On Conventions

Mike,

Just got in from Cold Wars. The change in dates seemed to affect the number of people attending this year. The people who come from the Midwest, (OH, IN, IL, MI) were not there and the MidSouth folks stayed away as well. Next year will see the convention moving back to its early March schedule. The dates are Mar 10, 11 & 12.

The convention organizers seem to have gotten it right! Registration lines, while long, moved briskly with a minimum of confusion about who was doing what. The dealers area, run by the benevolent tyrant, Jay Hadely was very, very good. The Host actually kept their promises about upgrades to the "tennis barn" and shoppers and dealers were treated to the largest, most comfortable and best-run dealers area at any HMGS event. (ATC is close, but you have to see the new digs in Lancaster to believe them I) There seemed to a lack of new releases from figure manufacturers for Cold Wars this year. Possibly the late date is causing them to be held back for an Origins/Historicon release date. Old Glory 15's does now have their 15mm ancients in release.

Possibly the best value of the show is a book on the Jena/Auerstadt campaign of 1806. At $38, it gives you the entire campaign from start to finish, biographies of the major commanders, a complete order of baffle and a complete set of color plates covering all of the combatants. The title escapes me but I think it is called Triumph of the Eagles and is available from the Emperor's Headquarters, On Military Matters, or you can order it from your local hobby store.

There was a play test of a new ACW rules set that is expected to be released at Historicon. If you are disenchanted with Fire & Fury and don't like the record keeping of some of the other rule sets, I think you may like this one. Units are expected to maneuver on the battlefield and charges to the front have really bad things happen to the charging unit! I am excited about this release! Also, Ben King has issued his beta copy of a new Seven Years War rules set, "Mitre, Moustache & Lace." The GDWC will get an opportunity to try these out.

If you are going to Historicon this year, and don't have a-reservation at the Lancaster Host, I am sorry to report that the hotel is completely booked. You will have to get your reservation at one the local motels surrounding the Host. The Pennsylvania turnpike is FUBAR!!! It was torn up so bad with construction, some gamers got off at US 30 and took it in to Lancaster. A much better route to Lancaster is to take I-79 south to I-68. I-79 is just east of Washington, PA, on I- 70. Go east on I-68 to I-81 (68 turns into 70 in MD). Take I-81 north to US 30 and stay on that until you get to the Hotel. The trip is about an hour shorter and much less nerve wracking. You also get to drive past the Gettysburg battlefield and an opportunity to stop there for a while. -- David S. Doty, OH Thoughts About ATC 1998 Compiled by Darryl R. Smith

(Here are the last of the replies to Darryl's e-mail survey on last year's con. -- Editor).

The questions I posed are as follows.

1. We are always looking for ways to improve the variety of events at ATC. What period/era would you like to see more/less of?

2. If you were a part of the ATC staff, how would you go about advertising the con to draw more gamers?

3. Would you like to see lectures or a trips to the Air Force Museum as part of the ATC weekend?

Ronald Lamb - Ohio

1. I prefer a variety of periods and types. An equal balance of all periods plus land and sea combat would be preferred. One area that seemed lacking was Naval.

2, 3. Yes to both. I missed this years ATC due to illness, but liked last year's because it had a few new systems that were being play tested. I think R would be interesting and useful to have new rules and systems play tested. This would make an interesting lecture or feed back session.

Missed A TC?l Shame on you! With attendance up 33% over last year, the show was a great success for Great Lakes. I talked to numerous folks who stated that the dealer variety was good, the events were gorgeous, and the location was nice. Now they all need to come back and bring their buddies with them!

Keith Potter - Ohio

I am sorry to say that I did not make it to ATC this year. Unfortunately, the weekend of the convention, I simply forgot about it. Needless to say, I kicked myself good and hard when I realized I'd missed it the next week! So, the first suggestion I can offer is to send out a mass e-mail to whomever you have addresses for a week or two before the con. I know it sounds awfully stupid, but I'd somehow gotten it into my head that the con was in October this year and was so busy with work and school and such that it never occurred to me to think about it the actual weekend of the con. Perhaps someone on the board could be responsible for maintaining an e-mail address list for HMGS-related mailings, if you're not doing that already?

As far as periods covered, I am interested in any and all eras, and I often take advantage of the opportunity at conventions to play games set in those periods I don't regularly do. So pretty much anything would be welcome in my book. That said, I enjoy 20th century most of all, especially Command Decision, and I always like to play that. Desperado is a good convention game. I'd like to see some Piquet games, too, so I can try this game and see what it's all about. I'd also like to see some seminars -- lectures on particular periods/battles/armies, figure painting or terrain-construction advice -- or any other subject would all be neat. Maybe some faculty from local universities could be recruited to help on this? Both UC and OSU have a number of military history professors (The problem is that these people would probably want to be well paid for this.).

For promotion, does ATC have its own website? I haven't looked for one, but that ought to be a "must-have" for a convention, nowadays. It wouldn't need a total events listing, though that would be nice. More important, IMHO, would be a list of highlights, directions/maps to the site, and information for pre- registration and running events. The site should also be aggressively linked to as many historical miniatures pages as possible in order to help get the word out. In addition, perhaps flyers and posters could be distributed to more hobby shops, especially in the weeks leading up to the show Itself ? I didn't see a single one down here in Cincinnati. If you lack manpower for this sort of thing, I'd be willing to volunteer to drive around to all the local stores every week or two and make sure that they have a supply of flyers. I'm sure you could find someone to do this in the other cities under Great Lake's umbrella. If I'd seen a poster at Boardwalk Hobbles sometime in the month or so before the con I'd probably have remembered and been there this year.

The last related note to this would be to coordinate the mailing of 'The Herald" with the timing of the show itself. Send out an issue a week or two immediately prior to ATC, perhaps with a partial events listing enclosed. This wil help get everyone thinking about it and fired up for the event. As far as the AF Museum goes, I'd say definitely try to get something going with them. Maybe you could even stage some appropriate game events there, like Blue Max, HostileAircraft, or Mustangs & Messerschmidts. The IPMS convention in 1997 had a lecture there with Gen Robin Olds and an "open cockpits" tour for I PMS members after the museum had closed. I'd love to see similar sorts of things for ATC. Furthermore, the AF Museum is a big Dayton-area attraction, especially for military history buffs. ATC should definitely to take advantage of its presence there to help draw more out-of-area attendees. Getting a shuttle bus going would probably be kind of expensive; it may be enough to just provide interested parties with maps to the museum from the convention site, or maybe the hotel's courtesy van could be hired at a reasonable rate.

That's all my thoughts right now. I hope there's at least something helpful in there. I know what sort of work it takes to put on a show like ATC and you guys certainly do a great job. I had a great time last fall and I'm very sorry to have missed the show this year. Just the same, I'm determined not to miss next year's show, and I know it will be a successl

I have covered most of what Keith addressed already, but let me touch on some things. First, we did mail to numerous hobby shops a packet that included a nice coverfintro letter, membership forms, and convention flyers. Obviously, in some cases that didn't work, because some shops didn't put up the flyers. That's where we need local guys to do a little legwork for us and go into these shops and speak directly to the folks there about displaying our materials. This works much better than doing a mailing, but / can't drive to the 30+ hobby shops in our region.

We mailed a postcard to all non-members in our region over four weeks before the show (800+ names), and all members were sent a pre-reg book six weeks in advance. The convention dates have been in every issue of "The Herald" since the beginning of the year, was mentioned in the Midsouth and East newsletters for at least two issues each, was in three issues of MWAN, and has been posted on the newsgroup NUMEROUS times. How much more can we do to remind folks when the show is? Every HMGS chapter is notified, we mail to every Wargaming publication in the U.S. that we know of, and yes, we do have a website that even had a lot of the events listed on it. This year we are taking out a full page ad in MWAN to spread the word to over 1, 100 gamers around the world. The Courier is not an option because by the time another issue comes out, A TC has passed. If there are other avenues you folks can think of, let us knowl

By the way, I am working to get Keith and the Buzzkreiger guys involved for next year's show They run Command Decision and cover WWII and the Arab-Israeli Wars. See, we are trying to do what you ask!

Ron Bixel - Ohio

1. I like the selection as it is. Of course, any odd-ball games are great for variety, but they are hard to find. I really enjoyed the 25 mm Samurai game of two years ago.

2. I'm not sure how to improve the advertising. I don't go to game shops very often, so I don't see the ads there. I think that mailings are only worthwhile if the target audience is well focused. Otherwise, the return is too low to justify it.

3. I have no interest in lectures -- only games. I can go to the museum anytime I want. I would not take time out from games to go during the con.

Tony Teal - Indiana

1. My favorite periods are Napoleonic and WWII. But more importantly, I'm a historical gamer and will play any period. If someone has taken the time to research the period and paint the miniatures, I'll play. To that end, I'd like to see a little of all periods represented. This way I can see games that I wouldn't normally play.

2. My ideas: (1) A web site. (2) Flyers in hobby shops specializing in gaming. (3) Word of mouth. (4) Major wargaming magazine publications.

3. Lectures by historians or noted game designers would be a big draw for me. AFB trips are OK, but I wouldn't go as part of ATC -- been there many times as a kid.

It was nice seeing the strong presence of the Indianapolis gamers at A TC this year. I believe David W-Kinney mentioned to me that there were 15 from his group alone. That is the essence of what we are trying to accomplish with A TC. Lots of support from the regional gaming groups, whether it's running events or simply showing up.

Dave Durocher - Michigan

1. I thought your selection was great for the size of the con. I would have liked more Command Decision for WWII. There were a lot of WWII, just not enough CD for me.

2. I would get guys at the other cons to set out flyers and also use E-mail. You seem to have a good presence for the size of the group. I think a deluge of Great Lakes hobby stores for handouts would also be good.

3. I wanted to go the museum, but all that darn gaming got in the way! I will try to make it to the AFM next year. Sunday, or Friday night perhaps?

So, Dave, then are you running a CD game next year?

Jay Bevington - Ohio

1. Ancients and Medievals were lightly covered this year, outside of the DBA tournament. Overall, I thought that the variety of games this year was excellent.

2. We need to get it into other hobby newsletters such as the IPMS. Also, at least in Dayton, we should have had it placed in the Friday "GO" section of the newspaper.

3. I don't mind lectures, but I can go to the Air Force Museum any time I want.

My only suggestion is to improve the food accessibility, It took me a day and a half to realize that we could ORDER food from the restaurant and that they would deliver it. We should have made this known in the newsletter and ATC filer. I would not have been so hungry Friday.

Admittedly, we didn't do any work in getting the local press involved. We will work on that for '99. Sure couldn't hurt having a local station come out on Friday and show off our toy soldiers! Food? Read above. Granted, the immediate area that we are in is bleak for food, but within five minutes there are quite a variety of restaurants to choose from. Hey, we didn't know the hotel restaurant would deliver!

Synopsis

Looks as though most folks feel that we are doing a successful job with ATC. We also sensed that during the membership meeting held at the show. Can we improve our methods? Sure, but we will need some help, as outlined above. It sounds as though most local guys don't want an Air Force Museum trip, but some of the out-of-towners do. Since ATC doesn't start until mid-afternoon on Friday, maybe a pre-con trip is in order. We could have folks meet at either the Holiday Inn or the Museum, spend a few hours there, eat a late lunch, and then come to ATC. Lectures seem to be a popular idea -- we will look into that idea in a small scale.

ATC is only as good as the support it receives from the members of Great Lakes and the gamers in our region. I've already mentioned how you can help, but let me reiterate. First, pass out flyers and membership forms at local hobby shops and conventions. Second, make your friends envious by telling them what a great time you had last show. Third, get your local club together and put on a club event at ATC'99. Next, help out by manning the registration desk for a few hours. What else? Stay for the entire weekend, buy lots of toys from the dealers, bring flea market stuff to sell, donate to the raffle ... I think you're getting the idea!