Dedicated or some form of itinerary of onsite or planed activities at the entrance would be nice in the future.

More pre-planned activities for bigger draw and attraction to the event outside going to do a run or meet people would be nice, especially if NASA also helps with making it something that could happen at the event with those that want to do the effort.

Side stream recorded content of side activities at the event in the future would also be something I'm personally interested in as it allows more to be seen between the runs that people may be interested in as more stuff to see or even participate in if at the event

Much of everything I would have mentioned has already been said and that goes for pros and cons.
I will say that I personally enjoyed the event much more compared to previous events outside the miscommunication parts of side stuff that was kinda thrown in during the event.

Merch or other stuff on site would be nice as another way to help with costs and such provided communication of the stuff can be done better in the future.

Dedicated Volunteer assistance to help staff on shift rotations in the future to teach and allow more hands on help and learning and growth in general.

hold

MASH, hold that idea

I'd also like to mention that I'm more then willing to help with bringing and running more equipment as needed for future events for either main or side stuff at event.

Things that I am working on atm:
portable pc gaming rigs and set ups for side stream or recording uses.
setups for gaming tournaments (spare consoles and equipment and such).

Funding this is different story in its self but something worth looking into in the future with online marathons going to support future events and NASA as a goal would be nice with more of a focus.

Memphis would be a solid choice for a USA NASA location

yall wtf

So I have nothing to add other than what I said at the in-person discussion, so I'll just reiterate here:

-Definitely think the marathon needs to move back to the US. Feels like we've "exhausted" the Toronto/Niagara area in terms of new attendees. Moving the location to somewhere new would bring in new lifeblood for the event in terms of runners imo. NASA1 had a bunch of Midwest runners who showed up just because it was a new marathon in the area, which is something that's been lost since staying around Toronto for 3 years in a row. Chicago's been suggested a bunch and it's a great location, I'm in the area so if you guys ever need location scouting for Chicago/Milwaukee hmu.
-Cost and tech transportation have been the main mitigating factors from moving back to the US you guys said. For cost, I'm personally cool with paying more if it means a better venue ($120 would probably be my max) and bunch of the regulars said the same thing. My only concern is that such a high registration fee would deter more casuals attendees, or ones on the fence, from coming. Like if I'm just a random speedrunner from the area, seeing a $100+ registration fee would probably sway me away since I have no attachment to the event. I don't know what's good solution here outside of having lower-priced 1 or 2 day passes. With tech, honestly NASA1 had jank tech and I still think it was the best event. Like don't get me wrong, the current tech is fantastic and that's awesome. But I'd definitely take a downscale if it means moving the event to a better location.

-100% agree with Stingray about making NASA a charity event. It would help draw people both in attendance and viewership especially (which seemed low this year). It would also help just general promotion of the event on Twitch, since staff seems to really only promote events with a charity focus. Stream monsters love the interaction and having donation comments being read on stream is great for that. Honestly just not falling into the GDQ trap of reading sob stories24/7 and giving couch donation-reading privileges seems like a perfect solution imo.

-Last main point is that we should be doing more runner outreach. Like hypothetically if the event moves to like Orlando or something we should reach out Florida/Southern runners and see if they want to attend. Honestly a lot of people are just flat out unaware of the existence NASA in the first place. A lot would probably be down to attend if they knew about it though (which ties back into the point about making this a charity event to help increase brand exposure).
-Also think it'd help if there was a way to bring more big-name speedrunners out to the event to help promotion. I'd be down to do an online marathon to raise money for some popular runners (like a werster or zfg) to attend, if only just to bring more exposure to the event. If you don't wanna go that far, doing something like giving discounts on registration or just general outreach would work as well.

Outside of that here's a bunch of minor things:
-Agree with everyone saying there should be some itinerary for trips and all that. Don't see any downsides.
-Someone suggested having a 2nd stream for mafia/side activities on a gopro or something, that'd be sick. Fuck it if someone buys a drone I'll personally volunteer to fly it around the venue 24/7 for stream footage.
-Agree with people saying the online marathons (like the Jet Set Radio marathon) should be promoted more as NASA events. Like just having "NASA Presents: ..." and featuring the logo would help immensely in terms of promotion.
-Monthly newsletter is a great idea, definitely do that.
-A little thing, but the camera framing and physical seating setup could've been better. A lot of time the camera would only be capturing like 20% of the people actually sitting in attendance for a run, people would just be out of frame constantly.

As usual the event itself was great, always have a blast attending and meeting everyone. You guys know what you're doing right for the direction and vibe of the marathon. Looking forward to next year.

come to florida pog

Hi again, after watching the Town Hall VOD I have a few things to add in response.

Attendee roll on discord to @Attendees = AWESOME, yes pls x92

On the subject of side event communication I realize we had mics that went to the room itself. People could verbally promote side events between games or even during games if the runner of a game is involved in the side event. When reasonable (if possible) using the mic to tell the room someone is putting in a pizza order or is looking for players for a game that would get the message to the introverted, the shy, the inattentive, and the lazy as well as everyone else present without the event coordinator having to approach everyone one at a time.

While I prefer the weather and currency differences in Canada vs The U.S.A. if I had to pick a US city I have always wanted to go to Chicago and Detroit. Minnesota is an ok state too I guess.

If something insane happens with your tech availability putting the southwest into consideration, Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado may make a good middle ground for people in Texas and California. Utah's liquor laws are shit and New Mexico doesn't have much going for it outside of Albuquerque.

Stay away from Indiana. That state has tremendous crime and civil infrastructure problems. Avoid Oklahoma too. Cops there are such assholes people actively drive around that state on road trips.

Ohio is a place I wouldn't recommend unless you get a great deal. People I've met who travel for their business always complain about Ohio. There's gas stations/corner convenience that close overnight. Liquor laws are odd. Lots of food places close relatively early. If you are evaluating Ohio locations please look at what the business hours are of the places nearby the venue.

Lastly, on the subject of making NASA a charity event. Please research your charity beforehand and see how much of the charity's money actually goes to it's target purpose. There are lots of shitty charities which are careers for the people who run them and large amounts of their donations go to marketing, awareness, and employee salaries instead of their target purpose. People are aware of this and are seemingly conscious of this in the speedrun community. There are plenty of good charities. If possible post your considerations for charities online and let people tell you who they will spend their money on or let them at least alert you to any charities which seem disingenuous.

Ok, finally getting around to typing this long form feedback:

First, I want to get the cons out of the way:

1. Location of the marathon wasn't that ideal for me. Having to drive for 11 hours to get there really hampered my ability to watch runs and be able to perform my own runs at the event. If possible, please host this event somewhere in the Indiana/Ohio area next year, as this would help to get more people be able to come to the event.

2. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the commentator for my run was held up in traffic for almost three hours, and the staff insisted that I do my run two hours before I was ready to do it, and without the person that I really needed to have on commentary for my run. Dark-Aries did an OK job, but I ended up having to take focus away from my run to be able to explain stuff that he either forgot or did not know. Furthermore, I really, really disliked all of the schedule shuffling that went on throughout the event that had little or no notification in the Discord or any notice what-so-ever. This is something that should ALWAYS be noted on a Discord channel or that the runner should always be informed of any major changes to their schedules.

3. There was a real lack of submissions and diversity at NASA2019, as well as runner awareness for this marathon. This should be a relatively easy fix in that people can easily be notified if they are at least somewhat likely to both submit a run to the event and also be able to go to the event. People coming just for their run(s) and then leaving the same day also did not help this cause. Next time, more vigorous promotion of the event and more runner awareness type stuff could really help to potentially increase the amount of runners at next years' event.

4. As a mid-morning/late-evening runner, and as a commentator for four runs in the early-late night time period, I honestly was quite disappointed with how few people actually stayed to watch the runs instead of going and doing other things. I did the best I could to give the runs at these time periods my attention, but it still was not enough. Nothing makes for a sad showing if the run itself was amazing, the commentary was amazing, but there was nobody in the actual room to enjoy the run(s). Maybe there is some way to incentivize people for staying and watching runs during these time periods?\

5. There were way too many runs done by staff members during the set-up blocks. While there were no runs technically supposed to be happening during these time periods, I think it would have been more beneficial to have other people at the event who had runs/ideas to fill the time to let them fill the time instead of having other staff members fill the time. Give the regular guys a chance, people!

6. I found that there was not enough casual/practice stations at the venue for everything that was needed, especially with the fact that there were only two PCs. Maybe include more than 2 PCs next time?

7. I found overall that there was a lack of hype for the runs being performed.

8. I found it utterly disgusting that people left shit all over the stream room and did not bother to pick up after themselves. Shame on them! Thanks to the staff for cleaning up after other people!

Now that all of the nasty stuff is out of the way, we can get down to the pros:

1. Everything on the technical side of things was extremely smooth. It was a blessing to be able to perform my runs using the PC, Keyboard, Mouse, and Headsets provided. Everything was run smoothly, and there were very few hiccups.

2. The atmosphere of the stream room was amazing, and everyone that came to the event were super friendly and made my first time coming out to this event something I will never forget! So many new people were met, so many new things were seen, if only it could last forever!

3. Almost all of the staff members were approachable, friendly, and helpful. They helped ensure that the place stayed clean, the stream and audio balancing was top-notch, and they literally left their hearts and souls out on the playing field. Thank you!

4. Hotel room was expansive, but a little underwhelming for the price.

Sorry that there weren't more pros than cons, but that's all that I could think of for the moment.

Thanks again for hosting such a wonderful event, and I hope to come back next year, provided it is somewhere I can drive to easily, as I cannot afford to fly.