Kerbal-Kon 2016- Let's Do This, For Real This Time

[kenbobo]

If you remember, during the summer last year, we had a forum thread about a possible Kerbal Convention.

 

Let's actually do it this time.

@UpsilonAerospace, help please! You were a great organizer last time.

 

My vote- The Eihusen Arena in Grand Island, Nebraska, at 3,250$ [per day].

 

Start a GoFundMe, perhaps?

 

[This event not afilliated with SQUAD or Kerbal Space Program.]

On the topic of the Eihusen Arena, I have documentation regarding this topic.

[BagelRabbit]

There are several factors that are making me have doubts that we would be able to do a community Kerbal-Kon, or at the very least, that I would be at the head of it.

First off, organizing such a con requires many volunteer hours. You have to realize that the setup and takedown would probably take a week or so, and it's difficult to get a team of volunteers to travel anywhere for a week. You would probably have to place this con in a very highly populated region of the world for it to be any sort of success, and the team would likely be mostly comprised of adults.

Speaking of adults, many of the people playing KSP aren't. Trust me when I say this: cons dominated by teenagers are mostly local and very small-scale because the people often have to be within driving distance to attend. If you want a tiny Kerbal-Kon, that would be fine - although it's likely most Famous People won't show up and it will be more like a meetup. I assume you don't want that.

Ideally, the people making the big decisions should be people who have organized other conventions. This is simply a matter of "they know things about this that we don't." As of yet, no one has been recruited. This would be an ideal thing to do in the future.

There is currently no monetary strategy to make this Kerbal-Kon happen. Assuming you want a big one, I will repeat that it has to be in a heavily-populated area. These convention centers are not cheap. Gathering booths and multimedia for the guests is not cheap. Getting merchandise for the event is not cheap. Paying for celebrities to come (and don't assume they will otherwise) is not cheap. I could see this convention costing less than $20,000 (maybe), but it won't turn a profit. You would have to aggressively raise money for this. Oh, and did I mention most convention centers in major cities are largely booked out for the entire year? Perhaps this would be a good thing - there's more time to raise money - but it won't mean immediate rewards.

Is it possible? Yes.

Is it probable? Maybe, but not in the near future.

tl;dr: I dunno, man.

-Upsilon

[GoSlash27]

 Honestly, I don't think the KSP community is nearly large or centralized enough to support a convention. I could see making it part of a gaming convention or perhaps a comicon.

Best,
-Slashy

[Spaceception]

21 minutes ago, GoSlash27 said:

 Honestly, I don't think the KSP community is nearly large or centralized enough to support a convention. I could see making it part of a gaming convention or perhaps a comicon.

Best,
-Slashy

Or a day where SQUAD staff/Moderators plays career mode multiplayer for several hours on Twitch or Youtube, or when someone makes a thread "What's the most you can do in KSP in one day?" and does a challenge to see who does the most in the span of 10 hours in their respective time zones.

Edited March 8, 2016 by Spaceception

[DuoDex]

I must resist the urge to post a meme at this juncture.

Must...resist....

---

Seriously though, if you guys want to do this someone is going to need to spend a non-trivial amount of money to get a venue set up, concessions, keynote speakers, tickets. And the bad part is that you'd still probably be doing it in conjunction with another group of some sort. In my opinion, it'd be best to find some space-related convention and piggyback have a meetup there so there's plenty to do still, without all the expenses I've mentioned above.

[CAKE99]

9 minutes ago, DuoDex said:

I must resist the urge to post a meme at this juncture.

Please post a meme!

[Frybert]

12 minutes ago, DuoDex said:

I must resist the urge to post a meme at this juncture.

Must...resist....

How do you do it?

[Kozak]

DasValdez is in Texas, i'm sure he'd absolutely love to attend, i dont think he'd want to go very far though, I'd suggest dallas, churches here tend to be very willing to help out people. and also schools. We could get a place to host it pretty cheap. and catering isn't a problem with all the resturaunts nearby.

EDIT:

Also, i'd love to help out in any way possible, i can't give money because well i barely have any, but i am an eagle scout and can help organize the event as well as run it.

EDIT 2:

DasValdez would probably also love to speak at the event, maybe he could host a real life kerbal helpdesk!

EDIT 3 (I'm excited.).:

I can set up a Discord server so we can communicate easily for those who are going to help. odds are that + phones will be used when the event itself is happening(if it does happen).

Edited March 9, 2016 by Kozak

[Stargate525]

I'll tell you right now that Grand Island ain't gonna happen. Your best way in is via puddlejumper from Omaha or Vegas, or into Lincoln (which is equally teeny) and then suffering through an hour or two on I-80. I went to university just an hour from the place. Dear GOD don't put it there.

If you want somewhere small-ish while still actually being able to get there, I'd suggest a city like Milwaukee, Kansas City, or Colorado Springs.

[worir4]

You guys can all come over to my house. We can all huddle around my 22inch monitor while we take turns to play KSP. Hopefully some of the dev team will show up, maybe some Youtube and Twitch stars also. 

The date is March 22nd 2016. £10 entrance fee (no refunds). 

@DuoDex, If you bring your TARDIS i'll only charge you half price.

.................................

In seriousness, I would like a Kerbal-con but i doubt it would be near enough for me to go to. Maybe another one of those live stream ones that they did a couple of years ago?

[Spaceception]

1 hour ago, worir4 said:

You guys can all come over to my house. We can all huddle around my 22inch monitor while we take turns to play KSP. Hopefully some of the dev team will show up, maybe some Youtube and Twitch stars also. 

The date is March 22nd 2016. £10 entrance fee (no refunds). 

@DuoDex, If you bring your TARDIS i'll only charge you half price.

Where is it?

Oh wait, your British, I'm American. Nice accent btw, I haven't heard it, but I bet it sounds awesome   

[worir4]

51 minutes ago, Spaceception said:

Where is it?

Oh wait, your British, I'm American. Nice accent btw, I haven't heard it, but I bet it sounds awesome   

I hope you're not expecting a posh guy with a bowler hat.  I am from the north....

[Spaceception]

Just now, worir4 said:

I hope you're not expecting a posh guy with a bowler hat.  I am from the north....

No

[kenbobo]

How about localized Kerbal-Kons that are small and are connected? Like, I'm sure my school would allow one in the gymnasium. But anyways, I can see it working this way. Inspiration somewhat from @worir4.

[Kozak]

32 minutes ago, kenbobo said:

How about localized Kerbal-Kons that are small and are connected? Like, I'm sure my school would allow one in the gymnasium. But anyways, I can see it working this way. Inspiration somewhat from @worir4.

That could work really well. I can get a church to let us do things in Dallas. maybe we have 1 place per state? or at least as many states as we can.

[Cydonian Monk]

16 hours ago, Kozak said:

That could work really well. I can get a church to let us do things in Dallas. maybe we have 1 place per state? or at least as many states as we can.

Dallas would be fine for you South Oklahoma folks. We could then host the Texas one here in Houston.  j/k, clearly it should be hosted in MacGregor. 

 

The networked cons/meet-ups thing might be the only way this would ever work. Small venues are usually much cheaper (or free with the right connections), so it would be more of an "International Day of the Kerbal" where several smaller groups get together in whatever place they call home. Still not easy (or cheap) to orchestrate, but such a distributed "con" can work. And local nodes could always checkin with other such meetips as the day goes on.

I've organized similar local events for certain global "day of whatevers" (like photowalks), and while that all went [mostly] swimmingly, they were never something that required a set physical space or non-trivial amounts of money. And they all had corporate overlords who were willing to throw some schwag our way. (Though I no longer have any connections with our neighbor down by Clear Lake, and I'm already pretty booked up for the summer, so I'd be of little use orchestrating anything here.)

Edited March 10, 2016 by Cydonian Monk

[Rocketscience101]

Can we have kerbalcon at the Kennedy Space center some time. I haven't been in so long and would love to go and meet people just as enthusiastic about space travel as I am. We could hold it in either the rocket garden, or the Saturn V museum. We could have devs, community members and astronauts speak at the event. The goodybag could contain a poster of Jeb Bob and Bill in the Apollo 11 style 3 crew photo, and Valentina in a classic astronaut pose. Have 3d models of kerbals, a model rocket designed like the semi large srb, and a series of squad and NASA patches. If we have to, I am almost certain the community would be more than happy to help fund it. I now I would and would still be willing to fork over the price of admission.

[Findthepin1]

It'd be better to have it right in the middle of wherever the most KSPers live. If most live in, say, Europe and North America, host Kerbalcon in Greenland or the Azores, because they're right between the two continents. That is to cut costs for the attendees.

Edited March 14, 2016 by Findthepin1

[bncrock]

1 minute ago, Findthepin1 said:

It'd be better to have it right in the middle of wherever the most KSPers live. If most live in, say, Europe and North America, host Kerbalcon in Greenland or the Azores, because they're right between the two continents. That is to cut costs for the attendees.

Why not have multiple?

[Findthepin1]

1 minute ago, bncrock said:

Why not have multiple?

Less chance for people to meet each other. What fun is five different Kerbalcons if only 1/5 of the KSPers attend each?

Edited March 14, 2016 by Findthepin1

[Robotengineer]

5 minutes ago, Findthepin1 said:

It'd be better to have it right in the middle of wherever the most KSPers live. If most live in, say, Europe and North America, host Kerbalcon in Greenland or the Azores, because they're right between the two continents. That is to cut costs for the attendees.

Only a few Kerbal players from each continent would have the funds and dedication to go to a convention in Greenland. Better to have a few small conventions that more people can attend than a major convention that few can attend. For example, you could have a midwestern USA Kerbal Kon, a west coast one, east coast, etc. 

[pandaman]

... and a UK one.

At the National Space Centre maybe, it's also a fairly central location. 

[Basto]

We should have it on the ISS. 

[katateochi]

There's also this thread started recently about this. 

27 minutes ago, Findthepin1 said:

It'd be better to have it right in the middle of wherever the most KSPers live

.....we might need a boat.

 

12 minutes ago, pandaman said:

... and a UK one.

here here! (though being British, we'll probably just end up meeting in a pub)

 

I'd also really like to have a big gathering of us somewhere, but the logistics of it seem......interesting (by which I mean complicated and expensive).

[pandaman]

3 minutes ago, katateochi said:

 

here here! (though being British, we'll probably just end up meeting in a pub)

That works 

I used to work near a pub called 'The Man In space' (the running joke was that it had no atmosphere).  That could have been fun, but It's now a supermarket, so maybe they were right.