AFTER ACTION REPORT – HISTORICON 2007

By Bob Giglio, Convention Director

Based on internet reports, emails and comments received, this year’s “Historical Miniature Gaming’s Biggest Summer Vacation” at the Lancaster Host Resort & Conference Center in Lancaster, PA., was another well received success!

Let me begin by saying that starting on Thursday morning – the first day of the convention –the Lancaster Host had to open their reserve parking (gravel) lot, which no one remembers being used that early before. While total attendance was 3254 – up about 3% over 2006 (up about 10% over 2005) – the majority of those attending this year arrived on Wed./Thurs. to maximize the enjoyment of their convention gaming “vacation”! In fact, pre-registration was staffed to the max, but still over-whelmed both Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. Even the line for the opening of the Expo Center where attendees could purchase hobby products from the 94 vendors attending this year was the longest ever – all the way back to the outdoor patio where they grill the hamburgers and pit beef! While we try and do our best to keep the lines down, it pleases us to no end when hoards of excited gamers overwhelm our facilities.

There were over 700 games this year, plus tournaments, seminars, and painting events of all types along with demos and shopping and flea market bargains and oh yeah, did I say shopping – overall about 27% more than last year – yet all were accommodated well enough with just a bit of juggling to make it work for everyone.

Disappointments were few, however we all suffered from the poor A/C in the Expo Center along with the bathroom plumbing. This time we struck back as I negotiated about a 50% refund on the rental fee to reimburse us for the service we didn’t get. The venue management assured me that starting by end of August 2007, the five large A/C units would be refurbished (condensers replaced, etc.) and proper new plumbing placed in the bathrooms to allow the Expo Center to handle the stress placed on it by the sheer volume of visitors we provide (it was originally designed/used as a large tennis venue, and current specs have not changed to accommodate the large volume of traffic at HISTORICON). All these changes will easily be finished by HISTORICON 2008. In addition, starting January, the Showroom and Lampeter rooms in the hotel proper will be refurbished as well (but should not impact the Cold Wars 2008 convention in March).

While there were too many events to really mention, a few will be highlighted here.

• The Military Seminar Series (in its second year!) was again well attended, with an average of 28 attendees per seminar. For a list of the seminars that were presented at HISTORICON 2007, click on The Military Seminar Series.
  
• Duke Seifried, one of this year’s Guests of Honor, ran a North-West Frontier convention theme “Extravaganza” that will be featured in hobby magazines. Duke presented another great series of games, with his usual award winning terrain, all from a guy that’s over 70 years old and still going strong!
  
• John Speiss received the Legion of Honor award for Best Visual Presentation (fittingly awarded by Duke Seifried), plus the award for Best Theme Game for his own North-West Frontier game, which was also featured in local newspapers and on CBS TV, reporting on the convention. [For a full list of those GMs that received awards for their games at this year’s convention, click on the following link for HISTORICON 2007 GM Awards.]
  
• Frank Luberti was awarded Best Osprey Campaign Game for his Battle of Monmouth game, which was judged by Osprey Publishing staff. His prize was ten Osprey books of his choosing!
  
• The raffle for the Fine Art Print by Keith Rocco – 200th Anniversary of the Charge of the Cuirassiers at Eylau, 1807 – was won Rob Wingert (a battlefield tour guide that lives in Gettysburg, PA.)
  
• The Iron Paintbrush had its debut at HISTORICON 2007, and was warmly received with six teams entering this year. The winning team managed to paint and assemble a beautiful mounted knight atop a hill within only one hour. This team is now rightfully called THE Iron Paintbrush, and the one to beat at HISTORICON 2008!
  

Those who could not attend HISTORICON 2007 should start making plans now to attend in 2008 – July 24-27 – by making hotel reservations. Simply click on the Convention Lodging link at the left for a list of hotels that have Group Blocks reserved for attendees already for 2008. But, these will fill up fast, so here’s your chance to book early – get yours today!

While you are doing that, convention management is busy working on an upgrade to the registration process. This year we got the best verified numbers we ever had, which helps know how to deploy future resources. Cleaning up the numbers has other benefits as well; making registration less confusing and allowing us to keep down the errors that steal your time at the convention. The HISTORICON convention management is making a lot of progress in this area.

To see the Convention Themes for HISTORICON 2008 (and 2009) click on the Future Conventions link at left.

Last, but certainly not least, is that I’d like to extend my “Thanks” to the staff that helped make HISTORICON 2007 a great success (a full roster of their names is listed below).

We hope those who attended HISTORICON 2007 enjoyed themselves enough that they are looking forward to “Historical Miniature Gaming’s Biggest Summer Vacation” next year – and tell your friends!

Convention Committee (Senior Staff):

• Convention Director – Bob Giglio
• Deputy Convention Director & Registration Manager – Neil Brennan
• Events Manager – Duncan Adams
• Vendor Managers – Jeff & Monica Hobbs
• Promotions Manager – Kathryn Plamback
• Publications Manager – Don Perrin
• Resident Artist – Rich Hasenhauer
• Webmaster – Orest Roman Swystun

Coordinators:

• Awards – Pete Panzeri
• Events – Mike LaVigne & Tim Mullen
• Vendors – Michael Betz
• Flea Market – Matthew Grove & Chris Johnson
• Painting – Heather Blush
• Registration – Kathy Higbee and Frank & Michelle Preziosa
• Seminars – Richard Brooks
• Tournaments – Scott Holder

Staff (in alphabetic order): Jonathan Burger, Dan & Don Carlucci, Neal Catapano, Chris Caudill, Jon Paul Colegrove, Roger & Shelly Covington, The Crouch Family, James Curtis, Mike Dolan, Bruce Eggleston, Paul Fasciana, Doug Fisher, Geoff Graff, Richard Greenway, G. Wayne Hamilton, Steve Hanson, William Harrop, Jim Hergenhahn, Brian Higbee, David Hixon, Jerry Hurwitz, Todd Kauderer, The Kerstetter Family, Bob & Cleo Liebl, Asher Lurie, Rick Schirtzinger, Darrel Swanson, Matthew Tate, August Thiesing, Andrew Turlington, Bruce Witver, Nick & Liz Zizo.

We would like to give a big “Thank You” and wish all the best to Orest Roman Swystun for having been the Webmaster for the last six years of HISTORICON. This was his last year, and as such he will be going off to that well desired rest at the HMGS East Volunteer Retirement Home (located right next to Arkham Asylum!)

Bob Giglio

Actually Bob, It is I who would like to thank all of the HMGS community for making this job the joy that it has been. It is a real pleasure to look back on my experience in this role, going back to 2002 when I redid all the convention websites so that they would have the same look and feel. It was great to have the experience working with John Drye, Pat Shields and yourself. We have come a long way in that time and I am so grateful that I was given the opportunity to contribute, in the role of webmaster, registration desk, GM help desk and so much more. Again thank you.

- Orest Roman Swystun