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gd told me NVscene 2009 will not take place this year.

We were thinking about starting a new demoparty at the bay area around the time of NVscene, trying to force NVscene success on this one.
As this is all in planning phase, I'd like to ask you - demosceners for some pointers - esp from those who are already running a demoparty.

How do you manage your budget? do you invest X amount of money and plan around getting it back? How do you find sponsorship? what do you do when they are not available?

Also, how many people will actually show up?

Reason I'm posting here is because I'm afraid of failure. I'm afraid of investing a large amount of money for an event that will not bring the same amount of income back. Now, I know demoscene is not about money and should not be spinning around it, but being an individual that will invest in a hall, projection and audio system as well as prizes, food, decoration, internet connection and the like, I can't allow a huge money loss out of it.

I know there are a lot of people in the bay area who wants to go to a demoparty and block party being the only choice, except of investing for a europe ticket.

I am willing to invest if the event will prove successful and enough people will show up, but that is a rough and vague description of 'success'.

Let's hope I'm not just dreaming...

In Australia people seem to be happy with any sort of hall, projector, prizes etc that the orga's can find / fund.

There is no expectation of quality environment or releases. Just an expectation of booze and for some reason oldskool platforms.

Why not start small and grow organically rather than try to compete with a commercial enterprise (NVidia). That way you can not really fail.

start with a small school hall, a cheap domestic projector, beer and a home stereo system. if it's fairly successful (ie: you get => 30 visitors) try again for the next few years until it grows. how about that?

too much like hard work...eh? well you better find yourself 10s of thousands of dollars so that you can create the superficial "wow factor" that NV Scene managed last year. and even then you're not guranteed to recoup with today's economic factors.

better leave the partying for the real parties with a genuine foundation, such as BP. because i think it's only their scene history and solid foundation that is even ensuring that they can still continue through the troubles.

first of all: use your real life human connections for getting the stuff you need for a basic party FOR FREE.
Of course a lot of the stuff depends on how large your party will be, but we (TRSAC) managed to go pretty well with the approach below, and we had around 130-150 visitors at the largest party we did.

Here's a list of what is needed to make a basic (but small, yes) party:

Organisers:
You can't do this alone! Be sure to get someone involved that you can trust, and that will actually do stuff - also when the party _is_ running :) This is realyl important!

A location:
A hall of some kind. In Denmark people can often rent a place for 50+ people for a low price, when they live in some rental houseing. Otherwise there are schools, sportclubs etc etc.

Chairs and Tables:
This is of course best if they are already at the location, otherwise you gonna use your network again :)

Projector+canvas:
Someone in your network should have a projector - or someone works at a place where a projector can be borrowed. This is surely one of the things that could be obtained for free. Remeber that it's more important to have a projector than to have a super hi-fi HD 1080p projector ;). If you can't borrow a real canvas, there are "cheapo" alternatives, such as buying a large peice of white cloth, table cloth or similar.

Sound equipment:
Again someone in your network could have a really large stereo you could borrow for free - or someone in your networks has connections to some people that can rent you audio-gear for a rather low amount of money.

Power equipment:
This really depends a lot on how large the party is, and this is probably also one of the hardest things to get cheap or for free inside your own human network. Hopefully you have someone related that is a electrician and can help you out :)

Practical stuff (can wait untill the just before the party):
Garbage bags, toilet paper, (Gaffer-)TAPE (for taping wires and stuff to the floor etc.)

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We've managed to pull this scenario off quite some times with an entrance fee of around 30$ - I'm not saying that your price has to be the same - better safe than sorry, and if you did get a surplus, you can use the money for the next party :)

So, what about Internet, food, and all that?

Well, Internet is nice, but not a requirement for having a party. Also a lot of people have wireless internet dongles etc. So usually someone somewhere has Intarnetz :)

Food is nice - thus hopefully your partyplace is near a supermarket, and then people will be able to shop themselves. Otherwise you can consider organizing a small shop at the party (selling beers, sodas, coffee, toasts etc.) but that really takes up quite some human resources power that could be used for other party stuff.

I perfectly understand that you're nervous regarding the attendance. If you plan to makes this party happen, then put a registration list on the party page, where people can tell if they're coming to your party or not - it wont be foolproof, but at least it will give you some indication of attendance amount. Maybe you could also get some people to prepay this way.


Shit... this is really THE wall of text! :D - hope you can use some of the stuff - and don't hesitate to ask for more ;)

LiraNuna:

try to come to Breakpoint and meet with with the BP Orga Team...
thats what i would advise.

What Puryx said... Additionally...

- To find a good location, take a look where other somewhat similar events are being organised in your area. Places that host school camps, LAN parties or smth like that usually are also (more or less) suitable for a demoparty.

- Let the organisers (including yourself) pay their tickets in advance to get some budget. What? Your co-organisers expect to get their tickets for free? Ask yourself... Do you really want fameseekers like that on your team? Why should you be the only one who is investing?

- Most important of all... When in doubt, "Keep It Simple, Stupid" always works :-)

Looks like pretty good advice.
One thing I have to add though : don't forget the BOOZE! :-)

about the booze. make sure to make explicit rules both for visitors and organizers.

Most parties in Denmark allow humble boozing inside the party hall and heavy boozing out side the hall. This is a legal and a practical issue: Boozing inside = organizers problem, Boozing outside = the boozers problem :-)

As for organizer rules on boozing: Make sure you tell people when they are expected to be functional (this does not imply sober :-). If you are assigned to "compo crew", it might be a good idea to stay functional until the end of the compos :-) (yes, some parties does not comply with this and it DO cause problems ...)

Liranuna, disregard DocD's advice: We have Scamp. That's an unfair advantage. :)

Nothing wrong with coming to BP of course, which I would highly encourage anyway.

I"d be interested in attending your party LiraNuna :)

Make it around GDC and it could potentially attract more people since some of us attend GDC from time to time.

Having organized a demoparty myself I just have this to say: it isn't as easy as it looks. Really. Concider how hard it is. Then take that twice to actually match.

Don't try to force anything from NVscene on your own party. NVscene was only successful because of one thing and you can't supply that.

I fully agree with anybody saying that you should start with a small endeavor. A school canteen, a low-res beamer, a set of speakers and a bunch of people. From there on you can see if it's successful or not.

^^^^^ +1

Yes, start small. You first need to earn reputation for your party before it really may start to grow. At least that's the case if you want to do a DEMOSCENE party. You have to have a look at the possible audience you may attract: And as you know, in your part of the world this audience (active demosceners) is tiny. Doing a party that's bigger than your audience sure may work from a commercial standpoint - but it won't be a demoparty, but a random-people-in-a-hall-with-a-few-demosceners-taking-part thing, which then won't have the perspective to grow organically.

And obviously before organizing a demoparty, you should have visited quite a lot of these (both small and bigger ones) to get inspiration - see which of the features you've seen would work for your party and possibly will fit your budget.

And yeah, stop thinking commercial, and fully forget about NVision. That's the exact opposite of what you'd want if you are trying to build something with a future. Money gone = NVision gone. For a real demoparty with a reputation this won't happen, people still will want to go there even if you haven't got commercial features in a year.

So: First make sure you get the features that are based on passion, and build on them. Plan a demoparty that doesn't need any sponsors but will still rock. If you've achieved this, you very well may add some commercial stuff to get competition prizes and all that, but see this as an optional addition, not as the base.

I forgot to mention a few cases of beer and other booze. Those help!

And forget about sponsors if you plan small. I always shell out around 500 bucks on booze and food for Outline and always make it back by charging a few bucks for a beer and some food (more specifically, it's 1e per beer :))

This actually is so lucrative already that coffee and tea are free.

Here as motivator a picture of Bizarre '94. High towers, CRT's and 50 people.

(A good example for this is Breakpoint - for 2009 we first had to drop all commercial features and went back to the bare metal that counts, people still wanted this party to take place, and once we had secured that we re-added some commercial stuff). Demoparty without money works, money without demoparty doesn't.

What I meant by 'forget about sponsors' is that sponsors usually expect something back and if you just host a hang-around demofest, it's hard to sell. Wait until you have a bigger base of people showing up to make sponsors interested.

For reference, Outline never had sponsors and we've been doing fine for quite an amount of years now.

Precisely. foundations are all, money can't buy the sponge and icing - only the little cherry on top. and that little cherry often falls off in the bakery shop window.

hehhee, oh that was nice

oh, and i forgot, the cake actually still tastes good without the cherry. those cherries they use actually do not really even taste much like cherry, as they are usually saturated with sugar and taste nothing like a cherry.

so the cake still tastes good without it. as long as your sponge and icing are good, that's all that counts.

infact, the cherry's only really purpose in cake production is to add superficial visual variation. it adds nothing to the overall taste. So basically, all you need is the sponge and the icing...and of course BEER!!

I attend GDC as well, and having to buy the all access pass both for myself and my wife, this is a huge expense at this time of year...


That's a problem in the US... I believe there are laws and regulations about 'mass drinking' festivals... I'll have to dig out more in details about those and see what's possible or not.


I didn't mean success as commercial success, more of visitor count and atmosphere, to continue another demoparty in a name of another. (M&S => BP)

It's hard to find a good place to host such an event in the bay area, but I got several places - though expensive.

Thank you all for the positive feedback!

Ohhh yes another NA party ^_^
Lira: remember that Pilgrimage was deemed 'successful' even in 2005 when it was held in -part- of a community hall, that we couldn't stay in past 11pm, and we had to share with a noisy capoiera group. We had a very small rented projector that beamed onto a tiny screen. Honestly, any white painted wall is fine for a projector.

Talk to Jason Scott and RadMan! - they were the organizing force behind the GOOD year of pilgrimage (2004) and they've built BlockParty up from nothing to a reliably awesome event in just a few years.