As an observer, it looks like it's going pretty well.  Some of the games only had three players, but others were chock-full.  I'm sure Stacy will do a wrap-up when it's all over.

Looks like plenty of buzz, though, so if there's a ConTessa next year, I imagine it will be quite a bit larger.

A couple more GMs would've been sweet, though - several GMs were pulling double or triple duty hosting various games throughout the weekend.

Quote from: VectorSigma;665185As an observer, it looks like it's going pretty well.  Some of the games only had three players, but others were chock-full.  I'm sure Stacy will do a wrap-up when it's all over.

Looks like plenty of buzz, though, so if there's a ConTessa next year, I imagine it will be quite a bit larger.

A couple more GMs would've been sweet, though - several GMs were pulling double or triple duty hosting various games throughout the weekend.

We had the best turnout of any online convention that I've seen yet (certainly any Google+ convention). The convention that ran the weekend before us had about 25 games and they didn't have any restrictions on who could run their games.

We had 24 GMs and Panel Mods and 40 events total. A couple of games got run off air, something I'll make an option next year to start with, but only three games were actually canceled. Two to technical difficulty, one to the GM not showing up. I took a lot away from it in the form of things to do differently next year, and hopefully next year it won't be one woman spending six months of her life putting the whole thing together. I think I managed to single out a couple of people who would make great partners for next year, which means it will indeed be bigger. I'm thinking of starting work on it in November for a springtime convention.

The games that only had three people in them were from GMs who didn't promote their events and didn't check in regularly to contact the people that were playing. All of the games were full, save I think for the last straggling couple of them today, but I think some people forgot and without the GMs following through with reminders and promotions, they didn't have alternates to fill in for no shows. For the games that I saw run where the GMs followed through, there were plenty of players and alternates for those who didn't show up.

I am exhausted and happy and am going to be taking time to decompress and let it all sink in. The two major panels that I did 'WTF is the OSR?', and the 'I Hit It With My Axe' Reunion panel were incredibly fun and had upwards of 40 viewers each (Axe was close to 50). Blonde Frog's Marketing Panel also had a really big following, though I don't know the total since Rachel was running that panel. It was nice to see panels on G+ that actually had some substance to them and weren't about the same three or four topics that get batted around and talked about NPR-style. I'm hoping that trend will continue for next year's convention.

I also got to run two playtests of my game, Precious Dark, which turned out utterly fantastic. I was too busy putting out fires and keeping track of everything for ConTessa (and generating the random dungeon for the LotFP random dungeon challenge), and didn't get to put as much prep into my PD games as I wanted to, but character creation was a breeze, and gameplay went smoothly. The feel I wanted to elicit form the game came through spectacularly, and everyone played with a very 'Old School' creative mentality that made both of the games unique and very fun, and I got some great feedback that I'm still processing along with everything else I learned during the convention.

Anyway, I talked to Pundit about making a secondary account here to post as myself rather than as the con, which must steer clear of specific subjects, and I'm going to just as soon as I've finished decompressing after the last three days of stress.

Thanks for all your support everyone, and I'm so sorry you had technical difficulties, LL, that bummed me out, especially since you DID all the things I asked the GMs to do ahead of time. That doesn't seem fair.

Take care all!
Stacy

Great summary, Stacy, thanks!

24 GMs?  How did I miss that there were that many?  Sounds like a lesson learned about GMs promoting their stuff and getting players.

The panels I've watched so far (Marketing, WTFOSR) were quite worthwhile.

I should also note that ConTessa has done a great job of _branding_ - something you don't usually see with online cons (or even meatspace cons much of the time).  Kudos!

Thank you very much for the recap.  I was on a road trip and was unable to attend the Con, but it sounds like it was a big success.

And while I can't speak for Pundit in regards to his rule of no sock accounts, I don't think it's unreasonable for you to have an account that you post on as a user, and the one for solely Contessa updates.  That's my opinion anyway.  I for one would value your input because the more users who are reasonable people, the better.

Happy it was successful!

Agree with Sacro, it sounds reasonable that you're allowed a personal account as well.

Great to hear it all went well. I couldn't participate or watch anything live as I had a really busy weekend followed by night shifts at work, but I hope I'll get to watch Youtube recordings some time later.

Quote from: ConTessa;665222I took a lot away from it in the form of things to do differently next year, and hopefully next year it won't be one woman spending six months of her life putting the whole thing together.

40 Events / 25 GMs? That's a success.

I've done marketing for several cons and I always tell the founders that they have to build a strong team of smart volunteers who can be trusted to do their jobs. Without that team, the con can become a nightmare, financially, mentally and physically.  

I am a fan of post-con marketing. I find that successful cons do a good job communicating with their attendees in the week or two after the event before the buzz of the event wears off. Getting feedback and marketing quotes for next year is always good.

Quote from: ConTessa;665222We had the best turnout of any online convention that I've seen yet (certainly any Google+ convention). The convention that ran the weekend before us had about 25 games and they didn't have any restrictions on who could run their games.

<...snip...>

Take care all!
Stacy

A personal account seems fine although might set a board wide precedent that he guys will want to set a process for, I would imagine.

The Event sounds very sucessful so congratulations.

I wonder if there is mileage in a open chat room where people can hang out in downtime and GMs can drop into to pull additional players if games are shorthanded. No experience of online Cons but its a place where online woudl trump face to face cons and with face to face cons you get people hanging round popular games looking for spaces from no shows but the physical limits mean that you can't dip into a pool of would be gamers. Also the forum is a nice place for folks to hang and just chat about games and stuff. (appologies if you totally have this and I am teaching grandma to suck eggs)

Quote from: Spinachcat;66539140 Events / 25 GMs? That's a success.

I've done marketing for several cons and I always tell the founders that they have to build a strong team of smart volunteers who can be trusted to do their jobs. Without that team, the con can become a nightmare, financially, mentally and physically.  

I am a fan of post-con marketing. I find that successful cons do a good job communicating with their attendees in the week or two after the event before the buzz of the event wears off. Getting feedback and marketing quotes for next year is always good.

Jealous?

Quote from: Sacrosanct;665231Thank you very much for the recap.  I was on a road trip and was unable to attend the Con, but it sounds like it was a big success.

Same here. :-( My SO and I were both called out of town unexpectedly for a family trip this past week, so we weren't able to make it to ConTessa this year.

I'm so glad to hear it was well attended!

I posted some of the rest of the stats in the ConTessa community today. I've brought on three new assistant organizers, and one is a graphic designer who's volunteered to build us an infographic on all of the stats we're generating.

Now that I've got a baseline, I've got a target to beat for next year's convention, which we're tentatively planning on starting planning for in October/November and running in late winter / early spring. There's just too many things going on at the beginning of the summer, so I'm hoping this will make it easier for more to attend. Plus, now more people know that we exist!

Anyways, here's the stats:

4 Days of Gaming, June 21st - 24th
Total GMs / Panel Mods: 24
Total Events Successfully Run: 39
Total Events Registered: 43
Total Number of Panels: 14
Total Number of Games: 25
Total Prizes Given Away: 96 (and we're still processing)
Total Sponsors: 18

Event Breakdown by day:
Friday: 8
Saturday: 12
Sunday: 13
Monday: 3

Here's where the numbers get a little squirrely as tracking unique attendees is rather difficult given our limited tools. This is as close as we've gotten with the information we have so far:

People in Hangouts: 173
People in Comments: 280
Views on YouTube: 2307 (and I don't have info from all event runners yet)
+1s: 161

The top three grossing events as far as YouTube views go are two panels and one AP video from the LotFP competition:

'I Hit It With My Axe Reunion' - 597
'WTF is the OSR?' - 323
'LotFP Random Dungeon Challenge - Green Team' - 232

We've been soliciting feedback, and despite my insisting to myself that I'll take a break before diving into next year, I've already started post-mortem note taking and planning for next year that includes things like training event runners so there are fewer 'how does this work?' moments, and building up more tools for the event runners to report who's playing their games for even more accurate statistics next year.

Love the breakdown.  Next con will be a lot better.  You've put a lot of work into this.  Great job!

Quote from: ConTessa;665928'I Hit It With My Axe Reunion' - 597
'WTF is the OSR?' - 323
'LotFP Random Dungeon Challenge - Green Team' - 232

I can take a guess why IHITWMA was double everything else

Quote from: jeff37923;665485Jealous?

Of what?

Quote from: ConTessa;665928I posted some of the rest of the stats in the ConTessa community today. I've brought on three new assistant organizers, and one is a graphic designer who's volunteered to build us an infographic on all of the stats we're generating.

Now that I've got a baseline, I've got a target to beat for next year's convention, which we're tentatively planning on starting planning for in October/November and running in late winter / early spring. There's just too many things going on at the beginning of the summer, so I'm hoping this will make it easier for more to attend. Plus, now more people know that we exist!

Anyways, here's the stats:

4 Days of Gaming, June 21st - 24th
Total GMs / Panel Mods: 24
Total Events Successfully Run: 39
Total Events Registered: 43
Total Number of Panels: 14
Total Number of Games: 25
Total Prizes Given Away: 96 (and we're still processing)
Total Sponsors: 18

Event Breakdown by day:
Friday: 8
Saturday: 12
Sunday: 13
Monday: 3

Here's where the numbers get a little squirrely as tracking unique attendees is rather difficult given our limited tools. This is as close as we've gotten with the information we have so far:

People in Hangouts: 173
People in Comments: 280
Views on YouTube: 2307 (and I don't have info from all event runners yet)
+1s: 161

The top three grossing events as far as YouTube views go are two panels and one AP video from the LotFP competition:

'I Hit It With My Axe Reunion' - 597
'WTF is the OSR?' - 323
'LotFP Random Dungeon Challenge - Green Team' - 232

We've been soliciting feedback, and despite my insisting to myself that I'll take a break before diving into next year, I've already started post-mortem note taking and planning for next year that includes things like training event runners so there are fewer 'how does this work?' moments, and building up more tools for the event runners to report who's playing their games for even more accurate statistics next year.

Congratulations on an awesome job! Take a well-deserved rest, but make sure you've compiled as big a contact list as possible, to give you a head start on the next year.

I hope we'll keep seeing you posting here under your other other account!

RPGPundit