UniCon

[morsla]

UniCon ran over the weekend, and seemed to go well from my side of the registration desk. I actually got to play some games on the Saturday, which was a bit of a first... Sunday was a more traditional con-org day, though.

I finished sixth in the first 750 point Warmachine tournament that's run in Victoria, winning the faction medal for Cygnar. We played five rounds on the day, which (with only a couple of exceptions) ran very smoothly. Three wins, one draw, one loss, and my second best-in-faction medal :)

We had plenty of "new" faces throughout the con, too - people attending their first convention, running their first game, or trying a new game for the first time. All good to see, as we dearly need to keep attracting new people to the gaming scene... Many thanks are due to all the people who helped out during the event - especially aeliel, who used her precognitive organiser-fu to make sure that we'd anticipated any admin problems before the event. absentia_mentis managed to break tradition by becoming a conorg first, and then playing her first tabletop games at the end of the convention.

The only real hitch came right at the end, when the after-con venue managed to "lose" our booking - despite altheas confirming it with them on Sunday afternoon. I have no idea where most of the people ended up, but I found a few people eating at Il Gambero. Ended up at the Carlton Yacht Club with aeliel, absentia_mentis and jod999 where we had an end-of-con drink before calling it a night.

This year was also the first that we'd tried making fresh food for the event. The chocolate cookies sold ridiculously well (virtually stalling sales of any other sweet food at the canteen), and the focaccias were fairly popular... although there were enough left to keep me well fed on Monday.

All in all, I think we achieved what we set out to do - we wanted to run a small convention with good quality roleplaying and miniatures games, which was financially viable without being reliant on university clubs. With the advent of VSU, club-sponsored events are no longer possible, requiring a change in planning for events like UniCon. The con brought people together from around the country, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. The convention should make a small profit (pending final costs from the venue), which goes back to the clubs that helped running it.

It's reached that nice self-assembling stage that ][con reached a few years ago - the event has enough momentum and support from players and writers that it's just a matter of arranging a venue for the games to run in. The hard yards have been run over the last three years, breathing life back into the convention after we dragged it back from its grave. Now, I just hope that the people in I.I. and MURP are interested in keeping it going...

Comments

[aeduna.livejournal.com]

Considering the VSUness of it all, maybe it might be worth looking into incorporating as a seperate entity? Its a bit of hassle, but would allow for a more long term future.

[punk-rock-nerd.livejournal.com]

I kinda like that idea.

Something that should probably be discussed at the "Thank God It's Over" meeting.

[futurelegend.livejournal.com]

heyo :) (It's really catch-up email time I know but hey, it may be less daunting in patches..)

Hmm, I guess I missed the bit in which a) VSU actually happened and b) it really did screw up clubs and stuff. :( What's the deal? What changes have happened and what impact has it had?

And congrats to you and Aeliel and everyone for slogging through for Unicon. I imagine (since i'm not exactly in a place to *know* anymore..) that it's still a very valuable link between the uni clubs and the con scene.

Also, happy birthday for last month!! Sorry I missed it :( *HUG!*

[teknohippi.livejournal.com]

Well done to all you guys who give us writers the oppotunity to run our games in that environment. As someone who does not Org at cons I really appreciate all the hard wokr. I for one will be happy to run something again next year.