Small Cons, Small Press

[Luke]

I think there's a lot of variation here -- enough to make it hard to write a manifesto without running into a lot of traps:

Hi Mneme,

What's your area of expertise here? Are you an organizer, a publisher/designer or an ardent volunteer.

-L

[mneme]

I've occasionally been an organizer.
I'm not a designer, though I have a fair number of friends who are.
I've certainly -been- an ardent volunteer (for Interactivities Ink).

[Lisa Padol]

I'm not a designer, though I have a fair number of friends who are.

Do technicalities count? You have helped design larps -- the two Mad Scientist larps, Roman Baths, and the rewrite of Jamais Vu.

-Lisa

[Matt-M-McElroy]

• Free badges: No questions asked. That includes badges for my crew. (Crew being volunteers who voluntarily volunteer their free time to come and make your con for which you are charging fees a more fun experience.) When I arrive at registration, I will say my name, and the names of my compatriots and we will be handed badges. We will not fill out forms with our names and addresses or anything else.

If you are a con organizer and would like to respond, please do.

I'm trying to figure this one out. Is this when the Con invites you to attend as a Guest (and have probably already provided this sort of info) and arrangements have been made for a certain number of free badges?

Regards,

Matt M McElroy
www.flamesrising.com

[Luke]

I'm trying to figure this one out. Is this when the Con invites you to attend as a Guest (and have probably already provided this sort of info) and arrangements have been made for a certain number of free badges?

For some cons that I go to, when I arrive at registration, they make me fill out forms or whatever in order to get the badges. And sometimes I'll show up with a volunteer who couldn't committ three months in advance (when I had to submit names the first time around). Neither of these should present a problem, in my opinion. Badges submitted ahead of time should be ready (and usually are), and new badges should be available on request with little or no hassle.

-L

[Kevin A. Ranson]

One thing that I think should be added:
- if You're Con organizer and for whatever reason you have to have it at the hotel, PLEASE make sure there isn't any wedding scheduled during your con. I had more than enough war stories from hotels filled with wedding guests.

I've known the organizers for Jacksonville, Florida's "GrailQuest" game convention, now held at the World Golf Village for it's third year running, and one thing I can tell you is that you must secure your location far further in advance than a wedding party has to. If anything, wedding planners should make sure there are no game conventions running at the same time as their wedding!

[Mike Holmes]

Matt, the context for the thread is that, yes, we're talking about when somebody like Luke is invited as a guest. What he's saying is that what sometimes happens is that upon arrival, Luke has been treated like he was just a random GM who volunteered to run a game. I think that the problem is that, for a small con organizer, he may not be seeing guests as much different from any other attendee. With such low attendance, the staffs are often microscopic, and giving guests special attention may be difficult to impossible.

I'm not disagreeing with you, Luke, I think that cons should be organized enough where they can better facilitate guests when they can. I'm just not sure how feasible that is, based on the size of the convention in all cases.

I'll be going back to Coninnity this year with Matt, and last year when I was there, I almost ran into a problem like this. That is, Matt, you told me that I would get a half-price badge or some deal like that, and the guys at the desk had no idea until you showed up and said I was kosher. That was one of those uncomfortable sorts of moments that is a pain in the butt.

OTOH, Matt, you've said that the organization is going to be better this year, so I'm not worried. It's just indicative of the sorts of problems that people participating in helping run parts of a con can run into that make them more of a hassle than they should be. Luke's just saying that if you want guests to come back, try to help them out if you can by easing registration and presentation.

Mike

[Matt-M-McElroy]

Mike,

I can totally dig what you are saying. Invited guests with arrangements made ahead of time should be taken care of as per those arrangments. I just have a hard time figuring out how someone who was not in on those arragements (the "last minute volunteer") being asked to fill out a simple form with their name and address (or whatever the con sign-in form contains) is a "hassle" for this person. If they were not on the list of pre-arranged volunteers, they can still get in with the guest/other volunteers...I'd just like to know who they are if they are at my convention. I'd simply want the same information from them that I have for the other volunteers.

Regards,

Matt M McElroy
"What Are You Afraid Of?"
http://www.flamesrising.com

[Kurt Horner]

Hello, I'm a small convention organizer. I've been involved with PolyCon (a 250 person con in CA) for a decade now. In one of those years I was the chief convention coordinator.

Luke, it is my humble opinion that small conventions should avoid having special guests. For the most part, conventions that are under 1000 attendees cannot afford to pay for special guests. PolyCon, in particular, had a disastrous year (before my time) in which the cost of special guests bankrupted the organization. (The con was later re-founded.)

Point by point:

Assign us a handler and give us clear instructions -- The only thing a small con has going for it is the cozy environment afforded by its small size. As such, a small con whose staff can't either immediately help you or direct you to someone who can is in serious trouble. At PolyCon, although we don't have special guests, we do have dealers. Our dealer coordinator performs this sort of "handler" function.

No bullshit about filling out game sheets, turning in tickets or other crap that regular GMs do -- It baffles me why any small con would use a complicated sign up system. We have had, on occassion, game designers who have run games out of a dealer room or had so many games that we essentially gave them their own game room for the weekend. Other than providing a blurb for the conbook, they didn't have to do anything. A sign up sheet for their game was set out and any special requests regarding game length or size was accomodated.

Bring us water or gatorade -- This seems like an odd request. Are you running games nonstop?

Free badges -- A small con may not be able to afford very many of these, but it is possible. You are correct, though, that any pre-registered badges should be pre-made. Your comment about forms is a bit snarky though. The primary reason a con will have people fill out such info is to have a mailing / e-mailing list for future events.

Promotions -- While a small con should certainly mention a small press designer in their flyers, ads, con book, etc. it is entirely unreasonable to expect them to do much more than this. Any promotion that you wished to do at the con (flyers, for example) should be accomodated. As for making sure there are players for your event -- there's not much a con organizer can do to make people want to play your game as opposed to any other game on the schedule. However, one thing that PolyCon does to help out all GMs is have staff people round up people who aren't doing anything in the common areas and encourage them to play in the games that haven't filled up yet.

Location, location, location -- Other than asking "Do you have any special needs?" there's not a lot a small con can do. Certainly, if you provide info about what you need the game scheduler should accomodate those requests (if possible, given the venue).

Travel, Meals and Accomodations -- Generally, this won't be possible. Small cons are very strapped for cash. Really, I wouldn't expect this from any con with under 1000 participants.

Almost all of the cons I've been to have been large 1000+ person events. It is my experience that such cons are terribly run and hostile to anyone who isn't a special guest. (There is a notable exception, KublaCon in the SF bay area. That's a well run convention.) As a small press game designer, you basically get the worst of both worlds. A large con thinks you're insignificant and a small con can't afford you (but would love for you to come!). There's probably not much that can be done about that.

- Kurt

[mneme]

Small cons can frequently have guests, and those guests can be an asset to the convention.  Bin there, dun that.   What they can't usually afford to do is -pay- the guests, and that needs to be clear through the initial negotiations so nobody leaves with hard feelings.

[Mike Holmes]

First, I don't think that anyone is imagining that any guest to a small convention will be paid to appear. Travel expenses and lodging I think might be possible expenses, but even Luke says these are "optional." He's just putting it on his wish list as an indicator of what might make somebody like Luke come to a con.

In any case, I think it's our experience that the largest of cons to a fine job, actually, of recognizing organized small press people. Peter Adkison has been particularly sensitive to our needs in the past. Origins nominates our work for awards occassionally. Etc. I think we can hardly say that the large cons don't support the indie designer. Yes large cons have their own organizational difficulties...but that's the price you pay for the exposure.

Mike

[Toren]

I am the head of the Vancouver Gaming Guild and we put on 3-4 small cons a year. And by small I mean less than 130 people. Our cons typically run 3 days. I too will provide a couple of comments that apply to what the VGG does.

Handlers. A good idea, but you don't expect someone to be at your elbow 24 hours a day. You just want someone to be able to go to to ask questions and make requests, right?

Water/Gatorade: How about a "meal buyout" to continue the rider analogy. We give you a certain amount per day or or block so that you can buy your own fluids and snacks.


Our cons have never paid for special guests (so far). We can't pay for travel expenses (certainly not airfare) or hotel accommodations. But we can help you find someone to share accommo's with, especially if you don't mind sleeping on somebody's couch.

We haven't really coordinated transportation because frankly it hasn't come up, but I don't see any reason why that couldn't happen.

We have never had panels. Myself, as a con organizer, a GM & player, and a game designer (Spaceship Zero) I'm not really interested in panels, but that is not to say that if a guest specifically requests having a panel we wouldn't help accommodate him/her.

Our main request for our guests is to have fun and run games! We'll do everything in our power to make that happen. If you've got a game to demo, we will help you schedule and promote it.

All that said, if anyone is interested in attending any of our cons, here is some information for you:

Con Fu is our spring con. It's theme is action/martial arts/superheroes. It runs (this year) May 26-27-28.

H.P. Lovecraft's Birthday Party is our summer con. It's theme: horror. It runs near HPL's b-day which is August 20. This year it runs Aug 25-26-27.

Cloud City is our fall con. Theme: sci-fi. This year we are combining our forces with V-Con 31 which runs Oct 6-7-8 and as such we have much more latitude to offer amenities to our guests!!! We've invited Green Ronin to guest. There MAY be panels.

Weathertop is our winter con. Theme: fantasy. It coincides with the RPGA Winter Fantasy deal (or it has for the past 2 years) and as such it is very RPGA-centric, which has also made it our biggest con (though that may change with Cloud City this fall).

Keep in mind that the themes are always meant to inspire GMs and never to restrict. Anyone can run whatever genre they want. If you are a game designer interested in coming to our cons, feel free to email me at thickets@uniserve.com and I'd be happy to see what I can arrange! More info on the VGG is at www.vancouvergamingguild.com

[First Age]

Luke, it is my humble opinion that small conventions should avoid having special guests. For the most part, conventions that are under 1000 attendees cannot afford to pay for special guests. PolyCon, in particular, had a disastrous year (before my time) in which the cost of special guests bankrupted the organization. (The con was later re-founded.)

Kurt, thanks for the post. I'm setting up my first very small convention in Sheffield Uk this year, Furnace www.rpgfurnace.com, that is designed for 50 people. It's a start-up to gauge interest, with an option to expand in future years. Your guidance is helpful, and I've taken note.

I've also been invited onto the committee at the wondrous Continuum www.continuum.uk.net. This convention is small by US standards at about 200 to 250 people. There are a number of guests coming who will be well looked after by a hard working committee and who will provide significant input into the weekend. I think a committed committee (!) is the key for small cons and some thought about how to handle the sign-ups.

My role at Continuum is to manage the tabletop games. Effectively I would be Luke's 'handler', making sure he ran as much Burning Wheel as I could get away with, and pointing him to where he needs to be, and when, if he manages to lose the plot. Most of my games are sign-ups that will, largely, look after themselves. Some have room requirements that I will manage by signposting on the doors and ensuring people know where they are going. I also see my responsibility as someone who actively looks out for people who need a game and offer them one if they are stuck.

Indeed Continuum has set up a system of 'Mentors', attendees who have offered to keep an eye out for newbies and help them out.

Useful thread, thanks