Garko the Man-Frog (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} larpwriting) wrote,@ 2008-11-12 15:03:00 |
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Intercon Mid-Atlantic - almost upon us!
So Intercon Mid-Atlantic is almost upon us. With gas prices falling and the economy stuttering and Obama elected, reg has picked up a little. More than I expected, honestly. And there are a few more people in the wind, friends bringing undecideds who will either come at the last minute or not. The games that are open now are probably going to have slots at the door, and the ones that were full already were. I'm guessing we'll shuffle up to around 80, which has us down about 22%, which given the timing on our ass-kicking is not bad. By the time people unfroze and decided they might be willing to travel again, IMA was just too close.
I'm looking forward to the weekend! For once I have the latitude just to have fun and not worry that the con is going to lose a lot of money. Effectively this Con is paid for by LARPWriting.org and Threads of Damocles. Enjoy the bar! This year for all it's failings IMA will be a good set of games and a good party. I'm browsing through the attendance list, and except for a very few people who had some pre-existing conflict, we're mostly not missing the core people who we enjoy partying with and who make the Convention fun. And IMA is still bigger than Threads, which is a great party. So it's going to be a nice fun weekend, and I officially refuse to worry that the economy hurt us. We're going to rock on, play games, have fun, and maybe learn something. I'm thinking of running an informal roundtable track during the day, and seeing if anybody shows up if we actually have a TOPIC for our rambling daytime discussions.
Also I'll add that we've run a lot of discounts and slashed prices to try to help the games by getting more reg. That was aimed at people who were hard hit. With GM comps, price reductions, etc., reg will cover about 35% of Con budget this year. I don't want to guilt anyone so I'll just remind my friends who work jobs as good or better than mine and are not starving that most of the Con is coming out of my pocket, so if you don't need to figure out how to pay nothing for the con, you know those little bits do help. I don't mind and I won't complain, but everybody appreciates the person who kicks in for the party.
We'll turn that around next year, having gotten Threads up and making ends meet.
We'll do a lot of things differently next year. Next year will be Intercon 24, and we have some big plans for Intercon 25, and if that is going to happen we need to ramp up now. We're moving back to the Baltimore-Washington area, expanding the Convention to include workshops and roundtables on Thursday, and finally adding a real workshop and panel track all weekend. I'm expecting about twenty people the first year, and we'll go from there.
I've added an additional "WildCard" prize to the LARPA Small Games Contest this year, and that should make things interesting. We've got three competitors for the 12-24 Category, but it's likely that the one micro entrant will win that category. We have more entrants this year than ever before, and I'm happy about that. Next year we are going to open Contest Game Bids before we open Regular Bids and may also offer a few more Categories.
I think if IMA is going to be the art and theory con, we need to be the art and theory Convention and that means really putting our money where our mouth is and provide a real programming track. It will be lightly attended at first, but you can't grow something without planting a seed, and it's time. We'll also move to a heavier promotional message. IMA-2008 was intended to be a "coasting" con - run our usual numbers and usual crowd during what would arguably be the most intense and difficult year for the Threads Campaign. With Threads beginning to run itself, I'll have more time to devote to IMA-2009 and to the twenty fifth anniversary in 2010.
As a side note, the 25th Anniversary of Theatre Style LARP passed without remark last year. But I think in a lot of ways that's less of a landmark. The SIL was founded as the Harvard SIL that year, but we know there was LARP before that, and there are murdery mystery events that go back as far, and Assassin games, etc. So that was a landmark, but not really anniversary worthy. I think that the beginning of SilIcon/Intercon in the United States is going to be a much more memorable date down the years.
So we'll worry about the future later
So Intercon Mid-Atlantic is almost upon us. With gas prices falling and the economy stuttering and Obama elected, reg has picked up a little. More than I expected, honestly. And there are a few more people in the wind, friends bringing undecideds who will either come at the last minute or not. The games that are open now are probably going to have slots at the door, and the ones that were full already were. I'm guessing we'll shuffle up to around 80, which has us down about 22%, which given the timing on our ass-kicking is not bad. By the time people unfroze and decided they might be willing to travel again, IMA was just too close.
I'm looking forward to the weekend! For once I have the latitude just to have fun and not worry that the con is going to lose a lot of money. Effectively this Con is paid for by LARPWriting.org and Threads of Damocles. Enjoy the bar! This year for all it's failings IMA will be a good set of games and a good party. I'm browsing through the attendance list, and except for a very few people who had some pre-existing conflict, we're mostly not missing the core people who we enjoy partying with and who make the Convention fun. And IMA is still bigger than Threads, which is a great party. So it's going to be a nice fun weekend, and I officially refuse to worry that the economy hurt us. We're going to rock on, play games, have fun, and maybe learn something. I'm thinking of running an informal roundtable track during the day, and seeing if anybody shows up if we actually have a TOPIC for our rambling daytime discussions.
Also I'll add that we've run a lot of discounts and slashed prices to try to help the games by getting more reg. That was aimed at people who were hard hit. With GM comps, price reductions, etc., reg will cover about 35% of Con budget this year. I don't want to guilt anyone so I'll just remind my friends who work jobs as good or better than mine and are not starving that most of the Con is coming out of my pocket, so if you don't need to figure out how to pay nothing for the con, you know those little bits do help. I don't mind and I won't complain, but everybody appreciates the person who kicks in for the party.
We'll turn that around next year, having gotten Threads up and making ends meet.
We'll do a lot of things differently next year. Next year will be Intercon 24, and we have some big plans for Intercon 25, and if that is going to happen we need to ramp up now. We're moving back to the Baltimore-Washington area, expanding the Convention to include workshops and roundtables on Thursday, and finally adding a real workshop and panel track all weekend. I'm expecting about twenty people the first year, and we'll go from there.
I've added an additional "WildCard" prize to the LARPA Small Games Contest this year, and that should make things interesting. We've got three competitors for the 12-24 Category, but it's likely that the one micro entrant will win that category. We have more entrants this year than ever before, and I'm happy about that. Next year we are going to open Contest Game Bids before we open Regular Bids and may also offer a few more Categories.
I think if IMA is going to be the art and theory con, we need to be the art and theory Convention and that means really putting our money where our mouth is and provide a real programming track. It will be lightly attended at first, but you can't grow something without planting a seed, and it's time. We'll also move to a heavier promotional message. IMA-2008 was intended to be a "coasting" con - run our usual numbers and usual crowd during what would arguably be the most intense and difficult year for the Threads Campaign. With Threads beginning to run itself, I'll have more time to devote to IMA-2009 and to the twenty fifth anniversary in 2010.
As a side note, the 25th Anniversary of Theatre Style LARP passed without remark last year. But I think in a lot of ways that's less of a landmark. The SIL was founded as the Harvard SIL that year, but we know there was LARP before that, and there are murdery mystery events that go back as far, and Assassin games, etc. So that was a landmark, but not really anniversary worthy. I think that the beginning of SilIcon/Intercon in the United States is going to be a much more memorable date down the years.
So we'll worry about the future later
