Discount for playtest only

do you want to have a discount for playtesters if they only want to play games. We could all use extra.

The difference between what I want, and what I can do...

Hi Elflord,

Thanks for taking the time to ask. I appreciate your input. I addressed this issue in an earlier post ( http://protospielsouth.com/node/9 ), but I'm happy to talk a little more about it here.

I'm not offering a discount to playtesters for Protospiel South 2010, although I'd really like to. This is where what I *want* to do and what I can *afford* to do differ.

What I Want to Do:
When I was considering prices, I considered letting playtesters get in free, but setting registration for designers at $50. However, I didn't think that I'd get as many people to sign up with such a high admission fee. I even considered making all registrations free and letting attendees pay whatever they wanted to. However, I felt that this exposed me to too much financial risk.

What I can Afford to Do:
I've been pretty open about the finances for this convention. It's going to cost $1,000 to put on. I've retained four sponsors (Steve Jackson Games, Dragon's Lair, Truekid Games, and The Big Skillet Podcast), and I'm grateful to them. Since it's mostly my money (and my wife's) at risk, I'm making the decisions that I feel most comfortable with. I felt that a $25 entry fee (raised to $30 at the door) was appropriate. With that I'd need 40 pre-registered attendees to cover costs, or 30 pre-registered attendees with a sponsor or two. If I'm not mistaken, we've hit that goal (or we're darn close to it, at least). Right there, I'll count that as a success.

A Little More:
At Protospiel South 2010, I'm going to encourage attendee feedback. Admission costs is one area where I really ,really, really want input. I'm very interested in knowing how designer attendees and non-designer attendees feel about playtester registration rates.

My priorities for the convention are:
1) Not take a significant financial hit.
2) Ensure that designers get useful feedback on their games.
3) Make this a recurring annual event.

If it's possible to meet these three goals and let playtesters in for free, I'm all for it. Right now, I'm taking little baby steps toward that – this is the very first year for Protospiel South, after all. Heck, it's the first convention I've ever organized. I'm starting safe and simple and will get more daring as I get more experience.

I'm looking forward to next month. I think it'll be great fun!

Sounds fine, I was thinking

Sounds fine, I was thinking of $5-10 discount certainly not free. Having the sponsors certainly helps and hopefully this will be a sucess and we can do it again next year.

A few thoughts...

Regarding playtesters...
A discounted rate is certainly possible for future instances of Protospiel South. We'll see.

Speaking of sponsors...
Protospiel South is a very inexpensive con, relatively speaking. The convention (room & materials, but not the domain registration, web hosting, food, or labor) costs about $1,000. Just $100 covers 10% of the cost. That manes that every sponsor counts, even at $50 or $100. Sponsors are fan-tastic.

I wonder how many sponsors I'd need if I upgraded to a larger conference room?

Speaking of success...
At my last count, there are more than 30 people pre-registered for the convention. That was my minimum count to consider this a first-year success. The only thing that'll keep it from counting as a success (in my mind, at least) is if I manage to screw up registration badges or the simple task of opening a room for people to gather in.

I think I can handle that. Especially since I have several fantastic people volunteering to help me.

Parting thoughts...
Sponsors rock. Protospiel South is very likely to return in 2011.

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