[Deptheads] Gamex Guest

[Victor B]

Guests , special guests, and guests of honor..............................

Bill, RJ and steve are not the only ones with questions. Guests 
represent the entire con and there are several people who have questions
 about the guest selection process.


--Who decides who will be the guest of honor and who is just a guest? 
ie. how is it decided who will get their travel paid and who is welcome 
if they pay their own way to our convention? What determines if they are guest of honor worthy or just a special guest (not counting personal preferences or personal tastes).? First asked? 



--What is our criteria for being a guest of honor? 



--Guests of honor represent the entire convention yet we never discuss them as a team before they are finalized. And we have several people talk to potential guests all year.

Special guests can represent specific interests. In fact we need more 
guests overall. We are lagging in that locally, statewide and 
nationally. 



--What do we budget for guests and guests of honor? Per con and per 
year budget or do we just invite a guests of honor we want nomatter 
where they live, pay their travel and expenses, and then make all other 
guests for that con pay their own way as "special" guests. Basically 
special guests are driving distance. Maximum we will spend on guests per con or max we spend on a guest of honor per con and all others pay? 



--What is our goal for choosing a person as a guest of honor, special guest, or guest? 

Prestige?  Getting names people know? Cool to have at the con but not really a draw? Fun and energetic that gets congoers involved? A 
draw that would get new people to our con or people on the fence off the
 fence to come? Cool guest to have.

Variety of guests and guests of honor? 



--Is there really a need in the future to have several depts. "handle" guests at our
 convention? We should have 1 person handle all guests as their only 
function before and during the convention. Before the con you check with
 them to make sure they get here, know when their events/seminars/etc. 
are (as coordinated with specific head), and make sure they make their events and their needs are met while at the convention. Don't
 have to play fire and fury to handle a fire and fury guest. With 2-3 guests this is easily done.

The guests dept. represents all guests so it should during the convention also. 




We talk about catching up to modern times with webpage and media yet we are lacking in guests ....variety and number.

In may kubla has richard borg (withdrew from gamex 2011) and richard 
berg. They have historical miniature/board game designer guest of honor,
 rpg guest of honor, boardgame designer guest of honor, artist guest of 
honor, war college guest of honor and the regular and special guests. 
Origins game fair has boardgame designer guest of honor, artist guest of
 honor, writer guest of honor, rpg guest of honor, miniature game guest 
of honor, larp guest of honor, etc. So do many other gaming cons. Some 
even have fan guests. Not saying we need to pay to fly out 6 people but 
we need variety of guests of honor in a calendar year and more guests overall...even if some are free locals. The public do not
 know that "guest of honor" just means we paid for their flight. Guest 
of honor means more. We cannot change how it is perceived. We need 
miniature, rpg and other guests of honor as well . And being 3 times a year there is no excuse for us 
not to. Being 3 times a year is a curse and a blessing until each of our conventions is different. But that is another topic.



Game designers are great.

Game designers talk about game design (ccg and deck based, boardgames, miniature games, wargames, etc). 

But we also should have----RPG designers that run adventures in their 
game, miniature painters that attend and do hands on workshops and 
seminars on painting teqniques, larp guests that play in the game with 
you, video game guests that attend and play rock band or challenge all 
comers to beat them in a game they are all over G4 tv show and the web 
as being king of. Flames of war and fire and fury guests would rock our 
house. Games workshop guests would draw many many people- they always do
 when they show up at cons and speak on warhammer and warhammer 40k, 
play games, talk painting , etc. 



Let's be real......

Most non-local designers and people in the gaming industry that we would
 invite out are not coming if they have to pay for their own travel, so 
if all recent and upcoming guests of honor are all european boardgame 
designers --bruno faidutti (citadels, etc.) from france.....martin 
wallace (railroad tycoon, etc.) from england....... Friedmann Friese 
(power grid, etc) and Uwe Rosenberg (agricola, etc.) from germany then 
we will not have top miniature, rpg, larp, video gaming, or other guests
 that are not driving distance. And the cost to fly 2-3 guests from 
europe a year could afford us several travel-paid guests plus 1 european
 guest a year. The best of all worlds. 



Miniature gaming and Pathfinder rpg are the hottest games right now. 
Larps at cons is growing. We shouldn't just hook up certain designers 
and tell our staff to get guests but the guests they get can't be a guest of 
honor and have to pay their own way to our convention. No top person
 in their field in gaming in other states is flying to 

strategicon on their own dime and we can use some top miniature guests.



All gaming is important for our con growth. Those kids in video game 
room have one parent playing a rpg, one in boardgames, a sister in ccg, 
and their older brother playing a miniature game then a card game of hearts. And the kids play are you a werewolf at night while parents watch bad movies. It all works together
 to form a great convention. This means flying a variety of guests to 
the con to represent the different types of gaming and fandom. 

Mix it up. We have 3 cons a year. I would have a miniatures guest of 
honor each sept. to match socal smackdown pimping miniatures. I would 
also have at least 1 rpg guest a year and some fandom, authors, and other industry 
people. Get some artist guests by just giving them a table in exchange for seminars and panels, etc. (in may or sept. when we have the most competing cons). Getting more booths and appearance like we had with d20 girls would be great. They added to our con environment , costuming and contest,and were another voice out there plugging us. Seeing more and more people in costume got that con feeling stirring.



There are several new holiday weekend cons popping up within 6 hours of 
ours. Phoenix comic con had 500 attendees and no guests or gaming 9 
years ago when it began......now it has grown to 15,000 attendees, 
variety of guests, and good gaming. Phoenix comic is at same time as 
ours in may. Several of our attendees, volunteers, and 

vendors from arizona will be there as well as the drop-off we have for 
people going to kubla. 
Socal smackdown and celesti con are both at same 
time as us in sept. and both are getting guests, attendees and vendors. 
Smackdown is getting miniature gamers, manufacturers, vendors, and 
companies and saying we treat miniature gamers and 

roleplayers like second class. Our previous rpg staff already said that 
and several on outside feel we shortchange rpg and miniatures. Our 
guests of honor lists do nothing but support this. Info travels fast and
 slighted gamers pass info faster than happy ones.

 

Socal smackdown learned from last year. They are getting more volunteers
 and staff and lining up guests and major miniature tourneys and events.
 Some of their new staff are people from the industry. They won't go 
away and they will grow. We grew.  And if they slap us in miniatures 
they will start to pull local boardgamers , card gamers, etc. They 

already started. Socal smackdown lights a 
fire under us to not just do the same ole same ole thinking we are king 
of the socal gaming mountain and untouchable. They inspired us to have a
 great con last sept. and it will take an even bigger effort this sept. 
They are here to stay and everytime we have people feel second class at 
our con they get snactched up by them. Miniature guests and gamers should feel the red carpet from us and not feel secondary or they will take the socal smackdown carpet in sept.


V



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