In our case, we had initially estimated approximately 600 attendees (as a first year convention, we were trying to remain conservative so that we didnt over-reach our limits) and we decided to choose a hotel within Boston itself.

In the last column, I spoke about how the convention was structured and organized in rather broad terms. One of the first things that we had to make concrete was the formation and incorporation of a society to actually put on the convention, something that actually surprised me when we started working on it.

Before you can figure out who does what, you have to determine just what needs to get done. Some things are obvious (someone has to figure out whats going to be shown in the video rooms, and someones got to wrangle the horde of costume players into a smooth main event) but others may not be.

That was, of course, just the beginning. But I'm trying to prove a point here, that an event as big and chaotic and special as a convention began as a bunch of friends talking to each other about what they dreamed they could do while stuffing their faces with big, fat, greasy burgers and fries that needed more salt. Or at least that's what I was doing. Maybe the others were eating more daintily.

I've been to a good number of Science Fiction conventions, but I've never been to a gaming convention, as a result, I had an impulse to sample Gen Con UK for a single day.

Origins, in case you aren't a gamer, is one of the largest gaming conventions in the U.S.A. Every year since 1996, Origins has been held around the Fourth of July (Independence Day) weekend here in Columbus, Ohio.