[Steppes] Event Changes--Why are event numbers down?

[Aaron Robb]

--- Patrick Cuccurello <pat at adtelusa.com> wrote:
[snip]
 This is a truly large Kingdom.  I am
> sorry, but
> I am not going to drive 6-8 hours to attend an event on a weekend
> just
> because it is the only event that weekend.  I'll stay home and work
> on projects there.

Total agreement here. I know I'm a "fringer" - work, life, etc. keep
me from playing (oh, to be young and in school again...), but there
are a lot of "fringers" out there who would come to even fewer events
if there wern't a lot of local ones to choose from.

> It has been my experience that the reason a particular event may
> not be
> attended is not because there is a plethora of events, but because
> the event
> has nothing to offer outside the same cookie cutter event that
> happens
> everywhere.  Fighting Lists open at 8:00,

And it's Late.

>Court at 9:00,

And it's Late.

Tournament
> at
> 10:00, Lunch break, A&S Display/Competition 1:00, Feast at 6:00,
> Court at
> 7:00.

Late, late, late. Maybe that's the culture we have to live with, but
if I thought things would start on time, I might be more likely to
travel (knowing I could then *leave* at a reasonable time to get
home). I'm not against a 4 hour trip each way, it's just when you
drive 4 hours to be there on time, and then everything is 2 hours
late, it's quite annoying. I could have been sleeping late :)

> The problem isn't that there are too many events to choose from,
> the problem
> is that some of these events have been exactly the same way for 20+
> years
> and they are just plain boring.  Sorry if I am goring anyone's
> sacred yak
> here, but jeeze, with the level of talent and imagination we have
> in this
> Kingdom we really need to channel that into our events.

Oh my gosh, this is so true. You move someone 30 feet from the spot
they had in the previous 2 years and you'd think you'd killed their
cat.


Here is
> the proof
> of my argument:  How many people have you brought to an event for
> the first
> time and instead of being excited and enamored at the end, they
> think it was
> a good time but kind of dragged on?  There was a time that if you
> got
> someone to an event, they were hooked.  We're not doing that
> anymore, there
> is too much out there vying for peoples time and attention to be
> offering
> the same thing we did 20 years ago.  We are competing with million
> dollar
> movies, organic Thai/Lower Slobovian bistros, and Nintendo 64's.  I
> believe
> that if we are to survive in the coming decades we are going to
> have to go
> through our own "Renaissance".

Amen to that, and a big "Meetoo"

Philo


=====
---
Aaron D. Robb, M.Ed., NCC, LPC

"Now I lay me down to sleep / I hear the sirens in the street
All my dreams are made of chrome / I have no way to get back
home" - Tom Waits

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