[Deptheads] Gamex Guest

[Eric M. Aldrich I]

Ok, Eric B. has hit this on the head for the most part. Let me clear  
up some confusion on the guests.

We are now trying to have TWO (2) Guests of Honor per show, but we do  
not have to. The reason for this is
a) It looks good.
b) we can afford it
c) As Eric B. mentioned we've had several people lined up for ages.
d) We want to cover multiple departments. That said, board gaming is  
currently our bread and butter department as far as the numbers go.
e) Some of our friends in gaming have done really cool stuff for us in  
the past and deserve some spotlight. I make no bones about the fact  
some of the people we've had have done some wonderful stuff for the  
con over the years.

That said, we have to handle this in a semi organized manner. How this  
works:

Eric Burgess is responsible for long term planning of at least one  
guest. Tim and myself with input from everyone else will add another  
if we can, but it will not have the same budget for the most part  
(their will be exceptions, but they will be few).

Guests of Honor are as Eric B. says below. We spend a good chunk of  
change on these. They have to be a draw. It takes 50 or so additional  
paid attendance to justify flying someone out. We can get this for  
some of the major board game designers. After that, it gets a bit tough.

Special Guests are as Eric states below. We cover a badge and can give  
them a table, put them on the web site, etc. We might even spring for  
minor expenses. Meals are right out. The Justin Gary thing was a minor  
fiasco. I think we came out looking ok, but we almost botched this. We  
will cover travel in some cases and we can handle rooms. The main idea  
here is to grab locals. There will be exceptions (see Gateway 2011)

VIP Guests are those that purchase badges with the VIP package. We can  
extend it so that at the show we give the badges to various  
luminaries. We need to discuss this one a bit more, but I agree a  
third tier is needed.

Now, guests for Gamex? We could use one or two Special Guests. Locals  
are best. Guest of Honor at this point is set.

Gateway. This gets tricky. I'd like more, but we can only do so much.  
I'd really like to get Grant Dalgliesh out here as he's presented  
himself as an option, and he would be someone who'd appeal to both the  
wargamers ((Columbia block games) and the RPGers (Harn). I don't know  
what kind of draw he'd be. We also have John Wick in the queue and  
Rich Hasenauer would be good as well. These last two should be Special  
Guests and Kevin Wilson and Grant would be Guests of Honor.

We've had a couple more potential people show up on the radar. Maxwell  
Drake is interested, but I don't know much about him. He could be fit  
in for 2012. He's not a traditional guest for us, but neither was  
Laughing Moon.

So, what needs to be sorted out at the meeting as far as guests go?  
Gamex Special Guests and finalizing the Gateway list would be the top  
priorities. After that. suggestions will be accepted for the future.  
Remember, we cannot take everyone.

If you have issues with the above, email me privately. I don't think  
we need much more list thrash on this.

Eric

On Apr 11, 2011, at 9:05 AM, Eric Burgess wrote:

> 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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