[Deptheads] Gamex Guest

Mon Apr 11 09:05:26 PDT 2011

We've had this discussion many times before and answered all these
questions, too. But I realize there are some new people on the staff that
probably haven't seen what we've said. Rather than go point-by-point for a
response, I'll try to keep this brief (brevity is the soul of wit, the Bard
says).

1) Guests of Honor and Special Guests - This distinction was simple but got
cloudy with Justin Gary because he was not invited using standard guest
rules.

Guest of Honor - We cover expenses completely: room, badge, board and
travel. We should really keep this to one per con to contain expenses.
Special Guests - Before, we were just covering a badge. However, Justin Gary
got at least one room in the deal. Thus, I think we could use an extra
distinction. If Special Guests are going to get a room but no travel/food or
anything like that but we'll expect GOH-type events, I think that will work.
VIP Guests - I suggest we create a third category for guests that we want to
invite with a free badge but nothing more than that. For the badge, we can
list them on our site as "VIP Guests" like Kublacon and many other cons do
(Neoncon has like 50 'special guests' in a con of 250). This is the kind of
badge we'd give to the Wil Wheaton, Phil Eklund, Flaster Siskin, and other
local designers/VIPs.

2) Who is a Guest? Everyone can suggest guests. We've already discussed the
value of some types of guests versus others and our RPG department made it
clear that a GOH for their department is a non-starter. They are best
focusing on local GMs that will run cons. If they have a 'celebrity GM'
distinction, call them a VIP Guest and give them a badge. If they are
running enough games to qualify for room reimbursement, then they will do so
outside of their "Guest" status. We got the same response from Minis. But if
things have changes and you believe them to be a draw, put up names and
we'll discuss if they are GOH, SG or VIPs. Left to my own devices, I invite
board game folks because they are more accessible, the board games
department is the largest and there are more 'rock stars' in that community.
Sorry, there just are and we received little disagreement with that last
time we discussed the matter.

But seriously - if you have the names, give them to us. Ryan did so and we
are booking John Wick for Gateway. If we want to hit SoCal Smackheads with
some minis guests, sounds good to me. Just give us some names/e-mail
addresses and we'll send them an official invite. Please DO NOT just start
inviting them and promising them rooms, board and the stars. That won't help
anyone, least the con who has to shell out the dough to cover for that flub
and the VIP coordinator who has to meet possibly ridiculous requirements.

3) Staffing for Guests - A VIP coordinator may be able to handle three
guests but it will be hard, that person will not enjoy the con and it
requires cooperation in the communication ahead of time. I think a central
coordinator will help but the individual departments should help out. For
example, board games would definitely handle Ted (despite Tim's bizarre
comment that RJ would) since he's in board games. The VIP coordinator would
get schedules together for them in cooperation with the department head and
would be an escalation point but making sure the GOH eats, shows up to
events and such would be in collaboration with the department. The VIP
coordinator would help with pre-con stuff, rooms, transportation and the
like. That's about as much as they can reasonably do.

Let's table this discussion and talk about it at the meeting. If you have a
guest you'd like invited, feel free to post the name here but please don't
just invite them outright.

...ERB
www.boardgamebabylon.com
www.strategicon.net

On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 1:08 AM, Victor B <fhoenix88 at yahoo.com> wrote:

>   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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