BUDGET: Costs
$701 – USK Travel Expense: Osaka to Seattle
$327 – Trey Frey Travel Expense: Philadelphia to Seattle
$229 – Event Promotion: CDs, flyers, posters (give-away)
$200 – Vera Venue Cost: Staff Wages
$114 – Vera Door Cost: 15% Sales

BUDGET: Sales
$70 – Lo-Tek busking donations
$670 – Vera Door Sales: 67 Tickets
$304 – Stranger Online Sales: 29 Tickets (+tax)

BUDGET: Total Loss
-$527

BUSINESS: Did we reach our goals? YES
1. Have a good time
2. Around 100 paid guests

POST MORTEM: What went well with the event? What went wrong? How can we improve next year?

VENUE: The Vera Project
+ Vera was spacious and in a decent location (Seattle Center)
+ Cool VIP room in the back for artists to hang out
+ Provided projector and small station for visual artists
+ Prepared large table that fit equipment for all artists
+ Was able to get extra mic, various cables, and guitar amp from backline
+ All Ages event
– Overall sound quality not very good
– Projector quality not very good
– No 21+ section with bar
– 30 minute walk from PAX, could have been closer
– Could only book the event Sunday instead of Friday or Saturday

VENUE: Vera Staff
+ All staff was easy to get along with
+ Sound Engineers were patient and helped the event stay on schedule
+ Vera memeber helped take money and pass out CDs/posters all night at the door
+ Staff gave us complete privacy in VIP section
– Snack/soda shop was closed due to lack of staff
– Event audio was not recorded due to lack of staff
– Almost had nobody to help at the door due to lack of staff
– Media team did poor job making event page on Vera and Seattle Weekly calendar, didn’t even include full lineup

VENUE: Event Confusion
– Serious confusion about whether the show was a private event or Vera event
– Tried to charge an extra $600 rental fee for private event
– There was so much confusion, many Vera members weren’t even sure the show was happening at all
– Vera’s media team didn’t post the event to the online calendar until a week before due to confusion
– Event was under staffed due to confusion
– I did not prepare the visual technical specs for the staff, lots of last minute requests when trying to set that up
– To the end, Vera thought it was a Pink Gorilla event

PROMO: Artwork by Scott Klep
+ Went above and beyond what was on prototype
+ Colors were vibrant, prints looked great
+ Hand drawn art gave personal and unique touch
+ Overall looked like more care than most other posters
+ Lots of cool references to old Crunchy posters, characters, and albums
+/- 50 hours of work to complete
– Art looked too much like a KGHB super show
– Not very clear it was a music event
– Didn’t include text in art scope so Scott didn’t know where to put negative space
– Not enough help with adding flyer text, had to add it last minute by Aaron
– Could have used some secondary artwork

PROMO: CDs = 100 free at the door
+ Music on compilation turned out great
+ Most artists sent in submission early
+ No CDs were left over at the show
+/- 13 out of 30 artists that were contacted participated
– 90 CDs were completed instead of the promised 100
– 40 CDs had corrupt songs and had to be trashed, had to go buy 30 more
– Digital download wasn’t ready until the following weekend of event
– Only the first 30 CDs were hand numbered (we ran out of time)
– Not enough help getting CDs ready, Angel had to help while the show was starting
– Should have found colored CDs to burn instead of bland cheap ones

PROMO: Posters = 25
+ Print color turned out great
+ No need to cut due to perfect print size
– Forgot to add grainy effect to posters that were on flyers
– Artists didn’t get a chance to sign posters, like promised
– Only had 25 posters when preorders ended up at 29

PROMO: Flyers = 400 small, 10 large
+ Print colors and size turned out great
+ All text was legible at the small size
– Had some left over flyers
– Few flyers were given out at PG stores and PG PAX booths
– Large flyers were not posted around Seattle until a week before show
– Not sure how effective flyers were
– Don’t think Gabe actually put up the large flyers
– $200 was probably too much to spend on color printing

PROMO: Facebook Event Page
+ Seemed to be the most effective
+ Lots of cool posts from old shows that brought the hype
+ Fans left lots of positive comments
– Should have made event page with Crunchy instead of personal account
– Personal event page was missing lots of options, including linking to buy tickets
– Not enough friends invited other friends
– Didn’t post the event page until after many other similar events had already gone up
– Didn’t have event art done early enough, had to post a crappy mock up drawing that most people saw
– Should have given away some free tickets or other prizes
– Didn’t make use of the “pinned” feature to pin the full flyer to top of comments

PROMO: Online Sales = StrangerTickets
+ Sold much better than expected, original goal was 10 (actual sold was 29)
+/- No Promo codes were used to save 10%
– Could have given out more promo codes to increase sales
– Was never notified when tickets were purchased, had to manually check online
– Users were charged $2.04 per ticket for processing fee
– Did not receive the final payout for 10 days

EVENT: Date/Time = 8/30/2015, 7:00PM-11:00PM
+ Many people were in town for PAX and had Fri-Mon off
+ Doors opened an hour after the PAX expo halls closed
– People were tired from walking around PAX all weekend, didn’t want to stand more on a Sunday night
– Not everyone had Monday off, many people had to work the following day
– Cold, windy, and rainy weather over the weekend, many people complained about losing power
– There were plenty of other chip shows on previous days
– A much bigger show was the same night at Chop Suey, the Starr Mazer chip show

EVENT: Title = 8-bit Showcase
+ Nice to have consistency with the previous events
+ Title gives impression of big event
– Not very clear that it is a music event
– Misleading since no actual 8-bit artists were playing
– Name sounds a bit cheesy

EVENT: Lineup = USK, Trey Frey, Fighter X, KGHB, Glooms
+ The return of the brilliant and hilarious USK!
+ Trey Frey’s first time coming to Seattle
+ Fighter X and KGHB playing together for 10th anniversary
– Possibly too much similar music (LSDJ)
– Gabe invited Leeni to play without talking to anybody after lineup was decided
– When we asked Leeni (months later), she never heard of the show

EVENT: Airport Chaos
+ Both flights arrived ahead of schedule
– USK was stuck in customs for over 5 hours
– No plan for how USK was going to contact or meet us
– No planned story to tell customs, almost got USK deported

EVENT: Overall
+ All artists showed up and performed
+/- Event actually ended on time (15 minutes early)
– Everyone was running late, preshow setup could have went better
– Should have had a dedicated MC for the night
– Needed help with someone at the merch table
– There was no setup to play BGM between sets
– Needed dedicated media person to take video and pictures
– Fans online wanted some kind of audio/video stream of the show
– No epic event afterparty
– Missed opportunity for event themed t-shirts

ARTIST: KGHB
+ Played a few new songs
+ Actually finished a track for the compilation
+ Had live guitar that brought some live presence and energy
+ Guitar was really great for never having a “full band” practice before hand
– Only practiced one time at 2AM with headphones before set was even finished
– Gabe was clearly tired
– Didn’t have time to create proper costumes
– Forgot to coordinate with Antoin with white suspenders
– Didn’t have time to sound check
– Couldn’t really hear what was going on during the set
– Didn’t get talkbox working for the show
– Bsod CD prints looked bad, ran out of time to reprint
– Missed out on selling merch
– Midi keyboard was crap, no pitch bend
– LSDJ keyboard wasn’t configured, didn’t bother using
– Sax player was lost at EMP, never made it to Vera

MISC EVENT: Lo-Tek PAX busking 8/28
+ Very positive crowd response, lots of interest in flyers
+ People were actually donating money!
– Started lo-tek late, missed most of the PAX rush
– Too many other events being promoted

MISC EVENT: Nerdsqatch Gameboy festival 8/29
– Their event page was first to debut Trey Frey coming to town
– The few flyers we handed out ended up on the floor