With expertise in bilingual education, part of my job here at 7 Generation Games is to not just attend and demonstrate the games at events, but also give my input on where are the appropriate places to spend our limited marketing dollars.
The NCLR 2014 (National Council of La Raza) National Latino Family Expo was a fun experience for me this year. I did get to meet and talk to a lot of people regarding their business and what it is that they do. I will admit I liked getting a whole bunch of reusable bags, which I will be using to go grocery shopping, and I also received a lot of free gifts from large business corporations. But that’s exactly what I felt the NCLR was, a lot of big businesses such as Toyota, General Mills, Johnson & Johnson to name a few. I’m glad I got the opportunity to go to this event and be able to honestly give my opinion to AnnMaria about possibly having our own booth at NCLR next year, or not.
There were many Hispanic people in attendance but none of which I can say were there for educational purposes. Aside from educational reasons I also did not see many children in attendance. The majority of the attendees were over the age of 40 and really did not speak English. They were there taking part of the free event but did not communicate much with the presenters and didn’t really seem to care much what the presenters were; they were just happy to get a free gift. I’m not judging anyone, this was a free event after all and I did partake in it! I was simply observing for our company’s sake. Yes, this is a big conference that can get the word out about our company and our awesome games, but I feel that it is not the right conference for us due to the crowd that attends it. Continuing with school related conferences or other conferences that benefit children and gaming is the best way to go for our company, in my opinion. With that said, if anyone is in town during the next National Latino Family Expo you should attend; it is free and it’s a fun experience.
Marisol Castillo Schultz
Senior Research Associate