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Done and dusted
Dec. 4th, 2005 11:30 pmWell, Dragonmeet is over for another year. It seemed to go reasonably well on the day - the few hiccups that occurred were resolved swiftly and none were significant - and generally both the traders and attendees seemed happy.
For me, it was a case of hurry-up and stop all day: after arriving at the hall somewhat latter than planned due to engineering works and then spending 90 minutes in a rush of setup, dealing with some floor plan and layout issues. It was then a matter of manning the game desk from 10am to 3pm, looking after the sign-up sheets and directing people to the relevant tables (or telling people what was running as they seemed reluctant to look at the convention booklet and the schedule it contained ...) There were some hiccups over locations and table usage, but nothing out of the ordinary. For the most part all the GMs turned up - there was one no-show to my knowledge - but more problematic was the number of people who signed up for games and didn't show. The GM's tried to work round this, but in a couple of cases it lead to game cancellations, though such matters are inevitable. The latter part of the afternoon was a dead time for me - nothing to organize and do, so I wandered the hall to see how things were going and to get some lunch and beer! 6-8pm was another rush period as the trade hall closed, the auction started and the game schedule wound down (save for one of the LARPS). I spent most of the time tidying up - it's amazing how much rubbish collects during the day around game tables, despite the presence of litter bins - and by 8pm there there was pretty much just the LARP running, with most everyone else heading to the pub. We usually have the venue until 10 or 11pm, but this year they seemed to want to shut up shop around 9, so the last event was somewhat abbreviated. Twenty minutes of wandering round in circles saw me at the pub with everyone else, but I was so tired I managed only a single beer before deciding to head home after forty minutes (just as well, given that the engineering works meant it took almost two hours, arriving home just before midnight, and given that most people on the buses were returning from a night on the town, me and my show purchases, a rather large boardgame, were rather odd-looking). All in all a good, if very tiring, day.
However, as some as you know I decided a month or two back that this would be my last Dragonmeet. I feel a little bad ending my association with the show - I'm the only person to have worked on every Dragonmeet - but this year saw a number of problems that I'd rather not go through again. Nonetheless I hope the show will go ahead next year, and this time I'll actually be able to play in games rather than organizing them!
Addendum: It seems one of the companys who demonstrated games at the show is annoyed; they didn't say anything on the day, as far as I'm aware so this is "out of the blue." I had one email from their staff saying they were unhappy and a phone call to the main person didn't get any more info, save that he is "gathering his thoughts." Ho hum, that's put something of a downer on things.
For me, it was a case of hurry-up and stop all day: after arriving at the hall somewhat latter than planned due to engineering works and then spending 90 minutes in a rush of setup, dealing with some floor plan and layout issues. It was then a matter of manning the game desk from 10am to 3pm, looking after the sign-up sheets and directing people to the relevant tables (or telling people what was running as they seemed reluctant to look at the convention booklet and the schedule it contained ...) There were some hiccups over locations and table usage, but nothing out of the ordinary. For the most part all the GMs turned up - there was one no-show to my knowledge - but more problematic was the number of people who signed up for games and didn't show. The GM's tried to work round this, but in a couple of cases it lead to game cancellations, though such matters are inevitable. The latter part of the afternoon was a dead time for me - nothing to organize and do, so I wandered the hall to see how things were going and to get some lunch and beer! 6-8pm was another rush period as the trade hall closed, the auction started and the game schedule wound down (save for one of the LARPS). I spent most of the time tidying up - it's amazing how much rubbish collects during the day around game tables, despite the presence of litter bins - and by 8pm there there was pretty much just the LARP running, with most everyone else heading to the pub. We usually have the venue until 10 or 11pm, but this year they seemed to want to shut up shop around 9, so the last event was somewhat abbreviated. Twenty minutes of wandering round in circles saw me at the pub with everyone else, but I was so tired I managed only a single beer before deciding to head home after forty minutes (just as well, given that the engineering works meant it took almost two hours, arriving home just before midnight, and given that most people on the buses were returning from a night on the town, me and my show purchases, a rather large boardgame, were rather odd-looking). All in all a good, if very tiring, day.
However, as some as you know I decided a month or two back that this would be my last Dragonmeet. I feel a little bad ending my association with the show - I'm the only person to have worked on every Dragonmeet - but this year saw a number of problems that I'd rather not go through again. Nonetheless I hope the show will go ahead next year, and this time I'll actually be able to play in games rather than organizing them!
Addendum: It seems one of the companys who demonstrated games at the show is annoyed; they didn't say anything on the day, as far as I'm aware so this is "out of the blue." I had one email from their staff saying they were unhappy and a phone call to the main person didn't get any more info, save that he is "gathering his thoughts." Ho hum, that's put something of a downer on things.
