Bigger Than Ever & Tougher to Navigate
IAAPA Expo Added a Third Hall…Build Your Floor Plan Before You Land
By Howard McAuliffe, Partner, Pinnacle Entertainment Group
In this column a few years back, I told you that planning to walk the entire IAAPA floor was always a good idea. Don’t even try it this year! IAAPA has added the West Building for 2026. The show now runs across the North/South and West buildings, with registration at both ends of the campus, a pedestrian bridge and shuttles running continuously between them (see the graphic). In other words, it’s enormous.
Jakob Wahl explained the reason plainly: “In 2025 alone, more than 200 companies – many of them long-standing IAAPA members – were unable to exhibit due to space limitations.” Before landing on the West Building, a member task force looked at moving the show out of Orlando altogether.
So, there will be more vendors and more product, and the same four days. Education starts on Monday, Nov. 16, while exhibits run Tuesday through Friday, Nov. 17-20. For me, this IAAPA marks the first time that I’ll be shopping with two hats on – buying for our own bowling center and also spec’ing for clients. Those turn out to be two different jobs.
Plan Before You Land
The hour you’ll spend on this show with the highest-return happens at your kitchen table, not in Orlando.
Pull up the floor plan and the Connect+ app before you get on the plane. Search every vendor you need to see, drop them into a saved schedule, then look at where they landed. Two suppliers you’d assume are neighbors may now be a shuttle ride apart. Find that out in advance, so you don’t miss anyone you need to see.
At a minimum look at the exhibitors in the West hall and decide if you need to venture over and if so, when. The What’s New Showcase and the First Time Exhibitors pavilion are both in the West Building. I wrote a while ago that new vendors get stuck with bad booth space and you have to hunt for them. That’s less true now. They sit in one pavilion in the same hall as the new-product showcase, so the part of the show that took the most wandering is now the most concentrated.
One more consideration before you book your flight and hotel: The education program runs Monday through Thursday and is included in the floor pass, and the FEC lunches are $69. Those rooms are full of operators with your problems, and you can’t get that from a booth.
Go In Looking for Proven Investments
High gas prices hurt our industry, and customers are more discerning than they’ve been in a long time about where to spend money. Owners and operators need to be careful about their spending too. We always suggest not buying brand-new games and attractions that are unproven, and that is even more true this year when operating margins are getting squeezed.
While it’s important to be careful about what to buy, it is also important to continuously improve. Many operators will stop spending now that business is slower. If you can afford to, now is the time to improve your business and take market share from them. If a new attraction isn’t in the budget, look for a new game or two. If games aren’t in the budget, look for hot new redemption and crane product.
Keep two lists, too: 1) what you’re prepared to buy and 2) what you’re there to learn about. They aren’t the same thing, and blurring them is how people come home with equipment they were only curious about. I’m buying for my own 36-lane bowling center and advising on dozens of locations of all shapes and sizes. The questions change with the hat and it helps to say out loud which one I’m wearing before I start.
New Games: Ask the Boring Questions
Whatever’s on your list, the demo is the least useful thing in the booth. There are three key questions before anything gets a purchase order.
1) How many are on location right now?
2) What locations are running them?
3) How long have they been on location?
If you like the answers to these questions, then get in contact with a test location and see how the game is performing, including comparative sales to other games and reliability. There is no rush! The game will still be new to your customers whether you buy it now or in a few months. Seasonal locations with lots of nearby competitors may have a real time crunch, but most locations are better off waiting until games are proven.
Competitive Social: Long on Potential, Short on Proof
I’m as interested in competitive socializing as anyone, and the potential is real and large. Adults want somewhere to go that isn’t a bar and isn’t a restaurant, and the category is being built in front of us. If small-footprint attractions can draw crowds like bowling lanes, movie theaters and go-kart tracks do, then there are a lot more locations available that require a lot less space and expense to open.
Let me be direct about the catch: there aren’t many proven concepts yet.
Darts has decades behind it. Simulators are exciting, with a range wide enough that almost any building can find an entry point. Past those two, most of what you’ll see in Orlando is promising and unproven. Virtual archery came to market this fall. Interactive LED floor arenas are sold by multiple vendors.
I can tell you I have seen all of these run profitably, but I have also seen all of them fail and be removed from locations. Understanding exactly where and how to operate these new attractions is difficult and possibly the biggest opportunity in the industry.
Another important consideration is the strength of the company selling the attraction. Have they been around for years or are they a startup at risk of insolvency if they miss a round of funding? The answer to this question is key to understanding your risk.
The Small Footprint That’s Already Proven
Duckpin bowling is the opposite case: a small-footprint, social, competitive attraction that’s already proven in a lot of buildings, including plenty that had no business adding traditional bowling.
The footprint is the whole argument. Brunswick, who we work with, lists Duckpin Social as installing in as little as 31 feet against the 87-foot minimum a standard lane needs. These lanes are not a substitute for bowling, but can be a great addition to a bar or added as a private space for groups and events.
There are two things to check if you’re considering duckpin: 1) a system that talks to your other systems, or can be the hub for all of your systems, is valuable, and 2) make sure the company you are buying from is established and will be around for years to come. There are duckpin lane makers popping up everywhere, offering low price options, and there will likely be many at IAAPA. I would only go with proven companies.
Four days, three buildings and more than 1,100 exhibiting companies. You aren’t going to see it all, and this is the first year that’s a fact rather than a failure of planning. Build the map, set the number, keep what you’re buying apart from what you’re learning, and ask for operating history on anything unproven. Do that and you’ll come home with a plan instead of a stack of brochures.
See you in Orlando.
Howard McAuliffe loves to imagine and implement new products, business models, and ideas, and is CEO and president of Pinnacle Entertainment Group Inc. He’s an industry veteran who got his start in the business when he was just 16 and has 20 years of expertise in product development, as well as FEC and route operations. Howard’s wife Reem and young son Sami are the center of life outside of work. When he’s not working, Howard can be found enjoying the outdoors, hiking, fishing and mountaineering. Traveling anywhere new or to old favorites like the American West is a passion. Readers can visit www.grouppinnacle.com for more information or contact Howard at [email protected], he welcomes positive as well as constructive feedback and counterpoints.