So, we all had a blast at PKE-S 09 but what could we have done better? What would you like to see? Give us your ideas!
I got a few…
GB Party: Either at a seperate bar or prefrably a room party, also preferably Sat. night. The 501st and the Wolfpack are both well known for their room parties, both of which are invite only and often bring in celebs visiting the con. While we didn’t nearly touch the 501st’s numbers I think we had as many if not more than the Wolfpack at PKE '09 Obviously this year with everyone working the booth and being tired in general it was not to be. But I think we can beat those scrubs and provide a quality kick ass party that we may or may not remember. Having been to both in the past the plan is simple print up invites and give them to hot girls during the day and reap the rewards at night.
Panels: The DC planning guys won’t meet for a few months but I HIGHLY reccommend nominating someone (I nominate Ron) to get involved and see about setting up panels for a Ghostbusters program track. If we were to invite celebs we would need to take up donations to pay them (which is do-able) But it wouldn’t cost anything to have forum members do panels on things like pack and trap construction, converting an ecto, etc.
Screenings: There are several screening rooms at the con every year. So why not take advantage and have a night where we run both films and maybe some of the cartoons. I mean one year they had a 24 hour marathon of the Mask cartoon. I HAD to check it out because I couldn’t believe Mask had a huge fan base and I was right, there were 4 people in there sleeping and that was it…again, we can do better.
So yeah, those are mine.
Well I talked to ya about my complaint about this years PKE Surge Dan,there were quite a few of us that didn’t know where the meeting area for the Parade was at,so maybe next year we can get that a lil better organized.
I also like the idea of a GB party,the BSG Colonial Fleet Party was awesome,the actors that were at this years Dragon came in and partied with the fans,so if we could set something up like that then it would be killer,also just for FYI lets not have a party like the Star Trek Ten Forward party,there was only 8 ppl there when my group of 7 got there,it was a flop.
I’m all for more Ghostbuster stuff at the con, but I wonder if we’d have more luck getting it added to existing tracks? Maybe start with some panels in the X track and the costuming track?
Do the other tracks take donations to get celebs? I dunno. I’m askin. I would think that with all the money they make signing autographs and taking pics, they wouldn’t need much more, but maybe that’s counted separately. Patrick Stewart was charging $200 a pop for pictures and the line of people waiting was unbelievable. I’d be curious to know how it all works.
a room all us old guys can go in and finally hang out. i want to hang with net, and shake our canes at the kids sitting on the front porch. not so much a panel, or a hotel room(im a horrible roommate), maybe some bar time or something.
There did seem to be some confusion for the parade location this year. I did have all the info posted in the oparade thread a week prior to Con but we will be sure to have info at the tables. next year ahead of time. In the end everything worked out great.
The GB party and location is something that we will be looking into. Saturday seemed to be the day most GBer’s were there to attend to the parade. THe crunch award ceremony will be inlcuded into that event as well. I am really liking the ideas so far!
Indeed Hook,the parade turned out great,can’t wait for next year.
I agree with Central Georgia on their ideas also. We deffinately need something more interactive for the fans and costumers. Like I was saying for the table, have a tv with game console for Ghostbusters the Video Game to play.
I think we need a redheaded guy to “Alright!” during the parade.
Austin was all over that this year,I wouldn’t want it any other way in the future.
I second everything, including GB centric panels. I think costuming ones would go over exceptionally- there’s a vast amount of interest in that specifically.
I have one request:
Netsolo.
How’s about fan film screenings or a fan art gallery? Maybe a few display cases with old & new toys and another set of display cases with props (traps, packs, pke meters, etc.). I think any of that would be very cool.
I can say without a dought from personal experience of putting together a GB themed party at Megacon called the “afterlife party”… it is a huge success. Check out the pictures and what not on the southeast forum here.
a few reasons why the party worked:
It was 80’s themed, everyone loved 80’s music and 80’s movies very dance able even if you dont like to dance!!!
I DJ 80’s music and some nerd tracks too.
We had a burlesque act that was PG rated, with a sexy slimer and Janie and a Stay puff., that went over very well because we didn’t go to far to become dirty!!!
We did trivia during the party on stage with a mic with people attending the party, we did trivia on gb and 80’s movies
We also had props galore there to…
there was something to see… something to do… and well something to drink as well.
these are my 2 cents it worked for me when I put it together.
Me. :crossarms:
We barely made it to parade stepoff in time. It appeared there was transportation from the hotels to the parade start area, but damned if we could find out anything about it, so we force marched in gear from the hotels to the parade stepoff point.
I did see there were maps on the gbfans table for Varsity, maybe something similar for the parade? (D-con did have the info in thier pocket planners, and if it is the same next year, we could scan one of those as a reference for others.)
Personally, I’d have preferred a friday night party.. there were many things going on saturday night we were interested in, but missed out on because we were over at Varsity. Friday night was kinda quiet, and it would have been nbice to fill that dead time with our get together. Plus people with thier gear on saturday for the parade wouldn’t have to worry about stowing it.
I do think a mini fan track would be good, but only if we can get any of the original actors there. I’m sure Dan would be interested, especially since there were so many ghostbusters there, and he is a big supporter of the franchise.
I’m not really convinced a film screen would be beneficial.. I know we didn’t go to any film screenings at all… there was too much other things going on.
I’m thinking maybe planet hollywood for the crunch awards, or something closer.. or maybe part of the fan track thing. (A place serving reasonably priced adult beverages would be nice)
I know this might be a little expensive but how about an Ecto car show… it can feature any Ecto replica, and we can pass out adwards… like most creative, most acurate, ect..
Oh! I forgot.. one thing we REALLY need it a information hotline. Getting info here was fine.. up until week of.. and then we kinda fell apart.
Everyone was either doing last minute preparations, or was on the road en route. A day or so before the con, there was no way to get information to or from anyone in charge.
We really didn’t want to drive our Tiburon down, because of the amount of space it has, but once Boomers car was down n out fopr the final count, we also didn’t want to see the parade without any car at all. We had no choice but to pack the car instead of our van, just in case it was needed, which ended up not.
Also, we had no one to call to ask about the parade transportation, or if everyone was heading down together somehow.. we ended up just hoofing it down on foot, not having any other viable options.
Anyone would do, so long as they had an available cell phone number, and had numbers for other people to get the lowdown on last minute details.
There were a number of times we could have easily table sat for you guys, since we needed a break off our feet anyway, but hoofing it across hotels just to get down to the table to ask woulda just been a pain in the rump.
I think we need a cell phone number to call at the table, to call thurs/friday am before the table was setup for last minute details, as well as having a contact for parade info day of.
Hm.. spose I will put my two cents in too..lol.
Numero uno.. I’d love to have our new ECTO there, and I know Scott agrees.. the task is just finding a place UBER close to store it.. Got a year to figure that out.
2.. Def. do night on the town again, but it’s obvious a new spot is needed.. Plenty of choices, and plenty of time to decide.. Would just make sure, wherever it is.. RESERVE A ROOM…lol.
- Fan tracks.. seminars.. etc.. Some of you talked about doing this.. I can say from watching past ones, it’s tough to get a big crowd without something BIG to offer. I’d be afraid, though I am sure it would be a decent ammount, the only attendees would be Ghostbusters. To draw a larger crowd I think we would need to bring in a REAL GB.. Ernie is very inexpensive to bring out, and he’s awesome to talk to, and loves talking..lol.
Not only is getting interested parties to show up.. but getting any of us to fully commit to being on the “panel.” A lot of work and planning can go into that alone.. and you never know what can pop up last minute to change someone’s schedule.
- As for a party/get together… I think this is a good idea.. yet I wouldn’t go overboard. We are many, yes, and a large party could be planned at a club with djs, dancing, etc.. but I takes a lot of planning.. and a lot of us are UBER busy as is.. and I know the planners of PKE surge 2009 were overwhelmed as is. I personally have had enough large, alcohol driven, “booty shows.” that are crammed in tight spaces where you find you don’t know 99.9% of the people there.. I think GB only party/get together would be good enough but at a smaller scale. This is Atlanta.. there have got to be plenty of local spots where 30-60 people can meet up, hang out, and have a good time.. with out being harassed by bums..lol. Ok so maybe the ■■■ part is pushing it. We have a convention here in FL every year and one of the highlights is the pool party.. A large majority of the people staying at the hotel and going to the con, come out for this. It’s centered around the pool.. there is a bar for people to drink if they want.. there is music playing.. there is plenty of room for a large group.. but it’s not overwhelming.. and no work really goes into it. People just show up. Would be nice to have something similar there.. but will be hard since there is THOUSANDS of people milling about already..lol.
Anyway.. sum up of that.. If we have a party.. i hope it stays away from the “CLUB” atmosphere where the entire world has to be invited to compensate.. and that the party is GB only so we can all hang out with each other.
I mean look how much fun Karaoke night was at the diner.. minus the hour long wait..lol.
I think that’s it.. and can’t wait for next year!
I agree about having a Ghostbusters prop building seminar. Tips and tricks, how to build from the ground up, maybe even demo some stuff if that’s possible.
I’d love to see the Actors show up, but I doubt we could afford it. Ernie Hudson seems to be the one who appreciates the fan base the most. It would be cool to get the original voice actors from the cartoons. Maurice LaMarche, Frank Welker, or Laura Summer, would be awesome.
I’d love to meet J. Michael Straczynski as well.
In reply to “The Pink Ghostbuster”, I’m local and live fairly close to the hotels. I have a buddy who has a garage, so if anyone needs to park an Ecto safely, I can provide free safe parking. Even if it won’t fit in the garage, I live in a gated community, and we had a few parade vehicles parked here over the weekend. Let me know and I’ll see what is the best solution.