[Steppes] DEMOS AT CONVENTIONS

[Morgan Buchanan]

All Con was, if I remember correctly, a FUBAR situation.  The then kingdom
demo coordinator Seamus was in charge of working with them.  What I recall
the situation there was they had us set up for a demo, then less than a
month before the con they informed us that all demo participatns would have
to pay con prices to get in, and IF THE CON MADE MONEY they'd reimburse
those who were just in attendance to do the demo.  That didn't fly at all
and the demo was scrapped. That's my recollection of what I was told
happened, not necessarily the truth, the whole truth, or nothing but the
truth.  :)  I'm ALL FOR doing these demos.  I got into the SCA because of
con demos and think it's a great venue.

I enjoyed the ConDFW demo we did that year, and I'm all for doing demos at
the three non-anime cons.  I'd do A-Kon as well if I was available that
weekend in future years, obviously.

Morgan

ps....this does NOT indicate that I think we shouldn't look into it.  The 
other thing I recall was that in their infancy they were money strapped. 
Now that they're beyond their first year, they may not be in the same 
situation.  Of course, they may have a bad taste in their mouth from our 
withdrawl the first time.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Wilkerson, Glen D" <glen.d.wilkerson at lmco.com>
To: <steppes at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 10:23 AM
Subject: [Steppes] DEMOS AT CONVENTIONS


> Since there was much conversation on subject of doing demos at
> conventions last night at business meeting, I thought I would offer an
> overview of the four science fiction / fantasy conventions that
> currently run in Dallas.
>
> www.a-kon.com - A-Kon is THIS WEEKEND, and is currently the largest
> Japanese Anime and Comics convention in the United States.  The last
> time I attended they FILLED the downtown Dallas Adams Mark hotel
> convention space.  Considering the main interests of this convention and
> it's location in the middle of downtown Dallas, I do not consider that
> it might be our best venue, but when it was much smaller and still at
> the Hyatt at DFW Airport Elfsea did have moderate success doing demos
> there.
>
> www.fencon.org - FenCon is the weekend of September 23 this year, up
> against Elfsea Defender.  It is a straightforward literary convention,
> which means a lot of writers and artists - but when FenCon was organized
> they were looking for a slightly different niche than other local cons
> so they focused a great emphasis on filk, so there are also a lot of
> bard and musician types attending.  This is a fun party con and I think
> we would do well here.
>
> www.condfw.org - ConDFW is the weekend of Feburary 24, 2007 and is up
> against the Coastal Invasion down in Corpus Christi.  It is also a
> literary convention and pre-dates FenCon by about three years I think,
> and it's the one I have been to the most.  It's a little less of a party
> convention, they don't put on the big masquerade and costume contest on
> Saturday night that most other cons do - but there are usually several
> room parties and its still a lot of fun.  I did organize a small demo at
> this convention it's second year, and it was moderately successful.  I
> know several of the regular attendees (Don Valentyne for instance) and a
> lot of us fence, and we usually manage to get together to fight on the
> back lawn for a little while every year.  There was a martial arts
> organization that did a demo this year and it was fairly well attended.
> I think it would be a pretty good venue if the weather is good enough to
> fight out back on the lawn, otherwise we would need to one of the larger
> panel rooms inside.
>
> www.all-con.org - All-Con is on the weekend of March 17, 2007 and there
> is currently nothing on the Ansteorran calendar against it.  It was
> originally conceived as a big regional tie-in convention to the "Star
> Wars" movies but almost bombed the first year.  (They actually had us
> scheduled on that Sunday for a FOUR HOUR demo, but somehow NEVER managed
> to get in touch with the demo coordiator, or any of the other baronial
> officers to make arrangements...)  It was reorganized this year as a
> multi-media and literary / comics convention, and while it was much
> smaller it met with a little more success than the first year.  Like
> ConDFW, there were also a couple of martial arts organizations that did
> demos here this year.  I think this con would also be a pretty good
> venue.
>
> The other thing I think we should consider is combining forces with
> Elfsea for the two big annual demos we both do.  Steppes does North
> Texas Irish Festival and Elfsea does The Texas Scottish Festival and
> Highland Games.  I think both of these demos would be much more
> successful if we combined our efforts, as we do at joint fighter
> practices, instead of trying to do them both solo.
>
> Respectfully Submitted,
>
> Don Alaric Greythorne
>
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