Play On Con 2014 Fundraiser

What is Play On Con?

POC is a four-day, family-friendly fandom convention held each year in Birmingham, Alabama. We’re a fan-created, fan-run, and fan-supported event.  We focus on four main areas for our attendees:

1. Shows: Interactive and energetic events that welcome new fans as well as old.
2. Gaming: The best board, rpg, live action, video, and card gaming available.
3. Parties: Nightly (and daily!) hospitality events thrown by award-winning party hosts.
4. Community: Active personal involvement with related fandom events throughout the year.

      

What Are You Featuring For This Year’s Show?

 The biggest announcement is that we’re returning to Summer Camp! The Alabama 4-H Hotel and Conference Center was a huge hit last year. The Convention Center features some of the finest meeting space we’ve seen, a collection of hotel and dorm rooms, and a wide array of traditional “campy” activities like canoeing, archery, and nighttime campfires. We have exclusive use of the property, access to the pool all day and night, and we don’t have to worry about “mundanes” and their “noise complaints”.

We will be featuring the events that have made Play On Con notorious with the convention crowd: Live music, open and tournament gaming, nightly party battles, audience-inclusive performances and workshops, video gaming, the biggest game library we’ve ever seen, costuming workshops and contests, game shows, and tracks for Anime, Steampunk, Cosplay, Minecraft, and many more.  

Why are you looking for additional funding for your convention?

So we can make our convention bigger and better! The mission-critical parts of the con are already funded, but we always want to take our show to the next level. We need your help to pursue that and to continue pushing things over the top like we always have!

Last year’s fundraiser helped make our show much more successful. We were able to fully fund the shuttle, offer more live performances, and book the 4-H professionals we needed to feature the outdoor events we wanted. We're confident that, given a proper boost this year, we can successfully achieve more of our goals for this year’s show!

What Are The Donations Going To Do For The Convention?

There are four main targets we're shooting for this year:

$3000: Shuttle Service and Outdoor Events 1
$4000: Network Improvements
$5000: Entertainment
$6000: Outdoor Events 2

And if we move past these goals, we will use all the money we get to do additional Network Improvements.  

 

 

Shuttle Service: 

Since parking on-site is going to be limited, we are seeking to get a constant shuttle traveling to and from offsite parking, as well as offering transportation around the 4-H grounds.  

A second on-call shuttle will also be available to provide transportation to and from the off-site locations.  

 

 

 

Outdoor Events: 

Almost all the outdoor events at 4H require a trained staff member to run them.  We will be using funds to make sure the climbing wall, the archery range, the canoes, and other “camp” events are available to as many POC attendees as we can.  There is even a Bird of Prey presentation we’d like to book.

1. Several low level activities catered to our attendee requests
2. A wide array of constant activities, including the Bird of Prey exhibit.  

 

 

Network Improvements: 

In order to improve the network capacity of the 4-H center, we need to purchase and rent some additional hardware to increase the wifi coverage.  Additionally, we will be setting up a location with higher bandwidth allocated to it, so that people can upload or download with a little more urgency.  

 

 

 

Entertainment: 

As always, we would like to up the ante on our entertainment.  These dollars will be used to upgrade the quality of the programming events with improved accoustics and environmental elements.   

 

 

 

 

 

What are the donor rewards?

Our rewards are designed to offer good incentives, even if you are not attending the event.

For attendees:  You may also purchase memberships, get a special sponsor T-shirt, or buy one of the director’s rooms to help support the event.

For businesses: You can get advertisements in the program book, sponsor or brand rooms for the weekend of POC 7 and get your promotional materials into the hands of our attendees.

For friends of POC:  You can sponsor the events taking place at POC so your friends get more good times!

 

Underlined rewards are cumulative.   At any dollar value, you also receive the underlined rewards from earlier levels.

All supporters will have their name added to the POC sponsor web page until the 2014 show.

Red Level Sponsors

$10: Mention in our social media$
$20: Small Printed Material Included in the Schwag Bag ( < 3”x6”) (&)
$25: Limited Edition Sponsor T-Shirt
$30: Name listed on POC Sponsor page in the Program Book
$35: Large Printed Material Included in the Schwag Bag (&)
$40: 100x100px icon on POC Sponsor web page
$50: (4) VIP Seating at Iron Bartender
$55: One Full Weekend Badge for POC 7 in 2014

White Level Sponsors

$55: ¼ page ad in the Program Book
$65: ½ page ad in the Program Book
$70: 500x100px banner on POC  Sponsor Web Page with clickable link (in place of 100x100px icon)
$80: Full page ad in the Program Book
$95 (1): Sponsor the Schwag Bag with your printed logo (must provide bags) (&)
$200 (1): Competitor Slot in the Iron Bartender Competition

Blue Level Sponsors

$100: Two Full Weekend Badges for POC 7 in 2014

$110 (10): Sponsor a Gaming or Programming Session (Content Selection and in-room banner) 
$250 (5): Brand a gaming room for the weekend (3  Tournament rooms, 2 video gaming rooms)
$300 (3): Sponsor a POC Party
$300 (5): Sponsor one of the POC Programming Tracks (Announcements Only)

$300 (1): Judge slot in the Iron Bartender Competition
$400 (1): Sponsor Registration 
$450 (1): Sponsor and Brand the Charity Casino 

Gold Level Sponsors

$525 (1): Brand the Con Suite
$540 (1): Steal The Extraordinary Contraptions' Dorm Room (4 bunk beds in the Non-Party Dorm)
$550 (1): Brand the Expo Hall 
$575 (1): Sponsor the Costume Contest
$600 (1): Sponsor the Friday Night Concerts

$650: Lifetime Membership to Play On Con
$700 (1): Steal Wes’s Room (2 Queen Beds)
$1000 (1): Sponsor the Saturday Night Concert & Events
$1250 (1): Steal Dan’s Room (2 Queen Beds) + a Lifetime Membership to POC

(#) Rewards with number after the sponsor level are limited to that many sold.
(&) Printed materials and bags will be provided by the sponsor.  

• "Steal a Room": The hotel rooms on-site are already sold out.  The Owners of Play On Con are so committed to improving the convention that they are willing to give up their own rooms to help raise funds.  If you steal Dan, Wes's or The Extraordinary Contraptions' rooms, they will scavenge some other place to stay, letting you stay on-site.
• All printed materials, logos, banners, branding and spoken announcements are subject to editorial restrictions.   Any branding must be non-competitive for vendors that participate in that room.  Sponsorship includes declarations of sponsorship during announcements in that room as well as allowing for your printed banner to be displayed during the event.  Branded rooms and events will be named by the sponsor.
• Delivered goods must be sent to POC at least two weeks before the first day of the convention.  Anything sent after that point cannot be guaranteed to be included. All physical rewards will be available on-premise during the weekend of POC 7.  
• Any unclaimed rewards can be shipped to the recipient after the convention, but all shipping will be paid for by the recipient.