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	ashenmote 2007-08-01 10:25 am UTC (link)
	I never been to fandom cons but they definitely have BNF special guests. They traditionally call off their attendance last minute because they are scared of Aja or lawnmowers or because they know someone who knows someone who possibly got an anonymous death threat. /things I learned on FW (Reply to this)(Thread)

	notjo 2007-08-01 12:10 pm UTC (link)
	You'd think I'd remember that... I take it, then, when I run my mythical Con you aren't coming? ;) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	ashenmote 2007-08-01 12:23 pm UTC (link)
	I'd murder for an opportunity to disinvite myself loudly on the basis of security issues, so I guess the correct answer is "yes and no". (Reply to this)(Parent)

qem_chibati
2007-08-01 10:27 am UTC (link)

*raises hand*

I'm somewhat involved with SMASH - an anime/manga con (In Sydney, August the 18th,//shameless plug) and was slightly involved with Austrinus - a hp one that never took off the ground.

Do you just want a general run by thing? Or advice for running your own?

Do Fandon Cons have Special Guests that are BNF?
Absolutely. That's how people work. Though BNF definition would vary... Special guests at an anime con could be people in the anime industry, voice actors, mangaka's, etc.

Regular cons, will usually have a few regular, charismatic faces, that you *will* learn to recognise if you keep on going. (Tentacle monster, for example at Animania Sydney.) If your part of a "scene" there will usually be a few names that you'll learn to recognise if you keep up. Some artists/cosplayers will fly and go considerably out of their way to be involved.

I'm doubtful you'll find many links on how cons are run from off the ground though. For one that's usually kept private and confidential, for another, it's very different from when things are bright and optimistic to when you have to get everything running smoothly.

The biggest piece of advice I've been given for running a con is.

It's an act of love. Be prepared to make a loss.

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	notjo 2007-08-01 12:10 pm UTC (link)
	More of a general run by thing, I think - It's more of an intellectual excise. I've run games at Cons (that is, a LARP at a Sci Fi con) and just from that I know that it's a labour of love. I'm sorta wondering how panels take shape, how advertising is done, just general stuff that people do. Hmm... Anime Con in Sydney.... (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

qem_chibati
2007-08-01 12:36 pm UTC (link)

wondering how panels take shape
Heh. Pretty much any and every convention I've been involved in it's a... Ad hoc thing? Usually a contact type thing.

As far as I can tell usually have donations of panel ideas in some sort of brainstorm and then someone will suggest some contact (hey, what about that yaoi society? they could run a yaoi panel! My dad works for blah, blah, blah so you could try asking for blah about blah), or if your being sponsored they'll want to run a panel... and have their own person for the job. ^_^ Or the person you ask will suggest someone... And then the panels are usually left to their own devices.

I know some of the US cons even have forms where people can suggest their own panel ideas and offer to run them...

As for advertising... Approaching Special Interest Groups is usually one of the key ways and attempting to put up posters. Telling people to shameless plug it online totally counts as part of an advertising strategy too, as you can see. D:

Generally people panic and go how can we make this really cool. And not get into trouble.

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	ruuger 2007-08-01 12:13 pm UTC (link)
	I'm currently in the concom of a small local con (est. attendance about 30-70 people) and a slightly bigger national con (est. attendance about 5000-7000 people), and both have (or have had in previous years) BNFs as guests of honor. (Reply to this)

panthea
2007-08-01 12:15 pm UTC (link)

See Con.txt for an example (http://www.con-txt.net/) -- various fandoms (focused on the slash aspect), all fan-run, and no special BNF guests or anything; the main attraction is the panels and the socializing.

I have a friend who recently put together a significantly smaller con along the Con.txt lines (only 125 people), which was extremely successful. If you want, I can ask her if she wouldn't mind giving you info on how to do it.

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	karmakaze 2007-08-01 12:26 pm UTC (link)
	Well, I didn't find the link I was looking for (there's a convention that caters to people who run convention) but I did find this: http://dpsinfo.com/sf/confaq.html I hope that's helpful. (Reply to this)

	phosfate 2007-08-01 12:29 pm UTC (link)
	Fan cons can have pro guests, fan guests, or no guests at all, depending on circumstances and preferences. MediaWest has no guests at all, unless a pro turns up as a member (it's happened). (Reply to this)

	pfeffermuse 2007-08-01 01:46 pm UTC (link)
	This might be a good question to ask the folks who are running EasternMedia Con. They took over the fan-run con Eclecticon, and this is their first year. So, the details of getting a hotel, setting a date, advertising to fandom, etc. are very fresh in their minds. (Reply to this)

dez_chan
2007-08-01 01:50 pm UTC (link)

I've helped with several anime conventions that shall remain nameless, and yes there are definitely BNF's. Some of them even get to be incredibly well-known, and eventually become guests...take Sailor Bubba, for instance. He's got his own bobblehead, for pete's sake. Or Greggo, a fan who runs game shows at various conventions; he's not an industry personality, he's just a guy with a hobby.

As for the way things are run, that greatly depends on the convention. For some, as they've mentioned, it's a labor of love. Others view it as a business and try to run it from that model. The success of each method varies on how big you try to make it, really. And I'm not aware of a particular place where con personnel as a whole get together to talk about how a con is run, but usually on a message board, there's a locked area for personnel. We didn't use it much when I was still helping out; generally we either met in person or talked on the phone to try and iron out details.

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	chaimonkey 2007-08-01 04:58 pm UTC (link)
	Yay Greggo! We're doing one of his gameshows at Ikasu. We were going to do a few more, but the companies who own the shows his games are based off of started handing out cease and desist letters and he (wisely) backed out before he got one himself. But now he can work on his own designs, so this isn't too bad. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	dez_chan 2007-08-02 02:34 am UTC (link)
	Ah Ikasu-con...I always meant to go, and never got to. Ah well. But yeah I heard about the C&D thing a while back. I'm just glad he still does shows. I'm afraid my boyfriend was rather inspired by Greggo and did a couple shows himself. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	chaimonkey 2007-08-06 12:22 am UTC (link)
	Oh, nothing's going to stop Greggo. He enjoys what he does too much. That's awesome about your boyfriend! You should totally come. ;D (Reply to this)(Parent)

	belafarinrod 2007-08-01 02:41 pm UTC (link)
	Best advice I ever heard about running a con: - Budget for half as many as you think will come, prepare space for twice as many. - Find out how to write binding contracts, get everything important written down and never trust a friend to do what it usually takes a pro to manage. Especially not without a contract (Reply to this)

wtf
2007-08-01 02:54 pm UTC (link)

Well, there's always the Anime Conventions Mailing List, aka the ACML. It's mirrored as a Yahoo Group here. You'll find staffers of every stripe from every size convention, and a lot of them also work cons for other fandoms.

In the anime world at least, a lot of smaller and newer cons will get BNFs as guests. They're generally cheaper to host and easier to book than pros, both of which are important to a first-year con.

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mrbimble
2007-08-01 03:58 pm UTC (link)

part of the BNF thing is the focus of your Con. Several people here have mentioned the ease of getting Pro Guests for Anime. I went to a single-show Con for two years, the Con was held in the city where the show was filming and we had fantastic support and response from both the actors and the technical people to come talk at panels.

But it was a small, cult-ish show and that was a long time ago (about 8 yrs) so I don't know if that would still hold true today.

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chaimonkey
2007-08-01 04:54 pm UTC (link)

I staff my way around the Ohio cons, and am currently Live Events head for Ikasucon this August. Basically it takes a lot of work by a lot of people - divide the thing up into departments and appoint your best buddies to head them. Cronyism is key.

As for BNF guests, we had Piano Squall last year, who did a great performance but delayed the dance because he last-minute wanted to give autographs. Aside from him and the new members of the Spoony Bards partying a bit too hard in a room they were last-minute guests in at Colossalcon, the cons I've been to have been rather BNF-drama free.

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mister_terrific
2007-08-01 05:50 pm UTC (link)

I worked several Doctor Who conventions in the 80's and was moderately involved in two CostumeCons (1996 and 2007). We never had BNF GOH's at the Tardiscons; I'm guessing this is a more recent evolution. Archon does include Fan Guests of Honor, usually people who have a history with the convention (in a good way!).

Rules to follow:

1) NOBODY gets in free. Staffers pay just like everyone else. If there's money left over, you can comp them afterwards.

2) Emphasize to the concom that the phrases "This is fandom, not for-profit!", "We're all friends here" and their ilk are banned. Conventions are serious business and should be run as such. You do not want to lose your shirts if you can possibly help it.

3) Incorporate the con if you can. That releases individuals from assuming the debts.

4) Before you even begin to think about running a con, get involved in helping run an established con and learn the ropes that way.

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	belafarinrod 2007-08-01 07:40 pm UTC (link)
	1) NOBODY gets in free. Staffers pay just like everyone else. If there's money left over, you can comp them afterwards. Really? Wow. I would never pay for the stress involved in preparing a con and then work for a weekend. Interesting to see the different con cultures (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	dez_chan 2007-08-02 02:36 am UTC (link)
	Me neither. Hell, most of my policy the last couple years I went to cons was, "Can I get in free if I work it? Then I'll go. If I have to pay, I'm not going." (Reply to this)(Parent)

mister_terrific
2007-08-02 06:11 pm UTC (link)

It's less a con culture than adopting the notion that every available cent goes into breaking even, then we'll see about comping.

Given what we saw this past year at CC25--fewer and fewer people are paying for memberships in advance, choosing instead to wait until the last minute and then pay if they even decide to come--you can see the logic in getting as much funding up front as you can so that you can at least attempt to make a budget.

And let me tell you, we were sweating *bullets* the last few months.

But not one of the cons I've worked went into the red, for what it's worth.

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belafarinrod
2007-08-02 06:13 pm UTC (link)

But, and I mean this quite honestly, how do you get any staff? I would never work when it costs me money. There's always another con where I can work or pay, after all

For what it's worth, we didn't even have pre-sale tickets but our con went with a nice +. Course, we had a guy who was really good at getting sponsors and funding from the municipality, so we were breaking even before we sold any tickets.

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kamiki_seto
2007-08-03 01:56 am UTC (link)

How do you get staff? It's easy. It's folks who are REALLY interested and REALLY want to see the con succeed - not just people who want to put in a little work and get a free membership. It's folks who are committed to making the con good because they're investing their own money in a membership. It's folks who understand the financial realities involved in running the con.

It's always been understood by this particular group of folks - who have, by and large, known each other for 20 or more years - that when running a con, no one on the concom gets freebies. Departments are expected to plan budgets and submit receipts. Everyone works hard at something - no hangers-on who are going to get free memberships in exchange for a few hours of gofering. Planning for CostumeCon 25 started three years out.

It's HARD for small, fannish cons to make money. Strict budget control from the very start is an absolute must. Preregistrations are where the money for the operating fund has to come from. If the con's own staff won't show faith in the con by preregistering, that can be a problem. (Also, if everyone on the concom invests in the con by preregistering equally, you don't get the potential problem of a business, concom member, or other donating funding and then feel they have an entitled right to control the convention because of their donation. This has killed conventions and split committees.)

I have seen conventions kill themselves financially by giving the store away in comps, free memberships, hotel rooms paid, etc etc etc - and not for special guests, either, just for other fans. These things add up. The time to issue comps is after the con when the books are finalized and then you don't have to regret anything.

However...if a con is in need of a lot of cheap labor very quickly, I can understand the membership comping or discounting. The groups who do the 'no freebies' approach do well with it because they generally know each other very well, understand the ground rules going in, and maintain good communications with each other regarding all aspects of running the con - no secrets.

There is something to be said for all approaches.

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	kittikattie 2007-08-02 08:30 am UTC (link)
	1) NOBODY gets in free. Staffers pay just like everyone else. If there's money left over, you can comp them afterwards. I've never paid to get into a con I've worked. 12 hours of my time was my payment. Granted, first con I ever worked was Aggiecon. (Reply to this)(Parent)

theonedespot
2007-08-01 08:16 pm UTC (link)

I haven't run a con, but I know people who have been on the committee or staff of several Eastercons (the UK annual science fiction convention). Eastercons usually have a Fan Guest of Honour, alongside several pro guests.

The Eastercon website has some helpful albeit UK and Eastercon-centric information about con running. There's also the Conrunner fanzine, which is quite old now but has some good articles, like Care and Feeding of a Guest of Honour by John Brunner.

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jedilora
2007-08-02 06:14 am UTC (link)

I've been and am going to be on staff for Arisia and Boskone, two SF cons in the Boston area. We sometimes have a Fan GoH, who usually gives some sort of talk on being in fandom and generally is a semi-MC for events. For Boskone, this person is usually someone who's been in fandom for yonks, and is referred to as the Special Guest. One time when I was sixteen, the special guest/Fan GoH offered to buy a round for the entire room, then his wife asked me what I wanted from the bar, and it turned out that I was the only person at his speech who was under thirty. Then he talked about British fandom history. It was AWESOME.

There is actually a con devoted to how to run a con. Boston's got it this year, so if you want to know, c'mon down. Or up. Wherever.

My own personal area of con running expertise is food stuffs, and my main piece of advice is finding someone who's a professional caterer, following them around for a week, and then doing everything they do but within 72 hours. Whee!

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	tiki 2007-08-02 05:13 pm UTC (link)
	My husband actually wrote a post about this very subject on his LJ a few weeks ago, here prompted by an e-mail asking for similar advice about starting a con, because of his experience in starting Anime Weekend Atlanta. Hope that helps a little. :) (Reply to this)

vorpal_blade
2007-08-03 04:07 am UTC (link)

The closest thing to a BNF guest at a Harry Potter con that I've been to (Nimbus, The Witching Hour, Lumos and now Prophecy) is Lexicon Steve (webmaster of the HP Lexicon). Otherwise the special guests are usually authors of HP-related books or someone connected to the HP movies, like the woman who worked on CG effects for the films who talked during a lunch at Nimbus. The head of the American Library Association also spoke at Nimbus about censorship, since the HP books are on people's hit lists a lot when they're looking to do some good old fashioned book-banning. BNF special guests are a rarity; if they're presenting at all it's because they sent in a proposal along with everyone else and had it accepted, but that still means paying your own way to the event (registration, hotel and transportation), while a special, invited guest gets all of that covered by the organizers because their appearance will bring people in.

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How-to forums

kamiki_seto
2007-08-03 01:46 pm UTC (link)

I forgot to mention...for CostumeCon, there is a mailing list for those who have run CCs in the past or want to run one in the future called, I think, 'RUNACC'. Since CC is a 'bid con' (like WorldCon) that moves to a different sponsoring city and group every year, the exchange of info about what worked, didn't work, would like to try, etc is very helpful.

I think a 'run a fan-con' or even 'run a HP con' etc lists would be pretty helpful, if they're not out there already.

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