A Few Words on SMOFcon

[ase]

I went to SMOFcon. (Other people are responsible for this. I think I've become WSFA's undergrad intern. Ack.) "SMOFcon" is a convention where people talk about how to run a science fiction convention,* almost a meta-con. I did not have a blow-out fabulous time, but I had a really informative time, so I was humming on an information high for a lot of the convention. It gave me lots to think about.

*SMoFs are the "Secret Masters of Fandom." They're secret mostly because they're too busy running conventions to be found at their cons. Once flushed from hiding they can be identified by their plethora of communication devices, the riot of staff ribbons adorning their badges, their distracted, harried air and the clot of people surrounding them, asking who negotiated what and why does the hotel say there isn't a corkage waiver for the consuite and what happened to the backup radios and... SMoFs would do well to stay secret, or more people might bring them more problems.

I got to the con at about 12:30 Saturday: I had fraternity events in the morning and then got caught in the usual Red Line chaos. So I missed everything that happened before that, but I did get to four or five panels on Saturday and Sunday.

The first panel I made it to was "Promoting Your Convention." I went to SMoFcon to find information to apply to CapClave, and this was a goldmine. Gary Blog, Inge Heyer, "Filthy" Pierre ____ and Grant Kruger were panelists. They and the audience talked about who to contact and how to get the word out, and some ideas for managing PR on a timetable. Press releases to local newspapers, website management, flyer aesthetics, public service announcements on radio stations, handing out information at sf/f movie promotional early releases, the interaction of club and convention promotion, the need for more than one person to work PR, mailings, and seducing the younger fen (to come to the con! Dirty minds...) all came up in discussion. The panel started wrapping as the topic drift moved towards those younger fans who like anime and HP and whether that's really what you want at your convention, and the impact of the internet.

I crossed the hall to attend the "Strategies for Handling Difficult Situations" panel at that point. Short version: people = trouble. A lot of the panel revolved around communication: expectations and responsibilities (and presumably perks - and who gets which ones), comprehension of intent, dealing with deadbeat concom members or people who have RL blowups and need to drop out, etc. The importance of structure, the difference between the deadline you'd like and the drop-dead deadline, positive and negative reinforcement, dealing with con chairs who want to please everyone also came up. And, of course, the reminder that SNAFUs happen, and it's wise to leave yourself enough slack for when your perfect convention breaks itself.

The next panel I hit was "Guests of Honor." The very first consideration was how far in advance you need to contact your potential GoH: 18 months was given as a ballpark figure. The panelists compared how their conventions handled picking potential GoHs, talked about appropriate payment and comping, consistent treatment of GoHs if you've got more than one at your convention (and over time, I'd think), and how it's really important to read the contract carefully. If you have one; sometimes conventions handle payment agreements by correspondence only. Be clear on what you're offering and what you're expecting in return. Make sure you know what the GoH wants or needs; again, clarity early and often is a great thing. Try to make sure you've worked out whether the GoH's wife and horde of kids is getting comped before the convention. Don't be afraid to ask the GoH if there's anything he'd like to do while in your town or at your convention, and ask if there's anything they don't want to do. Check your assumptions at the door; everyone has weird hobbies that make for great panels. And never forget to make your Guests of Honor feel appreciated.

I spent part of Saturday night picking hotel liason people's brains with samthereaderman. He thought of really good questions; I tried to help him get really good answers. The feeling I got from what I heard is that hotel liasons tend to be in a fair amount of demand, because it takes specialized knowledge that takes a while to acquire if you come in cold. Also, many conventions have some sort of committee or board that has oversight over the con chair.

Sunday morning I hit the "Regional SMOF Groups and Conventions" panel, which included entirely too much S. F. Bay fandom drama for a panel whose closest major bay is the Chesapeake. Some really good discussion was had between outbreaks of Bay drama: Pacific NW fandom has or had some sort of "NW convention league" where participants agreed to have at least one panel at their con which was a league meeting, for example. But scheduling it before the gripe session leads to confusion about the purpose, so don't.

Formal versus informal time was discussed: some people think unprogrammed relaxacons are the best, some people really like interacting in a panel format, where discussion is anchored by a focused topic of interest. Programming tracks, timing programming and panel ideas came up. For example, encouraging audience participation by using a "workshop" format, where everyone pulls up chairs, as opposed to the usual "talking heads" panel, where the panelists are stuck behind a table and do most of the talking. Someone mentioned that they liked the way this year's SMoFcon didn't schedule back-to-back panels in the same room, since it meant that panels could run over if people were interested in continuing the discussion. I threw out the idea of an hour on/hour off schedule; now that I think about it, I don't know that would work very well, but I like the idea of building breaks into the programming schedule.

Someone suggested essentially pulling names out of a hat and sticking those people on a panel, perhaps discussing a topic that was also randomly chosen; this has obvious flaws, but might be really cool if you did it just once or twice at a con. (Thus minimizing the odds that Person Sodium would be pulled simultaneously with Person Water, or that a stammering newbie would be pulled up front and traumatized for life.) Giving rotating panelists ten minute chunks of a panel was also brought up. I think these could be really fun Friday night icebreakers, or maybe a way to get your GoHs interacting with people they normally wouldn't. I can already see it: Friday 10:30 PM - 11:30 PM: the GoH Lottery. "Three audience members will be picked from a hat to be panelists with our GoH on a topic also picked from a hat!" I'd do it in a heartbeat. (But then, I am not known in fandom as an introvert. Getting some people to talk would be really hard - or really disastrous.)

Anyway. The panel I was actually at. "Do not attribute to malice what incompetence can explain." I personally think that can't be sufficiently emphasized, so I'm going to say it again: Do not attribute to malice what incompetence can explain. There was discussion of some of the panels Construction Con has done; my notes say " 'Board v. committee' tracks", so it must've seemed important at the time. Also "turnover politics." Which came up in discussion later in the weekend as well. How do you get your newer people involved, and pry the burned-out very experienced members' sweaty fingers off the wheel? Someone mentioned how useful having two SF or conrunning groups in an area can be: when one group has a meltdown, the other group can act as a safety valve, allowing Person(s) Potassium to cool down without gafiating or having to directly deal with Person(s) Water. I believe the example given involved Southwestern fandom, but the principle can be applied elsewhere. Also, different groups can have different focuses: Arisia's presence lets Boskone shed an anime track and do its own thing.

Working with difficult people came up as well. Sometimes, you can't get rid of them. Sometimes getting rid of them makes things worse. Someone mentioned the "Christmas Tree Theory": if your mom gives you a spectacularly ugly Christmas ornament, and expects to see it on the tree, you have to balance the other ornaments to minimize the ugliness. I really like that image on so many levels.

Someone said something about "fanrunning", and immediately corrected themselves with "conrunning", but I like that image too. It makes me think of the cliched comparison to herding cats, only with physical activity.

And don't forget that conrunners can lose perspective. In Detroit fandom there was at one point "Con in January, Con in April..." and one "Con in..." a later month. Different people or groups ran them in their own fashion, but it didn't matter to Joe Convention Member, it was all "con".

A question about whether the Detroit cons shared a hotel lead to discussion of hotel relations. I thought the one con's idea of writing an ice cream guarantee into their contract ("if they ran out, they had to go to Safeway and get us more") was really cool. I don't remember if that was a con perk or just guaranteeing that the hotel restaurant would have it, but I like the idea of having unusual, fannish friendly clauses, like a guarantee the bar or restaurant will stay open late. Also, a creative solution to someone's too-low chandelier: put stuff under it and make it a sort of exhibit people have to go around.

There was also discussion of con goals. "Mission statements" might be useful for conventions or clubs undergoing change - again, structure is good. (But trying to regulate enthusiasm from the top down has its own pitfalls.) What you do changes who you are, how you operate: NESFA Press is a case in point. Try to have a clear idea of what you're trying to go - where the group wants to grow. And gradualism is good. Change happens, thanks to internal or external forces; expect it. Don't be surprised; try to put it to use.

Discussion drifted into harnessing some of that change: beating your rowdy teen gamers with a clue-by-hour, educating them into volunteering and so integrating them into the con group. Also, the image that 'older' fandom has of itself may need to shift a bit: it might be time to take on the role of elder statesmen and start passing the baton. (Exact notes:
- rowdyness [sic]; educate, volunteering, integrate
- elder statesmen; passing baton

I want to pound the concept of co-operative integration. More on that later.)

Someone from ArmadilloCon was present; I want to talk to them, because they seem to be having a similar identity crisis to CapClave's. We can at least be clueless in the dark together.

The last panel I went to was the "Care and Feeding of Volunteers" panel. The important bits:

-make volunteering fun, or at least happy - loading dock will never be fun.
-chains of command and delegation are very useful, but be clear about what you expect your volunteers to do.
-Put things in writing! How many volunteers do you need, what needs to be done and when it should be done by, who volunteers need to report or talk to.
-And remember that everyone is a volunteer, gopher to chair. Treat your fellow division heads nicely; treat your gophers nicely.
-No gopher's going to have a schedule of available hours until the day before or day of, when they have the programming schedule.
-There was brief discussion of a separate gopher den vs. staff. Common wisdom seems to be that this is an unnecessary drain on resources, and reinforces that hierarchy we're not supposed to have.
-Argument about perks (bribes). Ribbons, cool t-shirts, staff den access - or perhaps access to the staff den food - etc. And what do you do about those people who volunteer two hours on Friday and mooch the staff den the rest of the con? (Smack 'em into working, I say. Note that I am not now nor have I ever been in charge of volunteers.)
-Hourly rewards can lead to people racking up hours just for the rewards; watch out for people burning themselves out. Or don't have hourly rewards.

At that point the discussion degenerated for the third time into staff den food pickiness, and I took off. Everyone's going to have their own opinion about how food should be handled, and it's going to be really dependent on budget, facilities, manpower... sufficient variables to make that discussion moot, in my opinion. I was sort of hoping for some discussion drift toward moving your repeat gopher-volunteers into volunteering for staff positions, and how to make volunteering a more transparent process.

That was my Capclave. Eventually I'll get around to the "Applying SMOFcon" post. No, really.

Comments

[jimtbari.livejournal.com]

Interesting post, even though I have little interest in conrunning.

You seem to be missing a </strong> or </b> tag there somewhere.

[ase.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's been fixed.