What’s your favorite thing about conventions (or similar events)? What things do some cons do that makes them especially fun or rewarding?
I will be answering the latter question today.
As a relatively seasoned attendee, volunteer, organizer, and speaker at atheist, nerdy, feminist-y, and (once upon a time) Islamic cons, do I have some thoughts and feelings on this or what? Some of what I have to say might seem basic, but it’s absolutely untrue that all (or most) conferences have these things in place or in mind. It is my hope that organizers can use this to supplement their extant knowledge to craft an even better experience for everyone.
Feel free to add your own in the comments.
For smaller conferences, especially ones in non-major cities: Set up organized socializing time in an all-ages venue for immediately after the event.
If your number of speakers, attendees, volunteers, tablers, and general hangers-on is around 100, there ought to be a clearly-communicated gathering place for after the con. People will want to talk to each other and with the speakers and tablers, and it helps if they know where the official afterparty is going to be. The place will ideally take reservations, not be too loud, serve at least snacks if not food, and allow people of all ages. Those who prefer to party harder can go out boozing from that spot, while those who want to get to bed earlier and/or don’t want to party can linger at the initial after spot.
For medium-to-large and/or more than one-day conferences: Don’t start any earlier than 9 AM on the second or third day of con.
I’ve been the 9 AM Sunday speaker many times. It’s not the worst thing. However, being the 8 AM Sunday speaker is. People enjoy staying up late connecting with new friends and/or reconnecting with people they may not see aside from a few times a year at con. Anything earlier than 9 AM local time is punishment for the more sociable and/or out-of-town guests.
A smaller con and/or a one-day one might be able to get away with an 8 AM start time, but it’s still a little cruel.
For medium-to-large conferences, especially ones with lots of out-of-towners: Build breaks into the schedule and socializing and areas into the space.
People will want to wander and gawk, talk with their friends, meet new people, and so on. I call that “Hallway Con” and it is crucial to any con. The socializing space can be the vendor area or just outside the main conference room, but be sure that those socializing cannot be heard in the main area. Being shushed when you’re having a fascinating conversation with a new person during a talk you’ve already heard half a dozen times by someone you know very well is a really demoralizing experience.
If the con is not in or walking distance to the main hotel, create a quiet space.
A room, lounge, or area where silence is sacred and outlets are plentiful is ideal for people who need some recovery time from all the hubbub.
You will need at least one 2-hour meal break during the day, but especially if there are no affordable on-site meal options.
Lunch or dinner break has to be at least 120 minutes long. This is doubly true if the con is at a fancy hotel with little in the way of more affordable food options very nearby. People need time to get to the place, eat, then come back for at least one of the two latter meals of the day. Only granting an hour to each meal for a con that runs 9 AM to 9 PM is going to mean that your attendees are going to miss out on talks and/or your speakers are going to miss out on a proper meal. Neither is a good thing.
I am personally highly partial to longer dinner breaks. I usually use the time to eat something quick, take a nap, and refresh my look (and sometimes change my clothes entirely) in preparation for evening activities.
Set up a (succinct!) hashtag and publicize it copiously before and during the event.
Even if you think your audience is not hip, even if you have no signal in the area, someone is going to want to make like Donna and will find a way. Give them what they want in the way of an officially-endorsed hashtag that’s short and sweet. It will take you very little time to concoct and promote but the effort will mean a lot to Twitter-loving attendees, and can help call attention to the con.
These are mainly from having attended a lot of ‘geek’ cons (RPGs, board games, anime, etc):
Registration needs three specific zones:
1: Pre-registrants. This should have all the info for people who have already registered online, with their tickets and itinerary and so forth.
2: On-site Registrants. These folks are going to be giving information and paying entry fees and such. Do not mix them with the pre-registrants, who will get grumpy and surly waiting in line.
3: Problem Handler. Anyone who has some sort of difficult situation–be it a botched pre-reg or an on-site person who has an unanticipated concern–should be directed to this booth. Again, this is about clearing the line for the 95% of folks who will have no problems at all, while addressing the needs in a direct and prompt fashion. If you’re alsoo using your problem handler(s) to deal with regular registration, theys hould never have a line at their booth–instead, the person at the head of the regular line should be sent to this booth when they are otherwise unoccupied.
On food and such:
Especially for long conventions, assume that at least some of your attendees miscalculated their time and money budgets. Make sure there’s someplace where a person can go to get a free banana or PB&J sandwich. The minor increase in ticket price this will induce is better than having someone topple over because their blood-sugar got too low. If you look like you’re going to have leftover bananas, know ahead of time where you can contact a shelter or soup kitchen to come pick them up. Likewise, make water stations available to ensure folks stay hydrated.
Also have a convenient drop-spot ready for folks who decide to order food delivery. Work with the hotel/convention hall for this. They’ll grumble less about having all deliveries coming to one door, than they will about pizza-bearing drivers walking through the halls shouting, “Who ordered double-pepperoni?”
Manage your site’s expectations. Many convention centers and hotels, used to professional conferences, assume that a ‘convention’ means they will have a few hundred people going through their upscale attached restaurant, paying $18 for chicken strips. When 80% of the attendees are college students, this is unlikely. Find someplace that is willing to make the necessary accommodations. (For instance, I went to one con at such a hotel, where they provided 30 tables of 7 people each with two trash cans that were only emptied at the end of the day. After the lunch break, the room looked like NYC during a garbage strike, with fast-food bags and wrappers teetering on piles on [and around] the cans.) Likewise, when dealing with a young crowd, make sure there’s going to be an area (be it a con room or the lounge) where the venue knows there will be people sitting up until 3 in the morning, chatting and playing Sentinels of the Universe, or maybe Fluxx. Hotel staff ‘crackdowns’ on unexpected behavior stress out both your hosts and your attendees.
Wow, that’s a lot more of a response than I anticipated. VERY helpful one too! Thank you!
This (and freemages’ comment) is just perfect.
Especially the two hour dinner break.
ESPECIALLY THE TWO HOUR DINNER BREAK (too important to overstate)
Oooh, thought of another one:
Charity event. This doesn’t have to be huge or anything. But finding some way to use the fact that you’ve got a few hundred to a few thousand people in your convention site to the advantage of the community is an awesome way to breed bonhomie and also to give your function a positive public face. Some options:
1: Tie tickets to one of the events to a charitable cause. This is direct, and it can raise a considerable amount of cash.
2: Alternately, make some event(s) “free with donation”, where the donation is canned food or dry goods (must be reasonably nutritious and not expired, of course).
3: At some game conventions I’ve been at, tables were able to buy slips that would give them dice re-rolls, automatic saving throws and the like, thereby giving them a modest edge against the NPC opposition. So long as the game balance isn’t set to assume such purchases are being made, it just increases the fun–and again, I’ve seen this sort of thing raise a few thousand dollars in one night.
Make sure to announce the results of the fund-raiser at some point where most of those involved will hear–invariably, you’ll get lots of cheering and huzzahs.
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And another (this is something I’ve never seen, but damn, I think it’s a good idea):
Alcohol-based gel hand sanitizers at the water stations, registration desks and other “frequently have a moment to pump a quick splurt” spots. “Con Crud” is horrible–I’ve come home from conventions with a weird melange of two or three different competing viruses. Doing something simple to help people not become walking bioweapon factories seems like a fairly straightforward proposal.