Tickets and Reps

I would say first and foremost the tickets should go to those that are chosen to operate the booth, and then the rest go to the top donors or maybe a raffle between all those that donated, no matter how much money they put up? I don't see 5 people being needed to operate the booth, in fact that sounds like too many. I guess it all comes down to how big the booth is which we will find out soon enough. On one hand handing them to the top donors is good idea, but on the other hand not everyone was able to donate a lot of money, so that is at the same time somewhat unfair. The raffle might be the best idea to distribute it amongst all who donated. Could also include those that helped rep the initiative or helped with ideas in the raffle.

Well I can say I won't be able to be anywhere near San Francisco anytime soon, if that helps narrow it down.

As a general rule of thumb with booths

• You need three people manning it at any point in time, minimum. You will get swarmed at times. Sure, there will be lulls, but the more people you have there, the more chances you'll have to talk with the people who may be interested. If you can't reach to the people who are waiting to find out more about the booth within 30 seconds, they will move on.
  • Having more people will allow one person to take a break to stretch their legs and wander around. But expect to stay at the booth for most of the Con.
• Have lots of goodies to attract people. People will not want to look at printouts. They will want to look at toys, neat business cards, cool trinkets, and other great things.
• Make connections. Successful booths have things to do at the booth. It'll build an instant connection with the product. Find a way to get them to feel like they belong to the community. See if you can get a petition going about something important in the video game community. Something everyone can get behind... like Day One DLCs.
• Taking booths apart sucks. There's no way around that. Be ready for that.

There are companies out there that make cheap swag. We could do pens (always useful), buttons/pins, temporary tattoos, bookmarks...the trick is to pick something cheap enough where we can make a LOT of it. We could also do a raffle for bigger HTL merch like shirts, mugs, etc. Another idea I've seen is a prize wheel - people love those, and it does crowd control on swag hunters.

I'd say give the tickets to the booth folks. Five seems like a lot but so is sitting at a table all day while there's a con happening around you. We could also have a person or two walking around advertising the booth to help boost traffic.

I definitely volunteer to operate the booth. Count me in

Since I work when I want and pick the days I work (unless it is a series of gigs, but again I pick when those start) my schedule is quite flexible to be able to attend something like this.

In terms of money, I certainly can pay my own way whether it is driving out or flying.

What would be nice however is to see a sheet with information such as average hotel prices, flight prices, car rental or taxi prices, things like that to help gauge the costs for people going even if they aren't manning the booth. Also bringing up such things as maybe one member drives out so that the booth people can car pool together instead of going their own ways to help save on money, or see about them staying in the same hotel and possibly getting discount rates since we are operating at the con. Such information would go a long way in helping us budget, however I know that I can make it out there regardless of whether that information is posted or not.

I definitely want to go to the con, but I am unable to commit at this time because I'm a graduating senior and what the future holds for me this summer has infinite possibilities... XD In other words, I have no idea where I will be or what I will be doing, but hopefully I'll be in a position to fly out there and attend. I'll also have to figure out badges because I missed the kickstarter badge memo earlier. Hopefully they'll sell more...

However, if I am there, I will support HTL no matter if I'm actually manning the booth or not. I have quite a bit of experience manning booths, because I was the PR rep for my karate studio in high school (I sucked at teaching, but great with databases and talking to people, so that's what I did XD), so if I have to fill in for someone between shifts or whatnot, I can. I will not ask for a free badge because I can't commit, if I go it will be on my own dime, but I am more than willing to work if I do end up going.

In any case, if I do not go, I will be more than happy to handle logistics. I can gather information about who is going and when, what time their flight arrives, if they will be driving, where they will be staying, etc. Anything that helps coordination over there.

I would imagine that the con will negotiate special rates with the local hotels. I wish I could volunteer, but my summers are way too unpredictable right now to commit to something like that. If I do make it I'll help out how I can, and same if I don't make it out.

thanks for that! While like you said we won't really know costs and such till we get closer, it at least gives a estimate to save and budget for.

yeah, I have AAA as well, but boy is it expensive, like you said, when you aren't 25 Hell, sometimes you can't even rent one. I don't see us doing a ton of driving, but it still would be good to either A. Have a car, or B. a solid taxi service that we can rely on for car pool to save money.


Hopefully since we have a big ticket with the con, they can score us hotel deals, deals on flights, or packages since we will be working there and not just showing up to look around it. Unlikely, but it would be nice

I think that this will receive more traffic once a few things happen on HTL. HTL is pretty much dead at the moment, and so while a few of us pushed this really hard, there are only a few of us. On top of that, sadly, there are probably people on HTL who don't agree with this kind of thing for different reasons. Still though, fewer volunteers does make things easier in terms of picking workers

I think planning this far out will be difficult, since a lot of people don't have their whole year planned out most of the time. XD Around April or May I should know what my personal summer will be like, whether I'll be going to grad school or if I'll be working. If I get an airline job, that will make my decision super-easy. Lol. Perhaps you can give out passes to people who can commit now, and if you still have some later and people confirm they *can* go, you can give them out at that time. Just a thought.

I don't know if we'll need rental cars, from what I understand, SF has a good public transportation system. I can ask kihten for more info since she lives there. If we rent a car, we'll have other costs like parking and such...so it might be best to look into public transportation options.

As for trains, I wouldn't recommend it long-range. It takes forever to get anywhere, and Amtrak often has tickets that are comparable to airline fares...so, honestly, why would you even want to take the train? Maybe if it's cheaper to take a train in from a nearby airport than to fly direct into the airport, but SF is a major airport for many airlines, and it's bigger than any of the airports in surrounding cities, so it might be cheaper to just fly there.

I just looked up fares on Southwest as far out as I can go, fares from Denver to SF (a good median distance average), and they're anywhere from $146 to $257 one-way, depending on the time of day. I guarantee you that Southwest will have a sale between now and then, so if you can catch tickets during one of those, you will get the best deal you possibly can. If Southwest doesn't fly from your local airport, I'd advise watching the websites of other airlines as well as travel sites, because often sales will not show up on the travel sites, but only on the airline's website.

I volunteer to go and represent HTL. I live about an hour and a half away from the SF and I really want to attend.

Her point was to give a possible estimate so people can at least start to budget some as soon as possible. It's not going to be accurate until we get closer yes, but it doesn't hurt to have a bar set at least for now. Yes, most don't plan their year out, but that doesn't mean we can't have something to gauge what we might need to go there. It can't hurt to have a little something in advanced

Public transportation, while much cheaper and accessabke, is not as flexible as having our own ride(s). If we miss the pick up time or can't get there in time, we are stuck. Having our own transportation gives us that freedom so that we don't have to worry about such things. Yes, it is more expensive, but some of us could pitch in more to do that. I know I would. Plus, what if people want to explore the town and such, but not have to deal with the wait for public transportation and such. Not knocking it, just sayin it could be rather useful.


Like you said, flights aren't really planned that far out, but it doesn't hurt to have a few numbers to gauge ballpark prices ya know? something like this will be costly, even if we are given tickets for for the con, still a hefty price to go. People who want to go should have something they can set their sights on to start saving for or in the near future. Those that want to anyways. In the end everyone is going to have to do their homework for what works best for them.