[Steppes] Akon vs. Scottish festival

[shark]

One thing I want to add to the discussion... not that I've been around long enough or participated in enough demos to be a judge... BUT, I attended the NTIF in 1998. When I was looking for something fun to do, other than sitting around staring at my computer playing online games, I remembered that demo and the SCA folks there and ventured out to my first contact with the Steppes Archers! That was in 2004. So, even though you don't think a demo generates new people, some may be really, really, slow, like me. Now, I also visited websites, etc., before I was brave enough to come on out, but, I would imagine that some folks attend more than one of these events where we have a small but dedicated presence. Perhaps if we don't get them on the first demo, maybe on the second or third.

Regards,
Susanne


On 4/13/07, Sir Morgan Buchanan <morganbuchanan at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > From: rudin at ev1.net> To: steppes at lists.ansteorra.org> Date: Fri, 13 Apr
> 2007 18:58:02 -0500> Subject: Re: [Steppes] Akon vs. Scottish festival> >
> Sir Morgan wrote:> > I happen to think AKon isn't the greatest venue either,
> but at least we're> > trying something different. My biggest issue with AKon
> isn't actually the> > target market of Anime fans, but the fact that it's
> really an uber-big > > event> > that doesn't give us much chance to actually
> build any rapport with> > people we know to be local.> > While we're playing
> Devil's Advocate, how could the size of the event reduce > the chance to
> build rapport, when that's always done in groups of two or > three anyway?>
> > Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin
>
> My opinion is two-fold in this regard.  The first part is factual, and the
> second is anecdotal.
>
> First, I didn't say we can't build rapport, but that we had less chance to
> build rapport with people we know to be local.  The size of an event like
> AKon (I've heard about 12,000) necessitates that many of those who are drawn
> to it are not from Dallas/Fort Worth.  Many are not even from the
> region.  People come from all over the world.  So at an event like this, the
> odds that a given individual is from DFW or even Ansteorra are lower than a
> small local event that is far less likely to draw people from farther
> away.  This isn't a HORRIBLE thing, of course...if we recruit someone to the
> SCA who lives in Atlantia or An Tir or Northshield or the West or where ever
> they may be from, that's cool.  But it doesn't address our local recruitment
> issues as we'd like quite as much.
>
> However, my own experience with various conventions from 500 person small
> local conventions to huge international affairs like Gen Con suggest to me
> that although you're certainly seen by a huge number of people, those people
> give you less of their time.  I believe that part of the reason our demos
> are largely ineffective is that we have such a small window to really engage
> a perspective individual in meaningful discourse.  We're reduced to
> essentially shilling the organization in 5 minute sales-pitches and hoping
> to get thier contact information or convince them to contact us at our
> contact points on a flyer we hand out.  I believe that if we do a more
> comprehensive convention experience where our populace who are interested in
> the convention attend with the secondary goal of relationship building,
> we're more likely to attract "our kind of geeks."  :)
>
> For the sake of conversation, below I include a brief outline of a
> convention concept I've talked about with Faelin, Katheryn, Her Majesty
> Deanna, and many others.  I'm very open to suggestions, comments, critisizm,
> input...
>
> Morgan
>
> ******************************
>
> Here is my idea for a fully encompassing demo.
>
> First of all is a general concept:  If we have trouble finding SCA people
> to do a demo, is that perhaps an indication that the venue isn't necessarily
> the best place to do a demo?  Why are we doing demos at places "we" don't
> want to go in the first place?
> With this in mind and knowing how many SCAdians like going to Science
> Fiction, Fantasy, Comic and Gaming conventions, we've done demos at these
> conventions in the past with varrying degrees of success.
>
> What seems to normally be done is we take a 1 hour slot time slot, wander
> around yelling to get people to come watch, fight, and talk to people during
> the fighting demo.  Then we leave.  A few SCAdians stay for the con.
>
> This creates an atmosphere of desperation, in my opinion.  We are
> handcuffing ourselves by limiting our exposure and limiting the time we have
> to build relationships with our target market.
> Demos like the various heritage festivals allow us to sit around all day
> long and in a more laid back atmosphere we can do our fighting and talk to
> people, but because the demographic is farther away from our target market,
> we're again less successful.  We're also in a situation where a person may
> never walk past us again because of the size of some of these festivals.
>
> So the concept I have is to combine the two thusly.
>
> First, we find as many of our populace as possible who want to actually
> attend the convention in question.  We can fill certain ranks with people
> who will be simply stopping by to help with some of the activities that
> we'll talk about later potentially, but without this group of actual
> con-goers, this concept won't work.
>
> We acquire a table in an appropriate room.  At most conventions this will
> be a dealer's room, but we'll discuss it with the Con-Com and figure out
> what will be best.  We man this table with no more than 2 of our members on
> a regular basis.  Everyone who goes agrees to take some time on the
> rotation.  At this table we can have a display of A&S and armour as well as
> perhaps a laptop that has a slideshow or even potentially wireless access
> and we can show the http://scademo.com/ website.  We would also have an
> information gathering clipboard or whatever here to get contact info for
> interested parties as well as handout fliers.  I've found the "Why is this
> man smiling?" flyer to be terrific.
>
> We work with the Con-Com in advance and insinuate ourselves into their
> programming track.  I'd suggest we do 2-5 fighting demos sprinkled across
> the convention at various times.  We talk up these demos at our table.  We
> have a sign that says, "Next fighting Demo at 2:00 p.m. in the Green room"
> or whatever.  We have our best and brightest and give them a heck of a show
> at these demonstrations.
>
> Finally, when possible, we run a party room at the convention on Friday
> and Saturday nights.  Most conventions have a mechanism for running an
> "official" party room.  We can use various medieval themes such as the
> Medieval Tavern or Hafla tent.  We serve refreshments and food.  Perhaps we
> do some bardic.  We tell war stories and talk about fighting and just how
> much FUN we have.
>
> The key to all of this is that we're not locked into 5 minute
> opportunities to "convince" someone they're interested. We're building
> relationships.  We look less like we're shilling for members, even though
> we're actually working HARDER for members.
>
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