Historicon 2025 After Action Report

I would like to discuss general cost increases that HMGS, Inc. is facing with every convention and those specifically associated with Historicon.  It is probably no surprise to anyone that costs for our conventions have gone up over the years; but many of you would be surprised at just how much things have changed and will continue to change over the next few years.  I will use the example of the contracts we have with the Marriott Hotel and the Lancaster Convention Center for Historicon to give you some appreciation of how things are changing. 

The 2019 contract (our first year at this venue) the facility rental was $26K, attendee rooms were $145/night and parking vouchers were $7/day (paid by HMGS).  COVID really hit the hotel industry hard and beyond just extending contracts due to limitations on hosting large events we were also able to keep price increases at a minimum in most areas.  Even with these breaks we still saw a 3-6%/year increase of the facility rental, and for 2026 the rooms increased to $158/night and parking is now $11/day (which is the most frustrating).

During this entire time period, Historicon tried to hold the weekend attendee rates and Exhibitor booth rates to limited price increases; but even in the 2 years that I have run the convention we have seen our limited profit decrease from year to year, as we have tried to absorb the costs.  We are not looking to make a ton of money for HMGS, but conventions need to be net positive with all their costs including convention support gear (like carts and computers), as well as things like storage unit rental.

The Board has looked at all these costs and many others, and have worked with all of the Convention Directors as we have tried to reduce the number and burden on Volunteers, but as some areas have reduced staff (remember the long lines at registration) other areas like social media and Hobby U. has seen an increase in interest and therefore volunteers. 

We negotiated new Historicon contracts for 2027- 2029 (we are trying to lock in more years if we can), but the good will and low room rates we saw in earlier contracts has been somewhat lost as the industry is making “corrections” coming out of the old “COVID” contracts.  We will see room rates of $185/night and facility and parking vouchers are going to cost us a lot more.  We are trying to balance all of these costs as we learn to adapt and provide new and innovated experiences for all of our conventions but it continues to be a challenge.  HMGS recognizes that there is a fine balance of the value of the conventions we provide at a very reasonable price point compared to many other shows, many of which also charge per game (none of which is shared with the GM), with the unique niche (and some would say – very cost conscious) participants in Historical Miniature Wargaming.

Recognize that the HMGS Board, the Convention Directors and their staffs, and all of our Volunteers (all of us are Volunteers) are continuously looking at how to control/reduce costs where we can, and continue to provide each of you the type of Historical Miniature Gaming Convention experiences we hope are the finest in the US if not the world.  I know the HMGS Treasurer is going to talk some more about costs at the Cold Wars Member’s Meeting but stop and talk to HMGS Board members, Convention Directors and even your friends to solicit ideas on how to help us keep our Convention costs down, but at the same time recognize everything continues to cost us more each year.

I hope this helps everyone understand a little bit better some of the cost issues every Convention Director and HMGS deals with for each Convention (I didn’t even mention that table rentals at the Host use to be $5/table and are now almost $15/table – at least the plastic tables have a lot less staples in them!).     

We continue to collect feedback from folks to help improve all HMGS Conventions, including working closely with the Fall In! 2025 team as they introduced our – no longer new – convention management system TableTop.Events (TTE).  This is a tremendous step forward for all of our attendees and our HMGS staff to be able to provide a system that you can access from your computer, tablet and even smart phone in real time to see what games are available, what classes you can still get into, or where to go for your game or to just buy some HMGS swag or even a Flea Market Table in real time while you are sitting at a game or at the bar.  No more spending valuable convention time trying to see if a game ticket is still available on the board for a game in an upcoming time slot; if a game is open you can reserve a seat on your phone, get a confirmation, walk up to the game table, show the GM and you are in. The greater world of gaming is also open to you once you register for a TTE account, since it is the defacto standard for most of the general gaming community shows and conventions.  Historicon 2026 will also introduce all of us to our new Membership system (yet another change for the better). 

So make sure you get your TTE account ready early, keep an eye out for a notice when the Hotel room blocks open (February16^th, 2026 at noon) and we see all of you across the gaming table at the Marriott Hotel and Convention Center in Downtown Lancaster for Historicon 2026, July 16-20.  The Convention Theme will be focused on the American War of Independence and celebrating the 250^th birthday of the United States.  So get out your old AWI troops that you haven’t put down on the Game Table in years and let’s get ready to free the colonies once again!

Thank you again everyone for making Historicon 2025 a memorable convention for all of us, and Happy Gaming!