[Deptheads] John Paiva's after action report

[Janice Sellers]

On 2/22/08, Patrick Havert <patrickhavert at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>  If we split the ballroom East-West, Boardgames loses space.  Last con we had
>  to use the Foyer, Ballroom, Minis, Collectables, La Jolla, San Jose, demo
>  tables, and the Flea Market tables on Saturday and Sunday(and if Minis and
>  Collectables had not given us space we would never have fit), so we can't
>  afford to lose ANY space at the moment.  I am actually hoping we put Minis
>  in La Jolla and the Penthouse, This would move Minis towards the front of
>  the con, right next to registration, and Boardgames/Open Gaming gets the
>  whole Ballroom, Foyer and San Jose.  San Jose can be used on Friday night
>  and Mondays to promote LARPS or something special.  Boardgames would use it
>  for Special or Big events during the day, and screaming games/Werewolf at
>  night.

Splitting the ballroom only causes you to lose space if you don't get
it somewhere else.  Putting more miniatures on the second floor frees
space in the Penthouse.

Putting miniatures in La Jolla does not put it right in front of the
attendees.  It puts it in a small room down a hallway.

>  I'd also like to take the demo tables in front of the Dealer room, to put
>  the Payout crew there, so they have a bit more room to spread out.

As Eric A. said, how much room do they need?  I saw two people sitting
at a table using a computer.  They used the space fairly well from all
accounts.

>  John you can put your special games in the dealer room in the area not used,
>  and draw people into the dealers room, this also lets you close down at 7pm
>  each night, so you can run from 10-7.

As previously stated, there was no space in the dealer room not being
used.  Catalina F was not part of the dealer room, and I have told
Eric A. that LARPs are more then welcome to that space again at Gamex.

>  As for Larry, if we start our own library, do we want/need him to continue
>  to come?  Besides if we need to staff the Library, then it seems we really
>  need to look at Larry's as a possible elimination, as I am tired of him
>  asking Boardgames HQ to help look after it.  We have enough to do without
>  his deal, and as you mentioned it looks bad when it is not staffed.  Just as
>  a side note, he said he is coming every time from now on, so who set this
>  deal up with him?  and what was the actual deal?

Is there a particular reason you see the need to have everything in
board games under your control?

>  The Staff Lounge is a nice idea, but some departments are farther away, and
>  it is not practical to expect the con to provide space/food for us when
>  space is still at a premium.  I do really appreciate the doughnuts we get
>  from Janice, and I hope those continue(shameless plug).  I actually buy
>  sodas and snacks for the boardgame GM's, and have them at the HQ.  To be
>  honest, we have already outgrown this location for Orc Con at least, so
>  we'll have to see what happens at Gamex/Gateway, and if the hotel can get
>  more Cabanas and other space available to us.

Some departments are further away because we haven't yet determined
better placement for them.  We haven't even come close to outgrowing
this location, because we routinely had more than 2,000 people in the
past and we all fit, and we only had about 1,350, probably 1,400 max,
at this past OrcCon.  So the problem is not space but how we're using
it.

Janice