Trust

In the con business, trust is one of the most important pieces of collateral that you have. People need to be able to believe that you will meet what you state you will do. This is the currency on which successful cons are built. Will every con live up to all their promises? No, that’s not likely to happen with a volunteer organization. The frequency of failure, though, is extremely important.  If you miss something on a rare occasion, and then immediately make up for it, that’s okay.  It’s when a pattern of failure takes shape that trust ends. When fans or pros feel like they can’t trust a con, that con is doomed to fail, because people will stop attending.

Gaining trust in the beginning is a lot easier than trying to repair it later. It takes a lot of work, both from an organizational stand point and through marketing, to regain people’s trust.  If things are bad enough, it might even require a change in management. Fans, in particular, are more than willing to take to social media to vent their frustrations. More than one person has been forced out of running a con due to a lack of trust.

The converse is also true. When a fan or pro thinks you have a well-run convention, they can help drive people to your con. It will not happen with the frequency that negative comments will, but it does happen. Fans and pros tend to take partial, mental ownership of a con. Once they do that, they will want their friends at the con with them. That is the best advertising you can get, and it doesn’t cost you any money. If a person does things the right way, they might even find themselves in the enviable position of running a convention for many years, maybe even to the point where they start to reach a stage of burn out and get to pass the reigns of a successful convention to someone else.

One major blunder can wreck a convention, but so will several small mistakes as well. Small errors can add up. A few mistakes are bound to happen, but when the mistakes are so frequent that they outshine the positive, the con’s trust will have been lost, or a least seriously placed in serious jeopardy.

Uninviting Guests

This is now becoming a real issue within the con community. Social media is beginning to lead concoms to second guess their decisions on the guests they have invited. It’s beginning to happen more and more, and it’s a very slippery slope.

So, let’s dig into whether you should un-invite a guest. My first reaction is to ask, “What did the guest do to get uninvited?”  I think too often cons react to social media without really doing any investigation into the allegations. Of course, if concoms did more vetting in the beginning, it would help, but sometimes even that doesn’t uncover everything.

As a concom, if you find yourself in a [crap] storm due to your decision to invite a guest, the best thing you can do is say, “We hear you and will be investigating this situation fully. Once we have made our decision, we will make a public announcement of our plans. Please be patient as we work through this decision.” 

Keep in mind that sometimes social media warriors are simply reacting to things which are greatly exaggerated.  It’s best to do your due diligence and find out as many facts as possible. This is where you will need to do a “deep dive” into the situation and uncover as much of the truth as you can. This includes contacting the guest for their side of the story.

You must make a truly informed decision. I can’t stress this enough.

If you find that you have made an error in judgement, contact the guest and explain the situation. Understand, though, that if you un-invite a guest, you will be alienating their fans as well. You will need to decide if you will do further damage to your con if make this move.  

Once the guest is informed, you need to prepare a brief statement. Don’t get into specifics as to why you made the choice you did, just that you made a thorough investigation and made a choice which you believe is in the best interest of the con and its members.

Side note: thorough investigations rarely take less than 3-4 days.

Good luck.

Why Can’t We Get This Right?

[The following rant may sound like it’s directed at you - whoever you might be - but it’s not. It’s merely a general note of a trend I’ve seen.]

I’ve noticed over the years that some of the worst people for ignoring ad specs (size, color, file format, etc) are other con-runners. I’ve never quite understood that. As con-runners, most of us have to put together a program book. We take the time to lay out the book and then create a file that specifies what size and format the ads should be submitted in for the book. Well, at least we should be doing it that way, and I think most folks are doing that. And, since some of us even take pride in trying to make the book look attractive, we go to extra effort to get the ad sizes right before we announce the correct formatting.

Well, every year, some of the same folks who scream about making sure the ad sizes and formats are correct for their book, turn around and send in stuff to me that isn’t even close to meeting my ad specs. Now, I could understand it if I hadn’t taken the time to create a web page with all of the relevant information carefully detailed out, so that the advertiser knew what was expected. But I do.

And, I could also understand it if I didn’t provide a link to that page on my social media requests for ads. But I do that, too. Heck, I even have a PDF that I send out when requested. The same PDF that’s available for download on my web page, where the ad specs are listed.

So, here’s my final point. Ad specs exist for a reason and we all know it. We all curse under our breath when ads arrive that are not in the correct format or in the correct size. So, why are we, collectively, so bad at putting together ads that don’t meet the book’s specifications? My challenge to you, my fellow con-runners, is to do a better job of working on meeting the ad specs. And if you have questions, well, you know the drill… ask. I’m pretty sure the program book editor would rather answer your question than get something that doesn’t work in their book.

How to Deal With Financial Success

One of the things I’ve often been asked is “what are we going to do with this year’s profits?”

Normally, I respond with, “Nothing,… why, did you have something you need the con to spend money on? We can talk about it.”

Smart businesses always hang on to their money as part of a “war chest” because good years, profitable years, can easily be followed by bad ones.  Industry conditions change all the time.  And make no mistake, if you are running a con, whether non-profit or for profit, you are running a business.

As an example, I was recently involved in a convention that made around a 20% profit in one year, but then lost about 10% the following year. The budget was not vastly different from year to year, we just had more competition in the latter year. But, because we didn’t overspend, we still had a decent war chest to work with for the coming year.

And that’s why smart businesses save their money.  Competition, local or national economic/ political issues, even just bad weather can impact your convention. In the example above, we had a reasonably local con move their dates from 3 months prior to us in the past, to our exact weekend. I’m sure they didn’t see us as direct competition, but their convention did impact our attendance.

Now, can you spend some of your profits? Sure. The idea is to not spend heavily. If you need a piece of equipment, or if there is something you’d like to try with the con, then spend some of it. Just don’t spend all of it. Hang on to enough to help offset a bad year, because bad years happen to everyone… well, maybe not DragonCon, but most cons.

My suggestion is that 3 years makes a trend. If you continually grow for 3 years, then maybe you can increase your budget and spend some of those profits. Just remember, a bad year will eventually catch up to you and “kick you in the teeth.” Make sure you have something saved to offset that day.

Why Guests Should Respond (Politely) to an Invitation

Okay, so you’ve been invited to be a guest at a convention. Maybe you want to attend, but can’t, or maybe the con just doesn’t interest you. Either way, you’ve decided not to attend.

So that’s it, right? You let it go, because, hey, you’re really busy and if you don’t respond, they’ll just move on.

Here’s why that’s a bad idea… You may have just “blackballed” yourself, from not only this con, but others as well. Yes, cons do talk to each other. As matter of fact, there are several Facebook pages out there, some public, some not so public, where cons share information about everything from hotel issues to guests (we assume there are similar forums for guests as well – and I, at least, try to keep that in mind when interacting with any guests).

The best practice is to be honest with the con. And, if possible, also try to be prompt in your reply. Yes, it’s best if you’re not brutally honest. Responding with, “Your con sucks and I would never attend a con like yours if my life depended on it” might not be a good approach. However, you can convey your message with, “I’ve reviewed your webpage, and while I’m certain it’s a great con for your attendees, I’m not certain I would be the best fit there. Thank you for inviting me, though, and best of luck on your convention!”

Con runners will get the idea, at least the smart ones will. And frankly, those that aren’t smart don’t tend to last long in this business.

Now, what if the guest is a major player? Someone in high demand? There’s little the con can do to impact the guests’ future revenues, so why should the guest care if you’re not happy with them?

Well, here’s the deal. The good con organizers can last a lot longer than the demand for a guest. Seriously, I’ve seen it. The con might not survive, but good organizers are rare and tend to get recruited by other cons.

Now, consider this experience from my past: One very popular writer was extremely nasty to a con I was involved with back in the 90s. Said author could schedule personal appearances as often as they wanted, and was willing to brush aside any con that didn’t fit their criteria, or desires.

Guess what, 20 years later I’m still running cons, and that guest is now selling a lot, a whole lot, less books than in the past. Said individual will likely never be booked by a con I’m involved with because they “burned that bridge” many years back. And let me tell you, I’ve shared that story many times at other cons. It is, after all, harder to unmake a bad reputation than it is to create a good one to start with.

So, please, try to keep all of this in mind if you’re invited to be a guest. I promise, a polite no is an okay answer, even if yes would make us happier.

And if you run cons, try to remember that the opposite can happen to you just as easily. You don’t want to find yourself receiving a lot of polite, “thank you, but no” responses.

Cons and Politics

This is going to be a very short post.  Well, probably.

During the last 3 weeks in NC, we have been completely buried under “news” articles, either for or against HB2.  As someone who partially owns a con in NC, I’m staying the heck out of the most contentious part of the law… bathrooms. 

This practice should be followed by every con runner out there.

Why? Simply put, as a business owner, you will lose either way. If you back one side, the other will walk away, probably taking other folks with them.  It’s for this reason, we decided to adopt a politically neutral position for all issues when we formed our company.

If you own a convention, my advice would be for you to do them same.  Stay apolitical.  Your company (con) has no business getting involved with these arguments. It will hurt your business. Your con is no place to jump up on a soapbox.

Now, having said that, let me add that avoiding discrimination is actually a smart move for your business. Encouraging everyone, who interested in SF, to attend your con, can increase your opportunities to be successful. Just make sure you have strong policies about everyone needing to set aside their politics once they walk in the door.

See, I told you it would be short.

Con Crud and the ConSuite

As my family awakens in our hotel room on Sunday morning of our latest con, the incessant coughing is telling me we have it. Con Crud, the bane of all con attendees. Sleep gets interrupted. Panels get skipped, and misery runs rampant.

This inspired me to write a post on what we, collectively, can do to prevent this plague (pun intended) on fandom.

The first step is making sure we wash our hands… a lot. Yeah, I know, most of us wash our hands when we go to the restroom. But really, if you think about it, how often do we really wash our hands throughout the weekend? Do you hit the bathroom prior to grabbing that slice of pizza at the concessions booth? If not, think back to how many people you have had the opportunity to shake hands with that day. I’m not saying everyone is a carrier of some dreaded virus, but it does increase your chances of picking up something. And even if washing your hands isn’t possible on a frequent basis, you could carry some hand sanitizer that you can use when no one is looking (you don’t want to offend the guy you just shook hands with, after all).

[Option B comes from Cami Walker, my con’s Marketing Director. She says to make sure all of your costumes have gloves.]

Now that I’ve covered how you can personally reduce your risk of Con Crud, let’s discuss what conventions can do.

The most common location for Con Crud to spread is the ConSuite. There are lots of people handling items that can spread germs… ice scoops, open bowls of chips, soda bottles, serving utensils, etc. Contact with any of these things immediately after someone with dirty hands and/or a virus has touched them, can result in you picking up an illness.

My solution is for cons to move to more individually wrapped items.

I know, I know. I can hear ConSuites Directors everywhere screaming as I write this, “That’s too expensive!”

Is it though? Is it really?

Let’s take a look at the cost of soda as an example.

I’ve done the math, and ounce for ounce, the cost of soda is pretty close for cans and 2L bottles. Now, if you don’t buy sodas when they are on sale, then, yeah, maybe it’s cheaper for 2L bottles. But I’ve found the cost at club stores is roughly the same. Also, often times the manufacturers run sales on 12 packs of cans… buy 2 get 3 free kinds of deals. At $6.69 a 12 pack (a recent price at Harris Teeter grocery store), that means we could buy five 12 packs for $13.38, or $0.22 a can. For those “keeping score at home,” that’s $0.018 per ounce.

To be fair, the manufactures sometimes run sales on 2L bottles also, which usually come in around $1.69/each. At 67 ounces, that’s $0.025 per ounce. Even at $1.25 per bottle, the price would be the same per ounce as the cans promo listed above.

Hopefully, this example is enough to persuade cons to look a little deeper and actually see what the relative costs are for their stock. Reducing Con Crud in the ConSuite should be a priority. And reducing Con Crud in the ConSuite will absolutely reduce it at the con in general.

And in case you’re wondering, yes, my convention serves individually packaged products. It has worked out fairly well for the past two years. We haven’t had any reports of a massive attack of Con Crud, at least not yet, anyway (that is not a challenge for Murphy!).

*Note: prices listed above are for name brand sodas.

Diversity

Today I will address the issue of diversity at cons. First, let me say that I am certainly NO expert in the field. And, as with any field, if you don’t know that much about it, you should likely keep your mouth shut. For some reason, I’m not doing that, however, so here are my uneducated observations on this topic.

------------

Let’s face it, most cons are run by white guys, for white guys. Recently, many cons have tried to be more inclusive towards women. As con organizers, we’ve added harassment policies to minimize some of the blatant objectification, and it is starting to work… some. There is still plenty of work to do, but it’s getting better.

The next step needs to be extending that concept out to people of color.

Look around at the next con you attend. I’m betting that con isn’t doing a great job of being inclusive. Even if there are a few fans or guests of color, most likely the majority of the committee are folks of Western European decent.

I’ve heard comments like, “it’s mostly a white hobby.”

My answer to that is: is it really? Really and truly? Or are we simply not making the con scene a safe place for people of color?

I had it pointed out to me a few months back that folks of color can feel out of place at cons. That’s not being inclusive. That’s creating an event that is comfortable to white people. It’s a cultural issue.

The other thing I hear is, “Is it really worth trying to make the con more inclusive?”

Sure it is. People of color are just as interested in speculative fiction as white people are. On a social equality note, we need to make cons more open to people of color because it’s the right thing to do. If that doesn’t sway your opinion, try looking at it like this: Its money you do not currently have walking into your con at the moment. It is a fairly strong untapped market.

So, how do we make cons more inclusive? Well, the first piece of advice I received from a person of color was (note, I asked someone who wasn’t white, because they've lived it), “It starts with the committee. If your committee is diverse, I’m betting your con will become diverse organically.” And that, frankly, is the right way to grow your con.  If you get folks of color on the committee, I promise you they will point out areas where you can improve.

The next step is to get guests of color. Once you have those two pieces, you can begin to target your marketing to people of greater diversity.

So, to sum up… increase your con’s diversity. It’s the right thing to do, and it just might be the lucrative thing to do as well.

Back from the grave!

It’s the revival of I am not a SMOF! 

Originally, I had decided to stop posting to this blog because I’d gotten “back in the game,” and it felt a bit hypocritical. Then someone suggested that I keep blogging, but change the focus. I liked the idea, but quickly found that I didn’t have any spare time between work, my daughter, and starting up a new con. Well, one of those things has settled down a bit… most notably, my staff has grown in number for ConGregate, so I’m not doing quite as many things all at the same time.

Getting back to blogging did present another challenge… what to blog about. I’ve decided, at least for now, to cover topics that I think all con runners should deal with, even if we don’t think we should have to, due to some ideological notion of conventions and fandom.

Which brings me to today’s topic…

Harassment Policies

A lot of cons today have adopted harassment policies, which is a good thing. The issue I’m beginning to notice is that either the volunteers (staff and gophers) don’t have a clear understanding of the policy, or, even worse, they have never seen it.  The same holds true to the “rank and file” fan.

Hopefully, you already have an easy to understand policy and all of your staff is completely aware of it, and know how to handle harassment.  But if not, here are my recommendations…

If you are running a con, hold a harassment training session for all the key staff members. Make sure they understand that it’s a serious matter, and that they need to be aware of what the con has presented as the official company policy. For all other volunteers, make sure they get the policy in writing, either via email or print out, and make them sign a waiver stating they’ve read and understand the policy. 

Educating fans will be a bit more difficult, but you can still have the policy easily available to them via the web and/or program book, and you can have them sign a waiver stating they will abide by the policy. The tough part, of course, is making sure they know that they are required to live by the policy.

Now for the fun part of this issue, actually creating an effective harassment policy that people can understand. When my staff and I wrote the harassment policy for ConGregate, we did quite a lot of research on the topic. I was fortunate that my Programming Director, a.k.a. my wife, is a Human Resources professional with access to a lot of materials on the topic. Much of our research pointed to a single format. Basically, the key takeaways were, be specific about what harassment is, provide specific information on how to report harassment, and give your policy teeth, but do not get too specific in how you will deal with those who violate your policy. For last part, most of the lawyers seemed to agree that it’s best to avoid automatically enforcing a ban on people. It’s better to keep that as an option for repeat offenders, or for those who commit a truly heinous offense. Understanding that harassment runs a very wide gamut, from the socially inexperienced to outright hate crimes, will help you create a policy that’s fair and easily to understand.  Also keep in mind as you write your policy that the courts have ruled that harassment is defined by the victim, and not by the intent of harasser.

And, since I brought up repercussions for the person who violates your policy, I should probably mention how to best handle that part.

When someone commits an act that is in violation of your policy, you need to investigate the issue. I know, you’re not a cop (or maybe you are), but it has to be done. Start by listening to the complaint from the victim, being extremely careful not to blame the victim with your questions. Avoid saying things like, “did you do anything that made this person feel their actions were okay?” Just listen and get as many details as possible about who, when and where. Then, document the allegation. Next, sit down with the other party, tell them they have been accused of violating the harassment policy, and listen to their side. Depending on the severity of their actions, and also their reaction to the accusations, you will need to decide upon an appropriate response. For those who are truly clueless, I recommend educating them on how they should behave moving forward, and include a warning that future violations will get them tossed out. I also suggest you tell them that they should avoid trying to apologize to the victim, unless you, the con organizer, gain the victim’s permission first. For those who have no remorse, or get flippant with you when you inform them of the accusation, go ahead and toss them out, because that person isn’t likely to be open to education. Finally, let the accused know why you are tossing them out, and also tell them whether or not you plan to allow them back into the con in future years.

For the truly heinous actions, you might need to get the police involved, but I recommend allowing the hotel and the victim to make that decision. And yes, you need to report the person to the hotel if, in fact, they did something illegal.

One final note: effective harassment policies should protect everyone. I’m talking about everybody, regardless of sex, sexual orientation, race, religion, and even political viewpoint. Attacking someone over their politics is just as offensive as telling someone they are a fake fan. Neither of those comments is appropriate.

Review of MystiCon (2013)

Today I’m going to start my 2013 convention review series.  I know you all have been waiting “on the edge of your seat” for this… okay, maybe not.  Well, perhaps some of the con organizers have… but, I digress.  

First up this year is MystiCon,   MystiCon was held Feb 22-24 in Roanoke, VA at the Holiday Inn - Tanglewood.

Let’s get this out of the way immediately, MystiCon was a fun convention.  If you take a quick look below, you might notice that I have more negatives than positives.  I highly suggest you not read anything into this fact.  The convention is well run, professional and fun.  Most of the issues they experienced came from some very astounding growth rates between 2012 and 2013.  When you add about 450 people to an 850 person convention, bad things have a tendency to happen.  The positive here is that most of those issues are fairly easy to solve prior to 2014.

The Good

• The programming was really good at this con.  The panel topics were interesting, and the panels were well attended.
• All of the guests that I dealt with were very personable and engaging.  I never got the feeling I could not approach any of the guests.
• The staff seemed very friendly and professional.  It seemed like they truly wanted to see people having a good time.
• The convention used the mobile app LiveCon to display their schedule.  I know other cons have used this app, but I hadn’t had a chance to really use it myself.  As a guest, I like it a lot.  I didn’t have to carry a paper copy of my schedule around with me all weekend, which is a big plus.
• The Dealer’s room was a decent size, with a nice selection of dealers and plenty of walk space (but see below).
• The hotel appeared to be extremely flexible in working with convention.  Check-in was very quick.  And, while I had a few maintenance issues with my room once I arrived, the hotel resolved those immediately.  Additionally, the hotel sold reasonably priced (not hotel priced) concessions during all meal times.

Possible Areas of Improvement (The Bad)

• Pet Peeve time:  Name badges, again.  I know you have all read this before on my blog, but please, if you are a con organizer, make the names large enough on the badges so that they can easily be read from a distance of about 6 feet.  I had about 10 people ask me my name, and then apologize for asking, stating they couldn’t read my badge.  Additionally, I highly suggest MystiCon drop the watermark from behind the names.  That just makes it even harder to read the badges.
• It is really not a good idea to have panel discussions going on in rooms that are next to concerts.  The panelists should not have to shout at the audience, and vice versa. I experienced this at a couple of panels during the convention.
• The next one is really just a minor irritant, but someone took most of the paragraph breaks out of my bio when it was placed in the program book.  I felt it made me seem like I didn’t understand basic grammar, which is bad because I was listed as a blogger on the guest list.
• There was a major bottleneck in the main hallway.  The convention either needs to limit its attendance to about 900-1000 people, or find a way to get rid of the tables in that hallway (or possibly some of both).  It also might be a good idea for Security to take a proactive role in organizing any long lines before they happen.
• I had a situation where one of my scheduled events was cancelled, but I was not informed.  If the schedule changes during the con, it is mandatory that all guests involved be contacted.  Also, the con might find it useful to request contact information from each guest, so they can be reached during the con.
• The Dealers Room was nice, but I do have one question: Where were the costume dealers?  There was a good-sized Masquerade at this convention. It would have been nice to have a costume dealer or two.
• The stage in the main programing room was outright dangerous.  The convention needs to either push the hotel to buy a new stage or rent one that meets basic safety standards.

Okay, that’s it.  Like I said earlier, the con is very good, even with all my areas of improvement.  MystiCon is definitely going on my list of cons to go back to in 2014.

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Convention Accounting 102 – Cost Cutting (Guest Blog)

You’ve got to love it when you post an article an almost immediately get an unsolicited, guest blog addendum to your post. :) 

Thanks John!

* * *

James raised some excellent points in his Convention Accounting 101 piece. The incoherent ramblings I am going to dump on you should also give convention staffers some food for thought, going into more detail on reducing or controlling expenses.

Thinking like a business is critical for running a convention. A staff that jumps in thinking that it’s going to be all fun and work itself out is setting themselves up for failure. You could be extremely organized and work from a business plan, or run it as a seat-of-the-pants operation with a basic idea of what you need to do. I prefer more detail as it allows you to reduce the appearance of Mister Murphy and his cohorts. Poor planning can lead to unplanned costs… whether monetary, opportunity costs or the goodwill of your attendees.

Considering that for a convention with 750-800 attendees, you may have less than 100 pre-regs, with the rest of your attendees paying at the door. Door prices are of course higher, and the majority of the con's money will come in over the 3 days of your convention. If you have 80 speakers, assume each has a companion, so that accounts for 160 memberships; let’s say 25 for game-masters; a ballpark 60 for dealers and figure about 10-15 volunteers (which may be far lower as we know cons are notoriously understaffed and we poach each other’s staff - and shanghai/conscript/draft them when they attend our events...) . In my example you could easily have 300 freebies out of an attendance of 800. 300 freebies at $40 per weekend pass each = $12,000 in lost revenue which could be looked at as an expense in and of itself. The only way to reduce this is to of course reduce your guest list, which may not be advisable depending on the amount of programming and activities you have. Alienating dealers by reducing the number of comp badges they get for coming in as vendors is not a good idea either as it would make a dealer think twice because that second comp membership does eat into their profit margin.

The problem that about 80% of a con’s funds come in over the 3 days of the event makes budgeting extremely difficult. It is almost a necessity for a convention to already have seed money in place to cover at least the required deposit on the facility. which can be as little as $500 to several thousand dollars. Outside of a handful of pre-regs, you would have your dealer’s room fees and cash on hand/seed money and that is all for your starting capital.

Repeat after me : Cost-cutting is your friend. Learn to be Scrooge. Pinch every penny until it screams. Beg, borrow or steal… (ok, stealing is bad – but you get the idea). Get creative with saving on your expenses. Minimizing expenses (elimination is impossible) is in the best interest of your convention and allows you the opportunity to put it on again next year.

The main areas you can impact with cost-cutting measures are as follows:

Hotel/Food and Beverage: Negotiate everything you can with the host hotel to get your rental fees reduced or waived if you meet certain room occupancy goals, i.e - 200 room-nights gets a 50% reduction in the cost of the rental space (this is your single biggest expense, any reduction here pays huge dividends in the long run as this can run into $5k or $10k easily) or maybe even free at higher occupancy goals. Also negotiate a number of free rooms for the entire weekend based on occupancy goals. See if the food and beverage outlets are willing to set up and run a concession stand or light sandwich station with subs and burgers that they can sell to attendees. That might get you a further reduction in your facility cost. Negotiate with local restaurants or suppliers for food or services. Carla Brindle with Mysticon has turned this into an art form, bartering her cake-making skills to trade for services for Mysticon.

Also look at how many rooms the convention is providing as comp rooms for guests. Is it a deal breaker for the guest to have to pay for his own room for the convention? In my opinion, Guests of Honor should have their rooms covered by the convention. Is the convention covering any rooms for staff members?

Office supplies and equipment: The majority of your staffers should have PCs and printers. Utilize them to the utmost. Don’t be afraid of buying remanufactured toner cartridges. Ravencon buys from Cartridgeworld which can save anywhere from $15-$30 on a single toner cartridge. Utilize the warehouse club stores for your office supplies as Staples and Office Depot don’t come close to the savings. Plus buying in bulk, you have supplies to use year over year – just make sure someone is in charge of inventorying it and has a master list of what box everything is located in when you break down at the end. (not nervous breakdown, that usually occurs on Saturday night after the evening entertainment starts and I can inspect the room parties but I usually wind up hanging out with James and the Baen Barflies, but I digress….) Detailing one of the staff members as an office manager to keep track of administrative tasks like this really helps things run smoothly, and prevents over-purchasing unneeded surplus supplies.

Printing: If the con staff can print materials on their home printers to save the convention money, do it. Con staffers attend a lot of conventions and usually take their home convention flyers with them which helps with your advertising. Any single page items should be printed from a home printer and save the printing budget for your program book and schedule signs. Don’t be afraid to price around for printing costs. Ravencon has used the same printer for our program books for the last four years, but we still get bids every year from all the major printers in the area. Also do not forget that your program book can be used as a revenue source, or at minimum to pay for the majority of the cost of producing it. Your guest of honor’s publisher may be willing to purchase a full page ad to promote an upcoming release. Self-published or small press authors will purchase ad space as well. A local game shop has taken out a full page of ad space for the last 3 years in the Ravencon program book and we have a fair number of patrons who will take out half-page, quarter-page and business card sized ads as well.

Badges and lanyards: In the last seven years that I have been actively involved in conventions I have seen many different approaches as to how badges are handled. Disposable sleeves with a pin backing seem to be pretty common, but I am also seeing more conventions using vinyl pocket sleeves with a lanyard that can be collected and reused just by replacing the printed badge. For Wrath of Con we used laminated numbered badges donated by a local printshop where the attendees would write their name on the faceplate with a Sharpie. Conventions can pool their resources and do a group purchase of badge supplies to take advantage of volume discounts.

Con suite: A con suite can be a huge expense or a minimal line item. It could be as elaborate as MarsCon’s with a menu of bulk food prepared and refrigerated (i.e chili, pasta, soups) or as simple as RavenCon’s (pre-packaged single serving foods, sandwiches, pop-tarts, cookies, crackers, chips and whole fruits). Some conventions may simply set up a pot-luck style affair where the staffers or even attendees bring in food items. You will have to strike a balance between cost, ease of preparation, cleanup, leftovers and even the potential liabilities around preparing food for public consumption. Having the con suite director and staff responsible for scouting out pricing ahead of time and staying within budget is important. Sometimes the warehouse stores are the best sources, sometimes not. Bulk purchasing is usually the best way to stretch your dollars. If your con suite has sodas, the convention must choose between the low cost (and waste) of two liter bottles versus the higher cost , but less waste and less cleanup of canned drinks. Everything I have stated above about a con suite is equally applicable to a Green Room as well.

A con suite can also be a thorny subject in your negotiations with the hotel as it deprives the hotel’s food and beverage outlet of the opportunity to earn additional revenue.

Vehicular cost: All your prep supplies have to be transported to the convention site, and you must be able to make supply runs throughout the weekend. If any staff members have access to trucks or vans for transporting supplies, then this cost is minimal. If not then a vehicle needs to be rented, which for a U-haul pickup or van starts at $20 a day plus mileage, fuel and insurance.

Art room: If you have an art room/show, then you need to have racks for display. This is where being on friendly terms with neighboring conventions will work out to your mutual advantage. The great folks at Anime Mid-Atlantic have been gracious enough to provide us with their wire racks plus run our anime room in exchange for a fan table and a dozen weekend passes. Otherwise, you will have to beg, borrow, steal, build or buy your own display racks.

Sound system: Events in large rooms will need an adequate sound system – especially band performances, masquerade competitions and charity auctions. Hotels will provide sound equipment at an additional cost (outside of the facility rental), otherwise equipment must be procured from an outside source. Talk to a local deejay service or ask another convention if they have a sound system they are willing to loan out for the week in exchange for some free passes. MarsCon has been gracious enough to provide Ravencon access to their sound system for the last several years.

Storage: One last expense to consider is year round storage. I can see a few folks scratching their heads at this one---- A convention will have leftover supplies and equipment that must be stored safely and securely until the following year’s convention. Donated shed space at a staffer’s house can help save money, but at some point people get tired of tripping over convention gear to get to their fishing poles and lawn equipment. If any of the con staff has a paid storage space that is underutilized, con supplies could be stored there and possibly help the staffer defray the cost of their storage space. If there are multiple cons in the local area, storage spaces could be shared along with supplies.

I hope my disjointed ramblings have given any potential con-runners some food for thought on how to help make your event profitable, or at least minimize any red ink associated with it.

-John Jones

About the author: John Jones has been a staff member with Ravencon (www.ravencon.com) since 2007, and has been the vice-chair since 2009. He was also Volunteer and Operations Director for Wrath of Con in Panama City , Florida in 2008.

 

Convention Accounting 101 - Budgeting

When it comes to accounting, running a convention is pretty much like any other business.  Yes, there are some things that are unique to cons, but pretty much all business comes down to income vs. expenses.

Seems pretty straight forward, huh?  And, frankly, it really is.  The most important thing to remember is that your books (accounting, not your SF library) have to end up with more money coming in than going out... kind of like your check register.  For those of you who don’t know what a check register is, ask someone who is over 30 years of age.  Have them explain having to manually keep track of your income, and checks written, in a check register.

To help you manage your books, I suggest either getting a program like Quick Books, or utilizing a spreadsheet program like Excel.  If you go the route of spreadsheet, make sure to track your income and expenses separately, but also have a summation page that compares the two.

To begin your convention, you will need to start with a budget.  Simply put, you need to record everything you expect to spend money on, as well as everything you think will generate your con income. 

Expenses

For expenses, you literally to need to add in projections for everything from pens to airlines tickets.  If it costs money, you need to have a “line item” in your budget.  You may be able to circumvent certain expenses (I know people who used to make copies of fliers at work, for example), but until you are absolutely certain that something will not cost any money, it needs to be in your budget.  Some sample items might include: paper, pens, laminate for badges, hotel rooms, PO boxes, airline tickets, hotel convention space, consuite food, etc.  If you have never created a con budget, you might want to enlist some experienced help.  Barring that, you might try to see if a successful convention will let you have a peek at a previous year’s budget to get you started. 

No matter how you create your budget, my primary advice on expenses is that you need to be liberal in your projections.  Cons often fail because of unforeseen expenses.  If you have some “padding” in your expense budget, you might find that useful later on.

Income

Income is not nearly as complex as expenses, and thus many people consider it the easier part of the budget.  I don’t.  To me, the hardest thing to do is to try to come up with a solid projection of income.  Some areas to make sure you include are registrations, dealer tables, and sponsorships.

When it comes to budgeting your income, be very conservative. If you expect to have 500 people at your con, consider that you may well give away 200 memberships.  Sounds high, doesn’t it. You have to consider a number of factors in this.  Do dealers get any memberships included with their tables?  How many total volunteers do you realistically need to staff your con?  Are you considering GM’s as part of your staff?  How many guest and companion badges will you be giving away? 

It’s been my experience that “comps” can add up quickly.  Obviously, you need to try to keep the number to a minimum, but understand that the minimum might be higher than you expect.  Of the remaining 300 memberships, many of those will be at your lowest offered registration rate.  Certainly, you will have folks pay “at the door” rates, but I typically only budget that number to be a small percentage of my overall memberships.

The next major area of income is the dealer room, assuming you plan to sell dealer spaces.  Make sure your dealer room manager has a realistic idea of how many spaces will be available to be sold.  The best way to do this is to lay out the space early on and keep the layout moving forward.  Also, keep in mind you might have to give away up to 10% of your spaces to guests.  This will seriously cut into your income.

Now we come to sponsorships.  Sponsorships are easy to budget for. Until you get one, simply enter $0.00 into the budget.

Final Steps

Once everything is in your budget, check out your summary page.  Are the expenses higher than your income?  If so, you have some work to do, either by cutting expenses or finding more income (or, most likely, some of both). 

After “tweaking” your budget, if the expenses are still higher, my best advice is to stop there and review your business model.  Most likely you will need to cancel, or at least postpone your convention… because you are truly headed for financial disaster. 

Assuming you do finally get the income to come in higher than your expenses, there is still one step you need to take.  I strongly suggest that you let someone with some convention experience review your budget. Be patient with this part.  It is not uncommon for things to unravel at this point.  That’s okay, it just means you have more work to do.

Once the budget is finalized, you can move on to actually running your con.  Keep in mind, however, your budget is going to be somewhat fluid as you move forward towards your con.  Also, you will need to replace your projections with real numbers as you go along.  Be prepared to make adjustments to keep the income higher than our expenses.  If you do that, you will mostly likely be okay.

Inclusion

I have recently been made aware of a Facebook post [a certain guest] had made regarding women who show up at cons dressed in provocative, but genre appropriate, costuming.  The issue seems to be that [guest] believes these women are not really fans, but merely desperate women looking to increase their self-esteem by attracting the attention of “drooling fan boys.”

I’m not writing this post to complain, or single out anyone.  Instead, I’d like to call on all conventions to establish inclusion policies.  I realize that some folks take offense to “non-fans” attending cons, but I have to ask… why?  In the early 80’s, I was only dipping my proverbial toes in the water of fandom when I attended my first con.  If the fans back then had treated me like an outsider, I probably would not be sitting here writing this blog today.

As fans we should welcome everyone who attends and try to be inclusive.  That “non-fan” must have SOME interest in the genre, or she/he would not have created the costume in the first place.  I admit I have no hard evidence on this next point, but I have a hunch that if we collectively befriend this “non-fan,” instead of berating them, there is a significantly greater chance that person will become a life-long fan (assuming he/she isn’t already).  And really, what’s the harm in trying?

So, what can cons do to help?  Well, how about each con writes  up an inclusion policy? It doesn’t have to be a long policy, just state that the con openly promotes inclusion and/or openly discourages exclusion.  Many of us in fandom have experienced exclusion at some point in our lives, and we know it doesn’t feel very good to be excluded.  

Now, if you’re not a con organizer, you can still help.  Practice your own inclusion policy by walking up to the person and saying “Hi.”  Please note, though, this is not an excuse to become a “drooling fan boy.”   In other words, this is not a suggestion for you to try to pick-up said “non-fan girl.”  My guess is if you try to make her your friend, she’ll let you know if she’s interested in a date.  And if she doesn’t, well, you’re no worse off than you were before you said “hello.”

So, in conclusion, as fans, I say let’s all try to make sure inclusion is a very real thing at conventions.  And con organizers; let’s try to ensure that folks know it’s not okay to exclude people, just because someone doesn’t think they’re a “real fan.”

Auctions - Guest blog

Everette Beach has graciously consented to write a guest blog on Auctions for me.

As a quick introduction, let me begin by saying, I realize that it's possible you don't know Everette.  You should, but it's possible you don't.  Everette was, quite literally, the only person I wanted to have write this post.  For those who don't know him, Everette has managed auctions for cons as small as StellarCon and RavenCon to cons as large as, well, DragonCon.  As a matter of fact, he recently completed his first stint as Director of Charity Events for DragonCon, where he managed a number of events that tallied around $45,000 in money raised for their charities.  So, yeah, I guess you could say he knows what he's doing.

Thanks Everette!  I truly appreciate you taking the time to write this!

* * *

My name is Everette Beach, and I am probably best known as “the guy who does the charity auctions” at cons.  20 years since my first auction, but I’m not a professional auctioneer, nor do I recommend you have one do your auction. 

Many things contribute to holding a successful auction, but they can be summed up in 3 words: planning, planning, planning.  I won’t go into much detail here, but will hit the highlights of the major areas that need to be planned for such as:  what charity will the auction be supporting, where to get donations, room size and layout, when to hold the auction, how long the auction will take, how many staff members will be needed, how to track the bids, what payment methods will be accepted, etc… Let’s my thoughts on these:

First decide why you are having a charity auction.  If the answer is “other cons have one”, then you may not even need to have one, lots of conventions don’t.  If you do decide to have one, you need to pick the charity your auction will be in support of.  I recommend asking your staff for recommendations of local charities or local chapters of national organizations. Picking a charity that means something to your staff helps keep people more involved. Picking a local charity makes it much easier to ask for donations from local companies.  And local companies will donate items for a charity auction if you ask them. Hotels, restaurants, even Walmarts have donated to auctions I have run in the past.  But, because of the nature of our audience, the items that will do best, will be “genre” items; sci-fi or fantasy related items, and especially one of a kind and signed items.  Your staff and your guests can be great sources of donations from the contacts they have, and be sure and ask your dealers for donations.

The number of items you expect to sell, and the number of people you expect to attend will be one of the main factors used to determine the room size you need and how long the auction will take. When setting up the room, you want to allow space on the stage area to display the items for sale.  The person or people who are tracking the bids and taking payments will need a table set up near the stage.  Also allow space for the items that have been sold to be stored securely until they are paid for. 

One of the most common mistakes I see is not allowing enough time before the auction to set up the room, and after the auction for checking out the buyers. It takes time to setup the tables, unbox the stored items, get the areas set up for managing the bids and payments, etc.  I recommend you also allow a few minutes for the audience get a close look at the items before starting the auction.  Most people want to wait until all the items have been sold before they pay for and pick up their items, so you need to allow enough time for this.  The amount of time will depend on the size of the auction and number of people attending.

When you schedule the auction will probably depend on the availability of space and what other events are scheduled more than anything else. I have seen auctions held anywhere from Friday night to Sunday morning, it really depends on the convention.

How many people do you need to run the auction?  I have run auctions with as few as 3 people (but I don’t recommend it!)  Here’s the general way that I like to staff an auction.  First you need an auctioneer. Like I said before, this doesn’t need to be a professional auctioneer. Personally, I recommend it NOT be a professional auctioneer.  I have seen an auction where most of the audience left because they could not understand what the auctioneer was saying.  I think someone who has good stage presence, has knowledge of sci-fi and fantasy items (because frankly, that’s what the crowd is at the con for), and can keep the audience entertained will do the best job for you.  On that note, I also want to say that you can go too far in the other direction.  Make sure that the auctioneer understands that this is an auction, not a variety show, and that the main focus is to sell the items as the best price you can.  For these reasons I don’t usually like to use celebrities on stage. Most of them, with a few exceptions, want to entertain the audience more than sell the items, and that cuts into your time dramatically. 

Other than the auctioneer, you will need a floor manager, who will keep track of the items that have been sold, until they are paid for.  You will need “runners”, who will carry the current item being sold out into the audience to be seen closer by the bidders. The clerk will be the person who tracks the final bid and bidder for each item.  The cashier is who will collect money and prints receipts for the buyers.  I recommend that even at a small auction, you have a minimum of 5 people assigned to the auction.

Decide on the methods of payment. The only thing I have to say about this is that you WILL raise more money at the auction if you take credit cards.

Last item: how to track the bids.  This varies greatly. I have seen auctions where bids were recorded on index cards, in spreadsheets, in purchased auction software, and in custom written programs.  They can all work so long as you plan it out beforehand and make sure that what you choose fits the size of the auction.

I’ve run a little longer than I meant to, but wanted to make sure to hit all the main points I thought should be made.  If you are planning to run an auction and would like to talk in deeper detail about your auction planning, I’d be glad to.  Just contact James and he will give you my contact info.  Good luck and I hope you make lots of money for whatever charity you choose to support.

-Everette Beach

Accommodating Your Guests… The Late Request

I can’t tell you how many times this has happened to cons I’ve been involved with.  You have your guest list mostly developed.  You’ve got folks from various genres scheduled to attend the con.  Much of your budget is allocated... then it happens… one of your guests writes with a “special request.”

Never mind that your guest policy is clearly spelled out on your website.  Forget the fact that you have exchanged a number of emails, and even had the guest sign a contract that specially defines what the each party’s responsibilities are for the con.  The guest has blind-sided you with something that had not previously been discussed.

Many times, these requests are things like the guest needs 4 passes for some friends that are in area.  The friends aren’t fans, so the guest didn’t expect them to attend, and as such didn’t ask for comps before now.  Another example would be, (this one really happened) the guest just noticed the hotel is pet friendly and has severe pet allergies. Can you put them up in the hotel down the street?

So, what do you?

Many con-runners first inclination is to either to say “no” without any real thought process other than, “It’s against our policy,” or to immediately say “yes” for fear of losing the guest. 

My suggestion is that the best course of action is somewhere in the middle.

So, how do you get to the middle ground?

First, try to avoid “group think” on the ConCom.  This is usually where hasty decisions originate. 

Second, slow down your process.  I can’t stress this part enough.  Slow down.  Breathe.

The next thing you should do is to contact the guest for more information.  A phone call works best for this (avoid using email if at all possible).  Try to find out where this request is coming from and exactly what it means to the guest.  Also, how does it affect them being a guest?

Once you are armed with as much information as possible, tell the guest you will see what you can do about accommodating them and let them know you will get back with them after you’ve had some time to discuss it with the committee.

Again, don’t get in a rush to answer this request.

There are several things you should consider, including:

1.    Does this request destroy your budget completely?

2.    What are the long-term PR ramifications of a negative response? (Keep in mind, guests use social media too.)

3.    How reasonable is the guest’s request?

4.    If the guest doesn’t attend, will it affect your paid attendance?

5.    Do you ever want to have the guest back at the convention in the future?

6.    Is there an alternative solution that will work just as well for the guest?

There are other things to consider of course, but the main point here is to try to look at the request from the guest’s perspective and balance that with the need to maintain the con’s long-term health.

Once you’ve made your decision, contact the guest to let them what you’ve decided.  Again, this is best done by phone, but I’d also follow it up with an email, just so it’s in writing. 

If the answer is not positive for the guest, try to be as sympathetic as you can.  Let them know you have looked at it from every angle you could come up with, but you just can’t work it out in your budget.  This may not prevent the guest from trashing your con all over the internet, but it will certainly lessen the chance that they do.  If the convention has made an honest attempt to help out the guest, that’s really all you can do.

Okay, that’s it.  As usual, feel free to comment/ask questions.

Oh, and keep an eye out for a future guest blog. Everette Beach informed me that he is close to finishing a post on Auctions.

The Care and Feeding of Special Events

What are special events?  Well, most traditional cons consider things like concerts, auctions, dances, and even the costume contest (or masquerade) to fall into the category of “special events.”  Granted, special may be a bit of an overstatement, but these events are different than, say, panel discussions, which comprise the vast majority of many conventions’ programming. 

The problem I have seen at a lot of cons recently is that their Programming Heads (Directors, Coordinators, etc.) are very skilled at scheduling panels, but not so skilled at scheduling special events.  If you have ever run an event at a con, chances are you found yourself to be short on time.  That’s because Programming Heads frequently fail to allow for an adequate amount of set up and tear down time.  And, I guarantee the Programming Head didn’t do that to you on purpose.  They simply didn’t know to ask you how much time you needed before and after your event.

So, in an effort to help out the area cons, I’ve decided to present some known logistical issues for each type of special event.  With this information in mind, Programming Heads can approach scheduling with some questions in mind that may allow for a smoother running convention. 

I am going to provide some recommended times to handle some the logistics, but don’t take my word as “gospel.”  Contact the person who will be running the event and get their input as well.

Dance

Dances typically need time to have the room reset (move chairs), as well as set up any lights and sound that will be used.  It’s best to give the DJ no less than 30 minutes to prep the room before the dance.  After the dance, the room will have to be set back to the way it was, which will require another 30 minutes (at least). 

Costume Contest

The time needed for the costume contest can vary greatly with your facility and the number of entrants you have.  You will have to consider how long to allocate for each entrant (30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes?) and multiple that by the maximum number you expect and then add time for the MC to talk.  This last part is almost always longer than you think. 

If the entrants have to move through the audience, you will want to make sure to remove some chairs to give them adequate walking space, which will add to the set up time.

You have to provide time for the judges to deliberate, and then the MC has to present the awards.  This will be followed by folks wanting to take pictures.  Once pictures are done, you will need to reset the room after the event.

My best recommendation is to find someone who has run a costume contest before and work with them very closely.

Auctions

I’ve seen well established cons mess this first part up.   As a rule of thumb, you need to allow no less than 30 minutes on either side of the event.  You need time to set up and to tear down.  You also need time to collect everyone’s money after the auction.

As for the run time on the auction itself?  Well, it depends on how much stuff you have to sell.  Do not make this judgment based on what you have collected before the con.  A good Auction Coordinator can double the amount of merchandise available for sale by hitting up the dealers prior to the auction.

If you have a verbose auctioneer, you need to allow time for that person to talk as well.

For a typical regional con that has less than 1000 people, I suggestion allowing 90 minutes for the actual auction.  If you’re keeping score at home, this means you need allocate the room to the auction for 2.5 hours.

Concerts

This is the most difficult event to try to schedule because there is no good way to anticipate how much equipment the band will bring.  I highly recommend you talk to the band and find out how long they plan to play, and then ask if they have a technical director.  If they do, ask that person how long they need for load in and load out (use those words, trust me on this).  The Tech Director usually has a pretty solid idea how long this will take. Also, while you a talking to them, you need to find out what their technical requirements are.  They might be expecting you to provide some equipment, which may, or may not, need to be set up prior to the load in.

Additional Notes

Don’t rush your time.  If something runs late, you can’t plan to cut your costume contest by 30 minutes to try to get back on schedule.  Make sure that you continue to allow the time you have scheduled for your special events, even if that means everything starts a little later than planned.

If you are doing an event for the first time, add extra time.  As you do the event more often, your times will become more accurate.

Lastly, make sure you have enough operations staff scheduled to help around these events.   Moving 100 chairs takes 1-2 people much longer than it takes 4-5.  This also allows you to dedicate staff to watching the doors if you need to keep attendees out of the room for a few minutes.

*  *  *

Okay, so that’s it for this blog.  I hope it helps.   And speaking of help, I hope to have a guest blog up soon on running Auctions (Hint to Everette!!!)

Special thanks to Tera Fulbright for her highly experienced help with the post