Dale Yu: Planning a new convention

The gaming calendar is filled with many different conventions, invitationals and get-togethers – spread out all throughout the year in locations around the country (and the world)!  Though the number of these events seems to grow each year, given the regional reach of most of the events, there is still plenty of room for growth as the numbers involved in our hobby also continue to grow.

I was approached earlier this week to give some advice on a potential new “mini-convention” in my hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio.  I think that this is a great idea, and it could help raise interest in boardgaming locally as well as help generate a sense of community amongst the gamers in the area.  However, as I started to think harder about all the logistics involved, leaning on my experience from attending many different types of conventions/invitationals as well as organizing my own event, The Queen City Confluence, there will be a lot of work that needs to get done for this event to get off the ground… As I developed my answer to the initial question – I thought it would also be a good idea to share my thoughts via this column.  Hopefully, it might help others get their own planning started, and it would be great if some new ideas were developed by people reading this too!

So, first, let me tell you a little bit about the proposed event as the idea was pitched to me. 
What: A Cincinnati Mini-Con – loosely based on Origins, Gen-Con or WBC
Where: Somewhere in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Actual location TBD
When: Tentatively scheduled for fall 2008 (October/November) – likely 2 days: Saturday and Sunday
Who: Anyone is welcome, both Eurogaming and wargaming.  Initial estimates hope for 100 attendees.
Why:  Because it would be fun!

As I thought about it, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered first before deciding if it is feasible to have the event or not.  These initial questions came up in the first five minutes of thought – and once they are answered, the actual planning can start.

1) Is there a need for the event?  i.e. Will people show up?
2) How many people will show up?
3) When is the best time to have it?
4) Once you know how many people will show up, where can you house everyone?
5) If needed, where will people eat/sleep?
6) What costs will be involved?  Admission fees?  Sponsors?  Dealers/auctions?
7) What kinds of events do you want to host?  Open Gaming?  Tournaments?  Educational sessions?
8) How to best promote it?

Going in order – here are my thoughts on these initial questions

1) Is there a need for the event?  i.e. Will people show up?

The Cincinnati area has a fairly fractured gaming community right now.  There are at least three different gaming groups – with very little crossover between the groups currently.  I would estimate that the total number of gamers involved in all these different groups is around 50.  However, given the disparate nature of the groups – it’s really hard to get a good feel for how the general health of boardgaming is in the area.

Two of the area’s groups predominantly meet in the homes of their members, and as a result, these groups are fairly small due to space limitations.  Additionally, these groups meet sporadically – maybe twice a month at best.  The other group, which is the largest – The Cincinnati Boardgamers – meets in varied locations around the city including a few game stores as well as a bookstore or two at different times each week.  I’ve heard that the Cincinnati Boardgamers get anywhere between 8 and 15 gamers at each of their usual meetings.  The other groups (both of which I’m part of) usually get between 3-8 at each meeting.  Thus, there are as many as 20 different gamers that are involved in any given week somewhere in the city.  (And this estimate doesn’t even account for any people that play games and haven’t joined one of these three groups yet!)

There have been other attempts at having a larger gaming event in Cincinnati.  The most recent was spearheaded by Scott Tullis – probably back in 2003 or 2004.  It was a euro-game only event with open gaming as the only activity.  There were no planned tournaments and there wasn’t a prize table.  If I remember correctly, attendance for that two-day affair was in the 50s.  There hasn’t been anything else planned on that scale since then.  Part of the reason is that we are lucky to have both GenCon and Origins within 90 minutes – and part of the reason is that no one has stepped up to the plate to organize it – until now.

I do think that there is a need for a convention-like event here in Cincinnati.  There are enough local gamers to support the event.  It would also help to bring the groups together.  If it worked out, I’d like to see something here similar to Unity Games in Boston.  Unity Games is a regional game-day event in Boston when the many different gaming groups in the area get together twice a year.  There is also a mailing list set up for the participants in Unity Games to keep all the groups informed of the activities of each of the individual groups.

2) How many people will show up?

There is some thought that getting 100 people to show up is a possibility.  I am more of the mind that 50-60 would be best case scenario.  Again, there is only a pool of 50-60 gamers total in the Greater Cincinnati area to start with… And, given that this is the first edition of the event, I’m not sure how many people you’ll get to come from out of town.  Yes, I know that we are close to Columbus, Indianapolis, Louisville and Lexington – but I don’t know how much desire there will be to drive 90+ minutes for gaming. 

As a card-carrying member of the Columbus group as well, I think I know the group well enough to say that I’d be surprised if more than 5 CABS members made the drive to Cincinnati for such an event.  Why?  Because most of the regular gaming sessions at CABS already have 100+ gamers there – so there is nothing special about the size of this planned con… As far as the other cities close-by, it’s probably a wait-and-see situation.

3) When is the best time to have it?

Right now, the thought is to have the event in the Fall – in October or November.  This seems to be a popular time in the gaming calendar to try to have an event – and I think that most of the attraction is that there is always much excitement right after Essen.  As a result, the calendar is quite crowded… In fact, my potential schedule right now (starting in late October) could look like this:  Essen…Essen…Great Lakes Games…Lobster Trap…Weekend Off…BGG.CON. 

Certainly, there is a lot of excitement around that time.  The Cincinnati Mini-Con would likely want to schedule around BGG.con (as this has a national draw) as well as Great Lakes Games (as this draws from the Midwest) – though I could also see an argument for having it on the same weekend as one of these events to provide an alternative to those who can’t get to BGG.con or GLG.

Of course, if the event is to happen in this time frame, it would be important to try to get some of the new Essen games there to be played.  Unfortunately, I’m not sure that many of the games will be available through the American distribution chain at that point, and it would be dicey counting on Funagain or the other online retailers to get the games here by that time.  This year will be even more tight given the very late date of the Essen Spiel (10/23 to 10/26) in 2008.

4) Once you know how many people will show up, where can you house everyone?

Location is important.  You’d like there to be enough space to comfortably house all of the potential gamers – but at the same time, you’d prefer not to pay for a bunch of space that you’re not using.  This may be the hardest question to answer right now – because the number of potential attendees is up in the air.  If it is 50 or less, one option may be to approach one of the local gaming stores which has two large rooms that can be used for gaming.  Though the shop owner generally doesn’t charge for use of his space, it might be a good gesture to offer some cash to “take over” his store for two days – and possibly increase the hours of operation for the event.  The store would also likely benefit from sales that will surely come from increased traffic during the weekend.

However, if the numbers look larger than that – you’ll need to look at either a hotel or other reception hall to house all the gamers.  The two issues when considering this are cost and food availability.  First, I’ve found that hotels charge a whole bunch for the use of their meeting rooms – unless you can guarantee that you’ll fill a lot of their rooms.  Unfortunately, as I feel most of the gamers will be local, I doubt that many hotel rooms will be booked as a result of the mini-con.  Thus, the cost of the room will have to be borne by the attendees in increased fees.  Furthermore, many hotels do not allow you to bring in your own food – and this also drives up the cost as you will end up having to pay hotel prices for hotel food (ugh).  Independent reception halls are also an option, but you’ll have to try not to pick a weekend with lots of weddings… Otherwise, you’ll end up paying prices reserved for wedding receptions – the most common use for these facilities on a Saturday night.

5) If needed, where will people eat/sleep?

This really only comes into play if you think you’re going to get a lot of out-of-towners at the mini-con.  If so, you need to make sure that your location is somewhere close to a major highways as well as close to hotels and restaurants.  I’ve been to a few conventions that I’ve sworn never to go back to because it was too inconvenient for me.

6) What costs will be involved?  Admission fees?  Sponsors?  Dealers/auctions?

Costs are hard to put a finger on right now.  At a minimum, you’ll need to reserve some money to rent space.  Furthermore, it would likely be a good idea to set aside a bit of money to help get some of the new games to make sure that there are copies available of the new games that people want to play.  Now, of course, you can hopefully get some of these games free from sponsors, but I think it will be good to have new games there as a way to attract people to show up.  Additionally, it might not be a bad idea to take some of the entry money to put towards a raffle. 

There was some talk of trying to get some industry representation at the mini-con, and I think it would be great if it were to happen… But, in all honesty, I don’t think you’re going to get a gaming company to come out for an event that may have as few as 40-50 gamers present… You might get them to send a few copies of their games to be used for promotional purposes, but I think unlikely that you’ll have a “Dealer Room” at this event.  Furthermore, if you end up using a local game store to host the event, inviting other dealers to show up is likely bad form.

7) What kinds of events do you want to host?  Open Gaming?  Tournaments?  Educational sessions?  Will there be a prize table or other raffle?

As far as events go, I’m a big fan of open gaming.  I’ve never liked tournaments at conventions because 1) I’m not that competitive and 2) they really seem to muck up my schedule.  That being said, I know that there are plenty of people who love tournament play, and for those people, the tournaments are the highlight of the entire event.  The downside for me is that it takes up a large part of a day to participate in a tournament, and there are too many other games and people to play with for me to devote a large chunk of time to a single game or group.  I think that you can try to gauge the interest in tournaments and then have people volunteer to run them.  It might just take a year to see which events were popular enough to continue.

8) How to best promote it?

Right now, I think that the best way to gauge interest is to post stuff online (on BGG and here), putting up notices in the local game stores, and individually contacting members of the nearby game groups to see if they would be interested in coming down as well.

So, that’s what I’ve come up with so far.  I actually don’t know where they are in the process of getting this event started, but I’ll try to keep you posted here.  Additionally, is there anything else that I’m not thinking of?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated, and I’ll forward it all on the powers that be.

Until your next appointment,
The Gaming Doctor

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