SotA Con - Baltimore Detailed Info 4-6 Nov and Beyond

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Violation Clauth, Sep 18, 2016.

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  1. Violation Clauth

    Violation Clauth Avatar

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    Greetings,

    As with the latest news announcement of SotA Con I'm looking to try and coordinate efforts between the community and the coordinators in the simplest way possible. Our three primary coordinators are myself, @Winfield, and @Eternal Knight. Below is a list of information about the upcoming SotA Con event in Baltimore, MD.

    The mission statement of SotA Con
    To create a Shroud of the Avatar themed gathering so players and developers can come together, grow together, and share ideas.

    Official Websites:
    SotA Con Discord:

    Featured Guests
    Helpful Links
    I'll be updating this post with current needs and requests. Please feel free to respond to this thread with things you can do to help make this the greatest convention possible!

    SotA Con Requests
    1. Projectors and Screens (we have one for the main conference room, thanks to @UnseenDragon, and I’m hoping for 1 or 2 additional ones for the exhibit room)
    2. Laptops (for the three rooms to run slideshows as needed. be okay with leaving your laptop unattended before offering! thanks!)
    3. Awnings/Table Decorations (for the exhibit room to help theme the room, additionally I’ll try to connect decorators with the exhibitors to help them directly, think of the merchants you see in Owl’s Head, Brittany, and Ardoris… we want to emulate that if possible!)
    4. Table Masters (think game master but willing to bring your own game that can be taught and played in less than 1 hour)
    5. Water Bottles and Coolers – I personally think it’s hugely important to keep everyone hydrated and healthy over this weekend. If you have an ice chest you can bring with a case of water bottles it would be GREAT! I’m looking to have about 5 different people bring 1 ice chest full each (ice + water bottles should cost around $10)
    6. more to come in the future!

    Ideas
    1. Share your ideas and I'll update this list!

    Please be liberal with thoughts and visions as this convention will be as great as everyone here wants it to be. I'd also like to be extremely transparent about the current demands on the coordinators and finances for the event.

    Financial Breakdown (updated 21-Sept-2016 @ 07:14 Eastern):
    1. Berek has requested $1,000 per developer in attendance to cover travel fees.
    2. The meeting rooms for the convention will cost about $3,000 for all 3 days with the commitment of at least 40 rooms rented for 3 nights (or 120 nights in any other configuration) using the group code. A discounted rate of $129/night has been provided for all who register with the event room to help facilitate this. Please ensure you associate your room rental to SotA Con!!!
    • Current donations: $4,219
    • Current tickets: 55
    • Spent to date: $2,272
    • Current SotA Con banked balance: $1,947
    • Expected future expenses: $4,000
    • Delta to funding: -$2,053
    • Current tickets remaining: 105
    • Minimum additional, after fees, if we sell out: $2,517
    • Expected, after fees, at current sale rate****: $0
    Coordinator Focus:
    • @Violation Clauth
      • Liaison to Portalarium
      • Assign unmet tasks as needs dictate to people willing to assist
      • Website / Social management
      • Financial management
      • VIP Contact
      • Fills unmet needs
    • @Eternal Knight
      • Liaison to Hotel
      • Local Events / Schedule management
    • @Winfield
      • Public Relations
      • Content writer / review
    Really excited to see this is basically rolling downhill guys. I've spent the better part of my free time for the last year working on ideas and fallback plans so I could be ready to ensure this worked no matter how things went.

    I had expected a lot more initial support from some people than I recieved so it made actually sharing information more difficult. I cannot say we're going to do something until I know and I can't know until I say and I'm now in a catch-22. So the way I solved this is the way I will continue to solve this: invite everyone to share ideas, take the ideas to the coordinators regularly (try for weekly but ends up being about every other week usually). As to what it takes to be willing to facilitate one of these... the willingness to invest hundreds of hours of personal time and to take on tens of thousands of dollars of liability financially. Below I am listing prospect people who have mentioned their willingness to help head up a convention and have personally said they would take on the one listed below. I say prospect because we haven't taken the time to iron everything out and there hasn't been any rock solid planning yet. Until both that person and myself are ready to push out further information I would request waiting to move the ball forward on the future conventions. It is important to me to share that they are coming though so people realize we're not trying to leave regions out!

    SotA Con's Future

    SotA Con Central 2017***
    I have had Brickbat contact me twice about wanting to help the SotA Con grow at GenCon into something new. He has assured me he's willing to take on this role so the Saturday at SotA Con East 2016 he will hopefully be ready to announce his vision for SotA Con 2017. I know that we've had a "SotA Con" at Gen Con every year for the last 3 years; however, Brickbat is envisioning something more from the sounds of it. I will start regular contact with him to help facilitate SotA Con Central 2017. (not confirmed with Portalarium. Due to potential degradation of the current SotA Con if I split focus I've elected to wait to split my personal focus. Projected to start focusing on helping with this in October 2016, current prospect to manage this is @Brickbat)

    SotA Con West 20??***
    I have had someone else contact me about being willing to run a SotA Con West in the future. Currently we've not had much follow up but they have convention experience and are willing to be a lead for the event. (not confirmed with Portalarium. Due to potential degradation of the current SotA Con if I split focus I've elected to wait to split my personal focus. Projected to start focusing on helping with this in Summer 2017, current prospect to manage this is @P a n)

    SotA Con Dev 2017***
    I've had this idea and have talked with about a half dozen people about it. Seems like it would be a smash hit if we got a weekend in Austin setup where we do a SotA Con type event but target specifically having the programmers, designers, and producers of the game attend and get really gritty in the tech. It will be a lot less expensive for devs since we'll be in their backyard and it will target an audience that should be able to afford travelling to the devs. (not confirmed with Portalarium. Due to potential degradation of the current SotA Con if I split focus I've elected to wait to split my personal focus. Projected to start focusing on helping with this in Summer 2017, current prospect to manage this is @Duke Ezekiel Cooper)

    SotA Con East 2018***
    Stay tuned... we're already thinking about the future and having another SCE for other's to attend. Let's take it one step at a time though and make SCE 2016 into something great :)

    SotA Con Canada ????***

    SotA Con Europe ????***

    *If someone fills out their order on Eventbrite they're added to a list of registered users and assigned a ticket number. At this point I consider them a claimed ticket
    **If someone donates $25 or more with ANY method without specifically stating they do not want a ticket then I consider them to have purchased a ticket. At any point before October 11th if they ask for their ticket to be assigned to anyone I will honor that. I never want someone to think they purchased a ticket and not get one.
    ***Unconfirmed with Portalarium. Future project status. DLMB. Thanks!
    ****Sales from the last three days have dropped to 0. If no more tickets sell then no more funding would be added. I no more tickets sell. In addition, if no more rooms are rented there would be a $7003 penalty to not meeting the rooms on top of the expected $4000 in expenses.
     
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2016
  2. Sean Silverfoot

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    Thanks for all you've done to make this happen. I admire your tenacity and thick skin as you try to make this happen by the community, for the community ,

    Se'an
     
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  3. Violation Clauth

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    Previous post: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...2016-in-baltimore-md.53107/page-9#post-638891

    I actually commented on the SotA Con thread on the website and in a couple other locations (that being the most official one at the time, I'm linking there) that we obsoleted the GoFundMe. As there have been more requests about it recently I want to go into more details here:

    Reasons to drop GoFundMe:
    1. The GoFundMe site can not connect with a facebook page, only a profile ( I worked for over a month with their technical team trying to fix this for them before I gave up )
    2. It did not have a customizable donation/registration page that allowed us to setup name badges in-line to streamline our check in process
    3. Does not have a mobile app for confirming people who paid vs people who check in at SotA Con
    4. Does not have an HTML5 widget that plays nice with ANY other widget on the same page (facebook/twitter/eventbrite all broke the gofundme when placed on the same page... and it didn't work in wordpress)
    5. Didn't have a widget for WordPress, which was requested by @Winfield to handle website information updates
    6. Fees were nearly 2.4% higher than EventBrite
    Hope that helps for those in the future. I've already recommended EventBrite as a method for our next convention and will likely be trying to get everyone to use it so we can have a very simple and familiar process for people who end up going to more than one con. It also has a really neat mobile app that allows you to do a LOT with badges... I can put a QR code on a badge and set access to specific areas based on that code and set someone with their phone up to check badges on entry... so, as an example, you can prepay for a meal to a special dinner event and it all goes seamless on the badge.

    Hope that helps answer your question and point out where you missed the change. Anything else, let me know!
     
  4. Violation Clauth

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    Still working on trying to incorporate this into the website somehow. Here it is though!
    https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sota-con-2016-tickets-26431413068

    Please note: I know there are almost a dozen badges that have information incorrectly entered. Over the first month I changed the entry form three different times so some people need to update things. I'm going to send out an email about that to registered attendees tomorrow.
     
  5. Bodhbh Dearg

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    Just donated by buying a ticket... Fairly unlikely I'll make it, but I like to support initiatives like these... And hey, you never know, maybe I can donate it to someone, or actually be there... Weirder things have happened!

    Good luck y'all!
     
  6. Lazarus Long

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    @Winfield Answered that directly after I asked and that was all I needed.

    Was more of a curiosity as i didn't see any other postings on it.

    Thanks and of course we'll see you there :)

    Laz
     
  7. Violation Clauth

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    Updated:
    • Available tickets remaining for purchase: 107
     
  8. Sean Silverfoot

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    @Violation Clauth, I'll be upgrading my initial purchase amount before the Oct 15th. How should I go about that without purchasing another ticket?
     
  9. Violation Clauth

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    Great question! You'll need to work with me personally on that. You make a donation and I go back and edit your order. Please, anyone who reads this, don't do it without talking to me privately first!

    I'll ding you in a PM sir.
     
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  10. The Hendoman

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    So, does the Lord British2 in the OP mean not the real one but a second one? Just asking...
     
  11. Violation Clauth

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  12. Violation Clauth

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    One of the few metrics I won't have available. I don't track male/female as I feel it's more important to ignore race and sex to move on with inequality issues. I try to avoid asking sex and race whenever possible. They have that on the registration form but I took it off the required list and I don't think anyone has filled it out yet.
     
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  13. Lazarus Long

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    I can say from all my trips involving anything SOTA related there has always been a good mix of folks.
    Go check out some of my past videos from last years Austin trip, hobloth or dragon con .
    And see for yourself :)

    Laz
     
  14. Duke Ezekiel Cooper

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    I'd like to take a moment to express a very humble thank you to @Violation Clauth for all of the hard work and diligence in organizing this brand for the community. I believe these events will become the heartbeat of the community and the post-launch medium that insures developer-player interaction that will sustain our awesome community for many years to come.

    I am deeply honored and humbly moved to be entrusted with the responsibility of managing the organization of SotA Con Dev and I ask all of the community that wishes to participate in the planning, and those that have plans to attend to reach out and make your voices heard concerning your ideas and what you would like to see and/or experience at this illustrious event in 2017 and even what you would like to suggest for the years thereafter.

    I have already started assembling a crack team of coordinators and key personnel, to include but not limited to, advertising, logistics, budget oversight committee, and community liaisons. My guarantee to Portalarium and to the Shroud of the Avatar community is to be 100% transparent with all aspects of SotA Con Dev, to include but not limited to, financial income and expenditures for the event, developer conversations concerning the event (Dev's discretion), event development phases, an up to date list of the activities present at the event, an up to date outline of event speakers and subjects, and much more.

    In favor of SotA Con Dev, I am officially announcing that this year, October 14,15,16, 2016, will be the last BMC Convention. I have thoroughly enjoyed the friends that have been made at the BMC Convention last year and I look forward to seeing many of them again this year, and I would encourage all BMC Members and friends, that even though our guild convention is coming upon it's twilight, that we all seek the rejuvenating endeavor of throwing the full weight of our support behind ALL SotA Con events, from the shores of the Atlantic, to the shores of the Pacific, to even beyond our shores, from the old countries of Europe, to the shores of spice and Bonsai trees in the Orient. I share @Violation Clauth 's vision and dream, and as a community, I know we can all see it come to reality. I know it in my heart.

    Thank you all again for your support, and I look forward to serving the community to the best of my ability in this endeavor.

    @Duke Ezekiel Cooper
     
    Last edited: Sep 19, 2016
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  15. Violation Clauth

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    Updated:
    • added REGISTERED ATTENDEE LIST to the helpful links.
    • retitled thread per suggestion from Winfield
    To Do:
     
  16. Violation Clauth

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  17. Sean Silverfoot

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    @Violation Clauth , I should be arriving in Baltimore by train approx 3-4 pm on Thursday. Once I get in my room, then have an ale, I'm willing to help in anyway I can with setup. I'll commit to getting a couple of cases of water then also, but will NOT have a cooler with me. (Hell if I could get one on the train it would be filled with ale in any case!)

    Also willing to volunteer to help with the registration table if needed or where ever you deem I'm needed. I do have prior experience in guarding kegs and ale stores while constantly checking the quality of said stores so it it is up to the standards required by all our event goers. A very important job!

    In your service,

    Se'an Silverfoot
    PaxLair
     
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  18. Tahru

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    Interesting idea to have a dinner at Medieval Times. What night would that be?
     
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  19. Sean Silverfoot

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    I believe Saturday........could be wrong.
     
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  20. Tahru

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    I think it would be funny having 30+ people go there in garb.
     
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