TigerMoJo

I mentioned this in my OP too and fully agree.

I really dig the fourth idea. I'd dig more materials classes like painting realistic tartan, jeans, wool, leather, etc.

I guess where you see a high note I saw sour faces and frustration. I saw people leaving early and handing their bucks off as they lost any hope of being able to compete. I heard people say, when I expressed frustration about the auction, that they don't go anymore because of the format. I'm thinking of how this event is growing with more and more new people who will have no idea they need to pool their bucks and a system that rewards only those in the know. Yes, people can still pool raffle tickets but at least it won't be people openly driving up prices and cutting down others. I also disagree that raffles aren't high energy. I've run an annual charity event that relies on multiple raffles. We've raised nearly $10,000 and people are always hyped about those giveaways (with similar prizes as what you were offering). I'd actually love it if the end giveaways were connected to a charity (Extra Life, perhaps?) and give people the opportunity to buy additional raffle tickets with proceeds going to the charity. There can be a goal sign for tracking and people can get hyped about hitting that goal. As it stands though, I will graciously give my bucks to a child next year and bow out of the closing events.

Personally, I love that it is Labor Day weekend. Gave me an extra recovery day and I usually don't have anything going on this time of year. October is rough for me.

Wow! I loved your blog about this. Much deserved and thank you for your feedback at the con!

I actually think this is the ideal/perfect scenario. If you judged a piece favorably without knowing who painted it, you can be sure you had no bias in judging it. I think bias is inherent/human nature. I'm not saying any of the judging was intentionally favorable/unfavorable as I simply am too new to the community to even know that. However, it was clear to me that many of the pro artists and old school patrons are familiar with each other, even if they're not friends. So even if bowing out of judging a friend, you may be familiar with other names even if it's just hearsay or brief interactions/seeing their work online and can subconsciously make judgment calls on a piece because of that. Of course, if you obviously know a piece is done by a friend because you saw them working on it or turning it in, you can still bow out. Just my two cents.

I forgot about all the mini maker categories. Good points.

Honestly, would limiting entries help? There's no reason really for anyone to submit more than 2 to any category and it takes up judges valuable time to pick the best, especially with so many entries now. PS I want to thank Kuro Cleanbrush for side-barring with me via messages and giving me feedback on my work.

I hope they send us an email when the room block is open. I don't want to miss it this time.

This was my first year at ReaperCon and from speaking with others, this was the event's first year at this venue and the largest one yet. I wanted to give a general review and my feedback as a newbie attendee and as someone with experience managing tabletop events and being on concomms. I will not be reviewing things that I did not participate in (metal trade, board games and RPGs). I thought this could also kick off other people's feedback and reviews. Overall I loved it! I loved how casual this convention was and how focused it was on miniatures and painting. I think too many cons these days are trying to be too many things. Keeping it focused was fantastic. I loved the layout of the convention being very open and navigable. I never got lost or crowded out. I enjoyed having access to the professional painters and artists and being able to talk with them. We plan on attending again next year. Registration and Swag Bag Registration Thursday morning definitely was rough. Considering we all signed up online, I figured we'd just get our badge and bag and be done. We got in line at 9:15, had a 10 am class and had only made it half way through the line at 5 til 10. They finally called out for anyone with a 10 am class to come up front and then they didn't have our faction on file (I definitely filled this out online) and I had trouble remembering which one I picked. So a little rocky but I'm sure you all know this and kinks will be worked out. The swag bag is incredible. No complaints. Great stuff. Reaper U I took four classes and was fairly satisfied with the format, layout of the rooms and the topics offered. I especially enjoyed the two where the instructor prepared the minis ahead of time. My biggest feedback here is to ask the instructors to prepare the minis beforehand so we don't spend an entire class trying to base coat minis that don't dry because of Texas humidity, and then barely get to try the technique we took the class for. Please, instructors, clean, prime and maybe even base coat (TaleSpin did this!) the minis beforehand so we can dive right into the techniques in the limited amount of time we have. I also appreciated instructors who provided take-home instructions. I wish the website was more detailed on what to bring for each class (I over packed but I attended some classes where attendees didn't even bring brushes because they thought everything would be provided). Vendors I thought there was a really good variety of vendors. The only thing I wished for was more variety of brushes and carrying cases. I appreciated the local arts and crafts vendors as well. I always appreciate the punch card although I'm the type of person to actually talk to every vendor and not just ask for a punch and walk away. Dreadmere I feel like there's been a lot of heart and soul put into this lore and world but overall I don't think people get it. Most people I asked about it just picked a faction based on the mini they liked best and couldn't really care less about the story. I think this is sad and more could be done to incorporate the story / factions into the convention beyond the stickers. Also I saw a thing about faction points in the booklet but I could not figure out how you acquire them. I didn't receive any points for entering the Open, attending a painting event, taking a class or sharing on social, all of which it said you'd receive points for. Some ideas to better incorporate Dreadmere in the future: hold scheduled games that pit teams against each other, have a scavenger hunt with the first team to complete getting points and/or put on semi-regular skits and announcements on stage updating the story. Perhaps have the main characters wandering around the con recruiting their members to do certain tasks (e.g. make a social media post saying "Blood Wolves rule, Maggotcrown drools," ring this bell three times and chant "River Widows!", etc.) I know it's more work but I think it would be really fun. MSP Open I enjoyed the format of this competition and that everyone gets feedback in a sense. I unfortunately did not have time to talk with each of my judges (as we had car trouble on Sunday) but I did talk with one of the gold Sophie winners and got some feedback. I do wish the criteria were a little more cut and dry. I received bronze medals for the two minis I submitted (painter and diorama) but not sure which areas I was better or worse in. It's nice that nearly everyone gets medals and can get feedback from their judges. I thought the presentation was good and LOVED that everyone gets a professional photo and the miniatures are displayed on the TVs throughout the event. I feel like I learned so much by osmosis over this weekend by seeing all the amazing paint jobs. One final thing, I think people's names shouldn't be included on the card to eliminate bias in judging. Factory Tour LOVED IT! Jon is a fantastic tour guide who you can tell really loves his job and the company. He patiently answered all of our questions. It also makes me feel good to continue investing money with a company that's doing so many good things for its people and its products. Hobby Hijinks I know I keep saying it, but I loved it! Sophie Says, Speed Paints and Paint and Take were so much fun. Next time I will definitely try the other events too. Ludo was fantastic and kept the positivity flowing all weekend. I think you'll need a second Paint and Take table next year. The Auction I really didn't like how this went and hated that it put a sour note to the end of a wonderful, positive weekend. Maybe it was because of our aforementioned car trouble and being tired, but as someone new who doesn't know many people at the con, it was basically impossible to get anything because of the tables who pooled all their money together and had endless funds for whatever they wanted. A table behind us got easily 10 items. I overheard another table saying they were purposely bidding on everything just to drive up prices. Starting off with small game items was a downer too because I honestly would have bid on one of those since we only had 1,950 bucks, but I had my heart set on three items in particular and decided to wait and see if I could get them. Since it's a free thing anyway, I'd honestly rather just see more raffles (and maybe award people additional raffle tickets for participating in certain events). Other options are having a ReaperBucks store with set prices (think arcade style) or do it as a silent auction format. Just anything less cut throat would put a better cap to the weekend in my opinion. Venue Fantastic! I wish we had stayed there but by the time we committed to the con the room block was sold out. I enjoyed the open layout, the easy access to food and shopping, being right off the highway (we drove in from Oklahoma) and the staff seemed extremely attentive. Ribbons OK these are so silly but so fun! I enjoyed collecting these and was sad they ran out before I could "catch 'em all." We did have to ask for a lot of the ribbons at registration though and that could have been remedied. The badge itself with info on the back should be commended too. Social Media Although you advertised it a lot in your booklet, it didn't seem our posts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook were really recognized. As a social media manager for a con, I get that this alone is a full time job. With all the emphasis in the booklet, I was hoping to see more on social. I did greatly enjoy the live Facebook video and I think it's a great idea for Reaper to use Twitch. I'm excited to take part in those streams going forward. Website The website seriously need a thorough going over. There's a lot of old information (e.g. completely blank schedule page, old factions page, links for mystery dinners that don't exist, etc.). All the information I was looking for before the con (the FAQ, details about the Open and activities, etc.) were included in our booklet and the additional flyers. So basically all this info existed but was never placed on the website. As a newbie, and a planner, it was a little nerve racking coming into a con with a lot of missing information. The class registration was OK once I got it figured out but I didn't like that you could add it to your schedule but the actual purchase was separate. Also, going back to make changes was a huge pain. Being logged in didn't seem to matter. I had to always go back to my original email to access my classes and make purchases/changes. I will say I am extremely impressed that all of the Open photos are on the website and categorized though. Kudos to whoever worked on that! I think that's everything and I hope my feedback is useful in some way. I think you all have a really great event here and I'm excited to attend again.

Hmm this sort of surprises me because going by this criteria, I definitely feel my piece was a silver and not a bronze. I did have one judge give me a silver and two a bronze. I was happy with my bronzes assuming the criteria must be pretty hardcore until I saw this. I did a lot of shading and blending and felt really good with my face; I was even complimented on the face by a Gold Sophie winner. I love the format of this competition, I guess I just wish the judging was a little more cut and dry so it's not so dependent on each judge's taste at that moment.