What a year it has been and it is only April!
GameStorm 19 is done! Yayayayayyay! Four days of approx. 1600 people playing games at a Hotel in Portland Oregon...and it wrapped up yesterday :)
Of course, my work is not yet done, but the urgency has dropped a bit. These last three months, while fighting snow and overtime, I have also been in the crunch time for getting my part of the convention planning done. My department was Hotel. My job, to coordinate between the convention and the Hotel itself, to make sure that we got the right tables in the right rooms (and kept the Fire Marshall happy), reserve rooms for the Guests of Honor, that staff got the right room rates, and to keep an eye on our overall room night commitments.
This is harder than it sounds. Banquet and Event Orders...where the tables go, water stations, trash and recycling, figuring out which Events goes in which rooms, which suites are being used for which purposes...I needed to coordinate with the Chair, Dealers, Registration, Hospitality, PR (info desk), Operations (office, con watch), Industry (swag, GOH liaisons), and Events (Boardgaming, Minis, MIB, Game Library, RPGs, ORCs, LARP, CCGs, Indie Hurricane!, Console Gaming/LAN, and Game Lab). Each of these departments (and sub-departments) is run by a different volunteer. Each of these volunteers wants the best for their area. Each of these volunteers is an individual with their own schedules and time commitments and availability to respond.
Yes, I am a volunteer cat-herder. LOL.
But, it is done and done now! Our first time in a new hotel, so I have notes and pictures to make changes for next year. Even before our Sun Break (we don't have a Dead Dog. After the Storm is over comes the Sun Break *grin*) and at the wrap up meeting with the hotel this morning, we were already planning changes and tweaks to make next year better. (We call this SMOFing. SMOF is Secret Masters of Fandom. This is the Meta activity of not only running conventions, but talking about conventions and people who run conventions so we learn from others what went wrong and how to improve our own....It's actually a lot of fun! Hearing the fun (or horror) stories about the behind the scenes stuff that goes on when trying to run a convention. Things that don't (we pray) affect the attendees, but are lessons to learn from for the committees.
And what of my weekend, though? Did I have any fun, in and among all this stress and conventioning? Actually yes :) Though boy, did my feet hurt from all the walking I did! I lead three tours to introduce people to the hotel, I taught two sessions of two different games (Roll for the Galaxy and Mysterium) which were a lot of fun, I played two other games...neither of which were scheduled though, LOL, and started to learn a third, and I look forward to playing it again. I bought a game for my niece for her birthday, and for my own, I got a foot massage! I also got to see friends that I only get to see at conventions and spend a bit of time with friends that I usually don't have time to, even when we're local :)
I'll post again, soon. That is my intention, as I want to do so more frequently and now my brain is not as full. LOL, at least until I start work on the next convention!
*hugs my flist*
Of course, my work is not yet done, but the urgency has dropped a bit. These last three months, while fighting snow and overtime, I have also been in the crunch time for getting my part of the convention planning done. My department was Hotel. My job, to coordinate between the convention and the Hotel itself, to make sure that we got the right tables in the right rooms (and kept the Fire Marshall happy), reserve rooms for the Guests of Honor, that staff got the right room rates, and to keep an eye on our overall room night commitments.
This is harder than it sounds. Banquet and Event Orders...where the tables go, water stations, trash and recycling, figuring out which Events goes in which rooms, which suites are being used for which purposes...I needed to coordinate with the Chair, Dealers, Registration, Hospitality, PR (info desk), Operations (office, con watch), Industry (swag, GOH liaisons), and Events (Boardgaming, Minis, MIB, Game Library, RPGs, ORCs, LARP, CCGs, Indie Hurricane!, Console Gaming/LAN, and Game Lab). Each of these departments (and sub-departments) is run by a different volunteer. Each of these volunteers wants the best for their area. Each of these volunteers is an individual with their own schedules and time commitments and availability to respond.
Yes, I am a volunteer cat-herder. LOL.
But, it is done and done now! Our first time in a new hotel, so I have notes and pictures to make changes for next year. Even before our Sun Break (we don't have a Dead Dog. After the Storm is over comes the Sun Break *grin*) and at the wrap up meeting with the hotel this morning, we were already planning changes and tweaks to make next year better. (We call this SMOFing. SMOF is Secret Masters of Fandom. This is the Meta activity of not only running conventions, but talking about conventions and people who run conventions so we learn from others what went wrong and how to improve our own....It's actually a lot of fun! Hearing the fun (or horror) stories about the behind the scenes stuff that goes on when trying to run a convention. Things that don't (we pray) affect the attendees, but are lessons to learn from for the committees.
And what of my weekend, though? Did I have any fun, in and among all this stress and conventioning? Actually yes :) Though boy, did my feet hurt from all the walking I did! I lead three tours to introduce people to the hotel, I taught two sessions of two different games (Roll for the Galaxy and Mysterium) which were a lot of fun, I played two other games...neither of which were scheduled though, LOL, and started to learn a third, and I look forward to playing it again. I bought a game for my niece for her birthday, and for my own, I got a foot massage! I also got to see friends that I only get to see at conventions and spend a bit of time with friends that I usually don't have time to, even when we're local :)
I'll post again, soon. That is my intention, as I want to do so more frequently and now my brain is not as full. LOL, at least until I start work on the next convention!
*hugs my flist*