Hey Everyone! Today I wanted to talk a bit about some of the lessons and tips I learned while helping at this year's Adepticon 2019 Age of Sigmar events. Having run events in my local area and running my first major event at NOVA Open last year I have a good grasp on what running an event takes, but those of you who know me are aware that I am rarely satisfied and am always looking to improve myself and this includes the events I run. Last year Alex put out the call for help and I was eager to sign up as I get to help a good friend as well as learn from his experience in running the biggest Age of Sigmar Event in the U.S..
The first and most impactful thing I learned from helping Alex is something that would seem obvious and that is to ask for help. Last year at NOVA I had some great friends offer assistance and I eagerly took them up on it to help with the paint judging. However, while it made that process go easy I now see how important it is to have people help for the entire event as opposed to just one part of the event. This isn't to say that having people help for one part or another isn't valuable and appreciated, but I see how important it is to have a group of people to help throughout the entire weekend.
Speaking of Paint Judging there was an amazing system in place to quickly judge all the armies. Between the first and second round as score sheets were turned in one of the judges was given two score sheets with player names and table number to go and run through the score sheet. As sheets were turned in they were given more. It went quick and fluid and I am very much implementing the system used at Adepticon.
One of my flaws is the urge to want to do everything myself. This made my days at the NOVA events very busy and more stressful than it needed to be. As I am planning to have more judges and help this year at NOVA I am always going to work to be better at delegating. I saw this happen nicely at Adepticon and when everyone had a job it helped the day flow and while everyone was still tired at the end of the day no one seemed overworked or stressed. Most importantly is to assign a point person to enter the data as their sole responsibility and have the other judges be a “wall” to take the score sheets and organize them to make the data entry person's job easier.
List Checking is a challenge at a large event, but Alex had a great system during registration. The group of us all had our strengths we used and were able to give lists to one another who regularly play certain armies. For example I was able to check most, if not all, Daughters of Khaine lists as I was able to review them very quickly due to my knowledge. After the lists were checked and separated by Grand Alliance we then alphabetized them by player name for quick reference during the event.
One of the challenges with having so many people helping is making sure everyone is on the same page as far as rulings go during the event. Right or wrong when a rule is ruled it needs to be consistent throughout the entire event. When a rules question came up a judge would go to the table and make the ruling. Directly after they would let the other judges know how it was ruled and Alex backed up our decisions and we all made sure to rule it the same when questions were repeated.
With all these tips I learned I feel very prepared to make NOVA this year even more seamless for the players. There is plenty of other small tips I picked up as well like how and when to have the judges take breaks,etc…. I am very grateful I was able to be able to help this year and even more grateful for what I learned in doing so. Until next week, Happy Hobbying!
Chuck Moore