The Conception of Conception
The idea was originally conceived when John Amos and I travelled up to Gen Con at Loughborough in 1999 (which was my first and so far only visit to Gen Con).
I had been generously allowed leave at very short notice to attend by my wife (who was expecting our daughter at the time) and had somewhat foolishly, as a newbie convention goer, volunteered for a few referee slots. I drove John up in the car on the Thursday, John introduced me to the RPGA UK crew at the time (Ratty, John Brown, Smiphee, Ian Richards and the rest), spent the morning setting up the trade hall and doing other clerical things.
This experience got me thinking. I had been working at Hoburne Holidays for several years; and had occasionally hired war-gaming space on Sundays for the Bournemouth Berserkers at one of their nearby caravan parks (Hoburne Caravan Park). It wasn't a great leap of faith to think that "if there were accommodation we could successfully host a small residential convention".
Having intimate knowledge of the companies yearly trading cycles I knew there was an opportunity to be had just after the New Year festivities had finished.
All I would have to do was convince the manager of the nearby Hoburne Naish that all gamers ate and drank a lot. He didn't need much convincing. He was basing all his evidence on me!
All John would have to do is convince some gamers to come down to the south coast and stay in a holiday park in the middle of winter... luckily it appears as if all gamers (me included) are mad.
I had first briefly met John Amos several years earlier, when I organised a very small one-day RPG/wargaming convention at a local cinema. This was The Regent Centre in Christchurch, where I was a volunteer and another place that we had run occasional club games days. He had volunteered himself and the services of some of the members of "Have Dice Will Travel" group to run some games for us. The event was quite well attended (mostly due to the efforts of John and his extensive contacts) and we had about 90 people attend. Not bad considering there were only 2 rooms and a bar!
So with a potential venue and contacts, all we needed to the incentive to do so...
...and this is where Ian Richards comes in.
During Gen Con I asked Ian (and it has to be said, an already rather irate Ian), why only the RPGA games were being advertised in the RPGA area. I suggested that surely it would be better for the convention as a whole if an attempt was made to co-ordinate ALL the games into a main schedule. It was the wrong time to broach the question but his rather terse reply was "If you think you can do any better...". And simply put, that provided the impetus.
Then came the name. Conception. Where did that come from? Well, at one point we had several names suggested. Johns suggestion was eventually adopted and deemed appropriate due to my wives condition at that time. Had I had my way it would have been Congenial or Con-Gen for short! The other option was "Not-a-con" though that was deemed rather too Controversial (which in itself was perhaps another missed opportunity there...)
The next part was organising the troops. Luckily, we had the resources of three groups of people, our two clubs and John's contacts list that luckily read like a bit like telephone directory of role-players.
The initial event was planned as a weekend event with set-up on the Friday, an evening game then the rest of the weekend. I was to handle the accommodation side, John the contacts/schedule and Dave Moore as the web-site guru. Eventually we all pitched in with the scheduling and the basic organisational concepts that still run through (albeit in an almost constantly evolving form) to the current event.
The first event was a reasonable success, we had a goodly amount of games, a pub-quiz run by Sad (Steve Pennington), a last minute ad-hoc raffle (that lasted less than 10 minutes from which I somewhat embarrassingly won rather more prizes than I expected).
We actually made a surplus of £400 on the event, rather more than we were expecting as the intention was just to break even. The surplus went to charity. As it has continued to do so ever since, in seemingly ever increasing amounts.
Time has become rather a blur for me with a local weekend event with just over 100 local attendees to one that rapidly expanded into an event that spans five days and filling the park with attendees from as fair afield as the USA and Europe.
As a convention we have attempted to stay relaxed and casual but try and please as many people as we can which has led to the odd stressful moment. These have been reduced by the addition of several members into the committee (to cover specific tasks) and coming to certain understandings between the diverse groups that make up and are what makes the event what it is.
On behalf of the committee I would like to give heartfelt thanks all those who have in the past or currently contribute to the undoubted success of this little convention on the South Coast of England.
Andrew Mussell (Co-Organiser)
