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By Bob Giglio, Convention Director
Attendees at this year’s “Historical Miniature Gaming’s
Biggest Summer Vacation” at the Valley Forge Convention Center in King
of Prussia, Pennsylvania helped celebrate our first year at this new venue for
the HMGS “flagship” show!
As we expected due to the move of the convention to a new venue and being the
weekend after the July 4th holiday, total attendance this year was 2,980 –
that is down slightly more than 16% from attendance last year (total attendance
for 2009 was 3,560). We expect that attendance will increase next year as more
regular attendees will come back now that they have heard all the nearly
overwhelmingly good reports about the new venue.
There was so much to like about the new venue (good lighting, A/C that works
when it’s over 100 degrees out, easy access even for handicap people,
plentiful parking, more hotel rooms on site, etc.) Naturally there were a few
slight things that need to be tweaked for the future (more signage, more
rollaways for the hotels, better pizza on site, etc.) Though it was nice to
see all the very favorable comments about the new venue – which
demonstrated that indeed the move of our biggest convention went off without
any real hitches – it was also accomplished without breaking the bank
financially.
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We have already heard from some vendors that did not attend this year yet would
like to next, as well as others that said they wanted to expand their booths a
bit after seeing the site – all great news for hobbyists. Even the new
addition of an Artist’s Row was nicely received, and something that given
the dearth of growth space at the previous venue, now allowed us to add a nice
addition for attendees which was previously impractical.
For hundreds of great
photos by staff photographer Richard Mataka, click on the following link for
www.mataka.org
and look under the
'Photo Gallery'
for 2010 HISTORICON.
There were 601 games in the program (not including last minute cancellations),
plus tournaments, seminars, painting and other events. While there were too
many events to really mention, a few will be highlighted here.
If you would like to see a nice report of HISTORICON 2010, the following links to
pdfs that contain review from issues of
Miniature Wargames™
(used with permission), complete with photos at:
Miniature Wargames – ’Show Report HISTORICON’
For even more reports about HISTORICON 2010, there are five articles kindly
provided by Wargames Illustrated –
www.wargamesillustrated.net
– as pdf files listed below.
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HMGS War College: Due to the new extra space at the new venue, this was
expanded to be the largest ever – with an average of 14 attendees per seminar
(for a list of the speakers and seminars that were presented at HISTORICON 2010,
click on the following link for
The War College.)
Our Special Guest of Honor,
Captain Dale Dye, USMC (Ret) was very well received with over 300 attendees going
to his two seminars, plus more attending his Meet & Greet at the Osprey
Publishing booth, and from comments received this helped make HISTORICON one
of “the best ever” for them. Due to the recent growth of the seminars
we can honestly say that HMGS continues to meet its commitment to the educational
aspect of its charter.
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Annual HMGS Awards Presentations: At this year’s Annual Awards
Presentations, the HMGS Legion of Honor inducted two new members –
Matt De La Mater and Buck Surdu – and Duke Seifried received a
Gamemaster Lifetime Award for his accomplishments in the hobby. While the
2009 “Game Master of the Year Award” was presented to the
Carnage and Glory GMs Nigel Marsh, Lyle Bickley, Dave Bonk and John Snead.
And, two of the HISTORICON 2009 exhibitors were recognized for winning
Origins Awards – Splintered Light Miniatures for Best Historical
Miniatures Line of the Year, and “Check Your 6!” for Best
Historical Miniatures Game of the Year. For more information on all of
the aforementioned, as well as photos, go to
www.hmgs.org
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HMGS Game-Master Awards: The “Best of Show” GM Award was
presented to Peter Hess and Joe Roberts of the Brandywine Battlefielders for
their ‘High Water mark of the Ottoman Empire: Siege of Vienna, 1683’
game (Pike and Shot 25mm). The “Best Theme” GM Award for the
“Pike and Shotte – Seventeenth Century Warfare, 1600-99” theme
went to Clarence Harrison and Barry Hilton for their
‘ Battle of the Boyne – Ireland, 1 July 1609 ’
(28mm) game. For the full list of dozens of other GMs that received awards for their games
at this year’s convention, click on the following link for the
HISTORICON 2010 GM Awards.
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Osprey Campaign Competition: This was the fourth year for this
competition, for the “Osprey Award for the best use of a Campaign book
in designing a game at HISTORICON”. This year there was a tie (of the
total of XX entries this year); the co-winners were ‘Edgehill,
23 Oct 1642’ by gamemaster
Robert Smethurst,
and
‘Order 227: Stalingrad, 22 Sept 1942’
by gamemaster
Adam Carroll.
Congratulations to both winners, as I am sure
they will enjoy all the prizes they will receive from Osprey Publishing.
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Miniature Hobby University: This was also expanded due to the new
space, where a bevy of painting events ran all convention, as well as the
3rd Annual Iron Paintbrush.
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Raffles: Jan Gunnis of New Jersey won the raffle for the very
nice “ Avenging Angels” fine art print by military artist
Keith Rocco, and Andy Dobson of Maryland won the raffle for the 28mm
pirate figures painted by Jay Hadley.
2011 Lodging: The block of rooms for HISTORICON at the two onsite hotels – Radisson and
Scanticon – will be open for booking by mid-October. Additionally, I am in the process of securing
2011 Group Blocks at all the same hotels (at least) as we had for 2010, with prices that will probably
be the same as well. Prices at the two onsite hotels are the same for 2011 as they were in 2010. Please
check back over the next couple weeks when the ‘Convention Lodging’ link becomes active,
and then all details will be there and you can book your rooms at that time (and following instructions
on how to do that). So, just be patient, and all will be available very soon!
Convention Themes: To see the Convention Themes for HISTORICON 2011
(and 2012 and 2013) click on the Future Conventions link at left.
Last, but certainly not least, is that I’d like to extend my
“Thanks” to the 72 staff that helped make HISTORICON 2010 a great
success (a full roster of their names is listed below).
Convention Committee (Senior Staff):
Convention Director – Bob Giglio
Deputy Convention Director – Neil Brennan
Events Manager – Duncan Adams
Promotions Manager – John Franklin
Publications Manager – Don Perrin
Registration Manager – Michelle Preziosa
Resident Artist – Rich Hasenauer
Vendor Managers – Jeff & Monica Hobbs
Webmaster – Jim McWee
Coordinators:
Awards – Christin Scuilli
Database – Paul Trani
Events – Dudley Garidel & Tim Mullen
Vendor Hall – Mike Betz & Matthew Tate
Wally’s Basement – Paul Fasciana & Chris Johnson
Media – Dana Lombardy
Hobby University – Heather Blush
Registration – Jon Paul Colegrove, Kathy Higbee & James Thomas
War College – John Dunn
Re-enactors – Jim McGaughey
Staff Photographers – Richard Ellis & Richard Mataka
Tournaments – Scott Holder
Staff (in alphabetic order): Tim Broome, George Callahan,
Don & Nick Carlucci, Wayne Cooper, Richard & Lindsey Crouch,
James Curtis, John Drye, Brian Edwards, Bruce Eggleston, Daniel Erdman,
Robin, Brandon & Devin Empey, Dennis Fischer, Geoff Graff, Steve Hanson,
Jim Hergenhahn, Brian Higbee, Dave Hixon, Jerry Hurwitz, Todd Kauderer,
Amy Krumm, Bob & Cleo Liebl, Asher Lurie, Brian Marsh, Mike McGrath,
Randy, Ryan & Steven Meyers, Beatrice Moulin, Gay Paulter, Ben Pecson,
Rick Schirtzinger, Bob Scripp, Eugene Suchora, Nathan Swystun, August Thiesing,
Bruce Witver, Ed Wright, Bob Yatison, John Zseller.
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