I believe in not wasting your time, so here is the short version:
I’m working too many hours at my day job to put together PSJ in time for spring. Instead, I plan to try and host the event in the fall of 2019. The target is October. I am sorry to disappoint folks who were looking forward to a spring event.
Protospiel San Jose takes me about 100 hours of pre-show work to put together each year. In past years, I locked down the date 90-120 days in advance, booked the venue, and then started promoting the event. For ten to twelve weeks before the event I spend 5-10 hours a week answering questions, organizing volunteers, and getting the word out to as much of the tabletop community as possible.
Protospiel San Jose runs on a tight budget and does not make money. Every year the budget with every dollar in and out has been posted publicly. The event has been successful because of the hard work by the volunteers who spend their own time and energy to support the show.
As Protospiel San Jose gets bigger every year, it takes even more time and energy to pull off. More volunteers are needed to own new complexities, and more pre-show work needs to be done. In 2018 we had some new challenges arise that will require more planning and attention this year. For the first time last year we had issues with raffle prizes getting stolen in mass and with designers showing up and running tests without a badge or table space. I have been talking with some of the long time volunteers about how to mitigate theses issues, but we don’t have a solution yet.
I’m in the middle of large assignment at my day job that will not finish until February or later. I simply don’t have 10 hours a week to pour into Protospiel right now. Also, I don’t want to run the event until we figure out ways to mitigate the theft issues from last time.
A sincere thank you to everyone who loves the event and has reached out to me about it. I am grateful for your kind words. Thanks are also due to the people who did a lot more than show up to play games. Thank you to our past sponsors who put up the funding to make the event happen. Thank you to the people who took time off work to help set up, who took on projects (raffle, snacks, hotel block, designer diner, marketing, design contest) and the people who staff the front table with a smile. The volunteers are the real heroes of Protospiel.
I hope to see you in the fall for another great community event.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Commandeur