[Deptheads] Seminar Event Label

Wed Feb 22 11:35:29 PST 2012

We used to have something called the Dungeon Delve that ran throughout the day where the PCs would play with pregenerated PCs and try to get through as many encounters as possible in one hour. We ran it in a highly visible area at the Radisson, so we could run it at a table in front of the RPG HQ. We could bring that back, but we would need a volunteer to be in charge of it. I can provide the adventure and pregenerated PCs, we just need someone to staff it and I can't spare any of the RPGA judges.

--Mickey Tan

Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:31:39 -0800
From: fhoenix88 at yahoo.com
Subject: Re: [Deptheads] Seminar Event Label
To: deptheads at strategicon.net

We have not had the war college seminars in 2 years. It was a 20 and under event. We still have many events that have 20 or less people participate/show up. 
It is not vital but the war college seminars are nice to have and some of those seminars were destination for people.

RPG scheduling is tricky and realize we had many many more rpg games submitted than we had space to run and we even had rpg games running in corners of the con, hallway spaces, hotel driveway, etc.
This is with the 4 hour block and 1 hour break between blocks (we had to have 1 hour break between so people could get to next event, eat, shop, bathroom break, etc...since several were rpg only).
Staggering the times resulted in many other issues so it went back to time blocks and it works well. Captain mike and Bob sailed the rpg ship very very well.

Also note-- You are not alone. There are several people at our convention that do one genre only (ccg, boardgames, rpg, rpga, larps, etc) and during any given hour they have nothing to play.
And it isn't always because nothing is running...they just might not be interested in what is running that hour. 4 rpgs going yet the person doesn't like call of cthulhu, deadlands, steampunk or d&d original recipe.
Maybe add a rpg demo table or 2 near it's HQ and have new rpg games doing quick 30 min to 1 hour sessions. Demo tables are in every other area and they are like snicker bars...they satisfy that "I am bored and want a quick game to snack on".

V

From: Kryssie <phantom.hopscotch at gmail.com>
To: deptheads at strategicon.net 
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2012 11:25 AM
Subject: Re: [Deptheads] Seminar Event Label

The speaking seminars, to my knowledge and one year experience, are never well attended.  Likely because there's just *so much* to do and the seminars fall during games and such that it's difficult for people to get to everything they want to play and see. 

For example.  In RPGs, if I want to play a 2pm game AND go to a speaker/seminar at 5pm, I'm sorta SOL.  I have to choose one or the other--and if I choose the seminar, I get to stand around for 3 hours and do nothing (I'm not a board gamer or a card gamer).  In fact, that was a problem I ran into this past convention--even with all the games going on in RPGs, I still found myself with nothing to do for hours on end because games were full or I had something scheduled in the middle of a game or, in one case, I was so offended by the GM, I left 10 minutes into the game.  

Maybe we should re-look at our scheduling?  We could offer more RPGs if people were willing to start them every hour.  I know it forces us to use more space, but if we stagger the start times of games, you don't have people wandering around, waiting...plus, it makes it easier for people to get into a board game/tournament and/or see a guest speaker or go on a tour or something like that if they don't or cant' join a 2pm RPG or something. 

Perhaps I could talk to Robyn about it offline... >_>  It just popped into my head due to running a couple things over the past year that have had less than vibrant attendance--like the seminar I'd planned for Women in Gaming...and Costuming & Cosplay... the Costume Contest (but, that's moving completely into something else).  I know there was a guest who was doing a Q&A once who had all of three people show up--and 2 of them worked with me in the D20 Girls...they weren't there because they wanted to be, they were there because they felt badly.

Sorry for the long-winded response.  I just think we really need to re-examine our scheduling and try to coordinate it all a little bit better. 

On Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 10:12 AM, <Evil5757 at aol.com> wrote:

I feel the best option is to have Seminars actually become a department instead of a collection of "who's speaking." We used to have people come to the con JUST FOR the seminars and they had a blast. To the best of my knowledge, we don't have anyone beating the bushes for speakers or a War College and we should. 

Karl and Mike, would you be willing to tie into Bootcamp and Historical Miniatures and fill the War College void and get it going again? I will be working with the Manufactors next convention to build towards them giving a talk on all their new products coming up (hopefully kicking off with Gateway). If successful, it should bring 11 or more manufactors to speak, each with give-aways at the seminar.

I seriously think it should be something we work to improve. A new label might be in order, but we should look at it in a positive way. Maybe "Guest Speakers," "Gaming Speakers," "something to let people know it will be new and exciting information.

John

In a message dated 2/22/2012 7:33:49 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, Tim at stugiii.com writes:
We need to change the "Seminar" "department" and label to something more meaningful.  I know some con's label these events as "Other" or "Misc.".  I really don't like those labels.  We can't call them "Special Events" because we already have a definition for that and some of the events currently listed under "Seminar" would not fit there.

Perhaps "General"?

Anyone have any ideas?

Tim

-- 
"Among our chief weapons are fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope…” - Cardinal Ximinez 

www.strategicon.net 
 www.StuGIII.com 

_______________________________________________
Deptheads mailing list
Deptheads at strategicon.net
http://mordred.punk.net/mailman/listinfo/deptheads

_______________________________________________
Deptheads mailing list
Deptheads at strategicon.net
http://mordred.punk.net/mailman/listinfo/deptheads

-- 
Kryssie Mackey
Talent Acquisitions & Marketing
310-766-9954
phantom.hopscotch at gmail.com
Strategicon Events
Follow me on Twitter & Facebook!

_______________________________________________
Deptheads mailing list
Deptheads at strategicon.net
http://mordred.punk.net/mailman/listinfo/deptheads

_______________________________________________
Deptheads mailing list
Deptheads at strategicon.net
http://mordred.punk.net/mailman/listinfo/deptheads 		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mordred.punk.net/pipermail/deptheads/attachments/20120222/f57a45d2/attachment.htm