Any Big-Gun clubs in Northern California??

In this case, though, you would get in before the Maker Faire gates open to the public, and spend two days in the Battle Pond arena. We have complete control over that space. This isn't about Maker Faire, but about the opportunity to promote RC Warship Combat while hanging out with a great bunch of captains, and intensely battling for 2 solid days.

At any rate, I hope people will at least consider it. There's nothing else like it in the RC Warship Combat world.

Rob

 

Well Nationals tends to be real nice too, battling 5 solid days and night too, way better than in a fish bowl in front of drooling spectators. But then the difference between the combatants and the droolers should prove to be very entertaining.

 

What good is exposure without expansion? If spending a TON of time for the sole purpose of 'getting it out there' returns very few new recruits much less retained participants, then what is truly the purpose.(keep in mind not all recruits stick around)

I understand Rob's position, where he said he has a blast putting on the event so that is a good reason to do it regardless. If you want to do it and its fun then you should do it.

If the ONLY reason you do it... spend the money... spend the time.. the resources.. is to bring in new members... then you MUST have results. So far we haven't had any hard data regarding just how many new recruits or retained Captains have joined the hobby (any format) because of the pond at the Maker Faire. Before I invested that much time in a Maker Faire or similar event, I would want to know my recruiting potential.

I am concerned about the amount of time the local club has put into the Maker Faire for 5 years(?) to build the club and yet only 12 members attended the last battle. Perhaps there are factors I am not aware of but based on the size of the crowds is seems there should be 30 or more retained active battlers by now.

I am very interested to see more information from the Maker Faire, the behind the scenes photos, pond pictures before during after and more so we can consider trying it here in a few years. I don't mind putting on a battle at a Faire if we have enough interest but if I have to spend 40 hrs getting the place ready... I need to see some results in terms of prospects, recruits, and retained Captains. For clarity... for me a retained Captain is one that is actively participating in battles.. at least 2-3 battles a year.

So hopefully after this Faire we can see what went on, and what kind of interest it generated, etc. It looks very exciting.

Also, I do agree with that geeky fella, Nats provides much more action and bang for the buck .. 5 days overall with as many as 10-12 sorties and two campaign events.

J

 

In all the years that we have been battling here in California, both Big Gun and Queen's Own 1/72, we have never been able to hold an event of more than three days. Usually just two days. I have always been amazed that Fast Gun Nationals run for an entire week. That has to be a great experience if you are really into combat. Some day if the Fast Gun Nationals is only a couple states away from California, I may show up with my IJN Kongo.

 

There are lots of dynamics around the current state of our club's combat participation - the drought forcing our members to drive 2 - 3 hours each way to the nearest combat-friendly pond being only one of these. Explaining them all here would take more time than I have right now, as we gear up for this event.

As for explaining our Maker Faire efforts, I'm not certain you'd be any closer to understanding what we do, and why we do it, no matter how long of a post I wrote. It would be far better to come experience it for yourself, which you are more than welcome to do. If you did, I would really be interested in hearing your thoughts on your experience.

In the big picture, events such as Maker Faire, TV programs, articles, press releases, blogs, YouTube videos, posts on forums such as this one, taken together in the aggregate are vital to spreading the concept to the world at large. I can tell you that I knew about RC Warship Combat for 9 years before I ever went to a battle. I had stumbled upon an old article somebody had written for a local newspaper back in the early nineties. Then I lost track of it, then found it again, then forgot about it. When I saw it for the 4th time, I finally decided to check it out.

When we expose our hobby to the public in a positive way, using any and every means possible, we simply don't know the far-reaching consequences. In the same vein, negative discussions, no matter how mildly put, about events we've never attended, can do unintended harm. We all need to come to grips with the simple fact that there are only - best guess - 300 active RC Warship Combat enthusiasts in the US. That means there aren't enough of us to keep even one vendor hale and whole. Nobody is making a living off this tiny market, and we all need to do a whole lot more than we have been in reaching out to the folks around us who are most likely to at least try it.

Maker Faire, with its emphasis on DIY, innovation, resourcefulness and creative thinking, is the single most concentrated collection of the kinds of people we need to recruit that I know of. Those of us who at least spend some time thinking about marketing our hobby should meet at Maker Faire California to brainstorm how best to take advantage of the venue. And keep this in mind: There are 131 Maker Faires, both small and large, scheduled for 2015, worldwide.

Rob