The Quarter Bin

I happen to live in the Philadelphia area, and for seven years, I lived in Philadelphia, so I’m familiar with the two geek conventions the city gets every year, Wizard World Philly and VGXPO. Neither are particularly huge and can’t be compared to the bigger shows (San Diego and New York Comic Cons, E3, etc.), but hey, at least Philly gets something, right? Perhaps it seems only natural that the two shows would combine forces, and that’s exactly what is happening. As announced in a press release today, Wizard World Philly and VGXPO have formed a “strategic partnership that will provide cross-content, and cross-sponsorships, between VGXPO and Wizard Entertainment’s Wizard World Philadelphia event.”

In a nutshell, this new bond will apparently bring more gaming content to Wizard World Philly, and more comic content to VGXPO. You really needed a whole press release to say that, guys? At any rate, we’ll be there to check out all the happenings at Wizard World this June. Read on for more info.

New York, NY (March 17th, 2009) – Since its debut over a decade ago, Wizard World Philadelphia has grown to become one of the largest and most successful comic and pop-culture conventions in the country. Likewise, Video Game Expo (VGXPO), the largest East Coast expo of its kind, has seen significant growth since it inception in 2005, seeing over 24,000 attendees in 2008. To grow each event, and expand the reach of these expos, Wizard Entertainment announced today a strategic partnership that will provide cross-content, and cross-sponsorships, between VGXPO and Wizard Entertainment’s Wizard World Philadelphia event. Recent exhibitors at Video Game Expo include NBC Universal, Sony, Konami, Comcast, DELL Computer, Dig Philly, Game Stop, Intel, Panasonic, Sci Fi Channel, Verizon Fios, GameJOBS.com, MTV’s and EA’s Rock Band, NVIDIA, Philips amBX and Subaru.

By partnering with Video Game Expo, Wizard World will provide its fans with a multitude of cutting-edge content never before seen at a Wizard World show. The addition of Video Game Expo to Wizard’s lineup will add tens of thousands of square feet to the convention’s floor space, ensuring that this year’s show will be bigger than ever! Added content will include: VGXPO exhibitors; gaming contests at the Great American Video Game Tournament; Retro Con – a retail section dedicated to classic and pre-owned games; the VGXPO Arcade Gaming Center; and Breaking In, a single track conference dedicated to teaching would-be game makers about jobs, and educational opportunities, in the video game industry.

“Video Game Expo was a smash success in 2008, and since then we’ve been approached with opportunities by many of the largest expo promoters in the world. We decided to partner VGXPO with Wizard due to its passionate fan base,” says Ed Fleming, founder of Video Game Expo. “This passion and zeal mirrors the fervor of the VGXPO community.”

In addition, Wizard Entertainment will lend content to the Video Game Expo event on October 9-11, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

”We are very proud to have VGXPO and its enthusiastic and avid community at our Philadelphia show. We will introduce our 3 million monthly fans and provide some of our fan-favorite assets and marketing might to VGXPO in October,” says Wizard Entertainment Chairman, Gareb Shamus. “This partnership sets the stage to create the 3rd largest pop culture convention in the U.S. with Philly in June, right next to our Chicago Comic-Con in the #2 spot.”