2018 Puzzle Parley

July 15, 2018 to July 17, 2018
Rochester, NY
DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Rochester
1111 Jefferson Rd
Rochester, NY 14623
United States

For the fourteenth parley we combined the Puzzle Parley with the AGPI (Association of Games and Puzzle International) Convention. We chose Rochester NY as the location for this event because of the Strong Museum of Play where some of our events took place.

Our weekend started on Thursday with two optional activities. The first was an all day bus trip of Buffalo and Niagara Falls. We visited Buffalo Games who are known for their quality puzzles and interesting games. We then dined for lunch at the Anchor Bar where we had the opportunity to sample the original buffalo wings. After lunch we headed off for a private tour of the Buffalo Transportation Pierce Arrow Museum as well as a Niagara Falls visit where some of us journeyed into the falls on the Maiden of the Mist boat.

For a quieter activity, the Strong National opened their world class Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives for research. The library is unmatched with its archives on the history of games and puzzles. It was a unique opportunity to access information to do research for an article in the Quarterly or On the Table

On Thursday evening, early arrivals could attend an adventure in on of Rochester's Escape Rooms or simply begin enjoying puzzling or gaming with old and new friends.

On Friday, the museum offered us complimentary admission and a VIP tour which included its research library, the behind the scenes archives, an exhibit of puzzles past and current. Some of the special puzzles we saw included puzzles from the Anne Williams Puzzle Collection, our own Exchange Puzzles from past Parleys and the "South Carolina" puzzles from a previous AGPI convention.

Our Friday banquet was followed by the 5th Pagey Elliot Puzzle Exchange,organized by Anne Williams. Then Show and Tell and finally puzzling and gaming till whenever...

Saturday featured a full day of parallel and shared sessions with the AGPI

Some of the talks and sessions during the day on Saturday

Bob Armstrong - "Dickens in Puzzles"

Bob Murch - "History of Ouija and Talking Boards"

Antori Pancco - "Cutting Jigsaw Puzzles from Acrylics"

Judy Peterson - "How to Design a Jigsaw Puzzle If You Can't Draw"

Anne Williams - "A Field Guide to Jigsaw Puzzle Identification"

Mark Tschida - "Making Wood Puzzles Using Veneers"

Chris Yates - "The Making of 'Baffler' Puzzles"

Dave Thomen - "All Fair Games"

Our after dinner speaker on Saturday was Chris Bensch with "A Curator's Day at the Strong Museum". Sounds a bit dull, but Chris had us rolling in the aisle with his talk and his hula hooping!

Saturday evening ended with the AGPI auction featuring Dave Beffi-Negrini with undiscovered auctioneering talents. He even upped people's bids automatically for the many treasures on the block.

Still not done, many of us continued our puzzling and gaming till all hours.

Sunday morning had two parallel sessions. The first was a well attended workshop on restoring old puzzles lead by Lisa Lee. Like the last parley, Lisa had prepared replacement pieces for some of your puzzles and attendees tried their hand at creating the artwork for them. The seond was a panel discussion on "Today's Game and Puzzle Market" led by Bob Finn.

We closed with a presentation of the 2019 AGPI convention to be held in Denver Colorado and our Raffle drawing with items contributed by puzzle cutter, game collectors and general Parley/AGPI supporters.

The above description is courtesy of Melinda Shebell and is displayed on the PuzzleParley.org website.  Vistit this site for more up to date information on Puzzle Parley matters.