Reapercon Report

[Heisler]

I think we pick up the rest of the equestrian ballroom, so about 3000 square feet, that gives us all 70,000 square feet that is available.

[Corporea]

Given that monday is a holiday, what's the thought on doing reapercon from friday through monday instead of thursday through sunday? just curious.  I take off work no matter what!

[Heisler]

While it is a holiday there are a lot of people that don’t get that day. We tried it once in Denver and it was a ghost town on Monday. I think that even the big LA conventions that used to operate like that have backed off ( I will have to confirm that though). Best to use Monday as a travel day in my opinion.

 

I was incorrect all three LA cons run Friday through Monday.

Edited September 6, 2019 by Heisler

[Inarah]

Monday is a recovery day for us. We get home ~ midnight Sunday and need a day to adjust to real life before DH goes back to work.   This year he didn't even get that, Monday morning he had to start fixing problems that cropped up while he was gone. 

 

From the "home safe" thread I got the feeling that the trip to and from the con is pretty long for a lot of folks. So while Monday could be a travel day for many, for others it would just bleed into Tuesday or Wednesday which might get prohibitive in terms of days taken off work. 

 

 

[kristof65]

The SF Bay Area/NorCal conventions all still run Fri-Mon, as far as I'm aware. 

That was one of the biggest shocks for me when I moved back to Denver from NorCal.   I can understand that Monday was a ghost town when it was tried in Denver, but that may be related more to just years of not doing it that way, and a population of attendees that was used to it.  Had the Denver cons forged ahead with Mondays for 3-4 years, people would have adjusted (assuming the con could afford to forge ahead a few years)

As a convention with a national draw and one who's dates have bounced around until recently, ReaperCon may not have the same issue. 

[TaleSpinner]

On 9/4/2019 at 8:46 AM, Dilvish the Deliverer said:

The award ceremony goes faster when you drink through it.  That wasn't minis in my swag bag under the table.  Next time swimg on by and have a tipple.

 

The only problem with this plan is that as the ceremony went on, your whispers to me became less and less whispers. 

 

 

[Dragoneye]

1 hour ago, Corporea said:

Given that monday is a holiday, what's the thought on doing reapercon from friday through monday instead of thursday through sunday? just curious.  I take off work no matter what!

Tuesday through Monday! :) 

... yeah, probably can't afford that, and I need to be back for the kids in school - not sure if I'll actually be able to make next year with it being fully in September :( but I'm planning for it now.

Edited September 6, 2019 by Dragoneye

[SamuraiJack]

Having run a Friday-Monday convention, by Monday most of the staff, volunteers and attendees were too crispy to care about more than tear down,  also as @Heisler said the additional cost of Monday is usually prohibitive.  

 

I can see the auction starting later Sunday (Say 3 or 4) with more classes at Noon.. you'll lose more people who are traveling home on Sunday but you gain a bunch more classes.

 

I can also see there being more late classes.  I'd think a lot of us want to game or socialize in the evening, but class demand isn't going away.. and there's still room on Thursday and Friday nights.. 

 

Might be cool to have an 'open' class room later at night with slots.. where someone can offer to teach something on the fly.. skin tones, highlighting red, etc.. not for a fee.. just put a whiteboard out front..  people can walk by and look to see whats on the white board. 

 

 

 

 

[TaleSpinner]

I'd far rather they expand the other direction and have Wednesday night early-bird classes.

[Dicey]

My husband and I both had Monday off, but we were glad (and sad) to leave on Sunday. We had a 4-5 hour drive ahead of us to get home and another local event to attend on Monday that he would have been sad to miss. I also tend to like having a day to recuperate after a multi-day convention. As it was, we left before the auction was over and still didn't get back home until after 11 PM. I couldn't image it going later on Sunday without us having to leave early and miss out.

[Rastl]

Anyone who knows me knows that I don't pay much attention to the painting contest or the awards ceremony. That won't stop me from offering up some suggestions for discussion.

 

Every award does need to be acknowledged. Those people worked hard and should be recognized. No question on that one.

 

But...

 

The manner of recognition is the question I'm seeing under the layers. There's been some very good ideas that I'll condense down and put my own in so I can stir the pot again.

 

Instead of having every Open Judging award winner on stage have them stand. Display their names and a sweep of the people standing for their applause. Then do the next batch. Not having them on the stage will cut a significant amount of logistics from the ceremony without compromising their achievements.

 

Have the big award winners come to the stage. It's not that they deserve more recognition than a CoM winner but it's pretty darn nice to accept a trophy.

 

I don't know how the pickup process works (do they need to provide ID so the minis go to the right people?) but that's the time to hand out the medals. Since the area is off limits during the ceremony they can be placed with the figures at that time and be ready to go after the ceremony is over.

 

Given the growth of the contest and the way Open Judging works I don't know how feasible it is to continue to have every winner on stage.

 

Discuss.

[Guindyloo]

No one goes on stage. People going up to take their awards doesn't hold anything up and calling their names for them to stand and pausing for applause wouldn't take any less time than what is done now. Anne reads off 5-6 people's names and then pauses for applause and simultaneously the 5-6 people go up as they're called and collect their awards while the other names are being called and applause is happening. That part is as streamlined as it's going to get. It is the amount of names to be called and the additional manufacturer's awards that have expanded the amount of time the process takes.

[Dicey]

I hate to say it, because I very much enjoyed this part of my first ReaperCon, but if the manufacturer awards were conducted as efficiently as the MSP Open general awards, it wouldn't take nearly as long. The manufacturer and other special awards probably take equally as long as the main group of awards even though there are much fewer of them. I personally love hearing the background on some of the special award categories, but if you need to cut something, this extra talking could be significantly reduced. That said, I didn't have a problem with the length of the awards ceremony this year.

[TGP]

1 hour ago, TaleSpinner said:

I'd far rather they expand the other direction and have Wednesday night early-bird classes.

 

With Pizza?   That might be popular. 

[Chaoswolf]

5 hours ago, SamuraiJack said:

Might be cool to have an 'open' class room later at night with slots.. where someone can offer to teach something on the fly.. skin tones, highlighting red, etc.. not for a fee.. just put a whiteboard out front..  people can walk by and look to see whats on the white board. 

 

 

5 hours ago, TaleSpinner said:

I'd far rather they expand the other direction and have Wednesday night early-bird classes.

I like both of those ideas.

 

Also, what about starting classes at 9am instead of 10? By doing that and dropping the 1 hour lunch break from the schedule, you've just gained a whole new class slot for every day of the 'con. That works out to 44 extra classes slots over the course of 4 days, so 11/day.

If Reapercon keeps getting bigger, those extra class slots are gonna be needed sooner or later.

 

Before it starts up again, NO, I don't hate food. I don't hate the idea of people eating food. I'm fat, obviously I like food. I like other people to eat food, too. I just know how to schedule, plan, and make contingencies so that I can attend the class/event that I want to and still be sure to work meals in, as well. I don't need Reaper to do that for me.