Behind the Curtain — A Convention-runner’s Insight
A look inside conventions, and the real reasons behind “unpopular” decisions
One of the most fantastic things about convention goers are the passion they bring to each event.
Fandoms and communities share such an incredible amount of energy for the things that they love, and it’s only natural that they have strong opinions regarding what they believe should be the standard for events, and conventions.
What is unfortunate, is that the competitive nature of business keeps most conventions from divulging their tricks-of-the-trade; which tends to lead to a lot of speculation and misinformation being spread amongst those who feel underappreciated.
Speaking as an organizer of a fan convention, this would be a good time to give some insight as to what factors into the decisions of a successful convention.
Golden Rules
There are several key pillars to any successful convention that are nearly universally true. In no specific order:
- Understanding your audience
- Quality/Quantity is a sliding scale
- Doing right by your vendors/clients
- Timing, Timing, Timing
Understanding your audience is key in any event, moreso in convention running. Holding a tech convention in a rural area may not go over so well, for example. Though for anime, comic or fandom conventions it is a bit more complex.
As time marches on, the focus of any successful event should be fans. Past, present and future. Building a future audience while at the same time, ensuring you don’t alienate your existing audience. This is where it comes to be the trickiest part. As a convention organizer, the adage “you can’t please everyone” could not be more accurate. There is no silver bullet solution; one just has to make the tough decisions about what is best for the convention — which leads into the other factors.
Quality/Quantity is a sliding scale, and one should not be considered more valuable than the other. There is obviously a sweeter-spot when it comes to how many guests a convention can book, and how high quality those guests are. Same thing goes for programming, and vendors. Though it shouldn’t be overlooked at how important both are.
Having a high variety of guests/programming/vendors gives the attendees multiple options, and plenty of things to do during their time. If there are too many high-quality vendors or pricey activities, that could leave attendees with a tighter budget, which would leave them being able to do less at the convention etc. On the opposite spectrum, having limited but higher quality guests/vendors/activities, you will have less variety but might overall have a better experience for the attendees — however still run the risk of becoming bored quickly or seeing everything in a short period of time. The decisions of who/what to showcase and even the viability of the venue itself factor heavily into this decision, as do the other golden rules.
Doing right by your vendors and clients is something that every business owner is keenly aware of. At the start and end of the day, unless you are a top-tier convention — your clients are your vendors and your sponsors. You have a responsibility to this group above all else. That responsibility includes bringing as many attendees to the event as possible. This is a delicate balancing act; between charging an appropriate amount for an entry fee, ensuring the cost/value of the ticket is appropriate, there are reasons to visit the convention as well as making your vendors aware of the target market.
Vendors attend the convention and pay well so that they can get a return on their investment; no or poor return means a higher chance that they will not continue business with the convention in the future. So some things — like ensuring attendees are having fun and have money to spend, is something of an art for event organizers. Happy people spend money.
Timing is also key in event planning. Is your event being held the same weekend as another, already well-established event? Is your event being held on a long weekend? Timing of an event can make or break an event. It can create chaos in terms of travel arrangements, it can ruin programming plans, or it can create unique experiences that make lasting memories for your event.
It’s also important to be aware of things like paydays, or other marquee conventions that people may be saving towards. All of these things will factor in if vendors and attendees choices.
There are conventions that exist that are made by the fans, for the fans
Each of these golden rules rely on each other, in sacrificing one pillar, it jeopardizes the entire event.
So now that there is a base understanding of what all is considered, we can review some of the most common criticisms that come from those who vocally oppose conventions on social media.
Guest Bookings:
When it comes to event planning, each event needs to decide what it’s focus is going to be. What will be the “draw” and therefore, the “value” for bringing people in the door?
Guests are obviously one of the easiest ways to achieve this. Though, often times it is also the most expensive avenue to do so — it still is the most successful.
For most conventions, the discussions of who to book is complicated. Successful conventions will have researched what their target audience gets excited for, and then researches potential guests. The cost/revenue ratio for the guest obviously needs to at least break positively, or the prospects of bringing in that guest would be low.
This is where some who are vocally opposed to conventions would be critical over guest choices. In most of these cases, it is nothing more than personal bias/dislike for the guest though in extremely rare cases, there are merit to claims.
Then it becomes a decision of risk/reward for booking someone who is considered “controversial”, and several factors are weighed in the decisions. Contrary to some belief, there is plenty of careful thought, discussion and planning of action taken by the upper level staff.
Though, this is more an issue that all but the larger conventions who can stand alone will face — the processes are still the same, the conventions will do what they believe is in the best interest of their Golden Rules.
Handling Volunteers:
One of the easiest ways to gain access to a convention would be to pay for your pass. Though for some, that is not always a viable option. Just as running a convention would be considered a “job” for some, and the larger conventions who have been well-established that can afford to, will pay staff for the work — it is not always a viable option for younger events. This is why volunteers have a mutually beneficial relationship with conventions.
In most cases, volunteers to the convention get to enjoy entry to the event either for free, or work-for-credit. Also giving volunteers a unique opportunity to have closer access to guests, or exclusive areas or after-show events in exchange for a few hours of work doing less labor-intensive jobs so other staffers can take on increasingly complex work, as you go up the chain.
With all the moving pieces of a convention, things would fall apart quickly if the person overseeing any issues with the guests/itineraries were leaned on to watch passes at the door instead of handling their duties, etc. So volunteers are imperative to their given roles.
There are many times where some who volunteer accept the responsibilities that they are assigned, and want to take on more or simply go beyond their station; while this is noble in thought, in practice it can end up causing confusion, delays or other distractions.
What rarely gets communicated in the heat-of-the-moment, is the appreciation for wanting to take on more work, because of the aforementioned toppling of responsibilities.
This is most often where you’ll hear stories from past volunteers who claim to have been “mistreated” or “underappreciated”. As a convention operator, I can say that each and every single volunteer is appreciated. We operate as a team, we succeed as a team, we fail as a team. The key piece of advice that I can pass along to anyone who is in a volunteer position and wants to be more: communicate clearly, and have patience — and most importantly, please follow through with the tasks that you were specifically assigned for the event; it is absolutely crucial.
Regarding Claims of Being “Disorganized”:
This is one of the most common complaints that get thrown about, and it is usually one of the most unfair pieces of criticism.
There are many moving pieces in an event/convention and not everyone is made equal. Everyone has an off-day now and again, and the staff/volunteers/vendors/guests/venue staff are all human beings.
There are a myriad of things that can-and-will go wrong at any given time — a vendor wants to move to a vacant table, a venue staffer accidentally double-booked your staff room and a guest’s green room, a volunteer is late for their shift, etc. Things happen, and even the best ran events will have hiccups.
Much effort goes into planning a convention. The executive staff generally put in well over hundreds upon hundreds of days a year into planning, booking, re-booking, cancelling and accommodating. Rarely will any of that reach the ears of any of the volunteers, let alone anyone who attend the convention — because the show-must-go-on.
Ideally, there will be years where after experience, and a bit of wisdom, the organization will become smoother. Usually around the 6–8 year mark of a consistently ran convention that keeps it’s staff, year over year.
The reality is, a lot of conventions (the one I run included) are cobbled together and ran by fans. They are ran by people who have dabbled in business and have experience, and who also are fans and attendees themselves. At the end of it all, we simply want to have a space where other fans can come and enjoy themselves, be safe, happy and find new and exciting things to gush over.
So while there are plenty of conventions/events that simply look to make the most money possible, there are conventions that exist that are made by the fans, for the fans.
All it takes is a little bit of effort to see who we are.