I set up a public game night for a non profit organization. The event space has a bar on one side and Pizza and snacks are available. All ages are welcome as the bar side is segregated from where the gaming area is. We posted it in some FB local groups and I found some local subreddits and discord servers. I even made an Instagram account but it flagged my flyer as spam. It’s a smallish town with about 14k people but near a much bigger college town by about 30 minutes. I’m at a loss as what to do since I’m going to give it a go this week too. We discussed having a vintage video game competition such as an old arcade game. Am I missing something or are game nights just not that popular?
Real people organizing is very tough. I would find some folks who you could give you a firm “yes”, even if it’s supporting you while you try to stand something up. You can try draws, like “Free Pizza” if it wasn’t clear the food was free (best draw I know in America is free food). You can try signage around the campus physically, since a lot of younger folks ignore social media / FB. Tabling in person can work really well too. You need permission, a pop up table, signage, & a positive attitude.
Don’t beat yourself up over it. Organizing irl people is one of the harder things to do in this present moment.
30 minute drive is a big ask for college kids when they can easily hold something on campus.
It’s true and they have their own gaming clubs for board games and an E-sports team. I didn’t expect any students to come but ‘townies’ often use the subreddit for the college and there’s Facebook groups for gaming in that town for regular folks.
I don’t know the circumstances of the college OP is referencing, but I didn’t even have a car in college, and knew only one or two people who did (mostly we either walked or took public transit; if neither were available we just didn’t go).
I would suggest you ask the campus for permission to set up a gaming table. Do the same at other locations that will allow it. As someone else implies, organizing is a separate thing from advertising it. It takes real footwork to even get one person in.
Don’t be discouraged. Keep at it. If you really care about this, just stay consistent. Nothing is guaranteed, but that rings more true the earlier you cut it off.
Was the flyer created with AI? that turns off a lot of people now. What types of games were advertised? Did you bring any flyers to game stores or anything like that?
Here’s is the flyer minus the address and location.
That’s a banging flyer. As someone who has hosted big events myself, it can take a while and a few tries to gain traction. Don’t get discouraged yet.
Game Night
Bring your own!
Readers probably assumed they had to bring their own games, from skimming just the big text
No I didn’t use ai as I myself scroll past those kinds of flyers. I did use a Canva template and made sure to put times, dates, and location on it. It was a very straightforward flyer. I advertised board, card, and video games abd brought my gaming pc with me. I did have a few of the older folks that were there playing pacman though. They were there for a meeting anyway and didn’t come just for game night.
Do it regularly and people will slowly roll in.
Old-school paper flyers seem appropriate for a vintage game competition, see if you’re allowed to post any on campus.
Add public-transit directions if they aren’t already there.
You said it’s for a nonprofit, it might make a difference what that nonprofit is.
It’s a large veterans organization. Also sadly there’s is no public transportation off of campus, especially not out here. I will try to get some flyers printed and see if I can get them put up in town. I think campus is too far out there for students to come.
If this isn’t at a VFW, did you get word out to the local branch?
It’s the American Legion and yeah the commander helped me set it all up. Unfortunately there’s not a lot of very active members. The only thing they really have going on is bingo, which draws a pretty big crowd. Unfortunately the other nights are completely dead in there.
Bingo night is serious business, never fails to amaze me.
There’s a VFW that they like to use as basecamp for filming tv/movies in the area, but they always have to work around bingo night. They’ve tried outbidding it, but bingo just rakes that much in.
Sorry. :(
I couldn’t have come, but I’d have been there in spirit.
You mean no one from the non profit even bothered to show up? That feels disrespectful, hosting an event is a lot of work
A few were there, there was also a meeting that night for one of the committees so a few of those folks wandered in for a little bit. It’s mostly an older crowd so they didn’t seem too interested.
Oh god. This gave me flashbacks. Sorry OP, that sucks
You can’t just declare a party. You have to start by having friends, and then they invite their friends, and then they invite their friends…
I’m sure it’s not what you actually mean or think, but the way you are talking here you come across as entitled to the time and attention from everyone in your town. I could summarize this post as you saying “I did something nice for other people, so now they are required to like me.” People don’t work that way.
Anyways you seem very motivated to grow your community and I wish you the best of luck. There is a lot of good feedback in this thread.
I would make a coming soon page with email capture form that explains why it will be fun. And only once I’ve got 100 email sign ups would I schedule an event.
