This past weekend was Foam Fest 2024. I ran a table for the first time since 2019 and here are my thoughts on things. Most of my event specific feedback has been relayed back to the appropriate game organisers so this will mostly focus on logistics and other meta remarks about information in the hobby etc.
The stall...
With life being a little bit on fire and covered in bees it wasn't exactly certain whether I'd make it to the event. The day job is a demanding mistress and I'm on short notice changes to shifts so things were not planned as well as I'd have liked. Supply chain problems on my part meant I didn't have the sort of stock that would be useful at a convention. Remember, folks, be sure to order your thread and keep an eye on fixings stock levels if attending a major event!
Things I learned include to ensure you've got lots of drop-leg holsters in both black and left handed varieties. I think less space on the table for the machine with maybe some sort of back board to display more pouches and holsters. MOLLE is a hell of a thing so something laser cut wouldn't hurt as a back board weighed down with the dummy and other bits so it doesn't fall over.
I spoke to one attendee who gave very effective feedback about the convention in general. They made a good point about it needing to be different from what you can buy online. I did a lot of attaching Velcro to patches, some minor repairs and knocked together some custom slings for folks while on site which isn't something you'd get anywhere else. I think a better focus on the tactical gear advice service would help, too since I can advise better if I've got the person in front of me. I guess for other vendors, promoting the try before you buy aspect of having the target ranges on hand to try things out would be a good idea, too. I had my swatch book, too which was new for me since I forgot it in 2019. That makes it easy for a customer to flick through and find a colour they like for delivery later. Payments worked fine even though I did forget my tablet for the terminal and had to rapidly install it on my phone. Not taking cash didn't seem to turn people away and I appreciate the faff of not having to manage a float and banking side of things there.
I'll see what I think about a table for next year. With the day job moving into a new phase as of today, I'll see what I can commit to. I was very close to shutting up show prior to the convention but getting to see folks in person has reignited the love of getting the tactical gear message out there.
Driving...
Those that know me know that I like trains. Well, I like well planned urban spaces that move people efficiently and quickly. I don't like driving because it's stressful and inefficient to do so in London. I only learned to drive because I needed to for work and this Foam Fest weekend was the first time I'd ever driven solo - without either a crewmate or instructor in the passenger seat. I hadn't realised how much of a different skill set driving logistics is versus public transport. I very much bought into the whole "bring what you want and dump it in the car" mentality which made for a miserable experience. In particular, transferring between the car and the venue I used some boxes that I'd stuff all my gear into from the stall. I hadn't realised I'd be walking through a public area between the car and the site. To that end, I needed to bury my blacked out blasters in the bottom of the box at the last moment. I think grab bags with event kit in the same way I'd set up for public transport are a must for next time. It's possible that if I'm regularly driving to events then some sort of trolley apparatus to reduce the number of runs between vehicle and site will be in order. I'm sure those with more driving experience will be very keen to share their logistical insights.
There is a myth to the convienence of driving when you have to consider parking and other down time. My rental van opted to drop the fuel gauge from half full to nearly empty in the course of a single journey leaving me with little option to take an unexpected detour in the middle of the night after what was already a very stressful day. There was a lot learned there.
And don't get me started on multistory car parks! They can get in the bin! The massive dent I put in the van will attest to that.
Forgetting stuff...
I do think most of the issues were a lack of planning on my part coupled with a lack of experience behind the wheel. It's an interesting albeit uncomfortable realisation to note how rough the last couple of months have been personally and how that's impacted my ability to plan. I've learned a lot of lessons over the years on how to do stuff and apparently I've begun to forget that with time. That doesn't just apply to me, however. There are areas in the hobby where we've learned lessons and folks have started forgetting them. I need to have a think about persistence of memory and information in the hobby space because the idea of progress is to allow for hard learned lessons to be passed to the next generation and there are spaces where that is starting to falter.
Future plans
Enough moaning. Future plans will see me tackle my high energy rig as the next big project. In the meantime, I'm going to try to get to 28 Darts Later on 17th August for the day to try the campus HvZ there. I've got a planned rig for that but I need to sort the Tempus out and get it firing in a straight line rather than the current mess. There's also Barnet Battleground on 16th August that I'll probably get to, too. High FPS in a CQB space will be interesting. It's only a short bus ride and I'll head down for the evening to see what's what.
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