2017 was qualitatively and quantitatively our best year yet! We had more stretch goal guests, more game rooms, more scholarship recipients, more teens, more panels, more board games, and many more events. However, there were also a lot of changes and we did hit a few bumps along the way. Here’s the feedback we got from our wonderful attendees, and what we’re planning to do about it!
Thoughts on the data
This was a lot to comb through. We first split out all the comments, then categorized them, reviewed them, reviewed them some more, and met to talk about reviewing them. We also discussed which changes are in our power to make and which ones are out of our hands. We’re looking at this from the standpoint of customer service, safety, policy review, staffing, and technology improvements.
Charts and more charts!
For all the ratings, we asked people’s satisfaction on a scale of 1 (not satisfied) to 6 (very satisfied). The pink bar (which is new this year) means Not Applicable. That was interesting information as well! Here’s the breakdown of what we learned.
Takeaway: Despite not having the Big Bad Con app ready this year, moving signups to an all digital method worked pretty well this year. One major improvement was that we didn’t have multiple systems of record (the website, badges, and the wall of signups). Still, we continue to work on ways to make advance signups as fair as possible, and reduce the stress of frantically refreshing your browser on Saturday at noon.
Results: We’re working on signup improvement in a few ways. For getting into games at the con:
- Discord: In particular onsite, we’ll be using Discord (and encouraging others to use it as well) to arrange pick-up games, fill empty slots, and help people find out what’s happening RIGHT NOW.
- App development: We’re looking at a solution that will flag open games and make it easier to sign up from your mobile device.
- Kiosks: We’re adding a few new game registration kiosks this year.
Signing up in advance:
- We’re fine tuning which games count against your quota and which ones don’t, so folks have a bit more time to sign up for larps and big games.
- Staggering game signups so they won’t all be Saturday at noon PST. We’ve tried to pick times that we think the most people will be free, Saturday isn’t always the best!
Takeaway: Overall these were great numbers to see. The one area where noise was an issue was in Games on Demand, particularly in the small lobby where we did signups.
Result: We’re going to re-arrange the space in Games on Demand so folks waiting for their boarding pass to be called have more space.
Takeaway: We have the best people. It’s so great to know that year after year our staff and volunteers are being considerate and helpful! We did have one or two hiccups though, and we’ve talked to the folks involved to ensure we’ll be even better in 2018. One thing a few folks were sad to miss was the free tea and coffee. At the hotel’s request we moved it away from their concessions stand and into the board game room.
Result:
- We’ll be letting folks know when they come to register where to find free coffee!
Takeaway: This isn’t great. The food at the concession stand was not vegetarian or vegan friendly (only a salad on offer), the hours were inconsistent, and the prices were a little steep.
Results: We don’t have a lot of control over this one unfortunately, but we’ll work with the hotel to have more vegetarian options and longer hours.
Takeaway: We used our space much better in 2017 than we did in 2016 and the events benefited from it, but there’s still some areas to improve:
- Having more teens attend Big Bad Con as well as more teen events, and more marketing of our teens track.
- The Games on Demand waiting area got way too crowded and was understaffed during game boarding.
- All our play-to-win games were given away without a chance for folks who were playing in RPGs to claim them.
Results: There’s lots of room for improvement here, and we’ve already got ideas on how to do it:
- Hosting more teen outreach programs.
- Moving our GoD boarding area into the Contra Costa salon.
- Adjusting the play-to-win raffle to hold the games for folks who are at the con but not present when winners are announced.
We’ll also be increasing the use of our Discord server to announce games looking for players, new games starting, “tell me about your character” booth openings, and when prizes are being awarded!
Takeaway: Our GMs and players are, as always, the very best part of Big Bad Con. Without you wonderful folks bringing your excitement and compassion to the con (and to the table) we wouldn’t have a con at all. Thank you all for being so wonderful!
Results: Let’s keep doing more of this! (Playing great games and being great to each other, that is!)
