Lonelygirl15

It's going to be very difficult for us to organize this event. We have a ton of things we are doing to keep the show going. So... you need to find someone who's willing to do all the planning and organization. I am happy to make myself available to that person in order to relay our schedules and figure out a date where the cast and crew can be present. July and August are much better than May/June since the next couple months are really hectic. So... start a poll or something and vote for an event coordinator. Thanks!

Miles

Just my two cents...

First off, I think this is an INSANELY awesome idea! I would absolutely love to actually get to meet those that i've created friendships with. I think it would be a wonderful opportunity.

Secondly, I think its great that the creators are interested in this as well. I think this kind of thing could easily happen if enough of us are interested.

I have a few suggestions though. I think that instead of 1 convention, there should be a few different meet and greets. Like a west coast, a midland, and an east coast or something. Because honestly, theres no possible way I could afford to get to LA, get a hotel room, get food/drinks/etc. I'm sure that there are others in the same boat as I am in. It could be beneficial to do several, more people could get in on the action, and different activities, etc could be planned for each. If it was planned out well enough, alot of neat stuff could happen. If the creators were willing to work with coordinators of each one, maybe they could submit 'lost episodes' or somesuch special for that areas convention.

If there was just one convention...I also thought, maybe Vegas would be a good spot. Theres plenty for all ages to do there, and its a little more inland so people could drive there a little easier.

These just my ideas, love them or hate them

I'd love to coordinate this, and I do have some experience doing these things...

however I'm in canada.
I'm thinking the person that needs to do this definately should be in California, and close to the homebase of the creators, just to make things that much easier.

I remember Cuddlebunnies was pretty interested as we relayed a lot of information and ideas back and forth.

I have to say that I agree with Romy and her suggestion of having conventions across the country. It would be much easier for some of us to travel shorter distances then to go across the country.

KTS...I would also like to help coordinate it, but I am in colorado, and if its held before like augustish, i wont even be able to attend. Thats why i suggested what i did.

Well, I'm throwing myself open to lots of work...from coordination on down - as I said, it's something I've done, can do, and have lots and lots of time for.

Cuddlebunni, what do you want to do here, being on the spot?

Hi guys...

I am 100% willing to help out anyway I can.

Chersh- Glad to hear you have experience with this stuff. I dont have much as far as conventions are concerned.. however I am in a career involving scheduling and coordination. I am also super organized and think this is something I would love helping out with.

Weekends and occasionaly weekday evenings would be the only time I am available to do a lot of planning.

To be honest, I wouldnt even know where to start.. I guess looking at and booking a venue. I am about an hour or less away from the LA area. (Im in Orange County) and could drive to a few venues if you let me know suggestions. Then I could get some info and take a look around, even get some pics if they let me.

Off the top of my head, some venues locally: LA convention center, Anaheim Convention Center, Long Beach Convention center (although those may be quite pricey) Maybe some banquet rooms in local hotels.
I will do an internet search tonite.

We need to start a poll so we can get an accurate count of how many people would actually attend.


Edit : To add : Ive turned this thread into a poll. Please select "YES" if you would be willing to attend a convention in LA so we can get a count of interested people.

Cuddlebunni, I've set you up on my Yahoo!. I have that open more than AIM, but if you're happier with AIM, let me know, I'll start opening both. I start invisible in Yahoo, so IM me at any point...it's possible I've forgotten to unstealth.

I think we need to look at large venues...but I think we're going to need to look at middle/small, too - both from a price aspect, and from a who/how many coming aspect.

We are going to need to find and set a price point, too, so we're going to need to figure out how much folks are willing to pay as well as how many are coming...so the info on how much is charged by each size venue (and whether location counts) will be important.

Since we're talking July/August now (and I really think August would be the way to go...since it gives us maximum time), do you think timing should be added to the poll?

Oh, I popped into the thread down in, I think, Off The Cuff (may have been a GTKEO thread) to let folks know this thread is active again. I think we're going to need to start something up in the announcements area, too, so we can get maximum info... I'll go get that started, but direct folks down here so we can keep discussion to a single location (if possible...but after all, we're talking the LG15 forums...! )

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(although those may be quite pricey)

Plane tickets are so expensive :/
You should try and get a not-so-pricey place

we were planning on going to LA anyways this year to check out housing.

So it wouldn't be that big of a deal

So as I mentioned I have some experience with this from Buffy- not only did we have local fan parties but we had a large annual party in LA. The organizers of those parties went on to do fan parties for LOST.

I've been trying to resurrect some contacts with mixed results. Having been through the process many times I can't stress how important it is to get an accurate number of people who will attend. Naturally everyone will say they are interested, some will say they are interested and qualify it with conditions such as time, place and price. I planned an Atlantic City fan party and 50 people said they would show and only 12 did. We had to change from a bigger venue at the last minute to the Hard Rock Cafe. I've seen similar situations where the organizers had to foot the bill for the balance of the venue because they thought x amount of people would show and didn't.

For the first annual Buffy Posting Board party we just had 50 people at the Hard Rock in Hollywood. As we grew we eventually moved to the El Rey Theater and then to the American Legion Hall near the Hollywood Bowl. We always had bands so it made sense. Went through the same process with hotels. First it was a Days Inn in West Hollywood, then the Beverly Garland Holiday Inn and finally the Renaissance at Hollywood and Highland.

The Renaissance proved a good location for a lot of reasons. 1) It's centrally located to different venues of varying size: walking distance to the American Legion Hall, 2 freeway exits or 1 subway stop to the Hard Rock and Universal Citiwalk or hotel conference and ballrooms; 2) the more affordable Orchid Suites is right next door as an alternative hotel option; 3) the Hollywood and Highland complex is right outside, along with Grauman's Chinese Theater, bowling, the Kodak theater, the El Captain (Jimmy Kimmel,) the Hollywood Wax Museum, Ripley's Believe it or Not and everything else along Hollywood Blvd. and 4) they got a really great group rate for a block of rooms plus a conference room. I have some feelers out to the organizers of those parties since they have established relationships with these venues, hotels to see maybe if we can get the same deals.

I can see an event where a lot of cool things happen. Maybe it's more of a Mixed Media Con where the party is LG15centric but maybe there could be some Q&A panels for other folks in the medium and maybe there could be a Mixed Media taping in front of an audience for those who couldn't make the trip. Maybe some of these unsigned bands that LG15 uses could play a concert. Maybe there is a charity aspect. The Buffy parties grew to have hundreds of attendees yearly and raised a combined $80,000 for MakeAWish foundation. Did I mention they took a year to plan?

We are fortunate to have a model to work against and that people have already faced the issues we might be facing. I would say in the preliminary stages to plan small with the flexibility to grow larger. My gut says let's just try and pull something off locally here in LA at first as a way to gauge interest. You can pretty much count on those numbers then to attend something larger. In fact at the time we all first got together for the Buffy Posting Board Party groups of us were already meeting regularly in our own cities: NY, Chicago, etc. It was easier being a TV show as we could have viewing parties, we all could just get together for the season premiere or finale or whatever. If we could do something like that it would be great. Sort of grow the local contingents then all come together for a big event.

Slow and steady wins the race.

romanceismusic wrote: I have a few suggestions though. I think that instead of 1 convention, there should be a few different meet and greets. Like a west coast, a midland, and an east coast or something. Because honestly, theres no possible way I could afford to get to LA, get a hotel room, get food/drinks/etc. I'm sure that there are others in the same boat as I am in.

I completely agree with this. There is no way that I could make it to LA.

immortal1, I know we NEED to pick your brain and use your resources to the fullest here.

I agree that getting a good number for this is paramount. I, for one, do not want to be stuck with charges for a large and expensive venue that we might not be using fully.

So, we need a date/dates.

We need a good solid count - which means pre-registration that has to start soon...which means we need to get things rolling as to what all could be available in order to interest folks.

From what you've said, I think we need even more to have a first line and a back up location though.

I love the idea of trying to interest some of the unsigned bands in coming out. I love the possible charity angle. And I'm all for the idea of some type of taping for those who can't make it - heck, I'd still like to figure out how to live-feed, if others can get gatherings going at the same time!

Please feel free to PM or email me with oodles and oodles of info!


Edit to add: I am completely shameless! Someone asked up in the Questions forum about character birthdays...and lo and behold, Jonas is a Leo! I don't suppose we could also add that this is a blow out birthday party? (I sorta suggested it just could become one...and added a link sending folks down here! )

I love this idea, but I think late August would be best for that. Planning an event takes so much time and effort and I don't want them to take away from vid production, honestly. Even September might be better for people to plan and save money to travel.

I would help out with this, but my location is in flux for the summer, so aside from doing some research online, the best I can do is make a commitment to attend, which I will do. LA's an easy town for me to make a trip to - I have about a dozen different friends from school all with couches available to me, so I know I can make this one.

I do need to stress - the quicker a specific date is locked down, the higher the chance it will be successful. The Penny Arcade Expo, pretty much the biggest video and role-playing gaming convention ever, does early bird registrations ending in March, starting in January, with the actual convention in August.

Realistically, we should expect this first one to be small, maybe a dozen at the most. Unless video bloggers all start pimping this convention (again, a solid date needs to be set) on YouTube.

But here're the questions that need to be answered immediately:

• Is this intended (eventually) to be a "convention" or a small get-together? My bet would be a smaller, classroom-sized gathering of people. Unless you want to turn this into something that's more than LG15, but for all dramatic online series, which is possible and I would believe desirable - but do we want to do it?
• Is this going to be more adult or all-ages? Valid question. The show is for the most part all-ages, but meetings tend to be more for people who're self-reliant and of age.
• As a follow-up to the previous question, who is our intended audience? Is this for just general fans? Those who are more into the ARG part of it? The hardcore?