Virtual GalactiCon Wrapup and the Future of Virtual Cons
Jul 13, 2020 15:31:44 GMT -5
Matt, Chad Olson, and 15 more like this
Post by Tournament Master on Jul 13, 2020 15:31:44 GMT -5
Hey everyone. I know we have a few other Gcon threads going on, but I wanted to start a new one for a few purposes. First of all I wanted to say how thrilled I was with how the convention went off this weekend. If you listened to the podcast with Sam, Mike and I this week you heard me say that I was nervous but excited. Obviously this is a unique time and myself, Mike and Tom all wanted to have an event that came as close to a real GalactiCon as possible within the limitations we had. Given how much GalactiCon has meant to me these past 20+ years personally I really wanted to provide that experience to the best of my abilities. I know a number of us were skeptical it would work out and there was a lot of learning as we went, but in the end I think this weekend provided a ton of fun for the regular GalactiCon attendees as well as a number of folks who would never be able to join us for a live Gcon.
I said on the zoom, that this was a big team effort to pull together such a fun weekend. Thanks to Mike M for putting in the time to make sure that we had the ability to play our tournament in COTGOnline and to get the new sets printed in time to get out to people before the event (well maybe not everyone...blame Wally the postman on that). Thank you to Sam for doing an outstanding job hosting the Q&As and also acting as a tournament moderator. Also to Troy and Cman for being awesome tournament moderators as well. We couldn't have pulled off the game playing without you. Thank you to Jim Steinhoff for doing an excellent job with Trivia and also providing hilarious commentary during the Canada Cup and GalactiCon Cup finals. Thank you Zeke, Ty and Werner for providing awesome insight into the Indies games, and I can't wait for everyone to see what you are cooking up for the 2 upcoming sets. Thank you to the Legends team of Chad, Cory, Tim and Stu for a great panel and for all your work to make the Legends game something that our community can really feel proud of. Thank you to Rob for all you do for Champions of the Galaxy and for providing some amazing items for the charity auction. Thank you to Darryl Banks for joining us on Sunday, which I think was a thrill for many game fans. And of course thank you to Tom Filsinger for starting all this madness to begin with. I know Tom had a really fun time meeting so many game fans he has never met in person and I believe it was a highlight for many attendees to get to chat with him (and the Dark Menace). Also a big congratulations to KB for winning the Canada Cup and the GalactiCon cup...I think he had some residual karma left over from his generosity during the charity auction.
Since Saturday I have heard a bunch of great feedback on the convention and the desire to do more virtual events in the future. Based on how the weekend went I think you can absolutely expect that to happen in the future. While we are planning to have an in-person GalactiCon next year in Chicago, I think you could see some virtual elements added to the festivities for those that can't be there live. While nothing is decided for sure yet, you could expect to be able to see a live feed of the Q&As, global participation in the trivia contest and an online tournament, where the winner gets a spot in the live GalactiCon championship tournament. I am hoping that having the virtual Gcon and other events this year will bring the community closer together and convince more people to attend the live convention next year, but do not want to exclude folks that can't physically travel to Chicago. We will see how best to execute this in the coming year.
As far as some kind of virtual event this winter, I think that is a very good possibility and something that we can hopefully make into an ongoing annual event. I believe some talk was to do something in December after the holiday releases, but with many families being busy during the holiday weekends...atleast in normal years...it probably makes sense to move it to a month like January. I think with that timing we can do something similar to what we did at Galacticon as far as having announcements about upcoming releases along with reviews of things that just came out. I would expect that this convention would just be a 1 day event, with the first half being tournaments and the 2nd half being focused on Q&As, along with the finals of all the tournaments. A virtual con also opens us up to more special guests like we had with Darryl Banks.
So let us know your thoughts on GalactiCon. What did you like and what could we improve on? What virtual things would you like to see at future GalactiCons. Would you be interested in a virtual winter event? What new things could we incorporate or what guests would you like to see? What else would you like to see? Maybe more regular online tournaments throughout the year on COTGonline and Zoom? Thank you all for making this a Galacticon to remember!
I said on the zoom, that this was a big team effort to pull together such a fun weekend. Thanks to Mike M for putting in the time to make sure that we had the ability to play our tournament in COTGOnline and to get the new sets printed in time to get out to people before the event (well maybe not everyone...blame Wally the postman on that). Thank you to Sam for doing an outstanding job hosting the Q&As and also acting as a tournament moderator. Also to Troy and Cman for being awesome tournament moderators as well. We couldn't have pulled off the game playing without you. Thank you to Jim Steinhoff for doing an excellent job with Trivia and also providing hilarious commentary during the Canada Cup and GalactiCon Cup finals. Thank you Zeke, Ty and Werner for providing awesome insight into the Indies games, and I can't wait for everyone to see what you are cooking up for the 2 upcoming sets. Thank you to the Legends team of Chad, Cory, Tim and Stu for a great panel and for all your work to make the Legends game something that our community can really feel proud of. Thank you to Rob for all you do for Champions of the Galaxy and for providing some amazing items for the charity auction. Thank you to Darryl Banks for joining us on Sunday, which I think was a thrill for many game fans. And of course thank you to Tom Filsinger for starting all this madness to begin with. I know Tom had a really fun time meeting so many game fans he has never met in person and I believe it was a highlight for many attendees to get to chat with him (and the Dark Menace). Also a big congratulations to KB for winning the Canada Cup and the GalactiCon cup...I think he had some residual karma left over from his generosity during the charity auction.
Since Saturday I have heard a bunch of great feedback on the convention and the desire to do more virtual events in the future. Based on how the weekend went I think you can absolutely expect that to happen in the future. While we are planning to have an in-person GalactiCon next year in Chicago, I think you could see some virtual elements added to the festivities for those that can't be there live. While nothing is decided for sure yet, you could expect to be able to see a live feed of the Q&As, global participation in the trivia contest and an online tournament, where the winner gets a spot in the live GalactiCon championship tournament. I am hoping that having the virtual Gcon and other events this year will bring the community closer together and convince more people to attend the live convention next year, but do not want to exclude folks that can't physically travel to Chicago. We will see how best to execute this in the coming year.
As far as some kind of virtual event this winter, I think that is a very good possibility and something that we can hopefully make into an ongoing annual event. I believe some talk was to do something in December after the holiday releases, but with many families being busy during the holiday weekends...atleast in normal years...it probably makes sense to move it to a month like January. I think with that timing we can do something similar to what we did at Galacticon as far as having announcements about upcoming releases along with reviews of things that just came out. I would expect that this convention would just be a 1 day event, with the first half being tournaments and the 2nd half being focused on Q&As, along with the finals of all the tournaments. A virtual con also opens us up to more special guests like we had with Darryl Banks.
So let us know your thoughts on GalactiCon. What did you like and what could we improve on? What virtual things would you like to see at future GalactiCons. Would you be interested in a virtual winter event? What new things could we incorporate or what guests would you like to see? What else would you like to see? Maybe more regular online tournaments throughout the year on COTGonline and Zoom? Thank you all for making this a Galacticon to remember!
