ConKit: Food at PAX

My wife has been to many a weekend conference, so she busted her hump to make sure our hotel room had enough food. Ten thousand thank yous, my love! I ended up bringing a cooler bag and 2 other bags filled with food, paper towels, and utensils.

The Stuff That Worked:
Breakfast things worked well. Each morning we feasted on hard boiled eggs, bananas, and bagels with cream cheese. Bagels and bananas both make an ideal "It's 3AM and I'm a little peckish" food as well.

Snackables. We made a big batch of gorp and divvied it out into sandwich bags so anyone could grab one to eat during the day. Add a granola bar and an apple and I had lunch on Saturday.

Bottled water. I brought a case and I ended up with 2 bottles left over on Sunday.

Brownies. I brought a pan's worth with me, and ended up taking half home. The container seemed a little big to bring in and give away, so I packed a sandwich bag with a few which provided zero protection from crushing. Ah, well - the crumbs tasted just as good. I gave brownies to Enforcers on the swing shift, so yay for well-fed con workers. They also make a great breakfast food when you come right down to it. I'd have taken more into the con space, but I didn't want to compete with Cookie Girl taking donations for Child's Play.

I felt it was my job to provision the room and get food to whoever needed it in the con. Every time I left the room my bag contained at least 4 bottles of water, a bag or two of gorp, a granola bar, and a couple of apples. I offered food and water when I remembered I had it. I noticed the demand for water outpaced the consumption of gorp. I'd like to take more water with me next PAX, but I'm not sure my shoulders would take the weight for long.

The Stuff That Didn't Work:
Lunchables. I brought pita bread, carrot sticks, potato chips, hummus, and tuna salad. I snuck back to the room for a sandwich on Friday and dipped into the hummus before the playtest that night, but other than that the lunch foods remained untouched.

Notes For Next Year:

• Take more snack foods. Leave the lunch foods at home.
• Bring more water to the tabletop area if possible. Gamers don't think to stop and find more to drink, and kidney stones suck rocks (pardon my pun).
• See about donating brownies to the people collecting for Child's Play.
• Take more food to give away, and let more people know that snacks are available. Nobody should go hungry or broke on non-game purchases during PAX.