117 - North End Game Swap Recap

The first ever North End Game Swap was a HUGE success! I have no idea why I was so worried about it, Crystal and I ALWAYS pull off an amazing event :)

We probably had at least a hundred people come through the doors, either to set up a table or just look around. As I suspected, there were no jerks or thieves in our community who would run wild and make things miserable for others, just gamers interacting with gamers and having a great time!

There were three things that made this event a HUGE SUCCESS, imho - the three bits that I will need to remember for next year and make sure they remain the cornerstones of the event:

- Dedicated Gaming Space

- Donation-based refreshments

- Lack Of Structure

That last one, I'm super-proud of how it worked out. Each person who came in, I told to find a table space and set up, if we need more space for people we'll ask folks to start squishing together. I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW WELL THAT WORKED! All day long I saw people consolidating, stacking, moving to new tables... it was great!

Another big part of it was the Abecorn Math Trade. There's a website set up for handling events like this, that allows people to set up multi-person trades ahead of time. This is great for people who don't like to browse and know exactly what they want ahead of time. That brought A LOT of people into the event as well - people who didn't even know this was an event! I heard multiple time from people who wished they had known there was more than just the Math Trade going on! Apparently, most Math Trades are just a table at a Game Cafe somewhere that everyone knows to show up at during a specified time and that's it - done and done. Having the ability to then browse around, talk with people and maybe even play your new game... that seemed like such a novel concept to most of these folks!

So next year, here are changes that I may need to make:

- MORE PROMOTION! I used Facebook, Reddit and Livejournal to get the word out about this thing, looks like I should have also posted about it on Board Game Geek as well. I don't want to go so far as to list it on Craigslist or anything, I want a *very specific* group of fans coming. I don't want the room clogged with looky-loos and folks who are just looking for something to do on a weekend even though the only game they've ever played is Monopoly :/

- BETTER AUCTIONS! I really dropped the bal with my idea of Silent Auctions. First of all, I need some "Weenie" games in there that will actually draw people to the table, then I also need to have the table better organized. Of all the stuff that DID make it to the auction table, only a fistful of things actually sold :/

- GIVE A GAME/TAKE A GAME! Despite much concern over people potentially abusing such an unattended thing, the "Give A Game / Take A Game" table was a huge success as well! I got rid of a dozen games this way that I would never play and no one would actually *pay* for used, but when you see it on a table for free hey why not? I also grabbed a few games from there as well, and they just might end up on the table again next year ;)

- MORE TABLES??? We had 16 long tables and 5 round tables set up for trading, then another four long tables set up for gaming. This seemed to be just about right, but if more people come next year... we're gonna need more tables. I think the clubhouse had maybe another 5 or 6 tables downstairs we could use, will need to consider that next year...