It takes a village... in our case a community! Many people doing little things make a big thing happen... the Arc40k 25 Years Anniversary Weekend was by far the biggest planned, prepared for and executed in its history.
An event like ours doesn't happen by the feats of one or two people. My Community of fellow travellers, a group, a gang of people enthusiastic to see this event continue to hold its place as a significant one on the Australian Hobby Event Calendar.
The list of people to thank is always long, and there are soo many people who contribute that sometimes they get overlooked in the speeches at the end of the event. It's nice to be able to put some words down acknowledging the efforts of the many people who helped make Arc40k the best miniature hobby event Australia has seen.
So here goes - The list of those who made the big thing happen.
Ben Zagami approached me last year and asked to come help, and was indispensable across the year. In the months prior to the event he organised all the missions, put together some cool presentations & answered all the rule queries often at all hours of the day and night. Over the event weekend, was the leader of the 40k team ensuring that the running was the smoothest Arc40k in years! Plus he was there to step in to take to the microphone when I lost my voice and wasn't able to present.
My biggest praise, and one that I feel I do on behalf of the Arc40k community is to acknowledge Ben's work in organising and executing the Peter Mac raffle that was able to raise $3000 for cancer research.
This was a massive undertaking on behalf of our event and it's participants - giving us an opportunity to align our weekend of hobby with a significant contribution to the wider society in which we live - and it certainly won't be the only time Arc40k provides an opportunity to be seen to be using our gathering for a greater good through a charitable endevour. Thank you Ben and Thank you to everyone who made this part of our weekend an outstanding sucess.
Rob Holtom – The unsung Rock of Arc40k. Has worked in the background throughout the last 12 months as the cool head of the organising comittee. Always there to talk through, challenge, and question all of the planning. There to make sure the right decisions have been made along the way. He has also organised two Arcromunda Events, helped wrangle a scenery working-B, as well as organizing the canteen, drinks, pastries and snacks!
Derek Maggs – this guy has spent the past 10 years behind the scenes involved in organising Arc40k. He came along to the 2013 event looking to help out and literally stayed for 10 years.
I hope we can keep him interested and involved for another 10 more - such is his drive to and passion to do what needs to be done.
This year, his significant contribution was that he organized our BBQ.
The part that most of you don’t realise is that two weeks before the event the Venue called me and cancelled the café option that had been offered as part of booking the venue 8 months earlier. Derek to his credit stepped up to the challenge and thanks to his efforts and organisation in that two week period delivered Lunch for more than 250 people each day of our event. If anyone sizzled at Arc 40k it was Derek.
Chris – Another 10 year veteran - this guy has no interest or understanding of our Warhammer hobby. But he's been cool about just hanging out with his little brother - that's Me!
Chris is also the brains behind building, developing and making sure everything runs smoothly for our scoring system - ArcScore. This custom software has been running Arc40k for 9 years, every year it gets rebuilt and functions added to make running large scale events not only possible but also quick and easy. Without Chris - his knowledge, expertise and willingness to spend time doing something for me that benefits the event I run and the people who participate in it. I think I'll drop by with some more beers to thank him again.
Andrew - He's won so many of the painting awards he finally decided to put aside his competitive painting program and joined the team after last year's event. He started out planning to be our Head Paint Judge...
And then we asked him to organise a painting event! Once we started selling tickets to the ArcOpen and were seeing how much it was growing, how much work it might be to run... well he stood down from Arc40K commitments and focused on making this new painting event a significant happening for model and display painting. Eager to grow its success, he is already planning ArcOpen 2024.
Ellyett Cranswick returned for his 2nd event as an organizer and also his 5 year veteran status. He was always there when we needed help wrangling players for scores, or in the lead up to starting a round. He event brough along his mate Chris Finlayson who became a big part organizing the end ceremony and cooking up a storm on the BBQ with Derek. These are the fellas you gotta have to just get things done. Well done.
In February we put the call out for Volunteers. We got a small group that responded. Their can do attitude and what needs to be done approach was simply amazing.
Mitch Gibson, from paint judging, to wrangling results, to helping on Friday, Mitch was Mr. Everywhere. Craig Given & Tom Gower, I can’t mention how valuable your contribution was just being there and ready to do what we needed. Lap Nguyen his experience manning the door at PAX was really helpful, in helping us to cover the door throughout the weekend, and also stepping up when Sam Hohneck, the ever reliable Secondhand Sunday, player wrangler needed to leave.
Our long time friend, Shannon Boh, after a bit of a hobby hiatus came back and immersed himself in the paint judging and did a really great job!
Cam the Epic Basing Rep - who along with Richard on the Saturday ran all of the ArcOpen registration process. Making sure all the models were entered into the system, moved carefully between photography and the display area. And then answered everyone's questions. Cam also made sure entrants and general entry visitors got a small sample of Epic Basing parts.
Rory the photo guy! Brought his enthusiasm for his new hobby along with his expertise from his day job... and as a result we were able to get all of the ArcOpen and much of Arc40k photographed and we couldn't have done that without him and his mate Greg who turned up with a camera on Saturday!
To all these people, that gave up their time, and energy, I thank you for the help over the weekend. These people made a huge difference to the event.
Major Sponsor
The House of War, were on board for the 2nd year as our major sponsor. Their contribution to the event was huge. From Table cloths, and the Gifts for all the players (Dice Bags & 25th Anniversary Tool Kits), to generously flying our Emil & Lukas to Melbourne all the way from Sweden, AND commissioning Tabletop Time to build the Titan Graveyard to be unveiled at the event. Deb & Riordon’s, contribution to helping us turn Arc40k into a true community event has been nothing short of mammoth.
Brett and his team from Gap Games are becoming bigger sponsors every year, this year they sponsored our Best General award. Brett even made an appearance to check out the event for himself.
Gap Games support us through their affiliate program (any purchases made from Gap Games through the links on our website give us a kick back to help us run the site and provide future content).
Victoria Miniatures a long time supporter of the event and also provided some great kits as prizes from their range of amazing miniatures.
Other Sponsors including Twisted Games who provided some awesome prizes to ArcOpen - including the prize packages for Best in Show and People's Choice awards. As well as a range of miniatures, warbands and scenery for the Twisted game. Twisted also kindly added miniature packs to the Peter Mac raffle.
Epic Basing joined in supporting ArcOpen this year and we have to thank them for providing sample packs to entrants and Prize Packs of their basing kits to the ArcOpen. Getting it all here incredibly quickly once they decided to support our event and the community of hobbyists.
The Livestream
This part of the event was lead by Chris Busuttil (from Legends and Lore) and Stephen Howard (Random Arc guy who is a toy soldier tragic and has a wealth of experience in sports broadcasting), the vision and planning to deliver what we saw across the weekend is a credit to them and their organization.
Makka & Lachlan throughout the weekend, it cant be easy manning a livestream for 8hrs and always having things to say, cameras to switch. A truly professional set up. Dalton Nugent and Locky Betts from Risky Rollers added to the stream with the roving mics and participating the games. A real collaborative effort. If you haven’t checked out the livestream watch it here.
Our Special Guests
For the first time we had special guests for players and General Admission attendees to come and talk to and gain hobby inspiration from.
A big Thank You firstly to Emil & Lukas from Squidmar Miniatures who flew half way around the world to judge our painting competition. Despite arriving in Melbourne at 6am on the Saturday, some 36 hours later than planned. They really came to the event with enthusiasm to meet fans, and engage with participants and painters alike.
Victoria Lamb from Victoria Miniatures came over from Adelaide. She judged the painting competition with Emil & Lukas, and wandered around the gaming hall checking out armies and talking to players. Thank You for coming, we hope you will come back next year!
Tabletop Time, the surprise packet of the event. They brought along the Titan Graveyard, and then hung around for 2 days talking to their fans. Dave, Jenn, & Murray we hope you will return in 2024!
Lastly a big massive THANK YOU to the Arc40k Players and ArcOpen Painters. I said at the start that it takes a community. The event couldn’t be what it is without the passion you have. The effort you put into building and painting, whether it be a 40k Army or an entry in the ArcOpen. The enthusiasm you put into participating and having fun across the weekend creates an inspiring atmosphere all weekend. Our biggest point of feedback from the Special Guests, General Admission, and players has hands down been how inspirational it is to spend the weekend immersed in the best hobby in Australia.
