G.A.M. (Games, Anime, and More) Convention 2015

[Nz17]

I have started a new convention called G.A.M. (Games, Anime, and More) which will be held in northeastern Utah on August 8th (8/8/2015). The Web site is at [ http://gam.rocks/ ] though I have only installed and secured a basic site setup there with a bit of info for now. In the next couple of months we will begin taking ticket pre-orders: first through Kickstarter, and then afterward through Amazon Payments, Google Wallet, PayPal, and Bitcoin via Coinbase.

I already have tons of ideas planned for the convention, but I need help with something. And that something is contact information for cool people with keen knowledge and rad things for the convention. Keep in mind that this con will be primarily focused on Japanese media (anime, manga, video games), but we will be more inclusive on the games side of things, meaning awesome people involved in US/Canadian games or localization would be excellent to have attend as Guests of Honor.

The most important thing I am looking for right now is contact info for 1) some individual/band who can perform covers/remixes of anime and game music; 2) someone who would be able to deliver, setup, let us use, and later take back home with him his arcade machines; and 3) someone(s) from the North American video games industry, past or present, who would be awesome to meet at a con. Obviously any invited Guests of Honor would be paid an appearance fee to make things worth their time. But I need to know who to invite and how to contact them. Any help with this is appreciated.

Feel free to reply to this post with any information that would be of use, or if the info is of a type not to be publicly disclosed in such a way, let me know via a forum Private Message or we can arrange to have the info shared another way. Thank you for your help!

[Nz17]

Hello all. Nz17, site admin here. I'm sharing news today of my own Kickstarter project. As you know, it is called G.A.M. - the (Games, Anime, and More) Convention... and its Kickstarter project page is now live!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...onvention-2015

In a nutshell, G.A.M. aims to be a fun, annual convention event for fans of video games, table-top games, anime, manga, music, and Japanese pop culture. If our KS campaign is successful, the convention will be held every August in Utah.

I hope that you will pledge your support to our KS project and be a backer. Please spread the word about our project to your friends and family and on your social media accounts. Thanks for your consideration, and game on!

[Nz17]

Short version:

• The convention will happen, guaranteed.
• The date has been moved to August 15th.
• Badges are on sale now.
• New flyers are available.
• New promotional graphics will be available before the end of the month.
• A G.A.M. Facebook account will be online by the end of May.
• Most importantly, we're looking for a good venue to host the event.

The convention will happen, guaranteed.
Thanks to the generosity of two new sponsors, we have enough funds to guarantee that we can have at least a small-sized convention. The convention is happening! There will be no more wondering if it will happen or using words like, "perhaps," "maybe," or the phrase, "We would like to..."

In other words, mark your calendars for August 15th with the letters G, A, & M. Speaking of which...

The date has been moved to August 15th.
Last month we were made aware of a new convention in Salt Lake City which would have fallen on G.A.M.'s previously listed event date. In order to avoid causing scheduling conflicts for anyone or having to have people choose either G.A.M. or the S.L.C. convention, we decided it would be better to move the date to be one week later. So the convention will still happen on a Saturday, it will just be on August 15th instead of the old date.

Badges are on sale now.
As the G.A.M. event is going to happen, it is high time we started taking orders for badges. Badges gain entrance to the convention for attendees like a ticket does. As everyone will need a badge to attend, we are now selling them on the G.A.M. Web site at < http://gam.rocks/article.php?story=20150423002710625 >. For a limited time, they are only $25 if you buy them online. The price will be higher for people buying badges at G.A.M. on convention day, so buy in advance and avoid the long line.

New flyers are available.
We have four fine flyers available at < http://gam.rocks/article.php?story=20150505022010661 > for helpful people to print and share around town and beyond. These have been updated with the latest information, so if you know of any outdated flyers hanging around, replace those old ones with these new ones.

New promotional graphics will be available before the end of the month.
We have a grand lady who has offered to help with our need for promotional graphics. Her name is Brittany and she will be making graphics in a variety of sizes for people to use on their blogs, forum accounts, and social media accounts. While we don't have a delivery date scheduled for these, we believe we will have them available for you by the end of this month.

A G.A.M. Facebook account will be online by the end of May.
People have spoken to me about how G.A.M. should have a social media account of its own, and so it shall be! Before the end of May, we will be launching a Facebook account for G.A.M. There you will find the same high-quality information you can gleam from here but as a convenient part of your Facebook page! So when it launches, please "Like" the Facebook page so you can get the latest updates.

Most importantly, we're looking for a good venue to host the event.
Right now finding a location to host the convention is the greatest difficulty with which we are dealing. We have a small pool of funding (approximately $500 - $600 as of this writing), but we need to find the best place with the most room and A/V utilities for the lowest price. The problem is that many of the places available in and around Vernal, Utah are either too small for our needs (We expect an attendance of 100 - 200 people.) or the venues are too expensive. We have found a few good places to consider and leads on even more locations. However many of the places require liability insurance. This wouldn't be a problem, but liability insurance is very expensive. I was quoted an estimate of $700 for an 8-hour convention!

What we need is info on a place which does not require liability insurance for events and where we can rent enough space for at least 200 people to occupy for 10 hours. This 10 hour time-frame includes 1 hour for setup, 8 hours for G.A.M., and 1 hour for cleanup. We also need the place to have A/V equipment which we can use to display video games, anime movies, and fan-made anime music videos. We can provide the games, consoles, controllers, DVD players (if need be), and videos, but we need the venue to provide things like projectors, speakers, and projector screens... or at least some really big T.V.'s that can be loud enough for a big crowd to hear. Preferably we would have more than one room during the convention so that we can have multiple panels occurring at the same time to provide more content for our attendees.

If you know of any businesses or locations which meet these requirements, we are very interested in hearing about them. Please contact us by sending a Private Message through this forum to Nz17. Thank you.

And if YOU have any questions or comments about G.A.M., please feel free to write to us. Thanks, everyone. I know it was a lot of work to read through all of that writing, but it was even more work to write it all!

The original version of this post can be viewed online at its Web page at < http://gam.rocks/article.php?story=20150505020530400 >.

[Nz17]

G.A.M.'s official Facebook page is now live! Please invite all of your friends to like our page so they can get the latest updates about G.A.M. in their Facebook news feeds. Also, check out G.A.M.'s official Facebook event listing and RSVP if you please. It will help us surmise a good approximation of how many people we should expect which might attend the convention.