ArcaniCon 2015

Southwest Prices from Columbus roundtrip for the last weekend in February:

Minneapolis: $337
Las Vegas: $450
Memphis: $327
Des Moines: $343
Toronto: $500-600 (Other airlines)

John

Something I would suggest considering regardless of where you put the con is # of people flying vs. driving. What’s going to help get you to a good number of attendees?

Another thing that would likely be worth considering is sending a quick email with a few possible locations to the attendees from last year. As Tony had to send out all the certs, you’ve got at least the majority of their email addresses. Some people are likely to go no matter where it is. Others may not be able to go regardless or where it is, except perhaps if it’s in their hometown.

Given that you’re talking late February / early March, the further north you put the con, the more at risk the travel situation becomes especially for flights.

@Eric: Toronto has ~2.5MM people within its limits and ~6MM in the greater Toronto area. Traffic can be obnoxious and prices are certainly high. I expect the further you move from downtown the more reasonable the prices become. It’s a nice city. We were just there a couple of days ago on vacation. Putting it in Toronto would also mean factoring in the impact of needing passports for attendees. If there’s a large enough Canadian contingent that would show up to offset a possible loss of U.S. attendees, then it’s pretty much a wash. Just something to think about though.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

Of the US cities that have been suggested, Minneapolis would probably give me the best chance of attending. It is an 8 hour drive (give or take), which is do-able.

I drive a mini-van, lots of room. Heck, we could probably run a game or two on the way. Car-con?

I like the idea of Romulus, Michigan. As someone who would have to fly in, I realize that Romulus is near the Detroit airport, which is a major hub for Delta Airlines. Thus, transportation is reasonably practical.

Chicago would be a second choice to me as being not as big a hub airport (I think) and probably higher costs for hotel and local expenses.

Thanks for asking likely attendees what we would like to see.

-David Thomas Chappell

Chicago O’Hare is a bigger hub than Detroit (but not for Delta).

Minneapolis is a larger hub for Delta than Detroit is and the entire city is within 20 minutes of the airport (except at rush hour).

I will pile on the vote for Minneapolis! Big Airport and the flights look pretty good. Airport is close to allot of Hotels and the Mall of America… close to Canada!

And I will once again ask how many attendees are you likely to get if it’s in Minneapolis? It’s my question no matter what destination is selected. Last Arcanicon was 70 – 80 people I think. I would expect the goal is to equal or exceed last year’s total. Will Minneapolis reasonably draw that many people? If the answer is yes, then I think it’s a good choice, even if it doesn’t work for my wife and I. If it’s only really good for folks flying in, are you going to get that many people flying?

Tony has the email addresses for folks who attended last Arcanicon as he had to send out all of the certs. I would once again suggest that as part of any selection process that the people who attended last year be given a list of say 5 possible locations or rough locations – say Minneapolis, Detroit, Chicago, Memphis and say Toronto or whatever else makes sense to do. See who’s likely to attend where and post the same list here.

You’ll get a better idea of what makes sense taking that approach rather than the maybe 10 individuals responding directly to this list.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

I agree completely with Paul. Some kind of poll of last year’s participants would be best. Add those results to what’s said here — or maybe a poll on the website for those that didn’t attend — and that should be a pretty good picture of how many people to expect.

I haven’t responded to the thread because one person’s input can easily overwhelm a discussion like that. However, here it is anyway. For me to attend Arcanicon, it would have to be within a (for me) reasonable driving distance from Chicago. Good choices include: Chicago (of course), Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Columbus, eastern Iowa. Suggested places that are too far a drive for me include: Toronto, Minneapolis (brrrr!) and Memphis.

I also agree a poll would be helpful at this point. Multiple people have chimed in with ideas and personal comments. I don’t know if we’ll get any better data without asking people for specifics – I’d suggest a web poll of some sort and email last year’s attendees and post in these forums to make sure everyone knows where to find it.

Mary, I’m curious. What makes Minneapolis too far to drive? It is slightly less than an hour further from Chicago than Columbus is (roughly Detroit = 4.5 hours, Columbus = 5.5 hours, Minneapolis = 6.5 hours). It can be quite chilly in Minneapolis but Chicago often feels colder than Minneapolis due to the wind chill.

I’ll let Mary respond to your specific question, but it seemed a good time to bring up a related point. Drive time isn’t travel time. Drive time is ideal conditions on the roads with no stops. It does not account for weather, traffic, construction, etc. For us Minneapolis is an 11 hour drive. Detroit is 4. When we drove back from Alpharetta Georgia to Cincinnati in June, drive time was theoretically 6:46 minutes. It took 10.5 hours with stops, traffic, etc to get back. For reference we drove on a Sunday with no significant periods of rain.

One of our considerations is can we make it to wherever it is after work and get in by around midnight. Doing a quick look at flights, flying out of Dayton for a Friday night and flying back Sunday, ticket prices $548 / person. Best price if we’re completely flexible in terms of schedule and layovers is $426 / person and there’d be 2 of us.

I agree. Drive time is definitely not travel time but travel time is highly variable (both by person and by current conditions). Minneapolis -> Chicago for me is anywhere from 7.5 to 9.5 hours travel time almost entirely depending on traffic in Chicago when I get near.

If it’s in Minneapolis, I can pretty much guarantee we won’t be there. As I said, if there are enough people who can attend up that way in the 70 – 80+ range it may still be a good choice for the con.

Personally, I think it would be better, if feasible, to move ArcaniCon around each year so it is not always the same players that are always to attend. However, location would be restricted from a practical perspective to where enough players would attend. I think there would be enough players if it was moved further west in the mid-west (Chicago, Des Moines, Minneapolis, etc) but I don’t have the data to know for sure (and I doubt PCI has it right now either without running a poll or something similar). I think it could work in some locations in Canada as well based on the number of vocal Canadian players (I’m assuming there are more that are not vocal on the forums) but I don’t know.