[Deptheads] Fw: Strategicon and a kids' track?

[Strategicon Department Heads]

 Great Con every body! I will send out a more marketing related follow up but wanted to forward this email now.
I Ran in to Lili at the con again and she brought up the lack of tween events again. This is her follow up email to that conversation.
If you remember she wrote us the original email immediately after the last con and is concerned about the lack of events/content for kids who are a little older than the kids events yet too young to play comfortably in the normal event schedule.
Is this something that we want to address at this point?  What do you guys think?
Eric


   ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Lili Yen <liliyen at gmail.com>To: "edowning at strategicon.net" <edowning at strategicon.net>Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2020, 10:38:25 PM PSTSubject: Re: Strategicon and a kids' track?
 Hi Eric,
It was good to see you again this weekend at Strategicon! What a great event! We brought so many friends, mostly with kids. At least 6 different families with kids joined us this time, and it was the first event for most of them. It was exhausting for us to manage the kids, most of whom were around age 10-11. This time, we did 101s (Tiny Towns, Azul, Ticket to Ride expansions), Artemis, MTG tournament, Love Letters tournament, Ultimate Werewolf, Cash n Guns live, Railroad Racoons, party games, dice masters, and checked out lots of games from the library. Some of these events were very friendly toward our gaggle of kids; Artemis, Dice Master volunteers, and party games were among the friendliest.   My kids were younger than the required age for MTG tournaments, but we were glad they were allowed to participate.  For the 101s, some GMs are friendlier toward kids.  We accidentally found out about the Kid-friendly RPG on Sunday 2pm, but it wasn't listed on the website schedule, so we totally missed it.
Again, we noticed that it was difficult to find seating in the Family area- at least 1 table was usually taken up by a group of adults. For us, Family area was ideal so we could be near the kids playing at MTG tournaments or the kids playing party games. It was also an area where the noise and energy level of the kids couldn't negatively impact other people's games as much.  I've noticed the kid's tournaments that seem to attract kids ages 5-8, and I think those are great! Unfortunately, my kids are too old to want to play in the kiddie tournaments and yet too long to be left to play for many of the other events.  By the way, can MTG tournaments be dropped to age 11+ instead of 14+?
Again, I'm wondering if there could be older kid-friendly tracks, that would include a variety of games, 101s, RPGs, MTG and other tournaments were GMs are aware that kids could participate. Perhaps with a special code that it's older kid/tween-friendly. Or a room dedicated to tween-friendly games with friendly moderators.  There are some really nice GMs/volunteers that understand kids, and we very much appreciated them. I believe that with a stronger track and focus on this age group, we will continue to see growth more families participating Strategicon. 
Thanks again!Lili


On Fri, Sep 6, 2019 at 8:58 PM Lili Yen <liliyen at gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Eric!
It was so nice to meet you at this year's most recent Strategicon! We've been attending for the past 2 years, and it's been a great family experience for us. My kids are now 8 & 10, and we've enjoyed the Board game 101s, Game Library, Artemis, and Party Games. And as you know, my kids entered their first tournament. What we've noticed in the past 2 years is what appears to be a huge growth in the amount of school aged kids participating, particularly in the age group of about 8-13. In this age group, these kids prefer to play more "adult" games than what is offered in the Kids' area, but we've found that it's not always easy to incorporate kids to the regular 101s. Additionally, some people do not prefer to play with kids. Also, when kids are playing a game, parents have to hover around, which does not allow the parents to play their own games.  I definitely love the Family area on the 2nd floor, and I would suggest that the rules be enforced better to be reserved for families with kids OR possibly allow parents who are hovering over kids in the nearby room.  
Here's another suggestion: to have a tween track for kids ages 8-13 (about 3rd - 8th graders) with or without participating parents. This could then be marketed toward families who would like to attend, who are interested in more board games, or perhaps they homeschool. If parents do not participate in the games, it would be ideal to have a nearby room or tables for parents to be able to play games quietly nearby. This is because of your signs and rule that Strategicon volunteers are not responsible for kids (nor should they be responsible for our kids).  There are already some events that might be already part of the track (like the LARP on Sundays at 2pm), or certain party games, Magic 101, some of the video game tournaments. It can all be listed in a section of the schedule (to make it easier to follow) with some additionally 101s and tournaments added. And it wouldn't need to all be necessarily in the same room all the time.  This would probably work well on Saturday and Sunday when the Family Day Pass is available. (By the way, I suggest age 13 as the upper end rather than age 12 that you have on your upper end of a kids' day pass because that is approximately the age for a older middle school aged child. In high school, kids become more independent, but I would probably supervise my own kids more closely until about the age of 13. )  
I believe that with a stronger track and focus on this age group, we will see a continued growth of families participating Strategicon.
Thanks again for listening to my suggestion! 
Best,Lili
  
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