[Ansteorra] ideas that work at demos

[Stefan li Rous]

On Feb 15, 2008, at 9:15 PM, willowdewisp at juno.com wrote:

> We are having a meeting to discuss good ideas for demos. I have  
> been doing research and finding not a lot of data. Yes, there is  
> the SCA handouts and some very good articles on the general theory  
> of demo but not any really good impute on ideas that worked at demo.
> Do any of you have anything that you think worked.
> I know we took my son's gaming tent to a demo and that attracted  
> different people than we get  from the A&S tables. We were playing  
> games. Some people would walk up to the A&S and others would past  
> it by but come to us. I learned that people doing things attracts  
> different people from artisan. Interesting concept.
> I think it is very important to show as many asspects of the SCA as  
> you can at at demo. Also please remember one of the "iron rules" of  
> socialogy. "LIke people atact like people."
> willow

There are a number of useful ideas in this file in the SCA-ECENT- 
PLANNING section of the Florilegium:
demos-msg        (104K)  2/ 5/08    SCA demos for education and  
recruitment.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/SCA-EVENT-PLANNING/demos-msg.html

An idea that I picked up from this file is the New World/Old World  
food game. I've done this game several times at demos and it seems to  
have gone over well, and people have learned from it, both SCA and  
non-SCA folks. Basically I gather ten to twenty food items from the  
New World (canned corn, canned tomatoes, chilies, maple syrup etc)  
and and equal number from the Old World (rice, sugar, cow's milk,  
pepper etc) and jumble them together on the table and encourage folks  
to place the correct ones in the two boxes labeled "New World" and  
"Old World". After they finish, either as individuals or as a team, I  
go through the items and say where each is originally from. I usually  
bring a few extra items so I can substitute things out throughout the  
day to keep things interesting.

I do throw in some trick items, such as "Italian" tomato paste or  
coffee from South America or flour tortillas or Allspice or Pecans.

So far, only two or three folks have gotten all the items right, and  
they were all SCA people.

Even if many of the people don't end up joining us, they go away with  
something to think about and hopefully have learned something.

Here are some more files from the same section, although these may  
fall in your general theory of demo.

Demos-as-Evts-art  (8K)  1/12/03    "Demos as Events" by Lady Meliora  
Leuedai de
                                        Ardescote.
SCA-Demos-art     (20K)  7/13/02    "SCA Demos - An Overview" by Lady  
Meliora
                                         Leuedai de Ardescote.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****