Weekly Update #2

Avatars and Attendees!

We’ve continued to press toward getting some information solidified and met new hurdles along the way. I’m attempting to get a few people reconfirmed for attendance before announcing them and would like to thank a few people as well as give some goals for the convention to everyone. It has been brought to my attention that transparent information for planning would be appreciated so I will be working with Sean Silverfoot and Winfield to redesign the sotacon.org site to fully meet the expectations of as many potentially attendees as possible. Look for that to be landing sometime in the next couple of weeks!

Funding Update:
Currently, I’m hoping that SotA Con can be fully funded by donations from this community. I had talked with Mathew “Berek” from Portalarium about a couple of options, prior to releasing this campaign, if that’s not possible. The benefit of having this fully community funded is that we get to fully control what we want to make out of SotA Con and people who normally couldn’t attend would be able to. That said, it’s not the only option on the table. Currently, we are on projected schedule to making the minimum $ for having the con with a few featured guests. I have hopes and plans to make this into so much more; however, funding goals need to be met to get there. Some of the potential items and what days they would be on will be listed below.

I will be tracking reservations and currently we have 6 nights counted for by 2 reservations. Each night counts against our 120 room requirement block. Please be 100% sure when booking online you go through the link on http://sotacon.org from the attendee page.

Scheduling Framework (everything is subject to change!):
A BIG thanks to Winfield (W) and Eternal Knight (EK) for willingness to step up as coordinators and helping me by offloading some of the planning. If you want to get connected and help us with content or planning, please let me know (info@sotacon.org) and I will get you connected to a planning group. In the document below, Violation Clauth (VC) is the planner and contact for anything not clarified as having a planner.

Thursday Night (early arrival ~ nothing official here!)

• People start arriving around 4pm-9pm and attempting to have some stuff ready to go… also seeking help with setup!
• 110-person room setup for a tabletop game area (partially funded) (partially staffed)
• Early arrival pickup for badges (partially funded) (no volunteers yet)
• Social lounge at the hotel (no funding needed)
  • Currently being researched and planned by VC, more details in a future release
• Off-site family activity at a nearby area (no funding needed)
  • Currently being researched and planned by EK, more details in a future release
• Kids Kingdom (unfunded) (no volunteers yet)
  • Kid friendly area with cardboard box castle, board games, foam sword combat arena, floor mat games, etc.
    Friday ~ November 4th
• Badge pickup / information area (no volunteers yet, hospitallers have mentioned it)
• 200-person room setup for a panel (partially funded) (partially staffed)
  • Currently being planned by VC
  • Storyline struggles with SMO vs Offline Single Player/MMO type games
  • Tech struggles with Unity, system architecture, servers and client relationships
  • Currently seeking a streamer with equipment to livestream this event
• 110-person room setup for vendor/tabletop game area (partially funded) (partially staffed)
  • Currently being planned by VC and W
  • Customized games for social/icebreaker sessions (unfunded)
  • Role-Playing Drinking Quest board game (from Winfield)
• Social lounge at the hotel (no funding needed)
  • Currently being researched and planned by VC, more details in a future release
• Off-site family activity at a nearby area (no funding needed)
  • Currently being researched and planned by EK, more details in a future release
• Keynote speaker in 200-person room (partially funded)
  • Currently being researched and planned by VC and W
  • Currently seeking a streamer with equipment to livestream this event
• VIP Lounge (unfunded)
  • VIP hotel room with a bar that two of the featured guests will attend with the VIP sponsors of the event for a private 1 to 2 hour(s) social gathering.
• Kids Kingdom (unfunded) (no volunteers yet)
  • Kid friendly area with cardboard box castle, board games, foam sword combat arena, floor mat games, etc.

Saturday ~ November 5th

• Badge pickup / information area (no volunteers yet, hospitallers have mentioned it)
• 200-person room setup for two panels (partially funded) (partially staffed)
  • Currently being planned by VC
  • Morning panel on Lore/Story “The story of SotA E1”
  • Afternoon panel on Tech / Game design “The framework of SotA E1”
  • Attempting to lineup a streamer to handle coverage of the event (handled by W)
• 110-person room setup for vendor/tabletop game area (partially funded) (partially staffed)
  • Currently being planned by VC and W
  • Customized games for social/icebreaker sessions (unfunded)
  • Customized D&D campaign for Novia (no volunteers yet)
• Social lounge at the hotel (no funding needed)
  • Currently being researched and planned by VC, more details in a future release
• Off-site family activity at a nearby area (no funding needed)
  • Currently being researched and planned by EK, more details in a future release
• Keynote speaker in 200-person room (partially funded)
  • Currently being researched and planned by VC
  • Attempting to lineup a streamer to handle coverage of the event (handled by W)
• Dinner with the Royal Court (unfunded) (partially staffed)
  • Currently being researched and planned by VC and EK
  • Off-site garb-requested meal for all Con attendees
• Kids Kingdom (unfunded) (no volunteers yet)
  • Kid friendly area with cardboard box castle, board games, foam sword combat arena, floor mat games, etc.

Sunday ~ November 6th

• 110-Person room setup for vendor/tabletop game area (partially funded) (partially staffed)
• 200-person room setup for tabletop game and other community managed events (partially funded) (no volunteers yet)
• Off-site family activity at a nearby area (no funding needed)
  • Currently being researched and planned by EK, more details in a future release
• Last-minute shopping and swag pickup.

We’re out of here so remember to exchange phone numbers and emails with everyone you met!