You’ve been asking, and we’ve been deciding, so here’s the skinny: we will not be hosting a PrairieCon gaming convention in the summer of 2021. We aren’t happy either. However, we feel really confidant about being able to put on a great event in 2022, and Andy has a 3D printer that has been running non-stop for months now, so there might even be weird and exciting things to come from that!
At this time, we are tentatively expecting to run an early winter Gamesday, but it will all depend on gathering limits and the state of the pandemic. It might end up being a mid-winter Gamesday. We do expect to gather in a flock at some point before June 2022, so keep an eye out for announcements!
Thank you to all our participants who have been asking about the event and showing us their love, to all of our regular GMs whom we will be keeping on a list and contacting as soon as we are able, and to our regular sponsors for making curbside shopping available so we can game at home. We can’t wait to see you all in the summer of 2022!
I’m going to get right to it. The organizing committee has
come to the difficult decision to cancel this year’s PrairieCon. We agree: it
sucks.
But June is so far away, you say. We agree, it is far away, but the work of organizing the Con starts July after the last one, and really gets rolling in February. Right now, we should be recruiting GMs and volunteers. We should be working with local businesses and corporate partners on prize support, vendor space, and sponsorship. We should be marvelling at the new registration system. We haven’t been able to do a lot of this, and we won’t be able to do this until the need for physical distancing has passed.
We wanted to make this decision sooner rather than later. We
know some of you arrange your vacation time to let you attend, and we want to
give you as much notice as possible to use your vacation for other things. We
didn’t want people agreeing to run games, only to cancel two weeks before and
frustrate our GMs who put a lot of time and creativity into what they do. From
my perspective as President of this motley crew, I didn’t want the members of
the organizing committee putting in all the hours that they do to organize an
event that might not run, especially when these people might have a variety of
other commitments including caring for family.
Now, for many of us, PrairieCon is our social community.
Going without it for a year means we don’t get the chance to catch up with
people we only see at the Con. We won’t get to see how much some of the wee
PrairieConners have grown since last year. We might go crazy cooped up in our
homes without the social outlet of gaming. So I’d like to encourage you to find
ways to still stay connected. There are a variety of platforms online that let
people video-conference, and I know you all have the creativity and
problem-solving capacity to find ways to make this work. I mean, we’re gamers;
it’s what we do!
I would like to take this time to thank our regular GMs,
regular volunteers, and regular sponsors. I have no doubt that all of you were
ready to sign up for this year. Believe me, we will be thinking of you for next
year! And the organizing committee is already thinking of some way for our
community to celebrate as soon as the need to socially distance from each other
is gone. It won’t be a full three-day event with all the bells and whistles,
but it will bring the family back together, whenever we can do that safely.
Stay healthy, everyone. Take care of each other and
yourselves. We look forward to reuniting as soon as possible! It might be 2020, but no one saw this coming!
Covid-19 (The Corona Virus) is on the top of all of our minds these days, and due to the recent escalations of this to a pandemic, on top of the confirmed cases in Manitoba, we are taking precautions so we don’t contribute to the spreading of the virus.
Spring GamesDay on March 21 is Cancelled
We wish we could merely postpone it, but due to the lack of time between now and our June convention date, and the uncertainty of what will be happening, we are going to cancel this event entirely.
What does this mean for PrairieCon in June?
Frankly, we don’t know right now.
ACC is cancelling any public events until the end of April, we support this decision, but we are currently left in limbo for what we do for our main event in June. We will be in discussions with ACC about the venue, and what options we have to delay the event or reschedule if necessary.
Right now, all we can really say is we are monitoring the issue and have made no official decision on PrairieCon yet. We are hopeful that we will still get to hold the event in June, but only time will tell at this point.
In the meantime, we suggest you dig out your copies of Pandemic for some theme-inspired gaming, and we will keep you all up to date as this progresses.
Some Good News
We have an updated registration system that will be rolled out this year, which will address many of the concerns brought forward. We will roll out some of the details shortly, but we will be delaying any pre-registration until we have more concrete information about what will be happening with PrairieCon this year.
On Friday afternoon – Please use the designated event parking in the ACC Parking Map found here. Friday evening to Sunday afternoon – Parking is free everywhere on the parking lot over the weekend.
Schedule
To view the times for each slot visit our website here.
Auction details and new form
The Auction is a great place to get rid of your old games and pick up some new ones for a great deal. **Please note we have a new auction sheet for you to use this year. Since the auction is growing larger each year, we are making some changes to ensure everyone gets an opportunity to get some items through.
As always our canteen will be open during the entire convention as a place to pick up a drink or some snack. AND this year we’ll be joined by Chez Angela who will have coffee, pastries and other treats available for purchase.
PrairieCon is heading to the Summer Fair, and we are looking for a few good volunteers to help introduce families and kids to PrairieCon and some board games that aren’t Monopoly!
In addition to sharing the gift of gaming at the Summer Fair, you will also get free admission! So, you get to play some games, get access to rides after your shift and the best part is, you get access to mini-doughnuts without having to pay to get past the gate!
We only have six tickets to give out though, so let us know right away if you want to volunteer!
PLUS, on top of all that, volunteering at the fair will count as a slot toward PrairieCon convention volunteer incentives!
We still have Prairiecon volunteer slots that need filling during our convention on June 14-16. If you have an open slot or two during the weekend we could really use your help!
