IPMS Great Plains, Kansas City, MO. Region 5 Regional, 7-8 May
I always thoroughly enjoy the events held by IPMS Great Plains and so I was looking forward to another near perfect event for this Regional.
First thing I did was head to the IPMS/USA website to get a link. Oddly, for the show announcement, there was no link to the group's website. Someone missed the ball on this one. It meant I had to take the 'long way' to event information by going to the group's site via the listing of clubs. To someone such as myself without high speed internet, and the slow IPMS/USA server, this takes quite a long time. There was a flyer on the site (I received none in the mails) that gave directions, costs and categories. No registration form was on the website.
After a 5 hour drive (which included a breakfast stop), we arrived at the venue. It is an a newly developed area near the KC Airport and held in a convention center. Plenty of parking and we headed into the registration desk. With a fee of $18 for non-IPMS members and $15 for members with no limit on entries, we brought a lot of models. If for no other reason that to show stuff we normally wouldn't and to help fill the tables.
We then found the reason for no website registration form. Theirs was a three piece form (a main and two carbons). The reason given was to speed up judging. I have to honestly say that I don't like these things one bit. With 10 entries myself, the time taken to fill out these triplicate forms was a great deal longer than I would have liked. I mentioned this to the organizers and they said they would look into things. I hope so because this will not encourage me to bring max models. Sound childish? Perhaps, but if you have a choice of making things easier for organizers or participants, then participants should come first. Without participants, the show would soon fail and fade. I encourage all organizers to always keep the participants in mind when doing things (especially when you expect them to drive long distances to attend, as in a Regional) and I'll touch on this again in a moment.
With the forms filled out, one copy went to the registration group and the other two (with our names on both of them) went with the model. We were to fold them so the names could not be readily seen. However, I should mention that many times, I saw people lifting up the forms to read the names. Were they also judges? I don't know, but they could have been. To me, having names with the model is unsat. There are so many other good ways to handle this. 'But we've been seeing Bill's model at our monthly meetings. We don't need to lift a sheet of paper to know it is Bill's'. Then forbid local club members from entering. Some clubs do this and it is a great way to take care of any possible misconceptions of impropriety. Yeah, I know it 'ain't gonna happen' in most cases, and the folks at Great Plains are scrupulous about judging so I doubt if they play favorites, but it is a thought.
The contest and vendor rooms were well lit. Contest tables were round dining tables and not lifted above the ground on stilts as seen at other shows. Knowing that many hotels and centers don't like this as they feel it damages the floor, I can understand it. There was enough room around the tables for people to pass without banging into things. Some categories were well filled while others (notably most car categories and dioramas) were a bit sparse.
Vendors filled one large room, and one small section of the contest room. I was honestly disappointed in the vendor situation. While all the tables were filled, about half of them were sold to three large vendors and many of the rest to commercial concerns. One took up 12 tables and had his wares spread out over all of them when they could easily have been incorporated into 3 or 4 tables. The organizers told me they had to turn away vendors. Again, they did not think of the participants, but in their ability to sell all the tables. To me, I'd rather see one guy at a table selling off his excess than a hobby shop taking up 12 tables. I'm not going to buy from the hobby shop vendor at retail prices, when I can do that any day of the week. But I will spend lots of loot with the guy selling off his excess kits or offering deep discounts. I spent very little money and so, to me, the vendors were a major disappointment. Again, organizers need to realize what draws participants to let loose of cash and retail stores generally are not a draw.
Dwelling on this just a bit longer, it seems to me that if you turn away vendors, they won't want to try again next year. Conversely, the retail store that takes up a lot of space and sells little, won't return either. It is not a winning situation for organizers. The organizers should limit the number of tables to one vendor. Set a deadline for vendor submissions. If there are then more tables available, contact the vendor who might want more space.
The raffle is another major draw and IPMS Great Plains had a good one. It was 6 for $5 or 15 for $10. While I personally did not win anything great, many people did and that is what counts. They draw numbers and assign a ticket to an item. This prevents the feeding frenzy of a 'grab-a-thon', keeps good stuff in there to the end, and makes picking up the prize a relaxed event without the usual crowd.
Thanks to it being at a convention center, there were some places to sit and relax, but not as many as I'd have liked to have seen. Since the center was new, there was no where for miles around to eat lunch. The only option, other than a long drive for lunch, was the cafeteria, which served breakfast and burgers. A bit pricey, ($2.50 for a burger, $1.50 for a small soda), but it was clean and had plenty of space. No beverages were allowed in any of the rooms, which kinda sucked, but it was the same way at the last show.
The awards were similar to what was provided at Louisville last year. They were nicely molded medals on red, white, and blue ribbons. The awards for the major accomplishments were similar to what they'd provided at their invitational events and made of clear Lucite with the event engraved on them. Nicely done.
The awards ceremony was late due to computer glitches. Frankly, this is not the first time this year this portion of the show has been delayed by computer problems. I'd suggest not trying to be fancy and just handing out the awards. Once underway, it went quickly as there were only 40 some categories and they announced all the winners in each category at the same time. It helped. From my viewpoint, only first place and special awards should be announced. The 2nd and 3rd place awards can be put with the winning entry and a note made on their entry form that is with the model that the model earned the award. It takes little time to write '2nd' or '3rd' on the form. I know others feel that every winner should get their due, but for those of us looking at a multi-hour drive, we want to be on the road home as soon as possible. It wasn't until 6 PM that we were finally on our way back, making for an incredibly long day.
Just to give some stats, I was told that there were 85 entrants and over 400 entries.
IPMS Great Plains is going for the Nats in 2006 and I wish them the very best. They are a super group of people and really try hard to do well. Their previous invitational events have been among the best shows I've ever attended in terms of organization and vendors. Why this Regional was not as pleasant in some regards as those smaller events is puzzling. Perhaps trying too many new things or perhaps losing sight of for whom one is doing a show.
Regardless, I did have a wonderful time there, meeting many fine folks and seeing some superbly built models. When they win the Nats bid, I'm positive that they will put on a sterling event.