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Derek's Soapbox

The event catalog previews

So the event placement process continues. I'm still neck-deep in reviewing and placing events. Just about everything from cycle 1 is done, but I need to get through cycles 2 and 3 in about a week or so. Should be fun.

The whole process has been very different this year. In the past we've reviewed all the events in a big batch just prior to event registration and didn't place them until later, when locations needed to be prepared for the program guide. This time, we're trying to get confirmed locations for everything for eache event before we make it public and viewable to attendees. It's an amazing feeling to be taking care of a lot of this now instead of a few months down the road, but I've had to take a closer look at a the space we assign events to be as efficient as possible. That can slow things down - and make me worried when it seems like I'm able to fit more events in half the space we used last year (hey TCG and LRP event organizers - check your space assignments for me, would ya?).

The other totally new things we've been doing is releasing event details as we are able to confirm them. Every year, lots of people ask for event details earlier so they can pour over them and plan out their schedule. We also wanted to try get people to visit the site more often and kind of ramp up the excitement for the show, so we figured we would release incremental event updates, weekly batches of the events we were able to go through and review. That has caused its own problems and confusions, though, as many attendees have searched online or downloaded the event charts and are worried when they don't see what they were looking for.

We've tried to clearly explain that more events are continually added and that the list wasn't final by any means but it still caused a lot of confusion and concern. It's kind of catch-22 - we want to release events but we don't want to cut off event submission any earlier and if we release only blocks of events not everyone is going to be aware that it isn't complete. Not everyone floats around the forums or sees the explanation/warning text.

So it's a tough question. I just wanted to vent about it a bit (do me a favor and if you see someone asking that question, remind 'em the event list is always changing) and start y'all thinking about it. What's the best way to get events out to everyone? Is piecemeal better? Should there be fewer chunks? Is it better to just have one big dump before event registration?

Obvsiously it's too late to change things for this year and I'm not promising that we'll be able to make any big changes next year either, but I just want to ask people to take a moment and think about what might be the best way to release event details. But not just the best way for you to get the details, but the best way for everyone: for the EOs and GMs who want more time to submit everything, the attendees who want to get all the confirmed details ASAP, and for the poor Gen Con staff that needs to wade through everything to get it ready for public consumption.

Ponder that for a bit and get back to me. I'm sure someone out there can think of a Better Way. 

Published Apr 04 2008, 04:04 PM by Derek Guder
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Comments

 

dballing said:

Keep it the way it was this year. As a GM, it's nice to start seeing this information early, so I can detect conflicts between "what I'm running" and "what I want to play" before the event list is finalized.

Also, I seriously would recommend borrowing the engine behind

gencon.highprogrammer.com/gencon-indy-2008.cgi

and incorporating that into the registration site for lookups, as it's blazingly fast and useful.

April 5, 2008 3:42 AM
 

AlanS said:

I appreciate being able to look over the events in chunks - I have started my planning for my "must do" events already, and it does indeed keep up the anticipation factor :)

April 5, 2008 2:21 PM
 

Thomas Dean said:

ABSOLUTELY this way is better than the past. You have a tiny handful of folks who are confused for a couple minutes until they read a post or two, versus the hundreds of people who have downloaded the early guides and have been able to do their con planning early.

A fantastic upgrade to the process.

April 5, 2008 6:01 PM
 

Ripley said:

My only question is:  Will everything be entered and ready for the official Event Registration mania on April 20th?  

For those of us that have nearly every nanosecond planned to maximize their "GenCon Experience," I'm reeeeeeeeeally hoping that I'm not gonna book out my game-plan, buy tickets, and then see something else that looks cooler in say, July?  

Coordinating with multiple people and planning for event reg is stressful enough - when its done, I'm a happy camper...if I've missed this answer somewhere in the forums, please point me there!  Thanks!

April 6, 2008 9:53 AM
 

Derek Guder said:

Everything submitted before the event submission deadline will be available to register for, as per usual, come April 20th. That's what I'm spending pretty much all my time on right now :)

April 6, 2008 11:59 AM
 

Ripley said:

That is super-mega-awesome-fun-time news, Derek!

April 6, 2008 6:38 PM
 

suburbaknght said:

I love being able to see what events are approved early but there is a lot of confusion, as you've stated.  I like the idea of releasing things in blocks, but fewer seems better.  Maybe work on the big events (larps, seminars, etc.) first, then get into the things like board games and RPGs?

April 8, 2008 8:37 AM
 

Derek Guder said:

That's actually kind of how we handle it now - each update has been on a per-event-type basis, for the most part.

A middle-ground compromise might be to only have 3 event batch releases - one for each event cycle. So instead of doing "Here are the cycle 1 RPGs, next week we'll have the LARPs" it would just be "here are all the cycle 1 events. Cycle 2 will be in a few weeks."

The problem is I'm not sure that reducing the number of batches will really have any effect on people being confused because they events they are looking for aren't there.

April 8, 2008 9:41 AM
 

Xefe said:

One has to remember that people are stupid.  It is just one of those Grand Truths.  I'm not trying to insult anyone, but it is true.  People had gotten used to how things worked and assumed that it will always be that way.  This year it changed slightly and it has thrown people off.  If you use this same method next year, they will begin to adapt to it and if done again the year after that, it will become the new norm.  

Whenever one engages in organizational change it is ALWAYS disruptive and confusing to a lot of people.  The best way to combat that confusion is to try to communicate those changes very boldly again and again and again and again.  When you get to the point that you think you have communicated enough, in reality you have just scratched the surface.  You need to sound like a broken record.  Repetition is key.  Repetition is key.  Repetition is key.  And even then, it won't be enough.  There will still be people who won't read the instructions or read the bold print stating that the listing is incomplete.  Derek, I think you will just have to grin and bear it this year.  But if major changes are NOT made next year, it should get better for next year as people adapt.  

The only thing that I think was missing was a clear indication of when events would be listed.  I think the idea of having all types of events for each cycle going up at the same time is a good one.  It might reduce the panic that RPG's are up but TCG's aren't type of thing.  It certainly won't eliminate the confusion, but it will reduce some panic on the part of EO's.  If all of cycle one is put up at the same time and the EO submitted events in cycle one and they aren't there, THEN he knows that there is something genuinely wrong.  

Personally, this system has worked well for me.  I appreciate the added ability to plan out my convention a little earlier than normal.  Also, it helps to know as a GM where my events will be located as I am looking at events to play in.  If I only have 5 or 10 minutes to walk 7 blocks, then perhaps I need to rethink the events I want to play in.  

As you are wading through these events and trying to deal with the seemingly endless calls and e-mails inquiring as to where their events are, remember there are a lot of us who really appreciate all the hard work you put into this.  I'm sure you already know this, but sometimes it is good to hear (or in this case read) it anyway.  

April 8, 2008 2:23 PM
 

Derek Guder said:

There is no way to alleviate ALL confusion, of course, but that doesn't mean that there might not be a better way.

Are the gains in getting SOME event details out earlier worth the confusion and misunderstanding an incomplete list can cause - most especially for attendees who aren't on the forums and might not get all of the messaging we're steadily repeating.

And also remember that early location information is a separate topic entirely - that will likely continue in the future no matter how we decide to make events active and viewable by the public.

April 9, 2008 11:53 AM

About Derek Guder

I'm an Event Programming Manager here at Gen Con. My pet projects are the anime & flim events, as well as eGame fun-time, but I also supervise overall gaming event (submission, placement badges, etc.).

I've been going to Gen Con for years as a GM for Eden Studios, running demos of WitchCraft and All Flesh Must Be Eaten that I'd written with "Derek the Elder" and the "Man in the Chicken Coat." It was great sitting down with a bunch of strangers, handing them pre-generated characters (each with their own hosts of secrets) and then sitting back to watch the chaos ensue. Ah, those were the days...

I got into convention work at Anime Boston. I was one of the founding members and with a small group of other dedicated fans, we were able to pull off a wildly successful event: in our first year we have almost 4000 attendees show up and had to close registration and turn people away on Saturday morning, mid-way through the convention.

Ever since then I've loved working at a convention. I almost can't even go to a con anymore unless I'm working in one capacity or another - I just don't know what to do with myself.

So now I'm out in Seattle, but I'm an East Coast boy through-and-through. I grew up all over New England and went to school at Boston University. Seattle's beautiful scenery and weather (c'mon, that ain't rain, it's just a damn light misting) still seems a little unnatural. Where's the snow? The humidity? The sudden drops in temperature? Well, maybe I only actually miss the snow.

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