I'm part of the gaming sig that's meeting on Tuesday night (not the "serious games" one meeting the night after). I've been talking to my colleagues, Scott Reed and Wendi Jewell about the possibilities. I'm in favor of trying to get some actual games up for people to play; Scott has volunteered his Wii for the SIG, and I think that'll be lots of fun. Of course, you've probably heard that internet access will probably be lacking at the C's this year, so I'm not sure if it'll be possible to show WOW or Second Life except as boring PowerPoint slides. That's assuming there's a projector in the room, even. I'm guessing so, but if not, that will severely limit the options.

Does anyone have suggestions on what we could do? We obviously can't afford to go renting lots of TVs and such; Scott checked, and the price for renting a TV is $100, a bit pricey methinks. Of course, I can always bring my tablet PC, but that's not going to be much firepower for anything beyond casual and retrogaming. My family lives in Louisiana, but about 4 hours away from New Orleans, so no help there.

If we end up having to go without the games, I still don't want this to devolve into one of those paper reading sessions that bore me like a diesel-powered auger. Egads, though, what to do? Would it be enough simply to have some "talking points" and hope that the people who show up will have lots to contribute?

I'm open to all suggestions.