Gencon Feedback [Designers/Boothies]

[Nathan P.]

Again with the caveat that anything not mentioned was 1000% awesome.

As a sales stringer, my biggest problem was feeling like I had to find the designer to run a demo of a game. There were a couple of times that I asked around for someone else to run a demo, and was met with general confusion and uncomfortableness. I was part of this problem! There were a handful of games that I think I would have felt comfortable demo-ing, but as fate would have it they were never in need of my services (1001 Nights, Heros Banner, and I probably could have made something up for Mortal Coil). Also, the demo kits were tough to access. Maybe next year we could have a rack of some kind in the demo area just to keep demo kits on? I know there's a space issue, but a display with clearly labeled demo kits would both help us run demoes of each others games, and be cool advertising to passerby.

Also, sometimes I felt like I didn't see booth monkeys a lot (except Jasper, but that man's a freaking machine. And hard to miss). This may well be because I was in the sales or demo area a lot, and trying not to hang around the fringes, but it's a perception that's stuck with me.

My suggestion for both of these: a condition for booth monkery is that you must learn some demos. Knowing that my first step for getting a demo should be asking a monkey would be good knowledge. This is in addition to having organized "learn another demo" time for everyone.

I think there's an optimum size for the sales area that is bigger than what we had this year but smaller than taking up another quarter of the booth. If myself and another sales person were both talking to a customer, that would clog the area, and that was bad. Maybe actually expanding down into the demo area a touch, just to get more width, would work. This year, we basically had a square of floor space. Making that into a rectangle with the long side facing the passerby would be good. And figuring out how to get the cash register to the outside would be good for flow as well, I think. I know I saw people walking out of the sales area to do a demo while holding unpurchased stock (that they later purchased!) - but it was an easy thing to do.

The stickers were awesome. I got 99% yes rate to the question "Can I put a Forge sticker on your badge to express our thanks for your purchase?" And it was very helpful to be able to look at a badge and ask if they were coming back for something, instead of asking the same person over and over if I could show them something.

So them's the thoughts.

[TonyLB]

My suggestion for both of these: a condition for booth monkery is that you must learn some demos. Knowing that my first step for getting a demo should be asking a monkey would be good knowledge. This is in addition to having organized "learn another demo" time for everyone.

I suspect that the major barrier to demoing is not that people didn't get a chance to learn the demo.  The major barrier to demoing is that first demo ... the one where you know you're going to blow it, in front of real, live customers.  I saw people going through some serious contortions in order to avoid that completely necessary experience.

I suspect that if we said on Thursday "Barring customer request you may not demo the same game twice in a row ... and yes, that means that you can't demo your own game twice," it would have a huge impact.  It would also make people very uncomfortable.  I guess it's a question of priorities.

[iago]

I suspect that if we said on Thursday "Barring customer request you may not demo the same game twice in a row ... and yes, that means that you can't demo your own game twice," it would have a huge impact.  It would also make people very uncomfortable.  I guess it's a question of priorities.

That could be minimized if people got their "what's the one other game you'll learn the demo for" assignments in advance of the con, and had a chance to practice it on their friends.  Frex, I'd be happy to learn, say, Agon in addition to my Don't Rest Your Head demo.

Though, point of order -- I could demo DRYH and Spirit of the Century back to back, not be demoing the same game twice, and yet still be demoing my game each time. :)

[jrs]

Regarding demos:

1. I agree with Nathan that one of the problems about demo set-up was access to the demo kits.  That was a confusing mess, and some of the designers started carrying the kits with them which meant they were not available for anyone else to use.  We had similar problems last year.

2. I also agree with Tony; getting over that first-demo fear can seem impossible, but it is not insurmountable.  We need to help each other out with this -- I would never have run my first Forge booth demo (kill puppies, a couple years ago) if it weren't for Paul and Ralph insisting that I must.

3. I was asked by customers for demos of two games that I knew nothing about, and I could not locate anyone else in the booth familiar with these games.  I later noticed that in the Forge menu that they did not have the asterisks indicating that a demo would be available.  I felt a bit stupid about that and realized that I needed to be more careful about offering the possibility of a demo that would not be forthcoming. 

Julie

[Iskander]

As you might suspect from my Origins booth report, I've got lots to say. Please bear in mind that I am writing without acrimony, blame, axe-grinding, or anything else. Problems identified are, as far as I'm concerned, merely things to consider as challenges for next year, to be added to a checklist, or logistical exercises to solve in the months ahead. None of this discounts from the enormous gratitude I feel for the many people who helped out in every which way. As I mentioned to several of you, one of the things that I admire most about this community is something I believe can be directly attributed to the Forge and its moderation: an atmosphere of open and constructive critical feedback. I'm not going to talk much about stringing, roping, shilling or demo-ing, because I think those are being admirably covered. I'm (almost) all about the logistics today. So here goes, in roughly chronological order, with tangents:

- Yes, the sales booth was crowded. It took me a while to realise this, and when Thor first pointed it out to me, I was in denial. From my frequent perspective at the register the sales area was busy, and I had a near-constant stream of customers: ideal, right? Well, no. Very good, but not ideal. When I took a better look on Sunday, it was clear that we simply weren't doing as much business as we could, because of our layout. I still think it would have been very hard to improve the sales arrangement, given the way the booth was laid out this year, but we can definitely do better next year, and we will. Selling out of half-a-dozen or so titles was cool. We were within shelf inches of selling out of a bunch more, though, and that would be way cooler. Also, we can reduce the sensitivity of product placement. We did With Great Power... particularly - and some others - wrong.
- Laying out all the booth space is a non-trivial task. Bear in mind when making suggestions that there are at least five logistical elements to juggle: stock, demos, display, register, and the line (which should not become The Wall in front of display nor demos). You can also add in banners/posters if you feel like it, because if you can't see them from the aisle, you might as well have them back in your room. I will be reading some papers about retail display and stuff over the next year, if you run into any good ones, send 'em my way, please!
- The hall was abominably hot on Wednesday. As a big old hippy, I understand and approve of the energy-efficiency thought process. Be warned for next year, however, peeps!
- It was, however, totally unacceptable that the hall was not air conditioned at 8am the following morning. This has to be fixed for next year, or whoever is working at 8am that day has to be able to go shower before working the booth. Please can we feedback to Gen Con and the Indy convention center expressing our extreme displeasure that they made us smell bad. That is not OK.
- Folding the menus was a breeze. Thanks to Tim, Dave, Michael and all the others that helped fold, and Kevin for the bone folder (note to self: get more bone folders for next year).
- We didn't have a good plan for the get-in. We managed fine, but it took too long, and that's not necessary (as we saw Sunday). One of the big problems was:
- The floor was almost the last to arrive, c. 8 hours after the first of the boxes, and consequently a lot of productivity was deferred to a point when many of us were knackered from the heat. The check-in was hurried and exhausting, we didn't get to plan stock... there were a number of problems that followed on from not having a plan on Wednesday, and then not having the floor: we couldn't do anything to set the booth up without it. Greg, thank you with all my heart for organising and transporting the floor (and eewwwww on the bambplosion on the way back). Let's get some conversations going about how to move the floor closer to Indianapolis over the next year, perhaps incrementally, and storing it nearer to the con, so we don't have this problem in the future.
- On the plus side, the floor was a good thing, I thought, and laying it was a breeze - thanks to everyone who did so.
- Stock arriving on Thursday morning is a bad thing.
- The Gen Con-provided chairs were fucking terrible. I will gladly contribute to the purchase of more of the sturdy Forge-chairs. MSM's little red chairs are good, too.
- Communication on Wednesday was bad. I ran in to Judd on my way back to the hotel at some point, struggling up the street with the big blue box o'Mu. I was only too happy to help carry it into the exhibition hall, as would any number of other Forge exhibitors. I would have been a lot happier if he had my number on a contact list and could have called me to ask for help all the way from his hotel. Yes, I volunteer to create a contact sheet (with ETAs) next year).
- Unloading the van was good, but stupid. We charged off to carry stock, when we should have been charging off to collect trolleys on which to wheel stock. There's no need to give yourself a hernia before the con starts, people.
- Counting the stock in was a good thing, and thanks to Nathan, Jason, Tim, and - my memory fails me - everyone else who helped with the counting in the sweltering hall until late on Wednesday. I know of only one certain bit of shrinkage - as Matt has said, one copy of PTA walked from the booth (kinda flattering, neh?) - but the count-in will help us assess whether there was more. This will be an important datum when considering the layout of next year's booth.
- Some folks brought (re-)stock for IPR as well as stock for the convention. This was OK, but Michael, Kat and Dalys ended up going home with more than they came with in the stock minivan, which could be a problem, and it was ass to have them all in the big pile'o'stock to manage in the hall. We were severely hampered by not knowing what and how much people were planning to bring, and what shape it would take. We should know well in advance what's coming to the booth, and IPR re-stock should not be counted in, it should be kept in your room, and brought to the booth at 4pm on Sunday. I don't know if this is a designer communication problem, an IPR communication problem or what, but let's fix it for next year.
- Which brings me to book sizes. This will not be popular. Look, there is an excellent reason for Capes and WGP... to be the size they are. Likewise the Sorcerer family. And, believe me, I appreciate the aesthetic sensibilities that go into the design of these awesome books (hey, I'm flaming... what do you expect?) But so many of the new books at the booth were 1/8th or 1/16th of an inch too tall for the racks. Plain and simple. The racks are pretty standard size... so please trim some more off your stock's vertical height. It's practical. You want the book on the shelf, right? There are only so many spaces at the top of the rack, and if you can only fit there, you will not be there all the time. We just don't have room. Also, it makes me bleed inside when books get damaged cos they're shoved in where they don't fit. This will be even more important if/when a stock storage solution is implemented next year.
- The Shock: / 1001 Nights / Push / Agon / It Was a Mutual Decision / Primitive / Brick Battles sizes were - contrary to my fears, actually very good to have out. But if everyone has books that size, it will be end up being a problem. Bloody artists.
- The banners and stuff were bollocks. All that lovely work was basically wasted. They looked shoddy. Also, the white/green/red of the Indy convention center is puke. This needs serious work for next year, some planning and some - gasp - standardization. Just like what Wilson said while I was typing. IPR didn't get a banner up at all, which is not good or fair, I think. Less artsy-fartsy and more pragmatic on the display materials, people. It does no good being beautiful and invisible.
- Banners / posters are worth it. I overheard an unaffiliated punter remark how much bigger the booth looked on Friday, saying we'd rearranged it: we hadn't, it was a visual illusion from the banners. Giving the feeling of a bigger booth is a good thing.
- As at Origins, the whole display area (in the minutes when it was empty, before opening and after closing) looked fucking awesome. The quality of product, the quantity of conscious and attractive design - there's something at the booth to draw every eye, and that's great. Really. I wish I had taken a few minutes to clear everyone out of the booth (again) and photograph the games on the shelves, because the were dazzling.
- We had a box of clear display stands that stayed in the box, which sucked, because they should have been on the demo tables holding books. I forgot them until Sunday. My bad. One on every demo table would have been a good thing.
- Greg's folding glass/metal rack thingy was cool-looking but seemed flimsy and prone to getting knocked over. There must be a better way to place it, or it should stay home, I fear.
- T-shirts were a pain in the ass, because there was no thought for display, and we really didn't have the means to show them off. I'm not sure what to do about this.
- Demo-ers should have taken at least two copies of what they were demo-ing to their tables... and vets, when you bag a table for your demo days, take a stack. There is no reason that the end of the demo should not be the moment you put the book in their hands. Booth staff will need to be vigilant about punters who have unpaid-for books in their hands.
- As requested when assembling the menu, I am avoiding the term 'monkey' for booth staff. Be aware that some exhibitors find it derogatory.
- Bags. We must have bags. Cheap-o flimsy badged ones for the I-just-tried-Dogs-and-it-must-be-mine crowd, and nice, sturdy bags for the OMFGWTFBBQ-I-just-dropped-four-hundred-fucking-dollars crowd. This helps with shrinkage and goodwill. It's a must. It's also ridiculously easy to sort out - it just takes time and a volunteer. Yes, I know. I just volunteered.
- The register area was kinda messy, which is unprofessional, and I didn't like that. It needs a little more space, all of it's own.
- It was good that everyone had their crap out of the booth. It was bad that demo kits got shoved behind racks - it looked shoddy. I recommend you invest in a thing of organisation for your demo kit, like Tony's Capes kit, Michael's Enrichment demo, Luke's leaden vinyl folder of death and laminate, James' death hat, and so on. Hit Staples for expanding wallet accordion things (like the one I have that none of you saw that I can't find on their damn web site), and look at tackle boxes for demo dice. Especially things with straps. You should ideally be able to carry your demo around comfortably with you all day. (There are obvious exceptions for, like, Toveys.)
- Also, things like Meg's bowls and James' hat are good visual draws; is there something similar you could use?
- One criticism of demo tables: work on getting up from the table, away from the table, and your punter to the register faster. Particularly the up-and-out-of-the-table part. Pack up quicker. You don't need to sort your bits of paper into their perfect places right there and then (although it helps if you're optimised to do so), you can sort your shit out away from the table. Increase throughput.
- The menus moved... and we'll see how well they worked, I think, by comparing the post-Gen Con sales bounce year-on-year. Obviously, I think they were gorgeous and wonderful, but they needed bigger advertising for GoD next year, and it should be clearer where to go for after-sales. I am keen to hear critical feedback on the document.
- I know it's been brought up before, but with the amount of stuff the Forge is accumulating (chairs, floor...) are we getting close to making long term storage in Indianapolis a cost-effective and sensible thing? I recognise that I have just volunteered to do some research.
- Stock handling in cardboard boxes was ugly. It worked, thanks to Paul, Danielle, Tim, Jason Morningstar, and many others, but it was not pretty. Labelling all the boxes on all sides helped, but still, we took up about 1/8th of the (extremely gracious) Wicked Dead booth, filled a table at Lulu.com, and had two boxes tucked away in a hotel room that we forgot. It was my bad that I did not keep track of where the stock for each book went, so at some point Perfect vanished for a bit. We can also do much better with stock storage next year, I think, but that requires a fairly substantial investment from the booth's retail partner.
- Last year, I was a customer upset by the hard sell, with friends who were very put off by the same. This year was so much, much better, I congratulate everyone. The booth has a reputation for steady improvement, and this year was no exception. That new folk grokked what was necessary so well (Nathan, Joe, Tim C. K., Jason M., John H. spring to mind) is kudos-worthy.
- Wednesday night demo night was cool. But Wednesday all-day demo sessions would be better at the nice cool air-conditioned tables outside the entrance hall. If the booth check-in is functioning more smoothly, there's no reason why not to congregate there and stay on-hand for assistance in the hall as needed. Plus, I would have very much liked to demo more than the three or four games I did get to test-run. ::wipes tear::
- I enjoyed leading that short vocal warm-up on Friday morning. I regret that I only managed it on Friday morning, because I think it would have helped everyone throughout. I'll go (further?) out on a limb and say that planning to hold the warmup after the morning meetings had one flaw, due to a very unprofessional aspect of the meeting: attendence. I don't think it's OK to be late for that meeting, and I don't think it's OK to be absent, either. This is partly my theatre background rearing it's ugly drama queen head. In my glorious vision of the future, next year the meeting is 15 minutes at 8:30, and there's a 15-minute vocal warmup at 8:45am. I honestly think you won't regret it. Go back to bed if you must, but be there for the meeting.
- Selling out is good... but that should not mean that your game just vanishes. I strongly encourage designers to laminate a (trimmed) copy of their cover with "SOLD OUT: GET ME ONLINE" or "ASK FOR MORE STOCK" or something standard that can be put on the shelves.
- Last minute additions to the booth stock, the booth menu, the register, etc. were steaming piles of shite for me, Ralph, Michael and Brennan. It's the old 80/20 rule: 80% of the work being caused by 20% of the stock. It was not OK to be adding things to the menu at midnight, the morning before catching an 8am flight to Indianapolis.
- The get-out worked well, but more due to my megalomaniacal streak and rabid improvisation than any forethought, I fear. It was awesome how well everyone pitched in at the end, really awesome. When I tell you that we had no more boxes, and were basically done at the booth at 4:32pm, that's how awesome it was. Also, no injuries (to my knowledge). What wasn't awesome was that it was improvised, that there were a couple of unnecessary breakdowns in communication, and that some things got left/lost. I think everything made it back in to the van eventually, and 99% of it went where it was supposed to go, but we still had to repack the van on Monday morning, and Michael S Miller finally tipped the scales for canonisation. Next year, there will be a plan issued at the Sunday morning meeting.
- Thursday is not a day like any other day. It has the most sales, and a different audience. It is worth considering whether the booth should be configured for the target audience's convenience on Thursday, and then re-configured for the remainder of the show.
- We need a better plan for the bits'n'bobs (with no disrespect to Under the Bed, Bacchanal Dice, Japanese Dice, etc.) that clearly distinguishes them from the swag, flyers and cards (BE stickers, BE pins, Go Play stickers, Dust Devils flyers, Timfire bookmarks, etc.) Having things for people to take away is a good thing. Having them mixed up with stuff they must pay for is a bad thing. Also, if we have bags next year, we can also have bag-stuff (and bag-stuffing. Oy.)

That's it for now on the logistics!

To reiterate: I had a great time at the convention. It makes me very happy to help sell great games to people who will get great pleasure out of them. Everyone worked hard, and that hard work paid off. I want it to pay off even better, next year, and I am committed to making that happen.

One final, personal, thing. I feel like I didn't play much, and that makes baby Alexander cry. I was pretty tired most days, and it felt like I frequently missed the opportunity to partake of the good gaming... that may be my memory playing tricks, but next year, kind folk, please spare a thought - and a seat - for the staff, who also love games.

love and hugs
Alexander

[iago]

Which brings me to book sizes. This will not be popular. Look, there is an excellent reason for Capes and WGP... to be the size they are. Likewise the Sorcerer family. And, believe me, I appreciate the aesthetic sensibilities that go into the design of these awesome books (hey, I'm flaming... what do you expect?) But so many of the new books at the booth were 1/8th or 1/16th of an inch too tall for the racks. Plain and simple. The racks are pretty standard size... so please trim some more off your stock's vertical height. It's practical. You want the book on the shelf, right? There are only so many spaces at the top of the rack, and if you can only fit there, you will not be there all the time. We just don't have room. Also, it makes me bleed inside when books get damaged cos they're shoved in where they don't fit. This will be even more important if/when a stock storage solution is implemented next year.

Could we get the physical dimensions on those problem ones?  DRYH fit in fine, at 6"x9".  I see on IPR that WGP clocks in at : 6-5/8 x 10-1/4 inches -- and that's a "standard" comic book profile.  The only formats I know to exceed 9 inches in height are comic book style (6.625x10.25) and letter (8.5x11).  Perhaps WGP et al should get put in the rack that fits the letter profile ones?

Selling out is good... but that should not mean that your game just vanishes. I strongly encourage designers to laminate a (trimmed) copy of their cover with "SOLD OUT: GET ME ONLINE" or "ASK FOR MORE STOCK" or something standard that can be put on the shelves.

This is, pardon me, a fucking brilliant idea.

[Iskander]

Could we get the physical dimensions on those problem ones?  DRYH fit in fine, at 6"x9".

No, it didn't, sorry. DRYH was a squeeze that survived without grave damage, but only just. It needed less than a 1/16th of an inch taken off - it was fractionally too tall. Unfortunately, I didn't get a copy, so I can't measure how it came out. (I thought I did, but it's not in my pile, so...) Can you measure it? I am interested if it's actually cut slightly too big, or what.

8.5" is a comfortable fit, 9" is not.

[Lxndr]

Fastlane is, in theory, 6" x 9" also, and as far as I could tell, it fit, but since I was leaving it to IPR this year, I wasn't too sure.  Could you let me know if it, too, didn't fit like I thought it should?

[Judd]

One final, personal, thing. I feel like I didn't play much, and that makes baby Alexander cry. I was pretty tired most days, and it felt like I frequently missed the opportunity to partake of the good gaming... that may be my memory playing tricks, but next year, kind folk, please spare a thought - and a seat - for the staff, who also love games.

This is unacceptable.

I'd like to offer to run a Saturday night Gen Con game for staff folk in '07.

No way Jasper and Alexander and company should have to even turn their necks for a cool game after all of the hard work they do.

[iago]

Could we get the physical dimensions on those problem ones?  DRYH fit in fine, at 6"x9".

No, it didn't, sorry. DRYH was a squeeze that survived without grave damage, but only just. It needed less than a 1/16th of an inch taken off - it was fractionally too tall. Unfortunately, I didn't get a copy, so I can't measure how it came out. (I thought I did, but it's not in my pile, so...) Can you measure it? I am interested if it's actually cut slightly too big, or what.

8.5" is a comfortable fit, 9" is not.

Unfortunately, I have no control over how Lulu cuts its 6x9 standard sized items, and that's who printed it.  I can say that I've seen zero variance in how they cut it from copy to copy, based on stacking 20 of them and being able to perceive it as a single rectangular block of bookstackedness.

That said, you are right that it's very slightly over 9" -- as in, it's 9 and 1/32".  And I only detected that 1/32" by looking very, very closely. :)

The racks may be standard size, but so's a 6x9 book.  I'm just not sure the racks are expecting something larger than a (to use RapidPOD's terminology) Novel, at 7" high, or a Digest, at 8.5" high.

But here's the problem: Lulu doesn't do 8.5" tall digest format.  Here are the options:

"Manual" format: 6" x 9"
"Letter" format: 8.5" x 11"
"Comic" format: 6.625" x 10.25"
"Landscape" format: 9" x 7"
"Square" format: 7.5" x 7.5"
"Pocket" format: 4.25" x 6.875"

There's no non-weird-dimension midpoint between Square or Landscape's 7-7.5" and Manual's 9"

So you can expect that as more people print with Lulu, and 6x9 continues to be a popular format (that's why you saw a lot of it this con), that a lack of 9" clearance on a rack is going to continue to be an issue.  Maybe we need more racks tuned to holding comic books?

[Tim C Koppang]

- Thursday is not a day like any other day. It has the most sales, and a different audience. It is worth considering whether the booth should be configured for the target audience's convenience on Thursday, and then re-configured for the remainder of the show.

This was, to me, worth pulling out of Alexander's excellent post. The people who came to the booth on Thursday came to browse, shop, and spend money. With sales what they were on Thursday, a booth reconfiguration catered to these people may be something to look at. More work for us? Yes. Possibly better sale, though? Quite possibly.

[Justin D. Jacobson]

Valamir, I couldn't disagree more with your post.

I don't think a bigger sales area would help.  And given that total revenue was up 50% over last year the lack of browsing space certainly didn't hurt us.

Your conclusion doesn't follow from your premise. Perhaps if there was sufficient browsing space, revenue would have been up 100%? I speak from my own experience running a booth: There are people who want to browse and then buy. If you hinder browsing for these people, you will hinder buying. Those are lost sales.

I'll actually offer a counter.  If people are haveing trouble browsing because its crowded...GOOD.  Wall to wall people crammed into a booth to buy books sends a very very positive signal...a "hey, there must be something really awesome going over there" signal.  I spent ALOT of time wandering the floor this year and can safely say NO other booth, including the big CCG and Fantasy Flight space had as high a population density for as extended a period of time as we did.

Except that we already accomplish that goal with the high-energy demo area. While I agree, it's nice to have "activity" in the buying area, it shouldn't cause people to actually have trouble browsing or, more importantly, buying. Even worse, you can create the experience of the customer who says "It's too crowded now; I'll come back later" and then never does because they've got a million other things to do and a million other products to get their attention.

There's nothing wrong with making the sales experience a little bit difficult for the customer.  Its standard retail practice.  That's why stores put the stuff everybody wants in the back so customers have to travel through lots of stuff they didn't know they wanted to get there.  Its why grocery stores often put high customer pull items in poorly marked hard to find areas, while high advertising push items are on end caps.  Its why car dealers make you wait while the sales guy "talks to the manager".

These examples are not equivalent to the scenario in the booth. For starters, there aren't 200 other grocery stores right next to yours competing for that same dollar. Moreover, the examples you cite provide a payoff. In the case of the first two examples, it's to market other (likely higher profit) items the vendor is selling. Having a congested sell area in the booth doesn't provide a payoff in that way. In the case of the car dealer, this has nothing to do with the sale, this has to do with negotiating the price, which has nothing to do with the Forge selling methodology.

Now I'm not suggesting we should engage in any of those practices.  Just pointing out that a little bit of effort on the part of the customer isn't really a bad thing that needs to be fixed.

My conclusion: create as much buzz as you can, make the booth exciting, but also strive to make the buying experience as easy and enjoyable as possible for the customer.

[Valamir]

This is unacceptable.

I'd like to offer to run a Saturday night Gen Con game for staff folk in '07.

No way Jasper and Alexander and company should have to even turn their necks for a cool game after all of the hard work they do.

Along the same lines, I'd love to see a little more organization for the after hours Embassy suite events.  Schedules and sign up sheets might be too much to ask (although that would please my authoritarian hierarchal soul)...but something more than just catch as catch can would be good.

The booth staff and other volunteers are often the last to leave the booth...which means we're the last to get to dinner...which means we're the last to make it to the Embassy...which means there are a dozen tables full of excited roleplayers playing kick ass games...and we missed out on almost all of them. 

Combine this with the fact that since we didn't do complete in-booth cash outs most of the booth folks disbursed within 5 minutes of the hall closing.  This left little time for "hey where are you eating" or "what are you playing" conversations as there had been in past years.

I know this impacted a few of the booth-associates-formerly-known-as-monkeys also...those folks rock and are a huge asset, and don't get wads of cash from sold games to compensate them.  The least we can do is ensure that they aren't wandering around the Embassy with nothing to play.

[Iskander]

Fred - that 32nd of an inch may be what's killing you. I don't have the racks and tests to hand to test it. Thanks for the Lulu info, which is interesting. It may well be that IPR needs to invest (again) in more racks, which would be unfortunate. AFAIK, one of the problems with comic-book-size displays is that they're optimised for a dozen 40-page comic books, which adds up to about two copies of most of the things on the booth: if you recall the stands in which most of BTRC was displayed, they got a lot of different products up, but in small, small quantities.

Let's table the size discussion for another time, and leave this thread for raw feedback, neh?

[iago]

Let's table the size discussion for another time, and leave this thread for raw feedback, neh?

Absolutely; I consider my last post talking about Lulu's sizes to be all that needed to be fed into the idea tank on this subtopic. :)