I'll be flying out shortly, but I wanted to send out a quick note before i did so:

 I’ll be flying to Indianapolis shortly to start the on-site preparation for Gen Con, but I wanted to send a quick email to ask everyone to pay extra attention this year and take notes on things we can improve in 2009 and beyond.

The constraints of the construction look like they will be with us for a little while yet, but there is always room for improvement anyway.



If you run into a problem or see something that you think could be improved, please let me know. I can’t do everything (so remember to consider the other side of things before you assume it’s “obvious”) but I certainly want to hear where and how GMs think things can and need to be improved.



In particular, I would like to ask GMs and event organizers for LARPs, miniatures and card games to take a few minutes and send me their thoughts, as all are being handled a bit differently this year than they have in the past.

LARPs are a bit condensed and I need to know how much of a challenge that poses – and how we can all try to use the limited space we have a bit more efficiently.

And speaking of using space efficiently, I know there is a way that can more efficiently utilize the space we have for miniatures – but I’m not entirely sure what that is. I also would like to hear ideas on how to better communicate table/space needs and assignments both from event organizers (so I can place things properly) but also to attendees so that they can locate their games more readily (and don’t need to stop into the minis HQ to check a big map each morning.

TCGs and CCGs are in a new position this year, with the loss of the old hallway on the way to Halls F & G. Everything that used to be there is now in the Regency and Cosmopolitan ballrooms in the Hyatt. Kind of a combination of LARPs and minis, I want to know how much of a challenge the more spread-out space is and how we can better use what space we have and better communicate table assignments to attendees.



I am looking for feedback on specific questions, but again – I want to hear about any problems and issues that you run into. I can’t try to fix it if I don’t hear about it.

Please let me know about your problems, suggestions, ideas and concerns.


Thanks,

Don't know if you can do anything about it, but you might ask about their layout.  The area that we were using was a double felt map area (one at each end of the table) and an area in the middle that had the product that was out for the game systems that were being either being demo'd or the session being run.

I noticed that there was a lot of single wide mini area tables were not being used for much, except as a holding area for pachages, coats and backpacks.  But all of the double wides had games running on them.

 The company I was demoing for was too small to get a affordable booth for one in the dealer area, nor even had the spare person or two to run it, you might check and see if the small firms can buy in a designated area part of a booth and have GenCon/Charety run it for a percent of the sale.  They had the product shipped to their room and as it was sold they would bring down replacements from either the marshaling area by the wall, or send someone the five blocks to get new material from their room.  Should be a better way for the small firms to do buisness in a nearly profitable way

The LARPs were very congested this year, and I know that they were trying to arrange them as best as possible to accommodate everyone, but there also were times where the staff were not available as people were walking by and the signage not posted about room changes.

We had several people wander by looking for the correct room for their event after it had been moved.

We were 'lucky' to have been a little shorter this year on attendees due to some known absences, but were working with a room half the size of our normal room.  It makes for a very warm and uncomfortable evening even if you are having fun.

We will be very happy when LARPs have more space again. 

Fitzs:

Don't know if you can do anything about it, but you might ask about their layout.  The area that we were using was a double felt map area (one at each end of the table) and an area in the middle that had the product that was out for the game systems that were being either being demo'd or the session being run.

I noticed that there was a lot of single wide mini area tables were not being used for much, except as a holding area for pachages, coats and backpacks.  But all of the double wides had games running on them.

 The company I was demoing for was too small to get a affordable booth for one in the dealer area, nor even had the spare person or two to run it, you might check and see if the small firms can buy in a designated area part of a booth and have GenCon/Charety run it for a percent of the sale.  They had the product shipped to their room and as it was sold they would bring down replacements from either the marshaling area by the wall, or send someone the five blocks to get new material from their room.  Should be a better way for the small firms to do buisness in a nearly profitable way

They were selling in the minis hall then?  Which company was this?

Not being able to set up in the Historical minis area the night before was a real pain.  We couldn't get in till early Thursday morning due to a conference a wedding reception I believe.

This was a problem for the early games that needed an hour or two to set up...  other than that the hall wasn't bad and the attendence seemed about normal... plus I fee like we had the most space we've had in years... no big butts bumping the tables... ample space for ailes and pass throughs.

Rbree:

Not being able to set up in the Historical minis area the night before was a real pain.  We couldn't get in till early Thursday morning due to a conference a wedding reception I believe.

This was a problem for the early games that needed an hour or two to set up...  other than that the hall wasn't bad and the attendence seemed about normal... plus I fee like we had the most space we've had in years... no big butts bumping the tables... ample space for ailes and pass throughs.

 

I agree with this.  We had a couple events early Thursday morning and crawling into the hotel at 7:00 AM to set up was not pleasant.  Also, there was no one around at 7:00 when we were setting up.  There were some issues with table allocations. We made do, but I felt kinda guilty cannibalizing tables that were marked for other groups.

On a similar note, it would be great if there were larger storage lockers available for the GMs running miniature events.  We had GMs staying at several different hotels and dragging bits of terrain back to three locations every night was a bit of a hassle.  It would be nice to store stuff at the hotel or ICC.

I know there wasn't much you could do about the consturction, but it kinda sucked having the minis events spread out in three different buildings.  All our events were together, but it would be nice to be in the same hall as all the others.  It seemed like the historical gamers we segergated from the rest.  Similar events under the same roof would also mean you wouldn't have to walk 10 minutes to talk to the folks at the minis HQ.   Maybe add a phone to each HQ so that the GMs could call the "hotline" in case of problems. (See my first point)

Another gripe is the lack of recycling facilities at the ICC and the hotels.  I was disappointed to see so many cans in the overflowing trash cans.

This was our first time running events at GenCon, and it was a generally painless experience except for the confusion Thursday Morning.  More assistance from the HQ regarding logistics and a more centralized location would have made it really great.

Another gripe is the lack of recycling facilities at the ICC and the hotels.  I was disappointed to see so many cans in the overflowing trash cans.

There were recycling boxes at most escalators, and scattered around. We used them. Even the VIG lounge had one.

Sorry for offtopic addendum.

I saw two bins in the ICC, and none in the hotels attached to GenCon.  I think that GenCon has enough pull with the hotels and the ICC to make recycling bins more available next year.

Hey

I had 8 no shows at my Feng Shui session. But that was probably because it was in the "Wabash" room. You see, there are two different "Wabash" rooms at GenCon. One in the convention center itself and the other one at the train station (where the GenCon Party was at). Next time, when something it at the Wabash room, please make it clearer which room we're talking about.....alrighty? :-)

Nebelwerfer41:

I saw two bins in the ICC, and none in the hotels attached to GenCon.  I think that GenCon has enough pull with the hotels and the ICC to make recycling bins more available next year.

CorwinHavens:

Hey

I had 8 no shows at my Feng Shui session. But that was probably because it was in the "Wabash" room. You see, there are two different "Wabash" rooms at GenCon. One in the convention center itself and the other one at the train station (where the GenCon Party was at). Next time, when something it at the Wabash room, please make it clearer which room we're talking about.....alrighty? :-)

Hmm, I had a game at the Wabash room and it says right on the ticket "Union Station:  Wabash 4".  I don't see how it could get any clearer than that.  While I didn't have an event at the other Wabash room, every event I had at the ICC had "ICC" printed on the ticket.

I don't have the Program Guide with me so it may be listed in there, but possibly have a sign showing what rooms or areas are in what hotels / facilities.  That might alleviate part of the problem.

Fitzs:

 The company I was demoing for was too small to get a affordable booth for one in the dealer area, nor even had the spare person or two to run it, you might check and see if the small firms can buy in a designated area part of a booth and have GenCon/Charety run it for a percent of the sale.  They had the product shipped to their room and as it was sold they would bring down replacements from either the marshaling area by the wall, or send someone the five blocks to get new material from their room.  Should be a better way for the small firms to do buisness in a nearly profitable way

Gen Con is not really in the position to run any kind of communal booth for exihibitors of any size, though you are certainly more than welcome to join together and share a booth yourself. Many small RPGs companies have done that for years.

Rbree:

Not being able to set up in the Historical minis area the night before was a real pain.  We couldn't get in till early Thursday morning due to a conference a wedding reception I believe.

This was a problem for the early games that needed an hour or two to set up...  other than that the hall wasn't bad and the attendence seemed about normal... plus I fee like we had the most space we've had in years... no big butts bumping the tables... ample space for ailes and pass throughs.

I didn't actually get any requests for Wednesday night setup, actually. If I had, we could have tried to figure out a way to accommodate that.

I think that next year (now that we'll have better attendance records) we can get everything to fit in the convention center so it shouldn't be as much of a problem, but if you need special setup time, you want to make sure to request that so we can try to get you setup properly.

Nebelwerfer41:

On a similar note, it would be great if there were larger storage lockers available for the GMs running miniature events.  We had GMs staying at several different hotels and dragging bits of terrain back to three locations every night was a bit of a hassle.  It would be nice to store stuff at the hotel or ICC.

I mentioned in another post that I'm hoping to pull everything together back into the convention center, but I don't see the 2nd floor/Wabash break being eliminated any time soon.

As for the cage, that's something else that we can try to arrange - but needs to be requested and paid for. We don't have anything we can provide ourselves, but companies and gaming groups can arrange to get a cage if they need one.

Braelun:

CorwinHavens:

Hey

I had 8 no shows at my Feng Shui session. But that was probably because it was in the "Wabash" room. You see, there are two different "Wabash" rooms at GenCon. One in the convention center itself and the other one at the train station (where the GenCon Party was at). Next time, when something it at the Wabash room, please make it clearer which room we're talking about.....alrighty? :-)

Hmm, I had a game at the Wabash room and it says right on the ticket "Union Station:  Wabash 4".  I don't see how it could get any clearer than that.  While I didn't have an event at the other Wabash room, every event I had at the ICC had "ICC" printed on the ticket.

I don't have the Program Guide with me so it may be listed in there, but possibly have a sign showing what rooms or areas are in what hotels / facilities.  That might alleviate part of the problem.

All event tickets (and event listing in the catalog) list not only the room but also the building and the map in the program book listed the room names and what kind of events were in each in general, so short of not using or simply renaming one of the Wabash rooms, I'm really not sure what else we can do.

Great idea on a "cage."  Would we have to arrange that with the ICC?

 Also, now that I know we cna have the option to set up the night before, we may take advantage of that next year.

 BTW, Derek thanks to you and all your minions.  This was the first year Friendly Fire ran events at GenCon and we found it to be an overall good experience.  Despite what we heard from others, you and your staff are very responsive and organized.

Nebelwerfer41:

Great idea on a "cage."  Would we have to arrange that with the ICC?

 Also, now that I know we cna have the option to set up the night before, we may take advantage of that next year.

 BTW, Derek thanks to you and all your minions.  This was the first year Friendly Fire ran events at GenCon and we found it to be an overall good experience.  Despite what we heard from others, you and your staff are very responsive and organized.

I believe we get a cage from our decorator, actually - George Fern. I think it costs a few hundred dollars for the weekend, but it might be cheaper than a bunch of lockers if you can get a couple groups together to pool their resources.

And Wednesday setup isn't guaranteed. Sometimes it just might not be viable, but it's certainly something you can request and I'll do my best to accommodate everyone.

Thanks for the kind words - I know that there have been a fair amount of friction and problems with miniature events in the past, so I'm trying to smooth things over and make things work for everyone. I might not atually play minis games myself, but I love how they look and I want to get more of them (and bigger diaramas!) at the show.