[GenCon 2008] Forge Booth: The rules and ways for this year - let's go!

[rafael]

Thanks for the clarification! A few months ago, I booked a room (as a regular guest) at the Marriott next door, so I'm covered. Cost me ten dollars, what with frequent flyer miles. Not that I'm gloating.

Ron, I have a follow-up question. Due to my work schedule, I can only attend the convention Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon. Is this enough time for me to contribute in a meaningful way to the booth? If you prefer, I can continue this question with you via email, as it may be too specific to be of general use in this thread.

Thanks,
Rafael

[Justin D. Jacobson]

For that very reason, if you cannot get a room through any other means, you are almost certainly better off registering separately as a regular congoer for one day just to get access to the room-booking site. (Though this advantage diminishes as time passes and the convention room blocks fill up.)

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Rafael,

You're certainly welcome to participate, and if you ship your books to someone (we can arrange a recipient at a given hotel room, probably me, dammit), then they can be at the booth the whole time. I'll be sure to practice it and be ready to demo it on Thursday. So we can at least mitigate the disadvantage.

Best, Ron

[iago]

You're certainly welcome to participate, and if you ship your books to someone (we can arrange a recipient at a given hotel room, probably me, dammit), then they can be at the booth the whole time. I'll be sure to practice it and be ready to demo it on Thursday. So we can at least mitigate the disadvantage.

Folks who sign on board with IPR (and ship us the relevant products) sufficiently in advance (I'd get the ball rolling today if you're considering this) can expect we'll be including their product in what we bring to GenCon, too.

[btrc]

Regarding item #4 in the first message, I think GenCon is going to have a "marshalling yard" like they did last year, which as I recall was an added layer of "pain in the ass" when it comes to loading and unloading. Does anyone know exactly where said marshalling yard is at this year, and any idiosyncracies about how it works?

Greg Porter
BTRC

[Ron Edwards]

I'll check into that, Greg. Exhibitor feedback last year was exactly what you might expect, and I can't imagine that GenCon LLC will permit the same thing to occur this year. So far they've been very good about dealing with each year's unpredictable hassles.

Best, Ron

[btrc]

Some questions & comments:

1) I'm the guy bringing the padded flooring. Try not to set up anything really heavy until it gets there. Speaking of which...

2) We'll be leaving Wednesday morning from the DC area and it is about a 10 hour drive, give or take pit stops, so it will be late afternoon when we get there. We'll leave as early as is practical, but we may shave a few mph off the land yacht's normal cruising speed in the interest of fuel economy. I'll get my cell phone number to folks closer to the con. In addition, I have a wireless GPS tracker and I'll set it up so anyone with an internet connection or an iDen network motorola phone (nextel) can track my progress real-time.

3) Does the booth have power, or do I need to bring the car battery and inverter to run the cash register for the weekend?

Greg
BTRC

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Greg,

It worked out pretty well for us last year, by arranging everything for placement just outside the area, then slapping down the flooring and moving it all more-or-less as arranged. I think we'll follow the same plan.

As far as power goes, that's a good question. We had GenCon-power last year, right? I will quickly contact the relevant people at GenCon LLC and make sure it's all the same, and I'll let you know.

Best, Ron

[iago]

Yeah, Ron, we absolutely need both a phone line and power for the booth.

[btrc]

As long as all we're running is a laptop, cash register and credit card machine, the car battery/inverter thing should do the trick for power, and if it saves us a mint from the Geo Fern extortionists, I'll be happy to bring it. I'm headed out of town today and won't be back until the Monday before the con, so someone please leave me a definite "bring the battery/don't bring the battery" message by then.

Greg

P.S. I still have crash space at the Sheraton City Centre in case anyone needs it.

[iago]

Don't bring the battery. We've paid for power already.