OctaCon 2024

Game Master Dave's Dispatch

davegmg

January 8, 2024

1/8/2024

Good day gamers,

We are now into 2024 and our OctaCon planning will start something around March. Stay tuned for updates!!!

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“Making friends and uniting communities one library event at a time.”

Good day OctaCon-ers,

An absolute huge thank you for making OctaCon happen this year!

You did it!

You helped make OctaCon 10 a success!

Thanks a million!

We did it together!

I couldn’t have done it without you.

Here are huge successes in no particular order:

– Including downstairs, the welcome area, and the children’s room, we had 130+ unique visitors and 160+ games were played! (There is a decent chance that these numbers could be 20% even higher)

– We had more volunteers than we have ever had before! We had so many that I didn’t have work for most of you, so thank you for being flexible. The teen volunteers that were provided from the library were a great asset upstairs. The volunteers that helped out downstairs did a great job. You made my job much easier.

– Board Game for the Better took home about 100 donated games? Is that correct? That is an amazing number.

– Crokinole was of course an amazing hit!!! Many thanks to Liz and Ken for Crokinole. Marc, they are not on this email, please send them my thanks.

– LIRetro joined us with Video Games upstairs!!! Too bad they were seperated from us, because I think they would have gotten more traction, but the people that found them, had a great time.

– HitPoint and Land & Magic demos had pretty good traction.

– The Play to Win was a big success. All the games found new homes including a few being donated to Board Games for the Better.

– David Miller’s Mario Kart Thunder Road seemed like a great success.

– Thank you to all the other game masters for your time and dedication.

– It was great to see old friends, it was great to see so many smiles, it was great to reconnect, play games, and give people great new experiences.

– A big thank you to Ginger, my wonderful wife, who got families, kids, and even adults to play Giant Quoridor, Giant Jenga, the Stacking Cups, and the Elephant Walk Minute-to-Win-It game. She told me there was so much laughter, fun, and joy in that little annex by the front of the library.

– And of course, we couldn’t have done it without the Bethpage Library crew from the custodian to the director. They made the posters, they adjusted the scheduling for their staff, they opened early for us on Sunday, they had the gaming collection, they posted in their newsletter, they had the book give-a-way, and the children’s department has a Riddle Room, a kid escape room experience.

All amazing.

All great.

Thank you everyone!

I’d love to hear your story about a game played, about OctaCon, or anything else you want to tell us. Check out my survey HERE

On to OctaCon #11 next year!!!

Sincerely and very humbled by this experience,

David VanderWerf

GMG

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Good day gamers,

Every year, Game Master Games partners with the Bethpage Library to run a mini-gaming convention that is fun, friendly, and FREE!

This year, 2023, is our 10th Anniversary!

Saturday hours: 10am-7pm

Sunday hours: 11am-5pm

Special Guests and events include, but are not limited to:

David Miller with a Mario Kart Thunder Road
Chris from Chip Theory Games
Brooklyn Crokinole Club
Board Games for the Better, a charity organization collecting your game donations to give to those in need
LIRetro will be present both days 12-3pm for Video Games
Matt from Steve Jackson Games
Gaming Envoys from Double Exposure to teach you games
Play to Win games from Double Exposure.
Hitpoint Demo Team, who are starting a Kickstarter soon
RPG and Board Game GMs to guide you through lots of different games
Kid’s games upstairs in the children’s library section