how not 2 do it

[davemerrill]

There was an anime con in Ottawa last weekend and it was kinda a failure.

http://naru2u.nstars.org/rantrantrant-f21/thoughts-on-the-convention-t169.htm

Here's what not to do: don't get up during the closing ceremonies and blame your convention's poor attendance on the failure of the attendees to "bring their friends". Probably not a good idea to post your con's budget on a forum so that everyone can see you spent $22,000 to hold a convention in the basement of a Travelodge (there's this thing called "room blocks"). After a disastrous previous year that involved a drugged water supply and the intervention of the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, you would think the show would regroup, examine the problems, and focus on its core mission. But nope.

People hated the wristband "badges", they hated the lack of water stations (but bottled water was only $1!) the single solitary anime room, the disappointing dealers room, small guest list (2!), one gaming room, at-door cost of $45...

Also having an enormous picture of a "vocaloid" on your forum, which features purple text on a gray background, probably not helping. Big con chair rant about how you lose money every year... antagonistic attitude towards attendees and staff.. where have I heard that before... something about a Magnum Opus convention that crashed and burned. Yeah.

And it's "their", not "there". Those drummers that cost $1000 are "taiko", not "takio" drummers. And so on.

So go and enjoy the train wreck before the convention removes the forum posts.

And if you think I am being harsh in describing the show as a failure - according to the convention itself, they lost $12,000 and had a lot of dissatisfied customers. I can't think of any other word than 'failure' to describe that. If after three years your convention isn't supporting itself, you need to either radically re-think your approach, or you need to hang it up and find something else to occupy your time.

Comments

[gallo-de-pelea.livejournal.com]

After a disastrous previous year that involved a drugged water supply and the intervention of the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario,

hold up what

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

apparently somebody put something in the water stations. There was a Cosplay.com thread about it, but the thread got deleted. The con chair's reaction to that, or to something, was so extreme that it involved somebody feeling someone's rights had been violated.

I'll be the first to admit that I had a short fuse when it came to AWA stuff my first two or three years as chair, but I realized that problems need to be handled appropriately (not in public) and debates and discussions need to be dealt with in appropriate places (not in public). Also that people were going to take everything I said anywhere as AWA policy, which was never true, but you know people. There are still people who think AWA 'hates cosplayers'. 1999's calling, kids, 1999 wants its drama back.

When it gets to this level, of giant huffy public drama, you should realize that this is not helping you or your show one tiny bit. I would handle this situation by deleting the forum threads, issuing a vague but positive apology, and planning a scaled-back show next year whose sole goal is to regain public trust.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

apparently somebody put something in the water at the rave in 2009... http://zehsexiiroxas.deviantart.com/journal/27732351/

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

In the old days, someone would write a filk about it.

*shudder*

[lolotehe]

Yeah, that's sounding kinda Futurological Congress and stuff.

[footyfoot.livejournal.com]

Shut up and eat yer mascons!

[pete-wisdom.livejournal.com]

Ye gods...the website...it hurts my eyes! :-P

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

Ya know, I bet I could put on a nice, small fun event for $12,000. Spending part of that on Taiko drummers would not be on.

then again I managed to put on the first Babelcon for about $300 because the catering staff booked a wedding in my space for my weekend, so I got the entire 5th floor 'bar/lounge' for the cost of my deposit. Add some for printing costs and boom. BOOM. That's how you do it.

...Drugged water? I would assume either something of the date rape variety or that old standby Ex. Sheesh.

People forget the first law of the head. Thou shall not turn-on someone without their informed consent. Bad ju-ju to do that. Of course I know that, I grew up in the '60s and '70s, man. I didn't dig the scene but that doesn't mean I wasn't aware, right? Solid.

[psychoshinji.livejournal.com]

Wow. Yiikes. I've heard a lot of horror stories about cons, but a drugged water supply just takes the cake. :<

[dave-iii.livejournal.com]

It's a new one on me, too.... I didn't think anything would top throwing the couch off the top floor balcony (not at a con, but at the hotel many cons went to-- drunk frat boys at New Year's, apparently) but drugged water one caps that.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

what about the cheese? It bounced!!

[dave-iii.livejournal.com]

The cheese was different, it wasn't aimed at anyone's head. At best, whoever was under that roof just heard a weird "thoomp".

A couch dropping from 10 stories up doesn't have the same impact, forgive the pun.

[warpig1979.livejournal.com]

Lordey. Whose grandma had to die to give these people 22 large in the first place?

[footyfoot.livejournal.com]

Well, Dave- someone has to step into Roland Castle's shoes, and apparently that con chair (and his wife with the purple glasses, who more than one person complained about) is just the guy!

[kikaiju.livejournal.com]

Everybody thinks they know all they need to know about how to run a con. This is what happens when reality steps in.

The road to con success is paved with the corpses of failed attempts and the odds for any convention are that the con will fail. Only a few make it because a lot of good decisions have to be made by the right people at the right times. And it still may fail.

But bad ideas by the wrong people at the wrong time guarantee failure. LOL

[dave-iii.livejournal.com]

I try to at least watch "How to run a con" panels, if I can't fully gatecrash my way onto them, and one thing I say loud and strong is what I perceived as the first lesson we learned: Aim Low. 300 head is a good round number for a first-year three-day con, plan for that-- if you get more, awesome; if you get less, well, at least your losses won't put you into the poor house. Ambition is all well and fine, but those cons that have thousands of attendees got to that point after many years of trying, and having many failures/disasters along the way.

Heck, I wouldn't even advise a three day con to start with anyway... a one day thing at a community center would be the best training-wheels version, I would think.