This is an auto-generated report from SuperFRED regarding an event that Robert Bunn has submitted. http://rabbits.looneylabs.com/?RabbitUserID=BillyBrahma ======== Title: Dragon*Con 2006! Location: Hotlanta, GA! Date: Sept 01-04 2006 Dragon Con is a yearly 4-day convention that is held on Labor Day weekend. It is easily the largest Convention in the Southeast every year. Ranked 4th or 5th of all the major Summer Conventions. It covers all genres involved in Science Fiction/ Fantasy including gaming and a walk of fame for celebrities. This year was a nice challenge. Convention organizers had decided to move the gaming area from its long time home in Hyatt?s Grand Ballroom to the new third convention hotel?s (The Hilton) Galleria. The Galleria was a new challenge not because it was new but because of all the entrances and exits from the room. Normally we built the lab directly inside the door of the gaming room for maximum sight coverage. This year we had the challenge of 4 doors, a stairwell, and two escalators. After seeing that on the online maps for the convention this year I knew I needed to appear before the convention and stake out our space. I found a coup! Four tables beside a door leading into the Board Game area (including a glass wall behind us that opened into the stairwell room) that looked directly at the down escalator! Then the coup got better, the Hilton set up water tanks around the gaming room (one directly behind our tables against the glass wall aka high traffic) and a refreshm! ent store right in front of the down escalator (opening the walkway past our tables as the most open path around the gaming room from the escalator!). Then we were challenged for the location. We had a coup in this new room and Wizards of the Coast and Wizkids wanted it. They wanted it bad. The game director walks up and asks me to give him one reason not to move us to allow one of the Giants in the Playground to have that space. I gave him three, that I was told on Thursday night when I selected the space that all tables were first come first served, that Looney Labs was a yearly presence at the Convention and would continue to be, and that we were the only company that wanted the space that would still be selling the same products next year that were selling this year. Once he stopped laughing he agreed and walked away. Backward compatibility and product continuity win the day and the best seats in the house! I decided to use the dimly lit hallway between the doors and the stairwell for Are You a Werewolf that had some nice floor space, cross traffic during games, and the lighting to create a wicked environment. I made the agreement that we would not be asked to move as long as we waited until 10:00 each night to start the games (that put us starting at the end of the last organized play slot that they were selling tickets to, reducing noise complaints and freeing up scheduling issues for the players). We had 82 players by 1 A.M. on Friday, 102 by 2 A.M. on Saturday and 116 at 2 A.M. on Sunday night. Werewolf continued all day through the Monday from 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. at close of the convention. This game pulled in a lot of new players and created a lot of new fan traffic to the demo tables? just feet away inside the door. During the weekend I ran some special events. The new room never gave us access to enough players at any time to run a solid tournament for any game. That became obvious on Friday. We would have a lot of passing traffic but never enough people at once to really schedule anything huge. So, I evolved. I got another rabbit to watch the tables and went up to talk with Paizo and Dragon?s Horde who were both selling our products in the Hiltons Dealers room. I gave them both a full set of the promotional cards I had available and asked them to tell anyone showing interest in Fluxx to bring a sealed Fluxx deck to any rabbit at the demo table for a set of these promos. I ran out of promo cards by the end of the weekend! We sold out Dragon?s Horde, made Paizo work hard to keep Fluxx in stock and gave out more promos than any other Georgia Convention ever! The other event was a Live Action Are You a Werewolf? Search and find event. I dressed in the Werewolf outfit (Mask, hand! s, feet, lab coat and the I am not a werewolf T-Shirt) and wandered around the Convention hiding from werewolf players from the night before. The rules were simple, you had to find me and produce an unopened copy of Are You a Werewolf?. I did not play fair by any means, I hid amongst another demo team wearing Lab coats, and had two people from the previous nights games watching for familiar faces so I could run away. The Prize was an I?m not a werewolf T-shirt I had purchased using points. We sold out every AYAW? in the convention and even met and beat a challenge by Paizo to sell another 14 they found in a car trunk Sunday night. We amazed the vendors and the players and I got to give away a T-Shirt to the sneakiest guy I?ve ever met. Well-played Ian! Big Kudos to: David Tyberg, Sharon Burdick, and Molly Glenn for being available to demo with the Giant pyramids and making them available for the convention. These three rabbits really showed dedication to the games and the fun and really made staying motivated easy. I look forward to seeing them again at any event they walk into. They helped make the con for me! Amy Locurto, who could not be at Dragon Con this year but still made time out of her schedule to meet me and deliver me copies of the games that I did not have. I work most other shows with Amy and we manage to demo basicly every game using each others matierials. She came through by filling the missing games in my bag and making Dragon Con another ?every product accessible? complete event. Thanks Amy! Galatea, aka Jessica Lothrop. She had no idea at the time how great it was that she showed up. She appeared sparsely throughout the convention, but always at a needed time. I got to eat, visit with vendors, and even walk around the convention a bit just because of her stopping by for a few. She kept me from burning out during those long shifts alone at the tables, I never got to tell her that! She?s an Angel! And Lastly Dave Churvis, who had more on his plate this weekend than a starving man at a Buffet. Not only was he key to finding the Coup of a table arrangement ( see above) but he even gave me room in the Westin to sleep and shower in. That allowed me to be set up in the gaming room by 8 A.m. every morning and break down every night without having to drive 2 hours home. I still didn?t get much sleep, but at least we ended up on schedule and available for every official hour the convention was open. That?s a coup of its own.. Thanks Dave your help at the tables and your willingness to help will never be forgotten! Oh and Last but not least.. On Monday.. I BEAT AMY AT VOLCANO! Whose the man? I?m the Man! No really I did! I swear!