plusx2a
Strategicon/RPG Section Staff
Join me at Gamex 2014 Memorial Day Weekend May 23 - May 26
Posts: 238
Preferred Game Systems: Savage Worlds, Modiphius 2d20, FATE, PbTA
Currently Playing: Legend of the Five Rings, Cortex
Currently Running: Savage World of Solomon Cane, Modiphius Conan
Favorite Species of Monkey: Spider
|
Post by plusx2a on Aug 24, 2015 15:12:06 GMT -8
All RPG departments accounted for we have 273 events (PFS and AL events usually end up running multiple tables of the same event so the actual count will be higher) Of which, 142 events fall under yours truly. That is an amazing turnout for a Gateway convention! Both Saturday and Sunday at 2 have all 23 tables full and most of the other time slots are near full. That is without any major organized play group promoting or facilitating events. My heart felt thanks to all of you for helping grow this department over my two year tenure here. We went from barely breaking 100 events in 2013 to bursting at the seams in 2015.
Jim
|
|
|
Post by Stu Venable on Aug 25, 2015 12:06:13 GMT -8
Hooray for disorganized play groups!
That's great news. Now you need to start bugging Eric for more space :-D
|
|
plusx2a
Strategicon/RPG Section Staff
Join me at Gamex 2014 Memorial Day Weekend May 23 - May 26
Posts: 238
Preferred Game Systems: Savage Worlds, Modiphius 2d20, FATE, PbTA
Currently Playing: Legend of the Five Rings, Cortex
Currently Running: Savage World of Solomon Cane, Modiphius Conan
Favorite Species of Monkey: Spider
|
Post by plusx2a on Aug 25, 2015 14:52:32 GMT -8
That’s the real issue Strategicon faces. Almost all of the available space at the Hilton is accounted for. As you saw at Orccon, one little disaster like pipes bursting in Santa Monica C caused us to be very creative with where to put the Happy Jack’s podcast. Just about every department is screaming for room that at times simply does not exist and it’s a real struggle to make things work.
In order for RPG’s to move to the second floor where all the other RPG departments are, the convention had to pay for private rooms on the 3rd floor, have the furniture removed from them and have them re-set completely to accommodate LARP events. Even then, the Plaza Ballroom space I left behind downstairs ended up being used entirely by Adventurer’s League on Saturday afternoon/evening for a huge event that overflowed out of their rooms upstairs. Otherwise most of that space is being used by the army of Werewolf players that attend Strategicon on a regular basis.
With our attendance hitting or getting very close to hitting 2k at all three cons during the year, things are getting better and worse at the same time. Sure the convention is growing, but our room to grow is becoming very limited. It will only be a matter of time before we have to seriously consider moving to a convention sized space since hotels like the Hilton or Sheraton will no longer be able to cover our space requirements.
Truth be told, I have enough room to run a total of 230 events with every table and every room on all four days of the convention accounted for. I am at 147 now due to some additions. That means that I am 83 events short of capacity and 23 of those events having to take place on Monday at 2pm which few attend or run in. I can easily see adding 60 or so more events for Orccon in a couple of years if the upward attendance curve continues at which point I am going to have to run games in the parking lot.
I am going to be very curious to see what the feedback is from the new space. There are two rooms where I had to shoehorn 4 tables to come close to having the 24 tables I had available in the Lower Lobby. Hopefully the better air conditioning and visibility will make up for the somewhat cramped space, but there is a large possibility of noise and smell issues. I am also hoping the food and drink restrictions won’t be too much of a hassle. No plan survives contact with role players so we will see how I do.
|
|