[Deptheads] Cross-Marketing with WyrdCon

Sun Nov 3 13:48:10 PST 2013

Thank for making these points, Victor -- all true.  I know each department
is special in its own ways, but I've come to understand a couple of key
distinctions for LARPs:
1) *Event Count is the wrong metric*:  Each LARP event entertains 20-80
players for 4-8 hours, depending on the event.  I know it's hard to gather
this from the event schedule, but there are many player-hours (1 player
entertained for 1 hour) that these events represent.  Player-hour is the
metric that we should be using to weigh the use of space for the good it
brings to the con.
2) *LARP prep is huge*:  The work a GM team has to put in ahead of the con
is huge.  Creating 20-80 characters, seeding character relationships,
building props, prepping costume pieces, prepping game materials, etc. is a
very large time commitment.  The worst possible situation is that a GM does
all this prep and then we say we don't have space for them.
3) *We don't compete for GMs*:  Most teams who run LARPs (outside of con)
are paid by their players to produce the LARP.  Typical rates are $25-40
for a half day game (up to $150 for a weekend game).  For a 30 player game
the GM team can raise $750-1200 for the equivalent of one con time slot.
 Instead we are giving them a few con badges, any many don't use them to
attend the rest of the con because they are moving on to a paying gig on
the other day of the con.  The GM teams who do run cons for us are doing it
because they're supporting the hobby, recruiting for their normal games, or
because we bring them a lot of convenience (though extensive pre-con
communication and accommodation).  Compared to Wyrdcon, which offers hotel
rooms, food vouchers, and other bennies, we simply don't compete other than
on convenience.
4) *LARPs require a lot of space*:  Even LARPs without live combat require
a lot of space.  Most require multiple rooms to represent different scenes
to allow things like intrigue, horror/separation, or tension to be played
out.  With the space restrictions of the Sheraton, we've restricted the
LARPs we can take to a very limited set that can function in one or two
rooms (occasionally Tim has finagled a third room when the 80 person games
wouldn't physically fit in two, for which I am grateful).  As Victor
pointed out, if we are to entertain any live combat LARPs (boffer, nerf
gun, laser tag, etc.) much more space is needed.

I know everyone intuitively knows that it's different to plan and run a
LARP than it is to bring a copy of a boardgame and administer it, but I
wanted to try to try to clarify in useful detail.  I write this out, not
out of the need to say how special LARPs are, but to help the con
leadership understand the genre dynamics I've learned over the last couple
years, in case they want to grow the LARP presence.  I'm happy to delve
into any of these more if desired.

Ryan

On Wed, Oct 23, 2013 at 4:27 PM, Victor B <fhoenix88 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I am all for cross-marketing and Ira at Wyrdcon is too. Kryssie  can work
> her magic with them to benefit us both.
> But it is not because our LARPS our weak. Our main larp events rock. I
> have been contacted by hotel security at different times because of the
> noise from the larps bothering hotel guests. They overflow into the
> hallways- they had to. Some of the same people running events at Wyrdcon
> ran events at strategicon and had to stop because the Sheraton did not like
> them fighting with boffer weapons--so those events got stopped during that
> convention and were not added for future ones. We also had to cancel or
> disallow several LARP events because of lack of space for them.
>
> We have been at capacity for several cons and only way to add space for
> live-action events is to eliminate several other events. It isn't like
> adding 1 or 2 tables for a tabletop event---we have to add several rooms
> plus account for live action participation and noise. LARPs take up a lot
> of space....and prep time is huge when you have to section off a room, set
> up props and hand them out, npc coordinate, costuming and makeup, special
> effects, etc. A 4-hour larp will take 2 hours or longer prep and set-up and
> at least an hour teardown--longer if the event is far away from loading
> area since they cannot start setting up and unloading until they have
> the space to use. I still larp and run events and in order to run a line
> course or world course you need more space than we are currently giving
> them--and they are running multiple larps in the space 1 larp should run in
> and doing it bare bones on props. They are making due with the available
> space.
>
> You really need an entire hotel layout to run several live-action games,
> transmedia games and ARGs (as well as space to run tabletop games and rpgs
> along with the larps). Radisson was great because it gave us the outside
> cabanas and lots of space outside for fighting. Westin was perfect for our
> larps there. I ran several larps events back in the day at the westion for
> strategicon (ifgs, etc). We had the patio area outside and sectioned it off
> with tarps and piping like a dungeon. Same thing done in small ballrooms
> for larp line courses. The Hilton will give us more space but still unless
> you are a larp con you aren't running more than 1 awesome big larp per
> day plus room larps and tavern games. I am proud of what the larpers
> accomplish at strategicon given the hand they are dealt--and they overflow
> Saturday night.
>
> We should always try to cross promote and be open to all gaming types and
> fandoms.
> Galifrey One is feb 14-16 which is during orccon .......it is at the LAX
> Marriott next door so we should touch base with them as well. There were
> several of our volunteers that worked both cons. One took a few of us to
> Gallifrey late Saturday night with her and it was fun and we even got some
> of them to come to strategicon on sunday badges. We have such a large
> variety of things going on during the weekend at our con  it is worth it
> for some people to go back and forth. Cross marketing is a great idea and
> can only help our convention grow and reach other markets of fandom and
> gamers.
>
> Victor
>
>
>   On Wednesday, October 23, 2013 2:43 PM, Dean Taylor <deanatay at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>  Strategicon has been weak on LARPs for most of the time I've been with
> you (although our live staged theater events seem to be doing quite well).
> Cross-promoting with a specialty LARP con like WyrdCon seems like it would
> help both of us.  The Westin's only 2 blocks east of the Hilton, so people
> could wander from one con to the other pretty easily.
>
>
> On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 1:46 PM, Nekojin <nekojin at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Polly and I went to Wyrdcon 3, and we were the ones who suggested to the
> Wyrdcon executives that a cross-promotion with us might be beneficial.
>
> A little backstory, if you haven't gotten this from them yet: They'd
> decided that their current hotel was simply too small for their convention
> to grow any further, so they started hunting for another hotel. They
> settled on the LAX Westin, but the only weekend that the Westin could give
> them was the Memorial Day weekend. They would rather NOT be on that
> weekend, since they're aware that puts them in conflict with... well,
> everything. But they needed to land the hotel first, and then start seeking
> for a better date for NEXT year.
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 21, 2013 at 2:02 PM, Kryssie <phantom.hopscotch at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> I was contacted (along with Shawn) about cross-promotions with WyrdCon
> during Gamex.
>
> I don't know what others' feelings on WyrdCon are, but it may be something
> worth discussing and doing....
>
>
> Kryssie Mackey
> Marketing Director
> 310-766-9954
> phantom.hopscotch at gmail.com
> Strategicon Events <http://www.strategicon.net/>
> Follow me on Twitter <http://www.twitter.com/Kryssieness> & Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/Angelkins>
> !
> "Imagine what you could accomplish if you knew you couldn't fail!"
>
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