[Deptheads]space and exposure

[Victor B]

Let's cut to the chase.
Space at the convention is what it is.
Everyone would like to be in the heart of the convention--that means being near registration , the foyer and near boardgaming. It is impossible for everyone to 
be in high traffic, high profile areas. Obviously any event will benefit from more exposure and being in foyer, next to boargaming, or in san jose.
We need better and more signage everywhere. We need to have daily programming lists in the high traffic areas for people to see (listing all events ech hour)

Every department will be in low traffic area except boardgaming and events in foyer.
Some of the events in the foyer need to look fantastic and be constant draw, quick easy rules to explain to passers by. Joe con goer just registered for the convention and 
leaves registration and sees these games and events in foyer. 19 out of 20 times he is not going to stop at the first cool thing he sees and play for an hour or more since he has not read the program  nor walked thru the convention yet. If he came to the convention to rpg, ccg, mini game, larp etc. he is just browsing til his event starts...if he is undecided he is going to cruise the convention before deciding what to do. The foyer does not need "destination" events- it needs impulse and "eye candy" events.

Boardgaming needs more space, rpg games need more space but the issue isn't where to get the rooms but the fact the individual rooms cost the convention more money and has to be balanced, computers and movies do not like being on a seperate floor and want more foot traffic but the reality is they cannot be put onto the 2nd floor where we already have run out of room for boardgaming and we will be adding warhammer and 40k back to the miniatures room. The dealers room is what it is. No space can be taken from the dealers room and if janice had more space she could have filled it.

People do not go to gaming conventions specifically to play computer games or watch movies/anime unless a game company is running the room with their game (blizzard running world of warcraft all weekend with prizes etc.) or a computer game has an awesome prize (have a halo 3 or guitar hero tournament with a $1000 dollar prize and it is worth it for someone to drive out, pay for parking and/or hotel, have their mom drop them off and pick them up, and buy a 1 day badge). And we would still lose money since the under 13 crowd would all get in for free. That being said the computer room will have con goers that will see tourneys they will want to play and they will sign up and find the computer room to participate. In the past year when the computer room was across from dealer's room how many people walked into the computer room at random and started playing games (they were not looking for the computer room and just saw it and decided to stop in and sit
 down and play a game). People will find the computer room.
People will find the movie room. People will not look for open board games unless they are near or in boardgames.
Rpgs exist on seperate floors because the games are in seperate rooms. There is no traffic in the hotel rooms with rpg games therefore it does not matter that these events are
on a seperate floor. Privacy for each game = find your game, sit back and enjoy the roleplay session uninterrupted and without outside noise and interference.

The penthouse is a pickle. Siberia. We have to put games there where people are set for most of the day and came just for that event.
Naval miniatures would be good up there since there is no space anywhere else to layout a floor miniature game. Also "the war game" would be good up there
and axis and allies and their clones. Those games have their following and they show up for those games and go at it all weekend uninterrupted. Monster games can go up there.
Games where they set up and game lasts the whole convention (or at least 1 full day). I would say larps up there but the larps and boffer larps drew lots of people including those that showed up and bought badges just to participate in the larps, and those reg con goers that hung out in the larps boffering away. It was the tween hangout.
Boffer larps and "are you a werewolf" became the tween hangouts over the computer room or anime room. Next con it may be the computer room and anime room where they hang out and congregate.

We need to establish our set up and then con goers will know con to con where things are. Familiarity will be our ally.
And as I mentioned above--daily programming signage listing all events of the con hour by hour (and one inside the program would help too).
Signage signage signage.


V


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