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Kerbal-Kon 2015: Can We Make It Happen?


BagelRabbit

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Hi everyone! It's UpsilonAerospace.

I was just thinking about a Kerbal Space Program convention; while the devs have apparently stated that it would be nice to have one, I haven't heard of any efforts on their part to create one. Maybe this will change in the future... but (in my best spoiled-brat voice) I wanna Kerbal-Kon nowwwww!

So!

I was wondering if you guys were up for a devious and possibly slightly ludicrous plan. It will be daring! It will require some planning! If we pull it off, it will be awesome! I'm not sure how good of an idea it is, but hey, I've got a whole bunch of much smarter Forum-goers to discuss this plan with.

Kerbal-Kon 2015: Can We Make It Happen?!

~~~

Okay, here's the plan.

Step 1: Find an Existing Convention!

This will be the hardest step. People play KSP on all seven continents, so picking a single location will not be easy.

I'm thinking that it would be best to select a smaller comic-book convention within the United States. Why? Well, KSP is played most in the United States of America, unless I'm mistaken. It would be much easier to find KSP players in a smaller convention than it would be in a larger one, which would cater to the rest of my plan (see below). And comic-book conventions are generally happy to accept people, regardless of the games, books, or movies they enjoy.

Because many KSP players are under the age of 18 and thus have more free time in the summer, it would probably be best to choose a convention that occurs before mid-August. This puts a pretty significant time limit on this project, but we still may have a bit under two months to carry this plan to fruition.

Step 2: Politely Ask if We Can Come!

I'm sure that no convention would turn down a bunch of polite ladies and gentlemen, but it would be nice if we had confirmation that the convention could handle the increased traffic. Perhaps, if we're nice enough, they'll even cater to us somehow! I've been to several comic-book conventions now, and the staff always seems to be helpful and nice (as long as all rules are followed), so I think it's not a stretch to say that they'll try to make us feel at home.

I'm not saying that we should make any attempt to close off the convention to anyone else. There will likely be many non-KSP players there too, and that's okay. However, there would be enough KSP players to make it easy to find fellow KSP fans.

We could also probably have a way of distinguishing KSP players from non-KSP players. It doesn't have to be much - putting a green sticky note on the admission pass would be fine, for example.

Step 3: Recruit People, Famous and Otherwise!

What's a convention without a few famous faces? If we could get famous people (YouTubers, streamers, community members, and maybe even some Devs) to join the ranks, our convention would start looking a lot more awesome. If we plan this thing properly, maybe KSP giants like the Great Manley or the Esteemed HOC could come!

As for me? Even if the convention was held in the midst of the Himalayas or something, I'd probably still come to be with my fellow community members. I'm certainly not a very famous Forum-goer (or YouTuber, for that matter), but maybe someone would want one of my drawings or something :)

Step 4: Panels?!

It would be nice if we could get some KSP panels going with some help from the aforementioned famous people, but this might be a bit of a stretch. I'm picturing a general KSP meet-and-greet panel, as well as some more specialized ones like being creative with part usage, getting started with the game, or creating KSP streams or videos. Regardless of the panel content, it would be great to be in the same room with a bunch of like-minded individuals. It doesn't happen nearly enough for me, that's for sure...

Step 5: Kerbal-Kon!

Hopefully, this planning would pay off, and we'd be left with a quality convention and fun for all. Kerbal-Kon, here we come?!

~~~

So, that's my rough plan. What do you guys think about it? Can we make this happen? (I sure hope so.)

Please let me know if there are any conventions that are near you and that fulfill the criteria above! It would be nice to have several options to choose from. Or, at the very least, vote in this Strawpoll so that we can figure out where the best location for a Kerbal-Kon could be.

Possible Conventions:

Anime Revolution

August 14-16; Vancouver, Canada.

An anime/cosplay convention. Attendance unknown.

SpoCon

Aug. 19-23; Spokane, Washington.

A comic convention with a sci-fi emphasis. Attendance is ~1500 people or so.

Upon further review, I'm not sure tickets are still available.

~~~

Oh, and Forum-goer Unheld is planning on having a meet-and-greet in Germany, including touring an aerospace center! If you're interested in this opportunity, here'a a link to his forum post for more (it's in German).

~~~

I think we may want to take a week or two to choose the desired convention location, then spend the rest of the time trying to build support for this convention. It'll take the whole community to make this work, but I trust that we can do it.

Oh, and please let me know if you have any questions! Perhaps y'all will have better ideas that this... though personally, I like this plan :)

Anyways... Let's go!

-Upsilon

Edited by UpsilonAerospace
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Why? Well, KSP is played most in the United States of America, unless I'm mistaken.

Is this true? I have no clue what the geographic spread of KSP is, but somehow I think results would be surprising.

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There are conventions for just about everything imaginable, all over the place. Usually it cost you $$$$$ to get in there, to get a booth... and depending on the convention / venue, it could cost quite a bit. Having a sponsor/partner would be of help... say Steam or GOG.

http://www.ign.com/events

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gaming_conventions

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There are conventions for just about everything imaginable, all over the place. Usually it cost you $$$$$ to get in there, to get a booth... and depending on the convention / venue, it could cost quite a bit. Having a sponsor/partner would be of help... say Steam or GOG.

Or, say, SQUAD?

Yeah I'd go to this... if it was close enough... and my parents would let me. :P

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I'm all for this where do I sign up (Sadly will not be able to attend it because I csnt buy plane tickets to America yet?!) If you need my help I'm here. Do you know where in America it should be yet? Or are you just happy to get anywhere?

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Well, there's VANCOUVER COMIC CON: SUNDAY, JULY 5TH, but I think the venue is a little small. Or there's an Anime convention mid-August...

I'd love to go to a KerbalKon (never been to one of these -Con things), but these don't seem that exciting to me...

Kerbal-Kon in Vancouver. That should be good as it's near the U.S-Canada border. Even I could be there as it's just a hour long drive west.

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@UpsilonAerospace

This is a very good idea and I wish you the best of luck!

I try something similar to this already for all those in and around (or willing to journey to) Munich in Germany. More information can be read in the german subforum or on kerbalspaceprogramm.de !

If any non-german-speakers have questions, want to come too, or are just generally interested, please contact me directly via pm.

Maybe you could even mention that in your original post? The more people can be reached the better!

Edited by Unheld
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Hello everyone!

First of all, thanks for the support that you're showing for this project. You guys are the best...

So, let's talk locations!

Well, there's VANCOUVER COMIC CON: SUNDAY, JULY 5TH, but I think the venue is a little small. Or there's an Anime convention mid-August...

I would prefer for the conventions suggested to be in mid-July or later... after all, we're trying to plan a massive event here, and it would be very nice to have at least a month's notice for it.

The anime convention seems like a good possible candidate. (I should probably start making a list of conventions that would work on the OP.) I like its location - pretty close to both the US and Canada - and it seems like an appropriately-sized venue. My only concern is that the convention seems to mostly be about anime and cosplaying, whereas it would be nice to choose a convention more based on gaming...

There are conventions for just about everything imaginable, all over the place. Usually it cost you $$$$$ to get in there, to get a booth... and depending on the convention / venue, it could cost quite a bit. Having a sponsor/partner would be of help... say Steam or GOG.

Yes, KSP members would have to pay for their own tickets for the convention, wherever it is... but then again, they would probably have to pay for a SQUAD-run Kerbal-Kon as well. Maybe we could start a fundraiser for people who can't afford airfare/tickets, but that's a matter we can deal with later. First thing's first, we need to find a convention spot and ask them whether we can come.

Speaking of which:

Thanks for the link!

Unfortunately, many conventions in late July or early August seem to be tangential to the theme of Kerbal Space Program: many of them seem to be board-gaming conventions. PAX Prime is going to be held in Washington in November, but that's rather too large a venue for my taste: there will probably be well over 75,000 people there.

There is another convention in Washington called SpoCon at Sasquan, which looks to be a very good candidate (it's a general-audience, small-venue comic convention with a science-fiction focus, held Aug. 19-23). Unfortunately, their annual attendance is just over 1,000, so they probably couldn't take too many KSP players... but I'm not sure that more than several hundred people would come anyway. It definitely merits a place on the list of candidates.

Isn't kerbalkon a thing already?

Yes, but it's pretty much exclusively on Twitch... which isn't quite the same as having a bunch of KSP players in a room together.

Maybe us New Englanders should talk to those at ConnectiCon for this summer and possibly FlightSimCon for next year.

Sadly, it's probably a little too late to arrange anything at ConnetiCon... though FlightSimCon sounds like a great venue for next year!

I'm beginning to think that I should have had this idea sooner... it seems as if many of the best conventions have already happened :(

@UpsilonAerospace

This is a very good idea and I wish you the best of luck!

I try something similar to this already for all those in and around (or willing to journey to) Munich in Germany. More information can be read in the german subforum or on kerbalspaceprogramm.de !

If any non-german-speakers have questions, want to come too, or are just generally interested, please contact me directly via pm.

Maybe you could even mention that in your original post? The more people can be reached the better!

Very neat! I'll probably put this on the OP as soon as I get the time to do so.

I wish I had time to reply to everyone, but sadly, I must go. Keep up the good work everyone! :)

-Upsilon

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No matter how or when, someone reading this forum won't be able to get there. It doesn't have to be one place at one time. KSP has players in any city with electricity. Someone who has the interest and ability to set up a meeting in a low-key place, could simply create a new post, and ask for RSVP's. If that brave volunteer gets too many responses, perhaps one of the responders will have an idea for a venue. If it actually happens, it could grow in the future. Adding public parks to the list of ideas... some have community space that can be reserved, for low-key events.

###

From: Squadcast Summary 2015-03-20

Twitch question to Maxmaps: where to host a Kerbal Kon?

No matter where it is hosted, it will be far from someone. Maybe based on players choosing to say where they are, we could graph and average every player's location and come up with a good location, but I'm going to guess it would be somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean... give or take.
[so, what about the moon, that is far away FROM EVERYONE!]
"You are... full of wisdom
k_wink.gif
"
[what about Australia]
Max said that Australia is/was ranked number three in regards to sales, lots of KSP fans - but hasn't seen regional stats in a while, it could have moved. None the less, "Down Under is certainly HIGH on the list!"

Edited by basic.syntax
Added quote from SQ
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As a [transplant] Houstonian I'd of course push the largest city in the Republic [of Tejas] as a possibility. We could even slip off down to JSC to see some real space junk. And no matter what part of the globe your from you'll find a community here that cooks your foods and speaks your language (maybe).

Problem is, we don't really have any conventions coming up that would make sense to piggy-back on. Nothing in July (unless you count the Valve World Expo... yay, pipefitters). There's a high-caliber gun show in August (and every month after, because Texas), which arguably includes rockets and missiles (and I'm sure some will be available for purchase), but it doesn't seem like a good demographic match.

The only really good match is the Amazing Comic Con around Labor Day.... but that's comics and such. Might work, might not. Also in September, so school issues.

What's coming up in Orlando and DC?

Edited by Cydonian Monk
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