So most of you who care have probably heard that big news: Intercon K is moving. We haven't signed the contract yet, but we expect to be at the lovely Westin in Waltham. The hotel is located right at the intersection of Toten Pond Road and 95, and is on the 70A bus line, which you can take from such convenient locations as Harvard Square (~1 hour) and the Commuter Rail (~15 m).

Chad made a really comprehensive post, so I am not going to repeat all that, and just elaborate on the things I am most focused on. Go read his post: http://laurion.livejournal.com/98091.html

(Nat also posted here: http://blog.natbudin.com/?p=489 )

If there are other discussions of this going online, I'd love a link.

There are many, many aspects to this move.

The Physical Space: I am really excited about this move. I firmly believe that intercon should grow, and that this hotel is our best opportunity to do so. Alex Bradley looked at a lot of hotels, as did other folks, and this one is just the best. As a GM, I am ridiculously excited about the function space. Chad, Nat, and I went on a tour of the function space, and I just fell in love. I was waving my hands around talking about what I could do with various spaces. Take a look at the floor plan information here, and my shoddy photos of some of the space
here.

The function space is a bit more spread out than at Chelmsford, but I think we'll have less of a problem with random hotel guests wandering through. There are two main sections of function space, with the lobby and restaurant in the middle. I hope to go eat at the hotel restaurant next week so I can report back. Underneath the lobby/restaurant area is a basement with the Junior Ballroom (I think that was the name) which is both a lovely space and completely isolated from the rest of the hotel. I think it would be a wonderful space for Ops/social space, and possibly for the dance. You can use the stairs/elevators on either side to head pretty much directly to the game areas without dealing with the main lobby/restaurant.

in_water_writ reports that the guest rooms, especially the beds, are wonderful. There are several levels of suites, and based on the limited photos available, at least one kind of suite is ridiculously swank. Sometime before K I will try to get a look at the rooms and report back. (Conveniently, I just started working in Waltham!)

Many GMs, including myself, have very constrained and squished in the Chelmsford space in recent years. We have so much room here! I am excited to write bigger games for Intercon now, or have an easier time adapting games I write for other spaces.

Food and Money: We're not going to be able to have the same con suite at the Westin that we did at the Radisson, because we're not going to get that basically anywhere. That is sad, but I think we'll be fine. We're working with the Westin on what we can do, which will likely involve the hotel selling food a la carte, which works great for me at dragon*con. As I said earlier, there is a restaurant in the hotel. There is a sandwich shop across the street, and a pickadilly's pub within walking distance (chad and nat and i went and it was fine, nothing amazing, but totally reasonable in quality and prince. not much vegetarian, though). There is tons of food within an easy drive, and there will be plenty of cars at the con. I have personally brought my own food to tons of cons and had it be fine. If people want to be cheap with their food, they can. If they want to go and sit down at a restaurant and get nicer food than what was close to Chelmsford, they can. If they want to order food and never leave the hotel, they can do that too!

A lot of things are going to be different, but when it comes down to it, we're going to be the same bunch of people, in a hotel, playing games and hanging out. We'll have room for more people, and room for more games, and better space for those games. We'll be way more accessible for most of our attendees. I think it's going to be awesome. We're going to need to put effort into changing things. Being one of the members of the board that made this decision, I feel a very personal and important commitment to supporting this change in any way I can. Intercon K is going to be a very big priority for me. If you want to help, we welcome you. Talk to me personally, talk to Dave Kapell, the new con chair, come to a concom meeting, talk to someone else on the board or concom.

For my conclusion, I'm going to steal laurion's conclusion, because he's more eloquent than me.

But I’ve seen this community go through a lot of changes. We’ve changed hotels before. Sometimes a lot of times. We’ve had fights and lost people. There are GMs out there who I would love to have come back to Intercon, but probably never will. Heck, the whole organized world of larping has had some political rifts that I only hear stories about, and has changed names more than once. We weren’t always Intercon. Or NEIL. Or IMA. We weren’t always in Chelmsford. Or Natick. Or Rehobeth. We haven’t always served great food. Or food at all. And the community stands. It is strong. We are strong. And I know this is going to be a big challenge. And I know that many of us have fears, trepidations, anger, concerns, hopes, aspirations, expectations, needs, desires, anxieties, frustrations, camaraderie, and dedication. I know I do.

So I hope that you will all join us in this experiment. Let’s all pull together and do what we can to make this work. It might mean setting aside our fears and focusing on our hopes. It might mean offering to buy a friend a meal so they can afford to go. It might mean stepping up and helping us spread good words about Intercon, both to recruit new people to the community, and to keep old ones. It certainly means stepping in to make it a success in any way you can. Run a game. Bring a friend. Organize a carpool. Pack some snacks. Post your own blog entry, good, bad, other. Help us communicate to everyone. Ask us questions (I’ll happily answer!). But most importantly, come to the con. The secret is that we run the con for you. Will you help us run it too?