gameclucks has 4 chronicles

1. GC Guy ToTO - Tournament Planning Basics
   

   Player Chronicle -- Posted on Mar 04 2010

   In this edition I will try and explain some of what I consider "basics" in planning an event. There are far more steps to this then what I will go over, but these couple of things are KEY in my mind and are part of what makes one a good Community TO.
   Anyone can plan and execute an event. It is really not that hard. The bare basics of an event are really pretty easy. Being good at it and planning it with others in mind is a bit harder though, because you have consider the larger picture.
   
   Choosing a Date
   This is the single biggest thing that the "Community" needs to get better at. Unfortunately a huge part of the Community screws this one up most of the time. For smaller/less known TOs and Groups, this aspect, unfortunately probably hurts you all more then anyone as well. This is how I go about this.
   1 - Plan WAY ahead. If you have followed me at all, you know I often have an entire year of events planned out. I blog about then, I post about them, I announce them at my events, on GCTV, on the GameClucks website. The basic outline of my events is very easy to find! I may not have exact "days" but for instance back on Oct 19th 2009, I had the TP schedule laid out for all of 2010 in this blog - http://allisbrawl.com/blogpost.aspx?id=40070. So far I am on track.
   2 - Research Other Events. When it comes to planning an actual date, RESEARCH that! Look at what other large events are happening and when. AiB has this GREAT tool built into it, it is called the Tournament Calendar, you can find it on the Tournaments tab/drop down of the AiB site. Then you should also go to Smash Boards and check there. Plan your event with a minimum 2-3 week buffer between you and another "large" event, and really 4 weeks+ if you can. Worst case, do not conflict with your same Region, Region meaning Western US, MidWest, Center US and East Coast. If you want attendance, you need to plan your event for anyone with in 10hr drive of you, or a convenient flight (3-4 hr flight time). If you are a small event (like a GC Local for example), you should try to not have your event on the same date as anyone within 2hrs of you (some exceptions like SoCal I guess... where they could have 3 or 4 locals with 40+ ppl at each of them two towns away probably, but 90% of us are not SoCal).
   The Research issue is where 90% of the events go off the rail and cause issues. There is NO REASON to not research before you plan an event and then contact the other TOs with things planned and find out how maybe you could help instead of hurt.
   3 - Date Conflicts. They will occur. It happens. If Research (talked about above) was done right, we would have less of these, but stuff happens. So, how you deal with the stuff is in large part what makes one a good TO or not. When you see that your event and someone else conflict, no matter who planned first or not, you should reach out to that event and see what can be done. Perfect example of this... VGBootCamp and TP were both planning an event in SoCal in May. I had my date booked and posted already. VGBootCamp called me up and said "We are planning a SoCal event also right around TP5 time frame, what can we do?" VGBootCamp and I are now talking about how to do this w/o hurting each other. We may combine forces, they may move theirs a couple weeks later (since I did book first), or we may decide to see how it all falls with both of them. But the point is they called me to talk about it, instead of just going forward and booking a conflicting event and saying FU to me. In the past I have asked other TOs for input on events, on dates for future events, etc. To know there is another event and deciding to just say screw it and double book, shafting one or both of you, is poor TOing and a disservice to the Community.
   
   Venue
   This is more about how to treat the venue then anything else. This is no different if you pay for one or its your house. You need to treat the venue as if you OWNED it. That means clean up, not just at the end, but during the event. How the venue looks during the event, is as important as how it looks when people walk in at the start of the day.
   Honestly, Players - You need to pick your own garbage up, not just dump it on the floor. Smashers for some reason are the worst when it comes to this. You all need to do better.
   TOs - You need to pick up after the players that decide be 5 year old and not pick up after themselves.
   The venue, in part, shows what sort of TO you are. If its a mess and unorganized and always looking trashy (from a litter standpoint), you are likely an unorganized TO also. If the venue is organized and cleaned up through out the event, you are likely a TO that is organized and more capable of running a solid event.
   The issue is not so much how the venue is on its own, or how much you paid for it, but more in how you treat it. A low budget, bad building venue, can still be a good venue, if you treat it like it cost a $100,000.00, not treat it like you paid $12.00 for it. In fact, if you paid at all for the venue, its your JOB as a paying client to the venue, to treat it well and keep it clean. It does not matter if the venue has a cleaning crew afterward (like Seattle Center does), its your job as a TO to make sure the place is kept up and cleaned up.
   The respect that doing this shows to venues, players and your event help goes a long way. People may not "see it", but they will know in the back of their mind that the event rocked, and in part it is because of how you treated the venue. Its a non-tangible, but very important. This helps separate you from everyone else.
   
   Entry Fee's and Prizes
   I will do a blog about this aspect at some point, but simply, you set them to attain the goals of the event. If its a House Event, you should not make money on the event IMO. You have no costs, unless food is included or something, you should not collect money for yourself from a House Event.
   Small venue events, you should price it such that the it doe snot cost you any money and yo can recoup the costs from a venue fee or %age of the prizes (not generally both).
   Medium venue events, priced such that costs are covered and at this point, you are likely trying to make this a profitable business at some extent, so price it so you have money left over.
   Large venue events, get paid. Do not rape for it. You should not make more off any one event then 2nd place in that event did. At GameClucks Locals, GC keeps 25% of the total entry fee's (roughly what 2nd Place gets). If you have a venue fee, price it such that the costs are covered and hopefully something left over.
   I will write this up more completely in a different blog where I explain all things money.

   
   

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