The Beginners Guide to Sci-fi/Fantasy Convention Management By: Dana Windsor Copyright 1995 All rights reserved Preface The rise and expansion of the science fiction/horror/fantasy/comics convention scene over the past two decades is as incredible as the stories and movies that fans gather to celebrate. There is almost literally a convention every month, whether they be fan run, commercially operated, or sponsored by a local Boy Scout troop. This manual is for those who are just getting started or for those who have been on the convention scene forever, but have never had a concise source of tips, advice and basic proceedures on how to do things. However, this manual is not meant to be a dictorial on "this is how you must do this or you are going to be a flop." It's a starting point, an answer to unfinished conversations about getting something together to help new people get into running conventions and giving them something to get started with. I've designed it to be flexible enough that each peson who has a copy can build on it from their experiences, but clear cut and absolute in the places that I feel it needs to be. It jumps around in some places, but in those places there is information that is meant to be shared with the people working with you and is directed to them, so I ask for forgiveness in advance for any confusion. In short, enjoy this manual and learn what can from it to help your convention be a success. One: Getting Started with your Event This section will give you an outline of how to begin the process of putting together the event you've been chosen to run. This manual is attempting to be the best possible default for how to do things. Hopefully, the experiences of those people will be added here in later editions for others to learn after they have moved on, as well as the addition of your own experiences in your own archives. First, take a look at the event that you are to be running and see what you can potentially make of it. After you have resolved the above, the next step is to create a target budget based on what you propose to do. Make a list of the major expenses of your event. This will start with target amounts for your site or hotel, guests, program, promotion, transportation, equipment (things like audio and video gear, radios, etc.) and miscellaneous expenses. A sample is listed below: Hotel: $ 5,000 Guests: $ 7,000 Program: $ 1,200 Transportation: $ 2,000 Equipment: $ 1,700 Promotion: $ 500 Misc.: $ 150 ============================ Total: $ 17,550 The next step is to adjust this list based on what you have gone on before and depending on what event you are running. Next, make a list of the ways you propose to cover these expenses. The basic ways to raise the funds, including the starting money you can get from the club, can be represented in a list that follows below: Attendance: 600x $20= $12,000 Program Ads: 16x$100= $ 1,600 Dealers Tables: 25x$100= $ 2,500 Banquet: 100x $15= $ 1,500 Club Money: $ 2,500 ===================================== Total: $20,100 What you are doing is setting up a wish list of your goals and means. If you could count on doing what the example above shows, you'd make a $2,550 profit and that would be fantastic, but you cannot count on that happening exactly as you plan. Be ready to scale back things if you need to as the event approaches. The most important things are to put together the best estimate, work to meet it, and to stay practical in your expectations. After setting up your budget, the next two major things to do are to find the best date and site for your event. Another factor affecting the selection of your site is availability. It is one thing to find a good site a great price, but if it's not available for when you need it, then you are back to square one. Picking the right date is important, since you have to try to avoid other events that may have an impact on possible attendance if you schedule at the same time. All these issues must be dealt with to select the best site and date for your event for the best price. Once you have resolved these two issues, you're ready to make a solid decision and present it to the club for approval. One more thing is to find a site/hotel that will give you a good deal on rooms for your guests, staff and attendees. After you have landed your site and date, it is time to start selecting what guests and attractions you will have at your event. It must be stressed, if you are running a con that has been around and has a good reputation for what is has to offer, that it is easier to stay with the traditional flavor of the event that you are running and that any leaps to greater size or scope should be tempered with a high measure of practicality and a realistic attitude towards your expectations. All of this is influenced by your starting resources. Plan your attractions around what you have to start with and what you plan to achieve. Your only real limits are those that involve the amount of work you are willing to do and how you best use your available resources to make your event a success. Be willing to work hard and don't get discouraged. If you are willing and are able to do these things, then you are already building towards success. Two: Using Resources and Picking your Staff The first part of your job, after deciding to hold your event and before you sign any contracts, should be to select your committee, who will help you run the event. Finding the best people to be on your staff is vital to getting your event to run smoothly. There are various services and outlets for finding help, including fan clubs, student clubs at universities and people and friends in your community. Each can help you in a particular area of running your event. The next area in this section concerns putting together the staff you will need to work at the event and handle the other major jobs described in here. Your staff should consist of your committee, which includes your assistant manager(s), your business affairs coordinator, your heads of registration, security, public relations, advertising, operations/technical services, scheduling, your program editor, guest relations, and other positions you see that need to be covered. Each of these people will need to have people under them to help. Security, operations and registration are the groups requiring the largest number of people, since they will make up the bulk of the on site convention staff. You will also want to select someone to recruit "gophers" to work at the con. The bigger an event you plan, the more people you will need to make it work. Some conventions have working staffs of over 500 people on duty at any given time, so setting up a good staff is very essential. There are dozens of fan related groups that you can approach to recruit workers for your event. These include but are not limited to the local chapters of the various "Ster Trek" related groups around the country, as well as fan clubs for a whole range of different genres. The most widely used tactic to gain general volunteer help is to let people into the event for free in exchange for working at the event. This is also a proven way to recruit gamemasters for most gaming conventions or other conventions with gaming. When looking for people to join your staff, there are some things that you need to look for. They must have the time to do the job that you need them to do, show up, and have the willingness to follow through on it until the end of the event. You should try to find the most experienced people that you can. They need to be people you feel you can trust and are willing to take direction. Similarly, you need to be able to be trusted by them and have the ability to lead them as the work progresses. These are not new and unknown things to be concerned about, but they bear repeating for the sake of emphasis. If you and your staff cannot develop a good working relationship, it will affect how well your event is done. Some other basic things to look for are whether they have their own transportation, telephone and address. Things like computers, fax machines, a big truck, or a van are good bonuses, but don't necessarily have to be pre-requisites in considering someone. In short, find the best people you can who have the time and dedication to help you make your event a success. In summary, there are various resources to help you make your event a success. fan clubs can be a primary source for your committee and workers, there are also groups in the community that can be of help too. Three: Budgeting the Event and Raising Funds The basic structure of how to set up a budget proposal and the most widely used ways to meet that budget was shown in the previous chapter. This section is here specifically to expand on that area. The reason for this is that setting and meeting your budget and finding the means to do so is vital to making your event a success. Also, this and the following chapters will be less specific what convention you are running, because these sections are designed to apply to both events. Upon making your initial budget proposal, it is time to start to looking into the specifics of your income and expenses. These specifics will become clear once you start assembling quotes for guests, sites, airfare and freight charges, estimates for the program, prices for flyers, mailouts, supplies, sales licenses and other items as they surface. Once you start having a better picture of what your costs are going to be, you can start looking into how you are going to cover them and make adjustments in your target budget. You have several means by which raise the funds needed to pay the bills, the first of which is the seed money that you or your group has on them to get started. This money should be used to get several things off the ground and not just dumped into one thing only. The primary uses for seed money can be to make a deposit on your site, print flyers and other promotional items, get supplies for the event, partial payment for guests and other such things. These funds will help you get going and should act as the catalyst for getting more money coming in before the event as well. The next major outlet for raising funds is, of course, fees paid by the attendees either as pre-registrations (a.k.a. memberships) or at the door. Your first item of business here is to set all the prices in this area. These include the pre-registration prices for the whole event or one day for students, the general public and groups. Next, set the at the door rates for all the above. Deciding the prices is primarily the responsibility of you and your staff, but your group, if you have one, should vote on it as well as how much starting capital you need to raise and spend to get started. Once you have your price structure for registration fees settled, you can begin promoting your event in earnest. Another proven way to raise money has been the selling of dealer table space. In fact, the dealers' area is a staple of most cons and has can be a fairly reliable source of funds. The key to making the most of this option is make the most of the space you have available for a dealers area by having the best number of table spaces to sell without cramping everyone together and making it inaccessible, and setting the best price for the spaces without overpricing them or under cutting yourself. As a reference point, no more than $100 shoould be charged for dealer tables if you are just starting out. One possible plan could be to charge $100 for the first table and $75 for each extra table. Finding and reaching potential dealers should not be a problem, since all you have to do is pick up a copy of "Dragon" or "Starlogue" or "Science Fiction Age" to see what other cons are coming up where you could meet with dealers and make them an offer. You can also start with the phone book and call up people you think may be interested in being a dealer as well. One logistical point is to make sure the dealer's room is very accessible to your attendees (i.e. near the registration area, main speaker room, etc.). If you have been to other conventions and have addresses from dealers you encountered there, contact them. Send letters to stores and companies that you feel may be interested in being a dealer at your event. One thing to remember is to set and stick to your prices as well as you can and be totally adamant about any deadlines you set. Don't let anyone drag out giving a commitment to buy in hopes of getting a lower price. Your final deadline for dealers should be no less than three to four weeks out from the event. Setting and sticking to your deadline will reduce unwanted wrangling and give you the time to include the dealers in the program if you wish to do so (use inclusion in the program as a potential selling point if possible). The next big area that has potential for bringing in revenue for your event is selling ads for the program. This can be done to pay for the program itself and use any left over revenue to cover other costs. The essentials here are doing the legwork to sell the ad space, setting the best prices and sticking to your deadlines. A typical pricing layout for selling ads is to set the prices for ads at $100 for a full page (8.5x11), $50 for a half page and $25 for a quarter page. The number of pages available for ad space is up to your discretion. Other options include business card size ads for $10-$15 and a double truck spread for $150 (one ad takes up either the top or bottom half of two pages side by side). One potential tactic for getting ads is a trade-out option of ad space in exchange for radio, TV, newspaper ads, or anything else you can come up with. Your advertisers should be given all the information they need to have their ad ready for you to pick up. A recommended deadline for ads is that they must be camera ready and in hand by no later than two weeks before the program goes to print. This gives you the time to have the ads put together with rest of the program so it can be sent off. There are various other things that you can do to raise funds to pay for your event that can be done both on and off campus. They range from car washes to hitting up friends and relatives for contributions. Though these areas are harder to put tangible estimates on, these things can be done as either buffers to ensure smaller items are covered or as emergency measures if disaster occurs. As a rule, these other outlets should not be integrated into your target budget plans, because they are too random to be consistently reliable. One last major possibility for getting funds for your event lies in petitioning a university or government organization for an allotment or grant. If you do decide to go to one of these types of outlets, _do not ask for the money on a loan basis_, particularly if you are a student organization. As a rule, money that is available to these kinds of groups is meant to be spent anyway, so there is no reason to offer to pay it back, unless you feel a strong moral obligation to do so, if which you have, you should, but if not, don't bother to offer unless you know it is a requirement at your school. It simply leads to too many problems and should be considered an outlet of last resort. Any time that anyone working with you receives any funds that are to be used for the event, whether it be checks, cash or whatever, give it to whomever is responsible for depositing it as soon as possible, and they are to never try to cash any checks/money orders not made out to them without authorization or open any mail that is not addressed to them directly, as it is a federal offense. This is one item that is an absolute and violating it can get you and the person who did it removed from your jobs with the convention and arrested, so don't break it. In summary, you have several ways to raise the funds you need to pay for your event. Some are more reliable than others. Some should be pursued hardily like dealer tables and program ads, while others, should be treated with a great deal of caution and tact to avoid damaging situations. Be enthusiastic in your efforts, but be practical in your goals. Four: Advertising and Promoting your Event Too many businesses and events like the one you are running have done badly or failed completely because of a lack of good promotion and advertising. How well you promote and advertise your event both on and off campus will be crucial to whether it succeeds or fails. There is a wide variety of ways and means to get the word out about your event, and get those you reach to attend. Two of the most traditional ways of promoting conventions has been the use of flyers and posters put up in stores and mail outs to previous attendees. You should break this down into two parts; one for reaching new people and the other at potential return attendees. Make sure that the flyers have all the pertinent information regarding your event including the date, location, prices, what's going on, who is going to be there, addresses and phone or fax numbers, and a small blurb on why it is happening. In this age of digital animation and desktop publishing, it shouldn't be too difficult for you and your staff to put together flyers that will catch people's eye and gain their interest. For mail outs, you don't have to be too over the top. Let them know that their attendance was greatly appreciated and that you would like to see them back at your next event. Cover the basics of what you want them to know and how to get more information. Make the mail outs as personal as possible. Don't be afraid to cramp up your hand by personally signing all the mail outs if you feel if that's what you think it will take to bring them back. Return business is what keeps events like ours going and growing, because returning attendees tend to bring other (i.e. new) people with them. For flyers meant to be out on tables at other events or in stores or on walls, use your imagination and any creative resources you can muster to put together something that will make people look at your material and say: "That looks really cool, I think I'll check this out." Don't advertise down to people with stuff that looks roughshod or out of date (i.e. cheesy). Remember though, don't risk getting complaints from parents or store owners about lewd or immature material, run it by your committee if you have doubts, or even if you don't for that matter. Getting your materials in the right places is very important in being able to reach the biggest possible audience for the biggest possible response. There are bulletin boards in virtually every public building that you can put stuff on and some may have enclosed cases that you can reserve to put up a large display. Depending on your resources and your budget, you can take out ads in newspapers, have mini flyers put into all the campus mail boxes at local colleges, send Public Service Announcements to all the radio and TV stations you can, stage promotional demonstrations, speak at public meetings or talk to your professors, friends, co-workers and fellow students. Get academic departments at local schools involved by pushing a particular aspect of your event. For example, if you have a special effects company as a guest, push that to the film and theater departments as a way for students to see how it's done and perhaps make a future business contact. If you have a writer like Allen Wold or Orson Scott Card, use the same tactic on the English Department. If you get the editor of "Omni," get the word out to the science departments. These ideas are just the tip of the iceberg. The important thing is to explore as many ways as possible and FOLLOW THROUGH ON ALL OF THEM. Be practical in your expectations, but never be afraid to push as hard and as far as possible. For general promotions, your options are open and varied. To start, get flyers and posters into every store and shop that you find will be likely to have your target audience locally. Hobby shops, comic book stores, computer shops, bookstores, or anyplace that will let you put your materials up. Next, move outward into the regional area and cover the same types of places in other cities in your area, or anywhere you are able to send info to. One way of reaching all these places is by putting out material at other conventions, like DragonCon in Atlanta, WorldCon (wherever it's being held that year) and other conventions in the region you have the resources to reach. When deciding how many flyers to have made up and where to put them, find the best way to reach as wide an area as possible without going over board. You want as even a pattern of dispersion as possible for the sizes of the areas you want to reach, so consider that when making your decision. A new outlet for reaching potentially millions of people for virtually nothing is through the Internet. Newsgroups and forums for getting the word out abound on several on-line services. You can keep a vast number of on-line people instantly informed about your event and even talk with them live or through E-mail to answer questions, but always doublecheck your info for accuracy to avoid problems. One thing that is as important as being as practical but ambitious in your goals is to not let running the event overrun your life. Make sure you have a staff you can delegate responsibility to so that you don't overwhelm yourself by trying to do everything. To get the best promotion for your event, select someone who has the most skill and time to follow through on what they start, because if you wear yourself out and let it show to those you are trying to recruit, you may scare them off. Use your time wisely and effectively. If you do this as well as you do anything else, you've already succeeded. Five: Handling Contracts and Paying the Bills This section will provide you with some basic ideas on how to handle and keep track of your bills and how to obtain a contract with a guest or for services from a hotel or a company you seek to do business with. Your level of success in these areas depends mostly on how well you can keep track of your paperwork and the quality of your basic negotiation skills. This section will help you get started on covering the basics and will hopefully give you new ideas that you can add here later. Paying the bills that you will incur as event manager must be done in a timely and professional manner. If you make a purchase without the authorization of your committee, you will personally be accountable to pay it since you will have violated the duty assigned to you. Once you have their approval, you can make the expenditure. You then turn over the receipt or invoice to the person selected to handle the business affairs of the convention, where they will debit the amount from the proper line item in the budget. Your budget should be divided into several line item accounts that pertain to different types of expenditures. The bill will be paid from the line item that it pertains to. Keeping all this in mind, it is important to work closely with the person you've selected to do the job. Another rule of wisdom that is relevant to this section is that any major expenditures that run above $500 should be bid out to at least three separate firms. This will be mentioned in other places in this manual, but its importance warrants its reiteration. To help keep track of your bills, acquire a folder style notebook or some other type of paperwork storage item. Make and keep copies of all your bills, one set for yourself, one for the business person, and one to be kept available for the entire committee, although the originals must be given to the business person in order to get them paid. These measures are by no means absolute, but could be considered a default if all else fails. Set up a time frame with those that you do business with that will allow you to have all your bills paid no later than two weeks after your event, if at all possible. When you come before your committee to get approval for your proposed expenditures, have all of your paperwork ready to go and your motions for action written out to make the process as expedient as possible. Too many times in the past, meetings have been drawn out by poor organization and presentation. The best thing that is recommended is that you layout what you need to have done and have it ready to present well ahead of time. This way, the officers know what you need and can help speed up the process. The crux of properly handling your bills is to keep up good lines of communication between yourself, the business person, and the people you intend to business with on the convention's behalf. As new methods and procedures come about, they need to be added to your copy of the manual to provide the best basis for properly handling and keeping track of your paperwork. Also, keeping in mind that you are working as a representative of your convention, be courteous and professional with those you deal with. The next area of this section will cover some of the groundwork for obtaining contracts to secure the services you wish to gain for your event. Successfully presenting and negotiating contracts is a vital part of making your event a success and this section will present you with some rudimentary ideas to help you along. As with every other section, new ideas and suggestions can be added to make those who follow you better equipped in the future. All contracts have basic elements to them in terms of getting what you need for your event. To get started, make a list of what you need. Once this is done and you have made contact with your intended party, present to them your proposal. Don't be afraid of asking for what you want, but make the presentation as precise and professional to the other party as possible. Be as exact as you can be and have any paperwork and records you feel necessary ready to use. The better a picture you give to them, the better they can work towards meeting your needs. Try to be as firm or flexible as you feel you need to be, but if they are going to end up trying to walk all over you, take your business elsewhere. For example, say you have a guest who normally charges $5,000 for an appearance plus coach airfare, room, and meals. You don't want to pay the full price, but could offer them first class airfare in exchange for taking off a big chunk from their fee, thus lowering your net expense in exchange for giving them the royal treatment. After you get their initial offer and you have analyzed your budget situation, make your counter offer and let them have the time to make a decision without pushing them too hard. Remember to be courteous and professional at all times, regardless of the outcome (don't burn your bridges). If they accept, then you have done your job well and are on track for keeping to your budget. If, after a reasonable amount of time and effort on both sides, you cannot talk them down and you think that you cannot afford them and/or are not willing to take the risk, thank them for their time, ask them to keep you in mind for the next year and move on. Don't take it badly if you can't make it happen, but take what you have learned and apply it elsewhere to keep the learning process going. This scenario can apply to virtually every other type of situation that requires a negotiation process to get what you need. Once you have reached an agreement, take it before the committee for approval. You may not be able to make up front payments or offers due to the billing process you may have to follow depending on the type group you are working with, so you need to make sure that they are aware of this up front and are willing to work with you through it. This is especially true in the summer when university affiliated clubs may not be able to access its budget until the start of the fall semester, which will be your starting point for using new club funds if no money was able to be squirreled away before the end of the last fiscal year as deposits or prepaid credit accounts, if you are working with this type of group. Be it getting a guest, landing a hotel or paying for the program, laying out what you need, finding out what the other party has to offer and working to find out if you can successfully meet each others needs in a professional and timely manner is important to get what you both want. Set your goals and stick to them as firmly as you can without being too inflexible or letting yourself get ripped off. If you need to, ask others for advice. Learn from both your successes and your mistakes and put what you learn in your report. Six: Operations and Scheduling Operations/Technical Services and Scheduling entail the process of figuring out what goes where, how it needs to be done and when it needs to happen. Laying out a solid plan of action and having the right people to make it happen can make the difference between a good convention and a blindfolded fire drill. These are the two most important pre- production aspects of your event, as well as areas that must be handled properly at the event itself. To get started on operations, you need to have your site and attractions solidified. You then need to find the people on your staff with the right experience to handle the job. Places to look for help range from the Theatre Deptartment of a neighboring university or those you may meet at other cons who have performed the same job. They need to have the skills to be able to get co-operation and good communication from your staff, the site management and staff and anyone providing services or equipment for your event. They need to know the layout of the site, including room configurations, distances from one place to another, how long it takes the site staff to reset a room between events, where all the electrical outlets and other items that you find they need to know. They are to be in charge of how any and all equipment is set up or otherwise handled, including radios, A/V gear, lighting kits, sound equipment (if it's not already being handled by a DJ), monitors, computer equipment and other items as they come into play. They are also to be in charge of the logistics of where everything needs to go and how to put it there or move as the need arises. The OPS/Tech. Services person can also be the head of Security if you don't need to break things down so specifically, since the security team can also double as your gopher staff, depending on the size of your event. The term "gopher" refers to any extra helpers that you have on your staff that are not doing a specific duty like registration or security. They are your coffee runners, equipment toters or whatever else you need them to be at your event. An Ops/TS head needs to basically be able to take care of the physical and organizational logistics of your event. Their job is the hardest one next to yours, since they have to deal with virtually everyone you do, so they need to be someone you can work with closely for the duration of your tenure as manager of the event. There is a saying from a popular film that goes: "No matter where you go, there you are." However, if you don't know where you are when you get there or when you were supposed to be there, you're lost. Setting up the schedule of events at your convention properly can be the difference between a good con and people walking around in confusion and being upset at having missed the best part of the event. To set up a good schedule that will meet the needs of your guests and your attendees, you need to have everything you want to do ready. You then need to plan out when you want the events to happen. The goal is to have your biggest events at the best times with smaller but still interesting events in between to keep your attendees happily busy at the convention. A good place to start is looking at the schedules from other events as a base and go from there. The events also need to be in the best place they can be put in for their type. For example, you wouldn't put your main guests lecture in the smallest room in your site or a small roundtable discussion in the grand ballroom. It's pretty self explanatory. You just need to put things in the best place in the best order. If you know people aren't going to stay until ten o'clock at night to see your main guest, then don't schedule them then. Lastly, you need to have your planned master schedule ready for the program by the deadline set for it to be sent off to the printer. All common sense and basics aside, things are going to happen that will affect your schedule. As this happens, you need to make those changes known to everyone as soon as possible, so be ready to make schedule inserts for the program and set up dry erase boards around the convention that can be updated as the need arises. The central motto here as is with everything else is to be prepared. Just remember to think everything out and work with your staff to create a schedule that will allow people to come in and have fun from start to finish, but with just enough break time to grab a meal between the last lecture and the costume contest or whatever else you have planned. The other schedule you need to layout is the shift schedule for your conworkers. This is something that you need to get together with your volunteers to hammer out who can do what, when, and for how long. It should be as fair as possible, giving everyone the best balance of work and playtime, and not putting someone from the graveyard shift on the morning shift the next day without at least giving them time to get a nap. The best advice is to hold people to what they agree to as much as possible and to look for people who will do what they say they will. A quick pointer before ending this section: When working with volunteers, be respectful but firm. When you need to ask them for something, ask them nicely (please is a must use word), but don't be afraid to say no if you can't allow for something. Remember, also, that saying no can and should be done tactfully. Some key words and phrases to use with volunteers are things like "could you," "if you don't mind," "I need you to," etc. All in all, listen to what they offer to do and make your decision based on that and what you need from them. Seven: The Program The program is one of the seemingly smaller parts of putting together a successful convention, but it can often turn out to be the one thing that turns a success into a confusing failure. The program is more than just a place to put some ads and to say thank you. You should look at it as a sort of hard copy version of a con worker. It should have all the information that a con goer would or should need to know to find his way around the convention. It is also a potential source of revenue through ads bought by local advertisers and your vendors. As a document, your program should have the following basic features: bio's of your guests and attractions, the schedule of events, ads, an autograph page, a "thanks" section for everyone on your staff as well as sponsors, a map of the convention site, any rules or policies that you need to make the con goers aware of such as the hotel's food and drink policy, rules on smoking, weapons ordinances and other items as they come up (be sure to include any new features that you find in your report, so they can be added to the manual). How you design the layout of the program is pretty much up to you. Make sure that your text is consistent in size and style from beginning. Before you send it off for printing, have your program editor triple check for spelling and grammar, and be sure to have your schedule laid in stone. One strong recommendation is that you have your program ready to be sent off no later than ten days out. If disaster befalls you the night before the con, make sure that you have the resources to make inserts to stick into the program and notify your registration head to instruct the rest of the staff to tell people as they register to check the inserts for the most current information. Although it is recommended to have the program printed as opposed to taking it to "Kinko's", since printing offers far better quality over photocopies and is usually cheaper for larger documents, keep them in mind for emergencies such as those mentioned above. Artwork for the program cover and elsewhere is something that is pretty much up to you, but the art should be of the best possible quality. As far as matters of taste go, remember that our events are attended by people of all ages and views and, although you should not censor something that may be mature but not distasteful, always run things like this before the committee just to be sure. The cover should convey the flavor and atmosphere of your event. It is one of the little things that people will use as part of their decision of whether or not they liked being at the con. Take the time to make sure that the cover will deliver the best impact possible, but don't bust your budget in the process. When it comes to getting the program done, it boils down to setting and sticking to your deadlines. As stated before, the program should be ready to be sent off no later than ten days out from the event. Also, check with your printer approximately three weeks ahead to see when they need to have it back in time. Just as a reminder, it's better to be short and have to post up schedules on the walls than make too many and lose a small fortune. Eight: Registration The job of the registration staff is to handle the processing and greeting of the attendees and guests as they arrive at the convention. Registration is more than just a ticket booth, though. It is there to make sure that the attendees have what they need in order to have a good time at the event. It also handles the two most important things to the convention, information and money. The registration staff must accurately handle the intake and processing of the money that is paid by the attendees, ensuring that both sides have a receipt for proof of admittance, provide identification for paying customers, act as an information center/lost and found/complaint department and let security know if someone has indeed paid and has only "lost his badge." As the convention manager, you need to select someone to head up registration who has some background in handling money (i.e. an economics major, someone with accounting experience, has done the job before or other criteria you may establish) and has the time to do the job and will follow through on it. If the person you select has no previous experience, you can let them use this section as a default format to get started. The first part of the head of registration's job begins with keeping track of the pre-registrations as they arrive before the events and are processed by the business person of the con. As they arrive set up a master list of the names, phone/fax numbers, amounts (what they have paid for, be it a weekend, one day or other items like t-shirts) and addresses so that you can prepare receipts and notify them that their information has been received and processed. You will be able to set up a final list once the deadline for pre registration has passed to have ready at the event to help speed up the process. The tools of the registration staff include but are not limited to the following list of items. First, they need the list of everyone who has pre-registered. Next, they need a thick receipt book, a cash box, a starting bank to make change, the programs, the badges and other items to be given out to attendees as they come in, pens, pencils, paper, markers, a phone book, a two way radio (for communications), posterboard, dry erase or chalkboards to post updates on events and schedules. A cooler for drinks and snacks is also a good thing to have. An extra trash can or supply of garbage bags can be lifesavers as well. A fan and radio are also handy items for making the job more manageable and less tedious. Often times the local Convention and Visitors Bureau can help you with staff, badges, coupon books, etc. The logistics of the registration area will change from site to site, but here are some basics. Your area should be set up to handle at least three lines of traffic at a time, with a separate line or lines for pre registered attendees. Each line should be clearly marked by either signs or ropes or both. If the lines are long (as we all hope they will be each day of your event) have people on hand to distribute registration forms and pens to speed up the process. Registration is the most likely place that people will go when they have a question about something. Set up an information board in the convention headquarters for updates on anything that may come up. If you are in a hotel and someone asks you about their room or about a hotel service, direct them to the front desk of the hotel to help them find out what they need to know. Most of the time, you probably won't have to do much more than tell people where or what time something is. An arrangement for handling the intake of funds at the event itself could go as follows. Set up your station into a configuration that will allow you to handle at least two or three lines of at-the-door attendees and at least one line for pre registered customers. Each line should be clearly marked by signs and or ropes. Each line post should have an equal number of registration forms, receipts, scratch paper, pens, programs, badges, starting bank and other items that you have need for. If you have the resources to set up more than one cash box (one per line and a master box for overnight storage) to handle incoming traffic, feel free to do so, but make sure that each extra box has the same starting bank amount and a separate set of paperwork to prevent "confusion." For example, boxes 1, 2, and 3 would have their own receipt books, equal starting banks and their own section in the master ledger. You can adjust the number of lines as you see fit. The pre registration lines should have all the forms and receipts ready to go as the people arrive. For everyone that comes in, have a "package" containing the program and items that the convention may be giving away. Needless to say, the prereg. line wouldn't need a cash box, since the people on the list have already paid. If they arrive with more people who aren't pre-registered, direct those people to the proper line. The policy on replacing lost badges or other types of proof of purchase as of the writing of this manual is pretty much up to your discretion. In the past it has been limited to one replacement per customer, but set the policy as you see necessary. As for the badges themselves, they can be whatever design you can think of and can afford to make. Your goal, of course, is to go through all of them on the first day requiring you to have more made overnight, but set the number based on your most practical estimate of what you will need. All arrangements for where and how to store the funds brought in by the convention at the door must be made well in advance of the event. Depending on what is available, the cash box/bag should be able to be held either in the hotel safe or in the care of a previously appointed party. To keep your staff from becoming burned out, arrange the duty schedule so that no one has to work more than four hours at a time (apply this to all other shift schedules for other groups like security). The best way to prevent any problem is to have them worked out as much as possible beforehand by getting more than enough people to run registration for the weekend. It's better to have too many than to not have enough. During the event itself, set up a schedule to check the count during the hours the registration station is open when suitable and conduct a final count at the end of each day of the event. You can set up a master deposit/withdrawal ledger to keep a record of how much you have on hand at all times and only the head of registration, yourself, and the business person should have access to the main cash box at any time other than during the normal operating hours of registration. This number can be adjusted as needed, but use this as a default if all else fails. Once the event is over, make a final check of the intake with the receipts before having the money prepared for deposit at the bank or locked away at whatever location is selected by you and the committee. Make sure you have any and all the addresses that you have collected ready to be added to the mailing list for next year. After you have turned over all your paperwork and the funds from the door, the job of registration is over until you begin writing your report. Nine: Security and Emergency Preparedness The bulk of the work that goes toward putting together a successful and effective security plan for a convention is done before hand. As the event manager, your first job in this area is find the right person to do the job. They must have the best combination of skill, resourcefulness and tact. They must be able to set up a team that not only keeps an eye on dealer tables and keeps out gate crashers, they must also be able to help lost kids find their parents, know when to back away from a drunk or otherwise upset person and contact the police to let them handle the situation and perform emergency medical services until paramedics arrive, if possible. The Security head and his staff need to have a good working knowledge of the layout of the event site, including the location of all emergency exits, fire extinguishers, where to find the hotel staff or contact them quickly if need be. They should know where all the pay phones are, as well as the fire alarms. The security crew should know where all the handicapped access areas are and make sure that they have the right of way in corridors and elevators. Most importantly, they need to know how to do all of this tactfully and quickly. A cardinal rule is to not make a scene if possible, since you don't want to spoil the mood for everyone. The security head should have the training and knowledge to instruct their staff on how to handle as many possible situations as well as they can. Two way radios have been an effective tool for convention security and other parts of the convention staff as well for several years and should continue to be so. The security staff should have a separate set of channels if possible. A cardinal rule for radio operations is to keep their use to a minimum in normal operating situations. The entire staff should be taught to stay off the air as much as possible, so as to not drain their batteries and tie up airspace asking questions or making conversation that can wait. Getting back to the basics of what a security detail is for, the direct function of the security staff is to make sure that everyone has a safe and fun time while keeping problems to a minimum. A security staff can be divided into several teams that each perform a specific task. One team may be assigned to patrol the vendors area to look out for shoplifters. Another can be designated to check badges to make sure that everyone in the convention area has paid to be there. Another can be directed to act as a buffer for guests to keep them from being swamped by too many fans. The head of your security staff should do very little actual moving around during the con, as they should be able to co- ordinate all of the teams from the convention headquarters. The security staff should be attired in some form of easily identifiable but not overbearing outfit. A member of your staff should not look like something out of movie or just another person in costume who could be easily mistaken as such when trying to handle a possible situation. Security staff attire should consist of a simple outfit of black jeans and a t-shirt identifying them as members of the convention security staff or a more formal shirt and tie outfit, depending on your staff's resources and taste. They should all wear shoes that they can do a lot of walking and standing in. Cowboy boots or other such footwear may be fashionable, but sore feet and throbbing heels will keep them from doing their job right. To prevent burning out your staff over the course of the event, set up a rotational schedule to keep your staff from being overworked and that gives them the chance to enjoy the event, since currently your security staff will most likely be an all volunteer force. In order to be prepared for any emergencies, your security head and their staff need to set up contingency plans for as many possible events that they can. Since these plans will change with every event, this initial document will cover just the basics. To start off, each member of the staff needs to know the layout of the event site. As stressed above, they should know the location of every fire exit, extinguisher, alarm and emergency telephone. Each member should have a note pad containing most of this information, including who is on duty in the hotel staff and where to find them at any time if a problem should arise. Each team should follow a basic chain of command starting from the individual team leaders, to the assistant head, to the head of security, and then to the event manager, who may elect to direct the site staff to solve a situation or to contact the authorities. Only in medical emergencies or acts of direct physical violence should the chain be broken. At that point, the reporting staffer must report directly to the security head who will then inform the rest of the entire staff and direct them into a course of action. Some things that the security staff might, or rather should, have on them are their radio, a pen and notepad, a first aid kit that can be carried in a book bag (another useful and essential tool), a Polaroid camera or video camera for surveillance (this could be handled by a separate team all on its own depending on your resources) a flashlight, extra maps and schedules for lost congoers and a smile. More situations can be resolved easier with a smile and a handshake than with a bad attitude and force. Your security staffers are NOT bouncers and should never be though of as such. Their job is to focus on keeping confrontations from arising by keeping everyone safe and happy by answering questions and keeping an eye on things. In situations such as spotting a shoplifter or other incidents of theft, contact your team leader of the situation and let them take it to the con manager who will them contact the police. Follow, but DO NOT APPROACH the person, keep an eye on them until your team leader arrives with the security head, spot the person out to them and let them take it from there. As security head it will be your job to politely ask the person to come with you to the con HQ for whatever diversionary reason you come up with until the police arrive and the dealer or other victim is notified. If they decide to let the person go, this should only be done AFTER the police arrive, so that the person's identity is known to all parties involved and they can be prevented from returning to the convention for the remainder of the event. Anyone who has to cop an attitude or raise their voice has already failed in their job. A little subtle intimidation or embarrassment can often work, but when all else fails to calm someone down, have the rest of the staff assemble and escort the troublemaker out of the convention area to either eject them or turn them over to the police should the need arise. In cases where someone becomes violent, instruct your staff to call the police immediately. Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to remove a violent person without professional help. Some of this may be redundant to what has been stated above, but the section needs this kind re- enforcement. Handling security is the most crucial job at the event itself, since it is the one that deals the most often directly with the public. In cases of really big emergencies at your site like fire or other natural disasters, follow the site's emergency exit instructions and make sure that a reminder to the attendees is put in the program telling them to do the same. If a member of the security staff or any other worker is the first to spot such an emergency, have them immediately contact the hotel staff so they can contact the proper authorities and then the con manager so they can contact everyone else to orchestrate a plan of action. Contingency plans for stuff like this should be laid out well in advance, as a rule. If your security head and their staff (as well as every other conworker) have the time and resources, have them get Red Cross CPR certification and study as much basic first aid training as possible. Getting certification for your staff and having that fact pointed out in the program will lend more respect to them by the congoers and those skills are always handy to have anyway. Specific needs for doing security at your event will change from site to site and year to year. This section will hopefully give you the basic tools to get started towards making sure that you don't have any fist fights and your staff will be able to handle basic emergencies until proper authorities can arrive. A separate manual for security may eventually come about, but until then, augment your own records with your own experiences. Ten: Guest, Attendee and Public Relations This section covers how you can improve the way your event is perceived by the public and the press, as well as suggestions on how to handle problems that may come up during the event itself. These things are important in helping people understand and become interested in what you are doing, ultimately leading them to become new or repeat customers. This section will also cover how to deal with the media in order to make sure that your event gets accurate coverage and that your guests and customers are not misrepresented. Three different people should be assigned to handle each of the positions to allow them to concentrate individually on that duty, or if you can find the right person, you can have one person to act as an overall publicist to handle all three things. The job of guest relations is to keep your guests and those running any of your attractions informed and up to date on any new development up to and during the event. They can be a liaison for your guests to have on hand to make sure their needs are met during their stay at the convention. Also, they can make sure that they know when they are scheduled to appear and for how long, suggest things to do and places to go while during their downtime and help keep them from being swamped by fans after a long day of lecturing and signing autographs. This position is something that would be good for your assistant manager(s) to handle to give them experience for the future. It's a good way to get know the guests and make them comfortable. They can also be someone that can alert the guests of any problems that come up. With some of the bigger guests that attend our events, the guest relations person may also have to deal with the guest's agent or publicist, giving them good public relations experience. Keeping your attendees happy while they are at your event can make the difference between a repeat customer and someone who goes out and tells people that your event sucked and not to go. Good attendee relations starts with the attitude that the customer is always right. However, dealing with attendees doesn't always mean "kissing up" to them, but rather assessing the problem and finding a mutually acceptable solution. Even though the attendee is always right, that doesn't give them the right to walk all over you. You also have the right to say who stays and who goes. If in dealing with an attendee with a problem, their behavior becomes unacceptable, you have the right to ask them to leave, but this should of course always be a last resort. At the event most of things you will probably have to contend with are people who are lost, looking for a particular person or attraction, have a complaint about uncomfortable chairs, being unable to find a game to sign up for, and the occasional gate crasher. Matters of harassment or theft should be turned over to security. The attendee relations position is another position that should be handled by either yourself or one of your assistants. The AR person should have up to date information about everything going on at all times, including schedule changes and other items as they come up. Being a good AR person requires a good attitude and charisma and the ability to explain things to people without coming off as plastic or condescending. A few things that the AR person should have on them are pen and paper, extra copies of the program, maps of the site, some spare change for phone calls or to get a soda for a weary congoer or two, some aspirin and a smile. These little things can make you seem to be genuinely caring and makes a good lasting impression. This next and last area in this section deals with handling the general public and the media. This is a tough job, due to the nature of our events and the misconceptions the media and the general public have about them and the people who attend them. A person selected for this position should be someone with good public relations skills, a good speaking voice, quick thinking and charismatic. The latter parts come in handy for dealing with on sight problems like if protesters show up, a TV crew pulls up to put your event on the news, or in some cases both. The best way to get off to a good start is to prepare literature explaining what you are doing and other background information. This should be sent out in the form of press releases to all of the TV, newspapers, and radio stations in the area at least once a month and right before your event with updates in each new release. If someone shows up from the press, the PR person should be the first person they talk to. If you feel that a member of the press is not co-operating with you in achieving an accurate representation of your event, you have the right to ask them to leave, but endeavor to have them well informed and be ready for them before they arrive so that you won't have to. In short, the basic duties of the AR person are to tell people who the club is and what's gong on and to make sure we are accurately represented by the media. If you actually have a situation involving protesters, the paramount thing to avoid is getting into a confrontation, because that is what they most likely are looking for. Let them rant outside all they want, but if they start physically harassing your attendees, you have the recourse of the law on your side. Another area of relations lies in building and maintaining good communications with the staff of your site. This is a job that should be handled by the manager(s) in concert with the rest of their committee. This starts when you first approach them about using their facility and telling them exactly what you need done and when and where. Keeping the site staff happy can make the difference between them begging you come back next year for x% off and having them cancel your reservation the night before your event. It can also make the difference between making sure the event rooms are set up properly and on time and having them shut the doors and send all their staff home at 11:00 in the evening. Of course, how well you deal with them depends on how well they treat you as well. The key is get off on the right foot from the start and keep working on making things better. In summary, establishing and maintaining good relations with your guests, attendees, the media, the general public and the staff of your site can keep problems from arising most of the time. The crux comes in keeping people informed and being able to work out problems and misunderstandings as well as possible. While putting your event's best foot forward is important, that doesn't give anyone license to run all over you. Being a nice guy will help you to get most people to do as you ask. Eleven: Show time! Getting the Event Open This section is mainly a checklist of things you ought to have ready to go and at your disposal just before and during the process of getting ready for the beginning of your event. Things that need to be ready two weeks out: 1. The program sent off to the printer with everything from ads to schedule. 2. Shift Schedule, with a copy for everyone, for your work staff (but be ready for people to wait until the last minute) 3. All pre-convention expenses/bills taken care of. 4. Plane tickets, etc. ready for your guests (the sooner on this one, the better) 5. Reservation orders for all the equipment you need from radios to VCR's to tables and chairs. 6. All final promotional items such as TV and/or radio/newspaper ads ready to be launched. 7. Order your change fund (bank) from accounting 8. Anything else that you can think of that needs to be added to this later based on your own experiences, As the date of your event looms ever closer, your stress level may go through the roof. You might find it harder to balance running the convention with your regular life. During the last week before the event, it is suggested and understandable that you take a couple of days off and rest. Before you do though, make sure the rest of your staff and your assistant(s) have what they need to make sure everything runs smoothly and where to find you if it doesn't. It's important that you and your staff don't let yourself get overwhelmed by the convention and take a break when you need to prevent burnout. Have everyone get as much rest they can before the convention and give them time to rest when they need it. Rush Hour! The final hours before you open up for business This is a short list of things you might forget and some things to have ready: 1. Have your programs in hand no later than the night before 2. Make sure you have change banks for your cash boxes, along with plenty of receipts. 3. Check over your site to ensure that it has been set up by the site staff to your satisfaction. 4. Double check all of your travel arrangements for any last minute glitches. 5. Have all your gear tested and ready to go at least three hours before you open the doors. 6. Go over everything else you can think of to see what you may be missing and take care of it before you open. At this point it's been almost a year since you took this job, and the worst part is about come. The day before and the morning of is when things will seem to start going completely haywire, but just keep going as hard as you have been over the past months. Keep yourself focused on being clear minded and professional. You may feel like the world is unraveling as opening time rushes up on you, but now is the time you need to be the leader and organizer you have been selected to be. If you stay on top of things and have taken care of everything discussed thus far, then you're off to a great start. Twelve: Wrapping It Up and Closing Down This section covers the things you need to take care of to bring your event to a close. By the time you have reached this point, your feet will probably be throbbing and the convention headquarters will be a disaster area. Everyone will likely have a dazed and exhausted look on their face from long hours and little sleep. The last scheduled event has just ended, but you still have a few things to do before you go home. The shutdown process starts with the close of registration. If all has gone well, you should be able to make one last count of the money and a look over the receipts to check the totals and secure the cash box until it is time to go home. All the registration forms should be sorted and ready to be transferred to a database and the receipts should be secured and stored as well. Lastly, the registration area should be cleaned up and all the supplies packed up and ready to go. The next item is to make sure the site rooms are cleared of attendees and personal items as the last event held in them ends so the site staff can lock it up and start cleaning. A trash patrol should be organized to sweep over the areas you have used to make the site staff's job a little easier. All of your radios should be packed away and ready to go and everyone on the staff should be checked out and packed to go as well. Other things that you deal with at the end of the event include making sure the guests don't miss their flight or have problems checking out and that the dealers have any extra help they need in getting packed. After all of your guests have parted, the last scheduled event has ended, the dealers are all packed and gone, and you have taken care of any small incidental bills like phone calls or guest bar bills, it's time for everyone to gather for the last traditional event of a lot of conventions; the dead dog party. The dead dog party is a combination celebration and gripe/praise session for the staff and any stragglers who may want to put in their two cents worth. It's a chance to blow off steam and relax after a couple of fun days of very hard work. Finally, after the party, it's time to go home! Thirteen: Transfer of Power This section covers the end of the trail for your tenure as an event manager. By this point, it will have been close to a full year since you first accepted the responsibility of being the manager for the event you have brought to fruition. You will hopefully have had a lot of fun and gained practical experience that you can apply to your studies and your future or existing career. Though the event is over and everyone has gone home, you have a few last things to take care of. Before your job is over, you must turn over any and all bills to the business person so they can be processed and paid, give thanks to _everyone_ who helped out and to your guests in the form of letters or at least a quick phone call, organize all the data you have collected (contracts, receipts, business cards, registration forms, etc.) and turn them over to whomever is keeping your archive to be put into the club records and make your final written and spoken report. Your report should be a journal of your work over the course of your tenure. It should be as honest and objective as you can make it, giving equal time to everything that went right and wrong. It should contain your thoughts on what new things can be done and what should be avoided in the future. Finally, it should ready in its final form and added as an appendix to your copy the manual by the time the next person is elected, even if that person happens to be yourself. At this time, however, it is not recommended that the same person run any one con two years in a row due to the propensity of those who have of becoming burned out and therefore unable to do the job with the same level of vigor and success. To conclude this document, in the years after your tenure as a convention manager, you should never forget the significance of what you have achieved. You have shown that you can accept a position of responsibility and follow through on it to the end. You have brought people together to work in a professional manner who belong to cultures too often badly characterized by silly and unfair stereotypes. At the worst, you have learned what not to do when running a convention and at best you've made enough money for the convention to move up to bigger and better things with the event you were in charge of. Above all, you have worked very hard to make a lot of people happy, and that's a payoff that money can't match. Appendix A: Sample Documents and Programs In this section, place photocopies of all your literature, bills, contracts, and other items you feel fit here. Appendix B: Convention Manager Reports This is where you can lay down your thoughts and observations, as well as input from those on your committee. Once you finish your report, feel free to send it to me at the address listed with your copy. I am always looking for new insights and information to include in future revisions.