ATK lan

[Target]

Good idea guys, Mitch had suggested this a while back after we had been to a lan in Manchester as it seemed pretty easy to do. I think we should be able to get enough people easily if we can keep the price down, and also if we can get some sponsors to provide prizes maybe have tournaments instead of a raffle.
1. Because a raffle really need quite a few prizes to be worth doing.
2. It would bring some more competitive players or teams to the Lan.

The cost will be kept down anyway as I'm sure all the ATK members are willing to help set-up / run / tidy during and after the Lan and we can always stock up at the cash & carry to set up a small omm nom nom, if we have the numbers

[Vicious Horizon]

If we see how much it'll cost for us to do anything, then divide the cost between the ATK members going, then the tickets should cost that much? (Just assuming it wont be tonnes), that way ATK pays for the whole thing. Just thinking aloud. (Aloud?)

[Target]

Then it will be expensive and tbh we won't lots of other people to go so we can have lol lan games of things like css and tf2 and the more people that go the cheaper it becomes.

[Chazlene]

This is an epic idea, after all it's how the I-series started out .

Course I'll be part of it... if my PC works again by then posters, banners, etc shouldn't be too hard to get done... should be similar to the t-shirts.

So I'm guessing we'll find some venue in the midlands like a town hall or hotel conference room maybe?

I agree with Target that getting enough prizes for a raffle may be hard for a first lan, so yeah having 6 fancy mice or summat for a winning tourney team.

Maybe we could get other clans we know like SBC to come along?

This could actually help with the ATK band idea, make it the first lan party/music festival .

[Target]

Good idea chazlene and yeh we should definately invite as many clans as possible as many members are put off by the price of a bigger Lan. The only thing that I think might be difficult is secruity to start with, actually finding a has decent not lol expensive outfit in the local area

[Colonel Mitch]

The phoenic lans host their events in venues that have their own 24/7 security, school hall, TA Centres, etc

[VoX]

The only thing that I think might be difficult is secruity to start with, actually finding a has decent not lol expensive outfit in the local area

This.

Anyone got any contacts (e.g. family members) who are police? I'm sure a minor cut and the knowledge that their relative is safe would be enough to tempt them into helping.


Inviting other clans/communities (SBC, PR Community? etc) would increase the numbers and give larger scope for advertising, hell if we could get sponsorship then we would be set.

[Trigger]

Nice idea, but a logistical nightmare, go for it if you think you can handle it

[Chazlene]

Maybe to begin with we should just test the water and try a lan without around 10 of us at someone's house or a small village hall which shouldn't be too expensive, so when we do go further we know how to cope better with all the networking, catering, etc...

[D_K_Head]

mitch or EZ then?

[Isphera]

You would need to divide the areas of the LAN into several areas and have one or two people managing each one, with an overall manager. For example, you would need Networking, Catering, Setup, Support, Sponsorship etc. And then, you would most likely need to do Health and Safety assessments and then you would have to fund some of it before you sold tickets.

Say you had a 50 person LAN with and entrance of £40 (assuming 50 people in the current climate would spend £40 on a new event, although tens of thousand just spend £170 on a new music festival). If you sold out, that is £2000 revenue. From that, you will have to fund all of the spending on the above, as well as funding prize, event hire, security, wages etc. You will also need a good bit of profit in order to re-invest into future events and expand it, as well as make it less reliant on personal funding or loaned funds, which the first few would be. Plus if you don't sell all the tickets, you will likely make a loss.

This assumes it will be a freely open commercial venture. If it was ATK-only, then costs would be estimated, and then all costs simply split among all members, with no profit made.

EDIT - If you were to do this as a commercial venture, I would be more than happy help run the business-side of the event, such as spreadsheets, cashflows and budgets, since that's the sort of thing I'm into and kind of the premise of my Uni course.

[bladeboi90]

I can get 6/7 or more if this gets going, maybe pro-hl will be interested in going as a community too

[Calneon]

EDIT - If you were to do this as a commercial venture, I would be more than happy help run the business-side of the event, such as spreadsheets, cashflows and budgets, since that's the sort of thing I'm into and kind of the premise of my Uni course.

Where all that time playing EVE comes in handy

[Isphera]

I prefer to see it as me using EVE to hone my skills

[Chalex4]

Everyone's made very valid points, and you're totally right Oric about needing to think things through very carefully.

I was thinking that since Ez64 and Mitch know more about networks than most of the rest of us, that they could be the 2 main network staff. I'm going to have loads of time from Saturday onwards, so I will be very happy with sorting out the venue and sponsors and any other areas that need more staffing.

Profit is an interesting area, and obviously we need to have safe margins but I think for the first LAN at least we should only make enough to pay for the event etc and make a bit of spare cash for the next few events and improvements. I guess once we cost things out though that we will be able to go into greater detail there.

As to starting small in someone's house, I completely disagree. 10 people isn't worth it in my opinion, and since I've already been to many house LANs and held one myself, it isn't really worth it if we ever want to upscale.

Security will always be one of the most important areas, and Mitch's idea of getting a venue with 24/7 security anyway is a great idea. Having said that, in Wizzo's announcement to us all at i37, he did say that many events have no security at all, so we'd need to work something out there. I'm not sure that we'd have enough money to properly hire a few security guys at the first LAN.

Thanks Chazlene for being up for the photoshopping, that's very good of you. We'll need loads of stuff . Finally, the other jobs like catering organisation are key too, and although I think we should definitely have some kind of mini-tuck shop, we should also expect people to bring their own stuff.