If you’re familiar with this blog at all, you’ve seen me post on the Guidebook App for mobile devices before, so I will spare you any verbiage extolling its virtues. Suffice to say that the Guidebook App acts like a mobile version of a convention booklet, and it can ride on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. I think it’s incredibly handy for attending hobby conventions! For a good “This is what Guidebook is and how it works for an HMGS convention” post, please read the one I did for HISTORICON 2012. There’s no reason to retype it at this juncture– if you have used it before, you already know about it, if you haven’t, most of your questions will be answered there.
COLD WARS 2014 (background): For the last seven conventions or so, HMGS has been providing a free mobile app for our conventions called GUIDEBOOK. Guidebook is an event app that assists a convention attendee in making the most of their time by viewing crucial event information on a mobile device of some kind– iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android or any smartphone that can load a web browser. Guidebook contains the schedule of all gaming events at a HMGS convention– listed by date, time and with the Event Number on your ticket in the Title. The description of the event will have your event’s room and table number as well. Guidebook will supply maps of every room being used at the convention site (with table layouts) including an overview map that shows where all the rooms are in relation to each other. Every guidebook supplies a list of exhibitors with their table/booth number included and an Exhibitor Hall vendor layout diagram. Guidebook can be a very useful method of making the most of your precious time at a HMGS Con– it will even help you build your own personal schedule and alert you when your next event is coming up.
Up until Fall-In! 2013, we put the Guidebook app up for download a week or two before the convention. For 2013, FI Convention Director Dan Murawski wanted to get Guidebook out on the street “early and often”, and I supported that. The difference was noticable– normally we have plenty of “free downloads” left by the time of the actual convention, at Fall-IN! 2013 we had exactly 3 left. Perhaps you’re saying “so what?” but in terms of numbers, that’s about 1/3 of the attendees using a mobile guide for the convention, and that’s a trend I like to think is transformative. For Cold Wars 2014, I’m also putting it out as early as I can. The version you can download today (as of: 1/14/2014) will have the following: Event schedule up to the PEL listing, Seminars, and basic convention information (location, theme, hours, etc). It will NOT have: Maps and Room layouts (these show up late after they are finalized), Exhibitor List (usually the week before the con), Hobby University information, and Tournaments (I have the first cut (I think), but translating it to guidebook is a tedious exercise and you should see it sometime in the next couple of weeks). As usual, don’t sweat it if your Guidebook App is missing something or has placeholder information in it.. I’ll be updating it when the information gets to me and you have to do exactly nothing beyond going online and opening it up to update it. Guidebook will tell you when to download updates.
To recap, some elements will be added as we approach the convention– when an update occurs, again, you need do nothing. The next time you open up the COLD WARS 2014 guidebook, it will prompt you with “Your Guidebook has been updated! Download Updates now?” or words to that effect. Download the changes and you will be able to see them immediately– Guidebook takes care of it for you.
Instructions:
(you may skip this first step if you already have the Guidebook App on your mobile device)
To get a copy of the Cold Wars 2014 Guidebook:
Using the QR graphic:
Step 1 – Download a QR reader for your device
Step 2 – Get Guidebook by opening your device’s web browser and visiting guidebook.com/getit
or scan the QR code below using your phone’s QR scanner.
If you don’t want to go the QR route, just look for “Guidebook” app on either Itunes or Google Play.
Now that you have Guidebook on your device:
Search for guidebook files. They are listed by date. Scroll to March 2014. Cold Wars should be easy to find. The Guidebook Icon for CW 2014 looks like this:
CW2104 “Landing Page” (repeats the above information)
That’s about all you need to know to get set up. Scroll around, look at the schedule, and start building your personal convention schedule for Cold Wars 2014.
Have fun and I’ll see you at the con. Got any questions? Ask me on here or on TMP. Ciao
Third Point of Singularity 