So with the juggernaut of Megacon barreling towards central Florida some of our GAU officials decided to do a test event.  We are only marginally involved with Megacon this year so we wanted to do a warm up anyhow.  So we have been pimping a small event for the past month.

Yesterday that event took place.  We never had aspirations that it would be some massive force beyond imagining.  We just wanted to get a feel for how to run an event that the local gaming community would enjoy.  And when we had the right formula down, take the event to different communities that asked for it.

If we are being frank about the issue, the attendance was just enough to break even.  We had distributed several thousand fliers around the entire central Florida area boasting the play of Cards, Miniatures, to even Halo3 and COD4.  It was nearly inconceivable that any person that assumed the title of Gamer would be anywhere else on such a day.

Our first mistake was the choice of venue.  Yesterday was the first day I had actually seen The Recreation Station, but the folks that were planning this were not wrong in their assessment that this place was a quality setup.  They had a expansive layout, a fair amount of variety, and a location that, under normal circumstances, would generate a considerable amount of foot traffic.

The underlying problem being, they are a business designed to cater to mall patrons, retirees, and children under 7.  None of these groups could typically be described as gamers, so there was little to no chance of carryover interest in our event. 

Additionally the rooms they had for events were closed off "birthday party" type rooms that were more designed to close off the activities therein.  It became painfully obvious that any future events will need to be in the midst of crowds rather than tucked away in the corner.

The third problem was that someone in the ranks of the place miscommunicated and double booked us on two occasions so we had to delay our setup in the first place, then midway though break down one of our rooms so a birthday party could happen.  I wish little Billy, Sally or Herman a happy birthday and many more to come, but I found it odd that someone booked this event for them while there were fliers all over the place stating that the building would be filled with gaming all day let alone any contracts that might have been a clue that such a booking would be a problem.

Regardless, we all co-existed with the others rather well and everyone who came seemed happy enough.  So the remaining problem was why more people didn't show up.

The story I have heard was that one key information distributor, despite having printed fliers, our phone number, and direct communication with Curtis was giving out incorrect information to people who were being asked about the event.  So suddenly the major collective source for video game information in central Florida is giving out the wrong date for our event.

So the lessons must be given due consideration.  I will leave it up to my other GAU officials to gather what they can from their experiences.  But for me here is what I learned.

We must take it upon ourselves to make the day a success rather put any reliance on a third party that has no real interest in making our event all it can be.  I would hesitate to ever hold an event at The Recreation Station or any of its many clones again.  They are great for children's' birthday parties and bowling clubs, but don't seem to give a second thought to anyone with a passion for anything beyond buying tokens and that next round of ten-pins.

I have to discuss with my colleges what would be the ideal setting but it would have to be somewhere where we can run the show for the day, and we would be the only ones that would distribute information and run promotion.

With all that said, it was a fun day, and educational  without question.  If anyone has suggestions about what they would like to see at future small events like this email them to me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .  The next convention report will be "Megacon: Prisoner or the Muster Room".