[Deptheads] Information Requested

[Eric M. Aldrich I]

Yes, the vision needs to be set by the owners, and right now I seem to  
be the "owner" that has to do it.

We don't have enough space to meet everyone's desires, but we've had  
enough so far to meet everyone's needs, though in the case of RPGs and  
to a lesser extent LARPs, it's been less than ideal. My algorithm for  
space allocation is simply this. If you want the space, bring me the  
events. Last-second events don't cut it. I need them now.

Sometimes I need a good swift kick to get going. This seems to be one  
of those times as my attentions have been largely focused elsewhere.

Anyway, top priorities:

We really need an RPG head. Sarah, if she wants it, is more than  
welcome to do it, but that's up to her. It could potentially be a lot  
of work.

We really need to find someone to handle marketing. Robert has sent me  
some great suggestions as to what to do, but I don't have the time to  
do them.

We need to make arrangements with the parking folks. We need to know  
if we can pre-purchase X amount of space for our attendees. A good  
starting number would be 300 spaces for Friday evening, and 400 spaces  
for Saturday and Sunday. I can do this if need be, but I'd prefer  
someone else to take this one.

We need to confirm some guests and more importantly, we need some  
events.

I need to finish up just the basic flyer.

I need to answer a small pile of email. I owe Tim a long answer to one  
and I need to do it.

Mark needs to get married and then pay attention to the con again :-)

Eric


On 05 Nov, 2008, at 07:51, Tim wrote:

> Karl & Ryan,
>
> The vision for the con needs to be set by the owners.  I think we  
> all agree that the con needs to be 'bettered' as a whole, but the  
> direction that will take and the support has to come from the top of  
> the food chain, rather than as Ryan put it "...based on screaming  
> the loudest...".
>
> Tim
>
> Karl Kreder wrote:
>>
>> I think you hit the nail right on the head Ryan, and agreed on con  
>> wide strategy would be a really good idea.   But the question is  
>> how will we get everyone to agree?
>>
>> On Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 8:16 PM, Ryan McMullan <rmcmullan at gmail.com>  
>> wrote:
>> Hey John,
>>
>>         I like what you're saying but I think the underlying  
>> problem is that there isn't room for all of the departments to get  
>> big in the current (or any previous) hotel, so it quickly becomes  
>> "us vs them" tribalism between the departments.  I think this is  
>> largely because the way of allocating space seems to be based on  
>> screaming the loudest, rather than any sort of convention-wide  
>> strategy or big picture metric (such as player-hours delivered or  
>> something like that).  I don't want to come out as too negative --  
>> the con is doing remarkably well -- just explaining why the  
>> departments see themselves as competing over limited resources  
>> (namely money and space).
>>
>> Ryan
>>
>>
>>
>> At 09:29 AM 11/3/2008, you wrote:
>>> Hello everyone.
>>>
>>> It has been almost a week since I put out the below message, and I  
>>> have received no input from anyone yet.  After re-reading it, I  
>>> wanted to make sure everyone knows the intent of it.  As a  
>>> convention, we should be working to improve our weaknesses and  
>>> strengthen the convention as a whole. I am asking everyone for  
>>> their input on which departments are most in need of improvement  
>>> OR have the most room for improvement, whichever fits the situation.
>>>
>>> The last convention management team failed for 2 primary reasons,  
>>> complacency and a "that's not my department" attitude.  Don't fall  
>>> into that trap.  Work your department, help the others.  When we  
>>> started, everyone worked as a TEAM to get things better.  Don't  
>>> let the teamwork end.  In about a year, the convention will have a  
>>> big hurdle to jump - rising prices no matter where we go.  the  
>>> only way to combat this is with attendance - more attendance for  
>>> ALL DEPARTMENTS.  I would love to see the computer room having to  
>>> be moved to a room like the Penthouse because they have 4 Rock  
>>> Band set-ups and all are being used in a weekend long tournament.   
>>> I would love for Collectibles to have to move into a full ballroom  
>>> because they have a Regional qualifier for a M:TG event with 400  
>>> people.  I would love to see Boardgames need another room because  
>>> they have a 248 person Axis and Allies tournament like I used to  
>>> run at Origins. I would love to see Heather get the entire Fantasy  
>>> Flight staff out here with their own room running their events to  
>>> a packed house.
>>>
>>> Should I not do anything about it because those aren't my  
>>> departments?
>>>
>>> Ok, enough rant.  Please send me your feelings on how our  
>>> departments stack up so I can compile a "priority list" and get it  
>>> to Eric so we can talk about it next meeting and see what we can  
>>> do to help each department.
>>>
>>> John
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From:
>>> To: deptheads at strategicon.net
>>> Sent: 10/29/2008 11:39:06 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [Deptheads] Boardgames Query
>>>
>>> You are absolutely right, we are getting worse at getting along,  
>>> period. We are all fighting the circumstances, and that has led to  
>>> fighting each other to protect each department's interests.
>>>
>>> I was going to suggest this when things calmed down a bit, but now  
>>> seems like a good place to start.  The saying "we are as strong as  
>>> our weakest link" is sooo true at every convention I have been  
>>> staff on since 1978.  The complaints that are published in writing  
>>> or word of mouth always focus on the weakest link at a convention,  
>>> sometimes inversely.  Remember when people stopped coming to  
>>> Strategicon because it was a "card convention"?  It is so easy to  
>>> look at what we do best and GO FOR IT!  The best conventions I  
>>> have ever worked with put their attention on problem areas and  
>>> areas that needed to grow rather than what they were strong with.
>>>
>>> When I first joined Strategicon, the first thing I said was we  
>>> needed to get collectibles and LARPs going again, and that was our  
>>> primary focus for the first 2 conventions.  We now have solid  
>>> departments that are steadily improving each convention.  This is  
>>> what we need to focus on.  Earlier I was criticized for my opinion  
>>> because I am not in the RPG department.  Well, now I am putting  
>>> together a staff to run a Gaming Community Department, trying to  
>>> bring open gaming back to the rightful place it should be.  I want  
>>> input from Victor.  I want input from Janice.  I want input from  
>>> Chris.  I want input from Heather.  I want input from EVERYONE.  I  
>>> don't care if they are not a part of the Community Gaming  
>>> Department.  Sometimes people see things better or at a different  
>>> angle than if they are in the middle of it. That is how we also  
>>> keep from getting set in our ways and complacent (which we are  
>>> starting to do).
>>>
>>> The state of things as I see them:
>>>
>>> Boardgames - Great job, slow steady improvement on little things  
>>> to fine tune constantly being done.
>>>
>>> Collectibles - Great turnaround from where we are a year ago.   
>>> Still room to improve the attendance with word-of-mouth and some  
>>> big tournaments or some kind of big draw.
>>>
>>> Dealers Room - holding steady.  Even with the turmoil, Janice has  
>>> done a good job of filling the place with various products.   
>>> Getting rid of exclusivity for non-mfrs a plus. Getting mfrs in is  
>>> next goal.
>>>
>>> Computers - Good job with a department I was ready to give up on  
>>> until we could have a big internet network to go with.  Good job  
>>> proving me wring and I have a great computer guy starting in my  
>>> department who can help out if you need it.
>>>
>>> Registration - Cleaned up VERY nicely.  Steady improvement each  
>>> convention and I heard no complaints at all this last convention.   
>>> I am sure there is some behind the scenes logistics you are  
>>> looking to improve on.
>>>
>>> Auction - Seems to be that moving it to Monday has improved  
>>> things.  Maybe if we could get the listing of items up for auction  
>>> out earlier it might improve attendance?  i don't really know, but  
>>> might be worth a try (sign-up lots on Saturday, post lots on  
>>> Sunday, auction on monday?).
>>>
>>> RPGs - The variety of games has been improving steadily.  There  
>>> are a LOT of games not represented though, including out of print  
>>> ones that can be run.  Remember, gamers love to reminisce.  if you  
>>> have a blue Planet or a Space Opera game, people will get in on  
>>> them and take home good memories of cons past.  RPG players seem  
>>> to replay convention history in their head more than any other,  
>>> old RPGs bring those memories back.
>>>
>>> RPGA - Seems to have a good system going with getting current  
>>> modules quickly.  Back East, we used to have "This Convention  
>>> Only" modules that were extremely popular.  Can we find out if we  
>>> can do something like this and how we can make "Strategion Modules"?
>>>
>>> Miniatures - Sat and Sun good....Fri and Mon bad.  We badly need  
>>> to help Jose and Robyn make this department a 4 dayer.
>>>
>>> Special Projects - improving every convention, but still 3 or 4  
>>> conventions away from being the 24/7 gaming location it is  
>>> intended to be.  Adding a Battlestar Galactica large scale space  
>>> combat game early this year and a 1/100 scale Wooden Ships and  
>>> Iron Men game at the end of the year.
>>>
>>> Marketing - This has always been sticky because there is not a lot  
>>> of money to put into it.  I have always felt that big impressive  
>>> "LOOK AT ME" tshirts people can buy from us then advertise for us  
>>> at their gaming clubs or with their friends is always the best  
>>> investment of money (get your money back and free advertising).   
>>> We have about a month until Eric wants to get our marketing push  
>>> out there for February.....please cost out and put some ideas out  
>>> here that we can work with or find better prices on.
>>>
>>> Movie Room - Strange, because ideally we want everyone gaming and  
>>> not have spare time to watch a movie. However, we want the movie  
>>> list to make people say "I wish I had time to see that" so that  
>>> anytime they want to take a break, grab a soda and a sandwich and  
>>> sit down to watch a movie, they still enjoy themselves.  We need  
>>> to publish the movie list on a poster though, BEFORE the movie is  
>>> playing.
>>>
>>> Program - We have the basics in place, and with Eric working on  
>>> the extraction program this should be a strong point by the end of  
>>> the year.  With everything growing though, we need to decide -  
>>> larger book, smaller print, or what do we cut out?
>>>
>>> Open Gaming - Sucks.  Scattered all throughout the convention  
>>> instead of a single location building energy. Everyone who is  
>>> stretched for space should be asking open gamers to leave their  
>>> area and come to Community Gaming.
>>>
>>> At this late hour, I probably forgot a department or 2, but you  
>>> get the idea.  Our attention needs to be focused on our weakest  
>>> links, Open Gaming and Marketing, and on our links that have the  
>>> potential to improve the most, Computers, Miniatures, and  
>>> Collectibles as I see it.
>>>
>>> Yes, i know people will say I put open gaming in there because I  
>>> run it, but I volunteered to run it because I see how much it  
>>> needs attention.
>>>
>>> What I would like to ask EVERYONE to do it write down the  
>>> departments I have listed above (boardgames, collectibles,  
>>> marketing, etc.) and make a list of strongest to weakest as you  
>>> see them. No personality conflicts.  No department wars.  Please  
>>> put them in order of whatever you feel more comfortable doing,  
>>> either weakest to strongest OR strongest to "most room for  
>>> improvement," as I listed collectibles earlier.  Strong, but a  
>>> huge upside is possible the way Victor is running it.
>>>
>>> If you don't want to post it "out there" email it to me directly  
>>> and I will put your input anonymously with everyone else's when I  
>>> compile it.
>>>
>>> John
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Karl (zeotter at gmail.com)
>>
>> "When I was born I was so surprised I didn't talk for a year and a  
>> half."
>>  - Gracie Allen
>>
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>
>
> -- 
>
> "Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never  
> encountered automatic weapons." - General Douglas MacArthur
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