As I've noted before, Evil Hat is a sponsor of the Forge Booth this year, and we're looking to get folks signed up. Those sign-ups have been pretty anemic so far, though, and we'd like to see more.
I know a bunch of y'all are striking out on your own in your own booths, and frankly more power to you if so. But for the rest of ya, in past years I have found the Forge booth to be a pretty economical way of finding a good presence at GenCon, in a way that gives me strong interactivity with my customers. Not to mention the degree to which you get a crash-course in running a solid booth demo is pretty indispensable.
What's most important about this is that the deadline for sign-ups is June 1st, a little over three weeks from now. So if you're interested, we need you to commit in May!
The Forge Booth is open for sign-ups for GenCon 2008. Evil Hat is one of the Primary Sponsors this year, though that'll mainly be my crew (Lenny, Rob, Chad) and less me, since I'll primarily be wearing my IPR hat and acting as the Advanced Brennan Substitute Mark VIII, what with Brennan not being able to attend.
Here are the details, according to Ron Edwards.
Hello,
Well, I ran a little bit behind schedule this year. Finally - here is the thread about signing up for the Forge booth this year.
1. The only eligible people are those who did this last year for the first time, and people who are doing it for the first time now. Actually, there are a couple of exceptions due to past investments, but that's not important for this thread.
2. Here's how it works, which is how it always worked. I and a few others have already secured a booth, which will serve both as the IPR store and as a promotion site for independent publishing - specifically your games. We've already paid for it. Publishers may then sign up as exhibitors, and be members of the booth. They will pay $65 for the badge fee, which goes straight to GenCon, and $125 or $250 to us, which helps offset the price of the booth. If it's your first time, it's the lower rate, and if it's your second, it's the higher.
3. Activities at the booth are mainly based on short promotional demos, more on the CCG model (a quick taste) than the traditional con scenario played over hours. Customers basically sit down and play, and then they buy stuff. All the publishers participate as well, and in many cases, they pick up enough to be able to demonstrate one another's games. (For instance, I often spend a full day demonstrating others' games, although that's a little extreme and not expected of others.) Every publisher should spend 1/2 the working day at the booth (10 to 6 the first three days, 10 to 4 on Sunday) as well as help to set up and clean up at start and end.
4. Arrival is a big deal. It's almost impossible to coordinate it precisely, but the basic fact is that we need as many people as possible to be there Wednesday afternoon, especially toward 4-6 PM, when certain heavy and crucial materials show up (shelves, flooring). You'll be able to pick up your badges at the Exhibitor Booth in the hall, to get in. I also suggest planning to stay through Monday morning, if you can, mainly because trying to check out on Sunday and still be an effective booth member is pretty hard.
5. Please do not register for GenCon. Do not register for GenCon. Doing so will result in a huge pain in the ass for me and also make the GenCon staff impatient with our whole endeavor.
6. The only way to sign up is to pay me, using Paypal, at sorcerer@sorcerer-rpg.com. If you're a really really nice person, then you'll put a teeny bit extra in to help offset Paypal's fee, but most people don't do that, so you don't actually have to. You do not have to tell me here that you're signing up or otherwise formalize things at all - the money will talk just fine.
7. Please keep the number of people minimal. If you have several people in your company, consider having only one be an actual exhibitor at the booth and the others simply sign up for GenCon as attendees. Spouses and best friends should not be exhibitors. So the fee is $65 per badge you're getting (I hope only one) and then either $125 or $250 as well. So let's say you actually have three people who are really and truly all part of the publishing company and everyone will just die if they're not full exhibitors at the booth - that'd be $195 for the three badges and $125 for the first-time buy-in, for a total of $320.
8. As far as hotel rooms go, your best bet is to have your friend or spouse or whoever secure a room as a regular GenCon attendee, and stay there. There really isn't much other option.
9. The deadline for signing up is June 1.
Other stuff that goes on - well, there's a lot, not necessarily all part of the Forge booth at this time, but having originated that way, and so the booth is still a hub of social networking and setting up games for the evenings. It's kind of a like an instant-community or perhaps theater troop type experience.
Questions? Questions! I know I probably missed about 100 key points, so let me know what you need to know.
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