Worldcon, Volcon, Longcon, Dragonmeet
That sounds a little like a John Le Carre novel title, but it’s what’s
occupying me right at this moment. As
some of you know, I run a few conventions, I help at a few more…
Well, maybe more than a few…
So, I thought about doing one massive update, but there’s just too many
things to go through, so we’re going to start with Dragonmeet, all the others will
be following shortly.
First things first, Dragonmeet trade bookings are going live next week,
we’ve worked out the trade areas, moved a few things around, and put everything
in place to get moving on it. It’s now
over four floors, so we’ve had to do a lot of remodelling to get it all in
place. Ground floor for a lot of the trade and the Bring and Buy. Change from the previous year where the Bring
and Buy was upstairs, because the space that we’ve been using for the Bring and
Buy has been acceptable, but rapidly becomes nothing but a scrum that blocks
access. We put it at the back of the
Trade hall and we can spread it out wide to give people the space they need to
get a good look in.
Mezzanine level (that bit in the middle that everyone keeps asking why
we’re not using it) will be Press rooms, RPGs in the two north rooms, and
seminars in the Bourg suite, which is not only larger and has better acoustics,
but also frees up space in the first floor.
First floor will still be demonstrations, Best of Essen, Playtest UK,
and the larger games that people have come to love over the years, and with the
increased interest from traders, we will be moving some stands upstairs as the demand
requires.
Second floor: In previous years,
we’ve had three rooms at the south end of the first floor that have been
dedicated to RPGs, and as the convention grows, I don’t want to be taking away
the very thing that for me makes Dragonmeet, Dragonmeet. We’re allocating two rooms on the Mezzanine
for more RPGs, and two more rooms on the second floor so that the entire North
Wing is going to be allocated to RPGs.
We considered using all the smaller rooms down the side, but if I’m
honest, the several hundred pounds that it would have taken to get all those
rooms is better spent on larger rooms rather than adding five more games per
slot, especially when we’ll be adding more than fifteen games per slot with the
extra rooms.
And on the subject of RPGs
There has been a number of issues in recent years with the scrum of
games and the sheer number of people who all sign up for them at the same time,
so we’re instigating prebooking for games across the weekend. I know that’s a controversial move because it
means that a lot of games over the weekend will already be signed up before
people arrive on the day, but if I’ve learned one thing about conventions, it’s
that you can’t please everyone. This way
we won’t have a crush on the day, and if people want to be prepared for the
business of the convention, they can do that well in advance.
Trade bookings go live next week, and games will be accepted from the end
of next week.
Next is Longcon, which hasn’t seen much movement this year, and there’s
a good reason for that, although not the one that many might be considering
