This is an idea I’ve had floating around for some time and thought it was time to put it to the community and see if there are any bites. I would like to start running larp conferences vaguely modelled on academic conferences, in the vein of the events they have every year (or is it every two years?) in Scandinavia, where they get together and discuss larp theory and then at the end, put out an e-book of articles on what they discussed for wider consumption.
We’ve got an amazingly agile, interesting and experimental larping community in New Zealand, where we not only play in different styles of larping (theatreform, ‘big fantasy’, White Wolf, experimental) but we routinely borrow elements from one to cross pollinate with another. With the advent of Chimera and Hydra, our writing scene has exploded. And if the volume (and sometimes intensity) of discussion on Diatribe is anything to go by, it shows many of us are really interested in communicating about our experiences and thoughts when it comes to gaming. We’ve got a couple of people in the community (Stephanie Pegg and Ryan Paddy, off the top of my head) who have written articles on larping for markets outside our own community, and a lot of other people contributed theory pieces to the magazine Immersion when it was running back in 2006-2008.
Basically, I think we have a lot of valuable thoughts and knowledge on the art and function of creating, writing, running and playing in larps, and I’d like to start spearheading a project to capture, discuss and publish. One day, mainstream academia will catch on to the fascinating (and valid) form of storytelling that larp is, and when that day comes, we’ll be ready with the goods 
In the mean time, I think will potentially help us connect better with overseas larp scenes, and make us look really professional too.
Conference and Content
I was envisaging a presentation/discussion format. People would submit abstracts for their papers in advance and a timetable assembled in advance. Each speaker would have set period of time (say, forty) in which to present their idea/article/theory and also allow for discussion (20 minutes of speaking/20 minutes of questions or discussion). Lively and passionate debate would be encouraged, heated debate would not. Topics would emphasis discussion and comparison rather than pushing the superiority of one idea/form above another. Topics wouldn’t need to be
Other ideas for activities that I’ve had include an open meeting for active/aspiring game organisers to discuss issues and ideas around running games in the present community - a chance to share experiences, advice, ask questions, give warnings. I’ve also thought a larp writing challenge might be fun: A genre (“noir”), a title (“It Came From Behind The Dryer”) and a writing challenge (“the game is from the point of view of cats”) are randomly selected from a hat, and everyone involved must write three characters for this larp in the three hour timeframe - meaning if ten people sign up, it’ll result in a bizarre 30 person larp, but if only three people sign up, it’ll be a 9 person larp.
Connecting with Other Cities
We’ve developed a fantastic culture of exchange with other larping communities in NZ, primarily Wellington, and there’s a lot of travel already for games. I’d like for this to be an event that involves the whole of the NZ larping community but without necessitating physical travel. One idea I had was for people to come into the conference remotely, to listen to the presentations. Another idea was that (like the national sci-fi con) it moves cities every year (alternating between Auckland and Wellington, say, if there was enough interest) or that Wellington and Auckland run their conference six months apart, each conference taking into account and addressing/answering/expanding on topics raised at the sister-conference, and contributing to the same e-book. I’m also open to other ideas.
Web Portal and Ebook
As part of this project, I’d like (like with Chimera) to have a really professional looking web presence where people can browse the e-books, browse independent articles, ask questions, read profiles of contributors and find out how to get involved. This site would be the opposite end of the spectrum from something like www.whatislarp.co.nz as it wouldn’t be for the newbies or beginners, it would be for people interested in critically examining the hobby and how it works in New Zealand.
I know larp theory isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I figure if I can get a dozen people interested to come talk/write with me about larp, that’s enough for a really solid start.
Thoughts? 
