Sandy's Soapbox
As a pundit, it's my duty to write about why this collapse was inevitable, and what it means for the RPG industry. Such duty includes pointing out the (in retrospect) blindingly obvious, in a snarky way that suggests it might have gone better had I been in the hot seat. Further, I shall do so in a manner that pre-empts every other analysis of this event.
I will note that, while I am not a multi-millionaire entrepreneur like Peter, I do role-play one. My wife and I also received flowers at our wedding from Peter. And I have gotten free t-shirts for volunteering at Cons. So I believe I am uniquely positioned to be the authority on GenCon So Cal, on Peter Adkison, and on convention running.
(I'm also now a golf expert, because I just read an FAQ on it and bought some used clubs, but that's not a topic for today's column.)
To start with, it's clear that GenCon So Cal quickly lost sight of its core audience--RPGers--by courting computer gamers, anime fans, and other non-RPG cultures. A Con that loses its focus cannot distinguish itself in the marketplace.
It's just as clear that So Cal didn't work hard enough to expand its reach past the ever-shrinking RPGer base, did not open itself to other fan cultures that overlap with RPGing. Roleplaying is a shrinking industry, and any Con needs to expand past RPGs to succeed. Peter should have known this, yet the strong and growing success of GenCon Indy has clearly blinded him.
On the industry side, So Cal really needed to get stronger industry buy-in by having lower booth prices--Peter even notes the booth cost divided by attendance was higher than the main GenCon. It's also a sign of bad economics that he didn't set a high enough booth rate to enable the Con to really be profitable and grow.
Increasing attendance was a problem that Peter blithely ignored, given that he set a goal of increasing attendance by 20% each year yet fell short of that. Without such growth, they were doomed. Further, by having constantly increasing attendance, the Con quickly grew in scope faster than it could support, and shows they should have tried to keep things more stable rather than aiming for higher numbers.
Any new convention gets a jumpstart if it's well branded, so expanding the number of GenCon[tm] shows is a good business move. Clearly GenCon So Cal shows that such overzealousness came perilously close to diluting what really should remain a single-Con brand ... hindsight suggests the trendier name of 'AdkisonCon' would have been a wiser move.
Speaking as someone who does consulting in this industry, it pains me that Peter did not pay me large sums of cash to provide him with this analysis before he started his four year run with So Cal. It would have saved him much time and stress. He talks of six-figure investments in building GenCon So Cal. Had he paid me that sum for advice, he'd still be out the money, but without having to go through four years of Cons. There's a lesson there somewhere.
So there you have it. Peter should have focused on growth but worked on his core. He should have focused more on the RPG segment while opening the Con to non-RPGers. He should have raised booth costs while making them more affordable. And he should have named it either 'GenCon: Adkison' or just simply, 'SandyCon'.
At the end of the day, the one solid conclusion I come to is this. In his open letter, Peter really should have avoided the cliche 'at the end of the day'. That phrase never works.
Until next month,
Sandy
sandy@rpg.net
