Organizing a Pokemon League

[turtlewriter]

Hi, all!

After hearing about the PAX Pokemon League from a friend, I thought it sounded like such a fun idea. If possible for this year or next, I'd like to coordinate a similar event at Anime Boston. It's definitely a lot of work, so I was hoping some of the pros could offer advice on how to get started. Any tips or tricks would be much appreciated!

[Propriety]

[Inkraven]

Personally, I've been to AB many times and I've always found video game players lacking, even though Pokemon IS from Japan. If you're close by, I'd suggest trying out Connecticon during the summer instead. They have a whole games room area, and their deal is 'everything but the kitchen sink'. I could easily see a Pokemon league working out very well there!

[Lv3Bidoof]

I went to a local Anime convention last summer and they had a Pokémon League challenge event similar to the PPL running. However, instead of being a weekend-long event it was a couple-hour event hosted in a fixed location. They had a small set of gym leaders taking challenges and handing out badges to the victors. There weren't any prizes for gaining all the badges, but it seemed like a fun little event and a different way to gather Pokémon fans together. Alas, I wasn't able to participate myself since my 3DS went missing that weekend...

You may consider a format like that one, at least to gauge interest or at the very least provide a time/location for Pokémon fans to come together and hang out.

[turtlewriter]

Thank you all for your feedback! I really appreciate the help.

My main concern is definitely location. Since AB is a big convention with a lot of panels, etc., it would be difficult to have a location for gym leaders to set up camp. I thought it might be a hall event, but then there's the risk of impeding traffic. If I can get the rest of my ducks in a row, though, hopefully it will work out.

Maybe I can try to wrangle up interest through the AB forum or tumblr; even if we start out small (which is likely, given that we've only got a few months to prepare), we can get our feet wet this year. Actually, where it's a new event, it might be beneficial to have a small league the first time around, to gauge what does and doesn't work and see if this is something to pursue annually.

At any rate, I've got plenty of things to think about, so thanks a bunch for that! I'll have to start planning to see if we can't get this thing off the ground.