   Those members who braved the move, from the downstairs ASI show floor, upstairs to the pizza pavilion. AAMA pavilion on the Pizza Expo show floor were, Allstar Vending, Bay-Tek Games, LAI Games, Mammoth Glow Machine, and Namco America.  Some additional AAMA members that were present at the show included Benchmark Games, Betson Enterprises, Marshall Productions, Peek-A-Boo Toys, and Smart Industries.

Tom Siemieniec of Namco America boasted, “Great show as always. I can’t wait until next year.  Great buying crowd.” 

“I think we offered enough coin-op options for pizza restaurant owners to start thinking about incorporating amusement games into their locations if they don’t already.  I was impressed with the traffic this show produced the first 2 days.  We received some good leads to follow up with. “, remarked Mark Lenske of BayTek Games.

The Pizza Expo also played host to several exciting events, such as Pizza Festiva, a gourmet pizza recipe competition that crowns one pizza maker every year with the coveted Gourmet Pizza of the Year award, and the 2^nd annual International Pizza Challenge,  allowing entrants to create traditional pizzas, fighting for the title of 2008 World’s Best Traditional Pizza.  The most notable event of the week would have to be the Beer & Bull Idea Exchange, which offered the perfect opportunity for industry peers to converse over a cold one.  The World Pizza Games Finals and Rockin’ Party finished off the week in style.

The International Pizza Expo is owned, produced and managed by Macfadden Protech, LLC. The company publishes Pizza Today and in addition the company serves as the management arm of the National Association of Pizzeria Operators (NAPO). For more information visit them on-line at www.pizzaexpo.com.

The IPE will return to Las Vegas next year in the north hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. The show will be held March 10-12, 2009.

On behalf of the AAMA, we would like to thank all our member companies for their continuing support of the LTS program and for making the AAMA coin-op pavilion a success throughout the year! 

Click here to view this year's pavilion.

Blog All About It

BIGGEST ARCADE EVENT HITS VEGAS AND OPENS DOORS TO PUBLIC, HUNDREDS ATTEND INDUSTRY-FIRST INVITATION

Amusement Showcase International Invites Families, Friends and Gamers-at-Heart to Interact with New and Nostalgic Favorites, and Enjoy Competitive Public and Celebrity Tournaments

Press Release:

Elk Grove Village, IL - April 7, '08 – This year, for the first time in its more than 25-year history, Amusement Showcase International (ASI) invited the public to attend the last day of its three-day, coin-operated trade show, Saturday, March 29 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.  Public attendees were able to preview and experience some of the newest amusement, music and video games before they appear in local entertainment centers.  In addition to the nearly 140 exhibitors on hand, including Namco, SEGA, Valley Dynamo and Stern Pinball, almost 300 people attended Saturday’s event.

“We were thrilled to give the public this first-time opportunity to interact and experience the hundreds of coin-operated games that were being exhibited,” said Mike Rudowicz, president of American Amusement Machine Association (AAMA), the organization that owns and sponsors ASI.  “It provided an affordable and fun way for families, friends and game enthusiasts to connect, compete and interact with each other and the games.  Plus, the consumers’ opinions are integral to the game manufacturers and buyers who attend the show.”

Coin-Op Celebrity and Public Competitions

The day’s activities also included two tournaments, one for the public, the Coin-Op Olympics, which included plush prizes for winners, and one for celebrities.  The celebrity tournament positioned three local Las Vegas stars against each other to compete for their favorite charities for first ($5,000), second ($2,500) and third ($1,000) place.  The competitors for the highest score played on several games, such as Global VR’s EA Sports^™ NASCAR^® and Skee-Ball Classic Alley, and winners included: 

·     First place, Ronn Lucas ventriloquist at the Luxor Hotel, playing for The Variety Club Children’s Charities

·     Second place, Frank Marino, star of An Evening at La Cage, playing for The Q Foundation

·     Charly Kayle, co-host of the TKO Morning Show on Classic Hits 96.3 KKLZ, playing for Best Friends Animal Sanctuary

Industry Professionals Enjoy Evening Big Bar & Happy Hours, and Saturday Raffle

The show brought together 134 exhibitors, occupying 431 booths, and 2,694 industry attendees, including 992 buyers.  In the evenings, industry professionals were able to mix a little business with pleasure at the Big Bar & Happy Hour, sponsored by:

·         AAMA 

·         Betson Imperial Parts and Service

·         Firestone Financial Corp.

·         JVL Corp.

·         Medalist Marketing

·         Namco America Inc.

·         Pace-O-Matic

·         Team ECast

·         TouchTunes Music Corp.

In addition, a raffle, benefiting the American Amusement Machine Charitable Foundation (AAMCF), was held Saturday afternoon, awarding unbelievable prizes, including the iPhone, a Panasonic Wireless Home Theater System and Global VR’s EA Sports^™ NASCAR^® Racing game, to six lucky winners.

Next Year’s Show

In 2009, the show will return to the Las Vegas Convention Center, March 11-13, and for the first time, will be held in conjunction with Fun Expo, which normally occurs in the fall.

About Amusement Showcase International

The American Amusement Machine Association (AAMA) sponsors Amusement Showcase International (ASI), an annual spring trade-show event that attracts more than 4,000 distributors, operators, manufacturers and suppliers of coin-operated amusements, music and video games.

Click here to view 27 pictures from this year's ASI Show.

Click here to view the ASI show highlights.

The Mega-Event

Press Release:

Elk Grove Village, IL - March 13, '08 - Oxford Publishing managed to execute yet another successful Nightclub and Bar show, using Las Vegas as its backdrop.  “The Show”, [held early] in Las Vegas, February 26-27, is the largest beverage and food event in the Western Hemisphere. This time around, the event encompassed four specialized events under one roof and was a mega-event for buyers and sellers to meet and discover new business. Now known as International Hospitality Week, the event included; the International Restaurant Show, Hotel World, the International Las Vegas Coffee & Tea Expo and the Nightclub & Bar Beverage Retailer Convention and Trade Show. Show organizers said the goal was to create a singular source for all aspects of the hospitality industry – beverage, food and lodging.

Events were kicked off the weekend prior to, with pre-conference workshops, a power lunch and awards reception.  The next three days were packed full of incredible programs, with keynote speakers, including Mr. Hamish Dodds, President and CEO, Hard Rock Café Worldwide.

The mega-event would not be complete without some amusement products. The coin-op industry was well represented through the AAMA pavilion and in its surrounding area. Bigger and better than ever, this year’s 1100 square foot pavilion included new member, Glow Machine, Global VR, LAI Games, Namco America, TouchTunes Music Corporation, Valley Dynamo and Wurlitzer. Other AAMA members at “The Show” included, Betson Enterprises, Innovative Concepts in Entertainment and Stern Pinball. Also making their debut was Club Lucky. Club Lucky is a group of “like-minded” amusement entertainment operators with a purpose to create contests and tournaments with huge player rewards.

Nikki Puckett, Assistant Vice President of Marketing for Oxford Publishing informed the AAMA of early numbers on this year’s show. “I can tell you that we had 37,500 in attendance: 30,000 of that being for the Nightclub & Bar show, 5,000 for the Restaurant Show and 2,500 for Hotel World. There were more than 2,000 booths (about 225,000 net square feet) and more than 900 exhibiting companies."

The AAMA will in fact host another pavilion at the 2009 show, with a brand new layout! International Hospitality week will return to Vegas Tuesday, March 3 – Wednesday, March 4. The 2009 ASI show, together with Fun Expo, will be held the following week; Wednesday, March 11 – Friday, March 13.

Click here to enter the 2008 Nightclub & Bar photo gallery

Congratulations to the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner! 

AAMA's E-Newsletter: Loose Change - Feb, '08

AAMA AND ATEI - QUITE THE PAIR

Press Release:

Elk Grove Village, IL - February 6, '08 - Outline figures covering the first two days for the London Shows moved from 22,237 in 2007 to 22,838 in 2008, an increase of 2.7 per cent.
 
The two-day figure for ATEI was 10,913, compared to 11,587 in 2007; a movement of -5.8 per cent year-on-year.
 
Attendance at ICE increased by 8.9 per cent, with an additional 765 professionals registering for the industry’s most international b2b casino event. The two-day attendance of 9,370 is the biggest on record.
 
The ICEi remote gaming show recorded the largest percentage movement. The opening two-day attendance of 2,555 represented a 24.9 per cent year-on-year increase.
 

Last stop on the 2007-08 AAMA location trade show tour was the ATEI show. ATEI  has been a prominent show for the past 63 years, and the AAMA, along with our member companies, were there celebrating the AAMA pavilion's 9th year at the show. Member companies who joined the association included, Benchmark Games, ESD, Pyramid Technologies and Rock-Ola Manufacturing. Due to demand, the association has reserved an even bigger pavilion for the 2009 show.

Now in its second year of having the amusement sector on the second level, exhibitors and attendees alike are still becoming accustomed to the new layout. From AAMA’s floor view-point, it had seemed that the upper-level amusement section saw more traffic than its downstairs neighbors.

AAMA President, Mike Rudowicz, stated “I am happy to report that the 2008 ATEI and ICE shows turned in positive results for many of AAMA's exhibiting members. As always, ATEI and ICE drew attendees from all over the world; at the shows' conclusion, visitors from over 120 countries had walked the show floor.  The high international presence at the show gave our U.S. manufacturers and distributors an excellent opportunity to acquire some significant orders by meeting with such a diverse crowd of attendees.  The traffic flow was quite steady for ICE, and it slowed down just a bit for the ATEI show, most likely reflecting the slow down in the amusement industry as a result of the consolidation that has been going on recently.  All in all, both shows were truly great successes, and our members are looking forward to attending the show in 2009.”

Besides promoting US coin-op companies on the trade show floor, both AAMA President Mike Rudowicz and Chairman, Dave Courington participated in the World Summit Meeting, where leaders of international associations and affiliated representatives meet to inform their counterparts of developments and key issues within their respected geographic regions.

The major discussions during the meeting pertained to legislative and market developments currently happening in both the amusement and gaming industries.  There were many similarities that have affected the two markets over the last few years and the discussion led to quite an interesting meeting.

The ATEI show will be held Tuesday, January 27th through Thursday, January 29th. On behalf of the AAMA, we’d like to thank all of our member companies who exhibited within the pavilion as well as other distributor and allied members who crossed the pond for the show.

Booths are still available within various location trade shows for the 2008-2009 program. For further information on this program, please contact Vanessa Cabrera at vcabrera@coin-op.org. Cheerio!

Click here to view pictures from the London show

AAMCF/Bill Cravens Memorial Fund to Help Fight Diabetes

Press Release:

Elk Grove Village, IL - January 28, '08 - 1:07PM CST - The Coin-Op industry was saddened at the passing of Bill Cravens last year.  Following the loss, the Cravens family asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the American Amusement Machine Charitable Foundation (AAMCF) to help fight diabetes.  The AAMCF set up a memorial fund in Bill’s name, receiving donations from AAMA members, family members and friends. 

We are proud to announce that we have been able to donate nearly $13,000.00 to the Juvenile diabetes Research Foundation International (JDRF).  The JDRF is the leading charitable funder and advocate of type 1 (juvenile) diabetes research worldwide.  The mission of JDRF is to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research. 

The AAMCF, along with the Cravens family, would like to thank those who made contributions in memory of Bill.  Your generosity will go towards making a difference in the lives of children in need.  For more information on the JDRF, visit their website at www.jdrf.org .   

STERN Pinball Went Live on GMA

Press Release:

Elk Grove Village, IL - January 18, '08 - 4:25PM CST - "Are we on our game or what?", asked Diane Sawyer. At approximately 8:30am CT, coin-op went live on Good Morning America.

The segment went off without a hitch and Stern Pinball's customized Good Morning America pinball machine was a huge hit, both in front of the camera with GMA's news anchors, and even behind the scenes with its' production team.

Noted in other AAMA On-Line News, Stern also featured, Wheel of Fortune, Spiderman, Pirates of the Caribbean, and World Poker Tour.

As Zach and Josh Sharpe, with their 4th and 5th stance in the World Pinball Rankings, showed off their skills, a crowd of high school students filled the back drop of the studio, eagerly awaiting their turn.

For those of you who missed this morning's live broadcast, not to worry, the association has acquired the clip for you.

Launch GMA's Stern Pinball Segment

Coin-Op Mourns the Loss of Steve Kauffman, Long Time Industry Veteran

AAMA's E-Newsletter: Loose Change - Jan, '08

The AAMA was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of industry veteran Steve Kauffman.  The long time industry member unfortunately lost his two year battle with lung cancer on Friday, January 11, 2008. 

During his 35 year career in the coin-op industry, Steve held important positions for a variety of companies including Games of Nevada, Williams, Stern, Konami, and Electronic Arts.  Most recently, he had focused on the import/export business with partner Dominic DeFazio in their joint venture, Sales Corp. International.

Steve is survived by his wife, Shelia, and three children, daughters Stephanie and Amanda, and son David.  The AAMA sends its condolences out to his entire family and to all that knew him.  His time with us, although far too brief, was large in contributions.  He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.       

The arrangements are as follows:
 
Monday, December 14 @ 12:15 p.m.
Shalom Memorial Park (Chapel)
1700 W. Rand @ Route 53
Arlington Heights, IL
773-274-2236
 
Shiva will be Monday and Tuesday at the Kaufman's home at:
 
1934 N. Olympic Drive
Vernon Hills, IL  60061
 
In lieu of flowers, please send donations to either:
 
Evanston Northwestern Hospice
4901 Searle Pkwy.
Suite 130
Skokie, IL  60076
 

-or-
 

The American Lung Association

2008 ASI Coin-Op Olympics

AAMA's E-Newsletter: Loose Change - Jan, '08

Bay Tek Games Mixes Business with Giving

AAMA's E-Newsletter: Loose Change - Jan, '08

London Calling

AAMA's E-Newsletter: Loose Change - Jan, '08

The AAMA location trade show tour is nearing the end of its 2007-2008 program. Next stop, the ATEI Show in London.

The trade show floor was abuzz last year with the news that in 2007 the new show owners, Clarion Events, planned to move much of coin-op to the second level; leaving the main floor to focus primarily on gaming.

As you may have read in many mediums, the coin-op industry was less than thrilled with this decision. However, through much discussion, many agreed to move to the second level of Earl's Court, including the AAMA pavilion.

Now in its second year on the top floor, the AAMA and its exhibiting members are looking forward to a successful event. AAMA will play host to member companies in the pavilion, including; Benchmark Games (booth# 2430D), ESD (booth# 2430C), Pyramid Technologies (booth# 2430F) and Rock-Ola Manufacturing (booth# 2430B).

Besides promoting US coin-op companies on the trade show floor, your association will take part in various other events that ATEI has to offer. The AAMA will participate in the World Summit Meeting, where leaders of international associations and affiliated representatives meet to inform their counterparts of developments and key issues within their respected geographical locations. Both AAMA Chairman, Dave Courington , and President, Mike Rudowicz, will inform summit attendees of issues facing the US market.

The AAMA will also attend the annual Ambassador's Reception. Because the ATEI show is an internationally focused trade show and as a token of their appreciation for our support, each year the show gathers all the associations for a night of networking and fun. This year's event looks to be even more special for both the association and our US members. AAMA's very own Mike Rudowicz, will become the first ever Ambassador to London's ATEI!

The ATEI show will be held Tuesday, January 22nd through Thursday, January 24th. See you on the other side of the pond.

AAMA's 2008 Advertising Program

AAMA's E-Newsletter: Loose Change - Jan, '08

It's back! Your association has once again negotiated a special advertising rate with International Bowling Industry Magazine.

International Bowling Industry Magazine - IBI - is the only monthly publication focused on every facet of the bowling business. With a monthly distribution of 10,400 copies covering every bowling center in the United States, IBI has more circulation, more readerships, more industry credibility and more sales impact than any other bowling business publication. In addition, with substantial bonus circulation, IBI reaches virtually every major bowling center worldwide! It is your strongest marketing partner.

This generous advertising discount structure is only offered to AAMA members. Start taking advantage of your member benefits.

It saves to be a member of the AAMA!

Click here for more detailed information on this incredible member savings program.