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By Bob Giglio, Convention Director
From comments received and seen on the internet forums, attendees at this year’s
“Historical Miniature Gaming’s Biggest Summer Vacation” at the Valley
Forge Convention Center in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania seemed to enjoy themselves at the
HMGS “flagship” show!
According to the current registration system (CRS), this year total attendance was only 2,958,
down less than 1% from last year which was 2,980, though both weekends were after the July 4th
holiday which many have said was a bad weekend for attending. That said, there is a huge problem with
logging attendance as there was a difference of $1,918 extra in money counted (cash/checks/credit cards)
as opposed to what the CRS recorded. That means there was more money taken in than was accounted for of where
it was taken in (i.e., it went unrecorded).
I assigned the Deputy Director, Neil Brennan, to do some sample checks here and he reported the following:
of the 97 Staff entries sampled there were 14 badges issued that repeated elsewhere. Because staff were
entered prior to the convention it is unlikely that all were human error, however even if they were,
an additional three badges (Eric and Karl Shanholtz and Theresa Swystun) were issued and worn at the
convention, but did not appear in the final report. Based on the excess cash sales that were unrecorded
and the “missing” records from the Staff sample, it is impossible to be certain of the report numbers.
It remains that of the $1,918 in excess unrecorded money, we cannot tell whether the additional funds should be
credited to admissions, merchandise sales (T-shirts, etc.), or Wally’s Basement table sales; however,
based on the paper Wally’s Basement records and merchandise tabulation (pre and post convention inventories)
it is most likely the excess was generated at admissions. Therefore, I would estimate that at least 100 or more
attendees (both paid and free minors/spouses) went unrecorded as a result of the aforementioned, which means
total attendance was likely closer to 3,058 or more.
The bottom line is that the current CRS is not “user friendly” for quick use at the convention,
and therefore needs to have that portion redesigned so that it is all on one screen (like the previous
registration system) for processing onsite attendees quicker. In addition, there have always been about 3-5%
duplicates and bad records in the attendance figures that my senior staff and I have had to go through and
strip out each year. I highly recommend further study on the CRS issues.
Since HISTORICON 2012 will not be on the weekend after the July 4th holiday, that should easily help attendance,
but then again the convention is expected to change to another venue, so remains to be seen the first year.
While there was so much to like about the venue (good lighting, A/C that works, easy access even for handicap
people, plentiful parking, more hotel rooms on site, etc.), naturally there were a few slight things that would need
to be tweaked. For example, the food and bar concessions closed at least two hours earlier than they were told to,
but that means loss of revenue for the venue (they were told each morning, and still closed early!)
In the end, due to the rework of the rework that the casino construction (eventually put on hold for 30 days)
allowed the convention management to renegotiate a fantastically favorable new contract so that we got the venue
very cheaply (over 120,000 sq. ft. for $20,000 plus $22,000 in hotel commissions while still lowering the booth
cost for returning vendors), and this allowed HISTORICON 2011 to be the most (net) profitable ever, and for HMGS
as well. The delay in getting the July financial report out is due to waiting on HISTORICON 2011 final commission
checks from all the hotels as well as from VFCC. The financial report will be issued by the Board of Directors
once these major items have all been received (hotels are slow with getting commissions paid!) However, I can
safely say that the “positive cash flow” (net profit) for HISTORICON 2011 is over $47,000.
Still, I wish my Staff and I would have had one year at the VFCC that we could have exclusively worked on the
venue shortfalls instead of having most of our time sucked up or put on hold for contract changes that impacted
virtually every phase of our planning.
There were 602 games in the program (not including last minute cancellations), plus seminars, tournaments, painting
and other events. While there were too many events to really mention, a few will be highlighted here.
- HMGS War College: Due to the new extra space at the new venue, this was expanded to be the
largest ever – with an average of 22 attendees per seminar (for a list of the speakers and seminars
that were presented at HISTORICON 2011, click on the following link for The War College.) Our two Guests of Honor
– author Peter Cozzens and John Hill – were very well received by attendees at their seminars.
HMGS continues to meet its commitment to the educational aspect of its charter with providing these seminars.
- HMGS Game-Master Awards: The “Best of Show” GM Award was presented to Bill
Moreno, Rob Hall and the South Florida Miniatures Gamers for their ‘How
the West Was Lost Book II’ game. The “Best Theme” GM Award for the “Brother
against Brother – American Civil War, 1861-65” theme went to Bob Moon and
the Jacksonville Garrison for their ‘Battle of Gettysburg,
1-3 July 1863’ game. For the full list of dozens of other GMs that
received awards for their games at this year’s convention, click on the
following link for the HISTORICON 2011 GM Awards.
- Osprey Campaign Competition: The winner this year was Steve Carroll for his game
“Forge, Then Torch” (from a total of 22 entries). According to Osprey: “Using a simple
set of home-brewed rules, Steve created a fun and exciting game based on CAM 179: Sherman’s March
to the Sea 1864, even going so far as to show the exact piece of artwork that
served as inspiration for the game. Basically, the game revolved around
Confederate militia and citizens trying to stop a Union raiding party. However, what the Confederate
players did not know was how important preventing their own casualties was to their victory conditions.
It was nail-biting game that came down to the last minute, when the Union cavalry
arrived and secured a minor Union victory. Thanks to Steve and all of the GMs who
ran games in this year’s competition. As a prize, Steve will get to choose five Osprey
Campaign titles.”
- Raffles: The two winners of the ACW Fine Art Prints by military artist Keith Rocco
were Bill Doras (140th New York on Little Round Top) and Vern Minkowitz (Devil’s Den),
and Rafael Lavall won the Hougoumont print.
2012 Convention: This website will go through a transition from the current
webmaster to the new convention management (as the new convention director takes over), which can take
weeks/months. However, the Convention Lodging link at the left will be updated for a list of hotels
that have Group Blocks reserved for attendees for 2012, as well as other pertinent information, once a
convention site has been chosen by the HMGS Board of Directors and information becomes available (contracts
signed, details agreed up and uploaded, etc.), so keeping checking back every few weeks for updates!
Future Convention Themes: To see the Convention Themes for HISTORICON 2012 (and 2013)
click on the Future Conventions link at left. [Note: If anyone wonders why HISTORICON 2012 theme does
not coincide with the Napoleonic 200th anniversary of 1812, it was because two years ago the Cold Wars
convention wanted that theme for 2012.]
Last, but certainly not least, is that I’d like to extend my “Thanks” to the 80 total
staff that helped make HISTORICON 2011 a great success (a full roster of their names is listed below).
10 Convention Committee (Senior Staff):
Convention Director – Bob Giglio
Deputy Convention Director – Neil Brennan
Events Manager – Duncan Adams
Promotions Manager – John Franklin
Publications Manager – Don Perrin
Registration Manager – Michelle Preziosa
Resident Artist – Rich Hasenauer
Vendor Managers – Jeff & Monica Hobbs
Webmaster – Jim McWee
15 Coordinators:
Awards – Christin Scuilli
Database – Paul Trani
Events – Dudley Garidel & Tim Mullen
Vendor Hall – Mike Betz & Matthew Tate
Wally’s Basement – Chris Johnson
Media – Dana Lombardy
Hobby University – Heather Blush
Registration – Jon Paul Colegrove, Kathy Higbee & James Thomas
War College – John Dunn
Staff Photographer – Richard Mataka
Tournaments – Scott Holder
55 Staff (in alphabetic order): Brian Beal, Christian Bellini, Donna Betz, John Braun, Tim Broome, Don & Nick Carlucci, Wayne Cooper, Roger Covington, Lindsey Crouch, James Curtis, Bruce Eggleston, Daniel Erdman, Robin, Brandon & Devin Empey, Dennis Fischer, Geoff Graff, Steve Hanson, Jim Hergenhahn, Brian Higbee, Dave Hixon, Jerry Hurwitz, Todd Kauderer, Bob & Cleo Liebl, Asher Lurie, Brian Marsh, Devin McKenzie, Randy & Steven Meyers, Anita Millman, Beatrice Moulin, Rick Nance, Susan Nash, Gay Paulter, Bob Scripp, Eric & Karl Shanoltz, Eugene Suchora, Andrey, Nathan & Teresa Swystun, August Thiesing, Michael Thomas, Eric & Kasey Towles, Bruce Witver, Ed Wright, Caleb & Luke Wyckoff, Bob Yatison, Dale & Brenda Zartman, John Zseller.
Special Thanks to Orest Swystun, as the Beeve… er, ConOps!
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