Impending convention reflections
Oct. 14th, 2009 11:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterHere it is, two days to go until the SpringfieldGAME convention here in Springfield, MO. And I'm excited.
The schedule for the media room—which I am supervising and operating—is all hashed out. I've got $400 in raffle prizes so far. I've got plans for how to set the room up, and everything.
What I don't have is any assurance people will actually come to the room. :P
See, due to the way the convention center is set up, 90% of the con will be in this big Expo Center, with lots of wide open spaces for people to hang around and do conventionish stuff. But there were no small rooms that would have been good for movie screening. So for that, we had to go to the hotel across the street—and across a big parking lot, and halfway around the building.
I'm not complaining about this. We got an incredible deal on the venue, and apart from the media room's distance away it is utterly perfect for this kind of event. I'm just glad there's a media room at the con at all.
But all the same, anyone who wants to come to the media room will have to walk about half a block there, and another half a block back again. Given that a lot of media room traffic at cons usually comes from people "just stopping by" between games, I have to wonder whether even a really great film lineup and a raffle with $400 worth of prizes will attract people so far out of the way.
Anyway, later this afternoon I need to go out and pick up some last-minute things for the event. Roll of raffle tickets, other prep stuff. I may also have a friend coming in from out of town for the convention weekend.
I can't wait to see what actually happens. I hope it doesn't suck. I really hope we get enough people for the organizers to make back their investments.
On the bright side, we have some things that the existing local con doesn't have. We had a good deal of radio publicity, both in the form of an appearance on one radio station morning show last week and in the form of a $250 advertising certificate for ClearChannel that I bought at the Pizza Bowl a couple years ago. It enabled us to get 11 ads runs on US 97 and 6 on ESPN-AM radio this week. Maybe that's not many, but at least it got the word out to more people than none would have.
The schedule for the media room—which I am supervising and operating—is all hashed out. I've got $400 in raffle prizes so far. I've got plans for how to set the room up, and everything.
What I don't have is any assurance people will actually come to the room. :P
See, due to the way the convention center is set up, 90% of the con will be in this big Expo Center, with lots of wide open spaces for people to hang around and do conventionish stuff. But there were no small rooms that would have been good for movie screening. So for that, we had to go to the hotel across the street—and across a big parking lot, and halfway around the building.
I'm not complaining about this. We got an incredible deal on the venue, and apart from the media room's distance away it is utterly perfect for this kind of event. I'm just glad there's a media room at the con at all.
But all the same, anyone who wants to come to the media room will have to walk about half a block there, and another half a block back again. Given that a lot of media room traffic at cons usually comes from people "just stopping by" between games, I have to wonder whether even a really great film lineup and a raffle with $400 worth of prizes will attract people so far out of the way.
Anyway, later this afternoon I need to go out and pick up some last-minute things for the event. Roll of raffle tickets, other prep stuff. I may also have a friend coming in from out of town for the convention weekend.
I can't wait to see what actually happens. I hope it doesn't suck. I really hope we get enough people for the organizers to make back their investments.
On the bright side, we have some things that the existing local con doesn't have. We had a good deal of radio publicity, both in the form of an appearance on one radio station morning show last week and in the form of a $250 advertising certificate for ClearChannel that I bought at the Pizza Bowl a couple years ago. It enabled us to get 11 ads runs on US 97 and 6 on ESPN-AM radio this week. Maybe that's not many, but at least it got the word out to more people than none would have.
