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PrePax Gaming Night @ the Sheraton
atiari
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So it looks like my business partner and I will be attending PAX Prime...that means I'll be organizing PrePax Gaming Night @ the Sheraton again! It was a ridiculous success at PAX East, and I expect it will be again for PAX Prime.
I'm starting this thread early because we want to know what veterans of the first one enjoyed, and what changes can be made. We hosted it in the lobby in Boston, and it worked rather well because of the lounge and Starbucks that were connected to the lobby. It's been 2 years since I've been to Seattle, but I seem to remember that their lounge was built into the restaurant and bar, correct? It may mean a little less area for us to work with. If a Seattle local (preferrably someone who was at PAX East for comparison) can give us an idea of how many tables we'll have to work with that would be great.
Originally I floated the idea of a renting a meeting room at the Sheraton, but it proved too costly at the last moment. The financial situation has changed for the better and it very well may be in the cards this time. Is this something the community would like, or is the lobby preferrable? Should we maybe partner up with the PrePax Dinner so that times can be better coordinated, or perhaps through the pairing up get a meeting room and catered food all in one?
Leave feedback, ideas, suggestions, etc. If the idea of the PrePax Dinner combo sounds good, I'll get with whoever is organizing it for Seattle to hammer out the details on that.
I'm starting this thread early because we want to know what veterans of the first one enjoyed, and what changes can be made. We hosted it in the lobby in Boston, and it worked rather well because of the lounge and Starbucks that were connected to the lobby. It's been 2 years since I've been to Seattle, but I seem to remember that their lounge was built into the restaurant and bar, correct? It may mean a little less area for us to work with. If a Seattle local (preferrably someone who was at PAX East for comparison) can give us an idea of how many tables we'll have to work with that would be great.
Originally I floated the idea of a renting a meeting room at the Sheraton, but it proved too costly at the last moment. The financial situation has changed for the better and it very well may be in the cards this time. Is this something the community would like, or is the lobby preferrable? Should we maybe partner up with the PrePax Dinner so that times can be better coordinated, or perhaps through the pairing up get a meeting room and catered food all in one?
Leave feedback, ideas, suggestions, etc. If the idea of the PrePax Dinner combo sounds good, I'll get with whoever is organizing it for Seattle to hammer out the details on that.
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As far as the Sheraton in Seattle, it does have a bit of a lounge area near the entrance to the restaurant, but I don't think it has nearly the table space that the one in Boston does. Not sure about the rest of the hotel, I almost exclusively passed through that area.
The lobby is a good thing because it's so casual. People show up and play if they want, and if they don't, no big deal. No one's on the hook for anything, so there's really no room for disappointment or anything. Plus, people can come and go as they please. There's no hours, closing, etc.
Would there be a cost involved with securing a meeting room? I know they're pretty costly. I definitely wouldn't be opposed to there being a cost. I'm just curious.
This is a fantastic thing you're doing, atiari. Pre-PAX events are awesome, and gaming-centric ones are awesomer. Glad it went over so well in Boston, even though I wasn't able to attend. Hope it's even more successful in Seattle!
Organizer of the Post-PAX Party. You should come!
Satellite Theater for life!
To secure a meeting room you either need to pay a fairly stiff price (Boston prices quoted) of $1500, or have catering of at least $3000. If we combine the Pre-PAX Gaming Night with the Pre-PAX Dinner we can get some great food, and a meeting room for pretty much as long as we want. We can even set it up that for the first X hours you need to have a ticket/badge/etc. to get in to cover the food costs, then after open it up to the general population.
The hope is that there's a wide interest, such as the interest in the Pre-PAX Dinner, to justify the costs some. I'm pretty sure that my business parnter and I would end up subsidizing the cost to a degree, but that's a minor point right now. I figure if there is enough interest (say the 200-250 that I read went to the Pre-PAX dinner in the past) that the cost would be very trivial if we keep the food reasonable (I.e. no Filet Mignons, sushi grade fatty tuna, etc.).
And yes, I realize a lot of people do not want to pay for yet another event. But the way I'm seeing it this will bang out 2 events of the price of 1, AND give us an area that we can be ourselves, curse like sailors, etc. There's also the side bonus of being able to do some things we could not do in the lobby, such as the requests to use projectors to play various games on the walls.
Just some food for thought. I'd like to gauge interest in this joint event to see if I should start contacting the Sheraton Seattle to start crunching numbers and book space.
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I think there might be someone in charge of planning the Pre-PAX Dinner, even if it isn't around on the forums yet. It's still pretty early. I'd check around.
Organizer of the Post-PAX Party. You should come!
Satellite Theater for life!
I think they have/had someone in mind. Not sure. I could be wrong. It happened that one time.
Organizer of the Post-PAX Party. You should come!
Satellite Theater for life!
If you are really interested in doing a Pre-PAX dinner, I would like to speak with you.
I sent you a PM! First things first though, we should find out if there is or is not one already in the works for sure so as not to step on toes. Either way, please contact me! I think I have a fun idea for you!
That doesn't mean these plans have to be scrapped at all. How much interest would there be in hosting a dinner and gaming night together like the plans I outlined earlier in this thread on Wednesday instead of Thursday? We'll still do a Pre-PAX Gaming Night on Thursday, but for the time being I would like to focus on the possibility of a dinner and gaming night mix for Wednesday.
For those who are thinking tl;dr, here's a brief summary:
We get enough people together to keep affordable a catered event at the Sheraton in a meeting room for X hours (lets say 3 for now). After clearing the food and refreshments we could then open the meeting room for any and all gamers to come on in to play. The catered part is important because the room without food would still run around 1-2k without food, or ~3k for food an no charge for the room. More details will be available and researched if there is sufficient interest.
By the way, there are a few advantages of a meeting room over the lobby. Noise no longer is an issue. People with projectors are welcome to hook them up to play games on the walls. And we'll generally be able to kick back and relax without having to worry about the time of day, or offending the general public.
Its all up to the community at this point. If there is a lot of interest I'll drop a line to Khoo to clear everything with him, mainly because it is the right thing to do.
If you get the room for $1500 and you get 50 people, which I'd say is a realistic estimate, you're looking at $30 each. That's pretty steep. Keep in mind you're talking about doing it on Wednesday, when significantly less people are in town. Most people arrive Thursday or Friday.
Organizer of the Post-PAX Party. You should come!
Satellite Theater for life!
We're looking at dinner AND a room
As far as the day I am trying to avoid conflicting with the Pre-PAX Dinner. Besides PAX East had a pretty substantial turnout on Wednesday, and I would expect the same of PAX Prime.
Quickly, reserve it before they do! Yoink!
Tip: Never make PAX setup harder for the planners, also see PAX Rules :P
Well, I suppose that settles that! Glad you stepped in now Khoo, before I spent a lot of time researching everything. Much appreciated.
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Organizer of the Post-PAX Party. You should come!
Satellite Theater for life!
At PAX East the pub crawl ended very, very early. Pre-PAX Gaming Night on the other hand went from about 6:30pm till sometime after I went to my room to sleep at 3am.
Basically, just because you want to do the pub crawl does not mean you cannot go to gaming night. Just do not get so drunk that you cannot think fairly clearly :P
Well if the pub crawl, dinner, and this aren't mutually exclusive in some manner, I'll totally try to come to this too. Sounds like it'd be fun.
That's a good point. I think the games were still going when I finally managed to find my way back to the Sheraton at the end of the night, too. I, however, was in no shape to play any sort of a game. :P
Organizer of the Post-PAX Party. You should come!
Satellite Theater for life!