I went to the D&D Experience in Washington DC back in 2007, and sat in the audience as Scott Rouse, head marketing maven for the D&D brand, told the assembled crowd at the designers' keynote that Wizards of the Coast was hoping to make the convention the D&D equivalent to the MacWorld Expo conference held annually in San Francisco. It would be a place where gamers could go to celebrate all things D&D, from the role-playing game to the then still-fairly-new tactical miniatures game. My main reason for attending the 2007 D&DXP was to try to win the Limited Championship in that miniatures game; though I didn't succeed, I did end up qualifying for the 2008 Constructed Championships, so the trip was still, from that perspective, a tremendous success.
Not quite two years later, and perhaps the plan needs to be modified, as Apple today announced that 2009 would be Apple's last exhibiting at MacWorld Expo. Some very smart Apple commenters have noted how this might allow MacWorld to become an even better convention, though the general consensus seems to be that MacWorld is likely doomed without the presense of Apple as a flagship sponsor, and that's probably not all bad.
(Aside: the Apple-centric blogs, as well as the Apple-centric media (MacWorld magazine, Mac|Life, etc.) are focusing on what this means for MacWorld Expo, but the MSM, so to speak, has decided it's more interested in talking about Steve Jobs' health rumors...again. *sigh*)
So what does that mean for D&DXP? Well, Wizard has already ended their official support for the skirmish game, handing the reins to a volunteer organization called the DDM Guild. So you might say that, in a way, Wizards beat Apple to the punch by a couple of months.
When the D&D Experience was primarily a convention supporting the Role Playing Gamer's Association's tabletop roleplaying games, it was called Winter Fantasy. Perhaps that name will come back now, given that RPGA stuff appears to be all that will appear at D&DXP beyond 2009.
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