Fence Cat – Progress

I’m pretty happy with the progress on my portrait of Kitt E. Katt (her new name, now that she’s been adopted), a.k.a. Fence Cat.

Convention Season: What Works

This is the final instalment in my series of game convention retrospectives, in an attempt to draw general conclusions about improving attendees’ and organizers’ convention experience.  In the time it took to write this last segment, I signed up to help organize an entirely online convention, ConTessa, which will take place March 8-15, 2013.

It’s a long post and it took me a while to write, so let me give you the TL;DR of advice to convention organizers:

1. fight inertia in order to keep up with change and avoid obsolescence;
2. get the best people, have their back, but also check how they’re doing;
3. communicate with your staff, volunteers, sponsors and attendees, don’t leave them in the dark; and
4. put some policies and practical means in place to reach more people: families, young people, women, people with disabilities, etc.

Here are some of the best aspects I observed in recent tabletop gaming conventions and, I think, the most commonly needed improvements.  I’ve tried to group them into logically related units for sanity’s sake but you’ll notice some crossover themes.