ConCarolinas 2008 Con Report

Overall

Before I start, I want to apologize ahead of time if I miss anyone to thank. I am only mentioning the names I am privy to.

WOW! Took me a full week just to formulate the words to describe my feelings and that’s the best I got. What a weekend?

It’s important to mention first off that our attendance was higher than ever this year. I don’t know about the rest of ConCom, but to me the weekend seemed to go by lightening fast and that’s usually means I was really busy. We just had a ton of people this year and not enough volunteers to handle them. We will definitely need more volunteers if we continue to grow at this rate. We do apologize for any problems the crowds may have caused or any waits we may have had.

Despite the record growth, the registration staff handled things very well. Thanks to Mary and Donna for handling things so well.

As we all know, CC tried new things this year. Lots of focus went on one particular new thing and many of the other new things got overshadowed. In particular, the paranormal track and Zombie Walk were new this year and they went over very well. We hope of have more of both back next year. Thanks to Badger for bringing us the Zombie walk and the fine people of CAPS and WSPS ghost hunters for bringing their experiences to the con.

Most if not all our panels had audiences this year. This is a huge step up for us. The literary and other events at ConCarolinas are really coming into their own. We got MANY compliments on the content of the program this year and you can thank Carol Cowles for that. She did an outstanding job.

From what I understand, the filking was successful this year as well. Thanks to Frank and Carolina Filk for bringing that to CC once again and making music a key part of CC.

Of course the fine panels would be nothing if it weren’t for our many guests. The guests are were wonderful as usual and many plan to return next year. We thank all our fine guests for investing their time and effort into ConCarolinas and making what it is today. Thanks to Stephanie McClung (my fine and gracious wife), Christina Stiles and Trey Kreiger for all their help at guest services.

Of course, as many know, this year was not the best for us in terms of media guests but we adapted the best way we knew how, Some hard lessons were learned in that department and we hope you liked the media guests we have had in the past. In the future, things may change in that area.

Not only did we have guests, but we also had several volunteers who helped with specific panels, including Hope “Jada” Diaz and her hubby, Badger and the Zombie make up artists and Kelly Czarnecki, just to name a few.

Another fairly important volunteer I should mention because he worked his butt off for us all weekend was Trey Kreiger. When he wasn’t in guest services, he was running around asking departments if they needed anything. Thanks Trey.

The Costume Contest wasa great. 30 contestants! We have never had that many. There were a few snags in the operation of that and that’s the con com’s fault for miscommunication and lost commications. Anne Marie Gearhart did the best that she could do and I think that’s pretty darn good. We wish Anne Marie the best as she leaves the position and welcome Morgan Skye in as her replacement. I think all the costumes were awesome and do appreciate every contestant for participaing.

Gaming – well, what can I say. We were busting at the seams. That on top of the new computer gaming area and a third LARP, we were quite busy all across the board. The impending release of D&D 4.0 effected RPGA attendance, but non-RPGA games made up for it, taking over tables where they could. Gaming is becoming more than a 2 man job, so my participation in running games is going to probably have to be cut back. Thanks to Greg Gershowitz and Chris Jarrett for their hard work in helping me out. (See below for more about gaming)

The dealers room was by far the best we have had. Janet did a fantastic job and I hope you guys enjoyed it.

And finally thanks to Frank for being a good Con Chair. It was fun working with you and I look forward to more fo the same next year.

ConCarolinas 2008 was hands-down the best year we have had. Numbers are still being crunched, so financially I cannot tell you how well it was in that department. Yep, we had a few controversial things this year that we are dealing with. Frank will probably make an official statement about it sometime later. I have recently updated the web site with general guidelines like we talked about on this yahoo group. Hopefully that will be enough to keep offenses down to a minimum.

Thanks again to all for a very successful year. It was fun.

Gaming

Gaming went very well on the non-RPGA side of things. Very few GMs had a game not make. The noise levels were a problem but that;s only because we had so many people playing games. The noise was a problem from Fri night until Sat night. I have apologized to our GMs as much as I can. There isn’t really anything I can do to change the noise levels unless I simply have less gaming.

Friday gaming got busy real quick and I can only thaink the hotel for letting us use Salon E early. My game made and we had fun Friday night. From what I could tell, most games made Fri night and then Sat.

The only complaints I have heard are noise levels from non-gaming events (the dance) and other games. Also, space was tight in places. I know that the two board game tabels in Salon E were not overly appreciated. Sorry, I am not sure what else to do. Less gaming is the only answer.

Chris Jarrett did a fantastic job at the registration desk even though he was not entirely informed of everything. Things like the LARP took me away too long so I could nto help him. I won’t let that happen again. If we remain this busy next year, gaming will need to be managed a little better and I need to be there.

Of course Sunday slowed down as it normally does. I had time to play a board game with a few good friends and had fun. A lot of pick up games happened on Sundy as well.

The game library was used somewhat. So I think we’ll have that.

Greg told me that the RPGA side of things was down in attendance and that’s probably because of the impending D&D4.0. That may be why our gaming was up, also.

Overall a good gaming weekend. It was packed and very busy. I do not think we expected the crowds we got. All the GMs did a fantastic job because I got very few complaints in that department. Actually, I got none as far as I know. I do thank everyone for their patience and hard work.

Lan Gaming

It was a new thing we decided to try this year. They approached us about it after doing some Guitar Hero last year and we decided to explore it.

The LAN room was packed constantly so chances are we are having them back again. He says that he can expand to more computers if we want him to, but I doubt we can do it with all the other space requirements we have. we may move him in the board room just because he can unitlize it better than anyone else.

I also asked him if he can get a few more titles – maybe a few more first person shooters. He said he can try.

Thanks to the Charlotte Public library for their support.

Thanks to Chris Jarrett for his hard work at the table while I was gone, and all the GMs for their hard work.

LARP Report

Vampire LARP – The Vampire LARP people had a blast and I have heard that it was one of the best run LARPs people have every played in. They want back and would love to work with Single Cell witha vampire themed dance for Fri or Sat night.

Thanks to Bryan Patraw and the guys from Dark Evolution. Great group of people to work with and they put on a dang good LARP.

Vile Pirates LARP -I have to point out this group did a fantastic job despite being at CC for the very first time. Their type of LARP was kind of new for us and they had no following coming to CC. They ran these up at Technicon with great success. These guys worked hard too all weekend. They had a little trouble with some players taking characters and never really getting involved. But that’s the risk youtake when you run a casual LARP. Those that did participate loved the game and the GMs also had fun. They could probably work out of a hotel room but not their own. I was glad we used them and they would like to come back and do it again.

Thanks to Robert Napier and the Vile Pirates Productions group. They put ona great all-weekend LARP. Take a dedicated gamer to run one all weekend. Good group of people.