PAX 2009 Prep Underway

CJ Preece reports from PAX: I used to hit the road for Iomega back in the day, setting up the booth, working for 14 hours a day all week and tearing it back down at the end. It always amazed me how much trade shows seemed to materialize out of thin air at the last possible second.

Today Dan and I arrived in Seattle for the Penny Arcade Expo, or PAX 2009, checked in to our hotel and immediately departed for downtown to grab our media passes. We then decided to walk the half block to this year's home for PAX, the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, where we would bypass brutal enforcers and security personnel with a combination of our ninja stealth, quick wit, and generally behaving and appearing like we were supposed to be there.

To our surprise, we ran into Jerry Holkins, the writer behind Penny Arcade and co-founder of Child's Play, a charity organization that helps sick kids in hospitals around the country overcome their anxiety and pain through video games. You can imagine our excitement at meeting Jerry, who was nice enough to invite us in to view the chaotic ballet of hundreds of trade show vets, gaming industry people and more than 150 passionate, (sometimes) kilt-clad gamer-enforcers putting the final touches on PAX 2009's immense show floor and high tech stage demonstrations.

Hundreds of LCD and plasma TVs, tons of styrene and MDF board, forklifts, scissor lifts, floorjacks, crates, miles of cable...this is a place for real men. Check our Flickr album for more pics taken the day before PAX 2009!