On Not Throwing Out the Baby with the Bathwater (And other perils of convention planning.)

Meta
Title:	On Not Throwing Out the Baby with the Bathwater (And other perils of convention planning.)
Creator:	Jean C.
Date(s):	1999
Medium:	online
Fandom:	Starsky & Hutch, The Professionals, others
Topic:
External Links:	wayback link; archive link
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

On Not Throwing Out the Baby with the Bathwater (And other perils of convention planning.) was a Q&A/essay written by Jean C. sometime between ZebraCon #13 and #14 (around 1999).

It discusses the perils, the frustrations, and negotiations in running a con.

The Introduction

Many convention-goers have a vague idea of what convention planning entails. It's a little more than calling the hotel of choice and blithely telling them to look for 300 souls to arrive on a specific weekend, but how much more? In light of all the issues raised both at our first-ever Dead Dog Panel back in '97, and a long and illustrious stream of questions, comments and occasional stupid remarks we've received over the years, both Karen and I thought it was time to give our membership (and other interested parties) a look at Zebra Con from our point of view.

Topics Discussed

1. "I hate the Ramada!"

2. "Workable? What about...(insert gripe du jour)"

3. "Okay so maybe I don't know all the ins and outs of planning a convention. How hard can it be?"

4. "But with more members, you'll have more money to work with."

5. "Yeah okay, price is important. So why not go to a cheaper hotel?"

6. "Okay, but why can't we try one of those suite hotels? They offer so much for so little money."

7. "Could you get a better deal at another time of year?"

8. "Okay calm down, I get the picture. But what's taking so long? Why didn't you get a new hotel right away?"

9. "So getting the hotel is hard. But once that's done..."

10. "Jeez, why do you do it?"

Excerpts

"Okay so maybe I don't know all the ins and outs of planning a convention. How hard can it be?"
How long do you have? Seriously, this process gets harder with each increase in membership because we're constantly forced to rethink our space needs and our costs. For example, we've outgrown the meeting space we use at the Ramada rather comprehensively. In order to do business with them again, we're going to have to rethink how we use our rooms and consider how we can make use of larger chunks of their meeting space without crippling their ability to make some money off of it. They're in business to make money after all and if we take all of their exhibition space while only filling about one seventh of the hotel, they'll be operating at a loss because of us. They'll have to make it up somehow and we're the ones who will have to pay. Either the room rates will go up or your membership will as we attempt to cover the meeting room rental costs that will inevitably occur. Possibly both will happen and that will begin to price a lot of folks out of the con.

"So getting the hotel is hard. But once that's done..."

What else do we have to do until the con? Are you kidding? You think the faeries do all this for us? We put together progress reports, plan meeting and video schedules, draw up art show forms and ballots, put together Huggy nomination forms and ballots. We have to find work-arounds when we discover that the hotel TVs have guards on the cable plugs so they can't be unhooked, or when we are told that the monitor we want for the songtape contest will cost a fortune to rent (Let's talk $475 for a big screen for the songtape contest.)

We have to strongarm people into working when they'd rather be at an ice show or lying in bed at home being sick in comfort. We're constantly asked to act as go-betweens with the hotel in situations that should be handled by the individuals making those demands. We have to field rumors, deal with the same questions over and over again even if we've answered them in the progress reports, and keep our correspondence timely. We have to stay in touch with the hotel and go over the set-ups with any number of people before we're all clear on how things need to be done (every convention requires a minimum of three meetings with the convention services staff and this year will probably require twice that at least because of the change in venue.)

We sweat every dollar we have to spend on decorating, food, supplies,etc. because two things have been a matter of pride to us for a long time now: We keep our membership costs as low as possible and we don't ask you to pay for the party on Saturday night. People, in a milieu where it would cost us approximately $450 (not counting tax or gratuities which are at about 25% these days) to put a single bowl of guacamole or onion dip, and a basket of chips on each party table, you have got to be able to guess what that party costs us. And even though we have a cash bar, we still have to pay for the bartender and cashier. I'm not saying this in order to get you all to say "Gosh how selfless. How wonderful." We don't care about that; what we do care about is giving you guys value for your money.

Don't even ask us what it's like the weekend of the con.

"Jeez, why do you do it?"
Dunno. No, I think it's because we sort of enjoy it, all things considered. We get a sort of rush at the end of a good con; we turn into idea hamsters, and start tossing around ideas for the next one. We get juiced, we get high. We like to do it. And when it stops being fun, we're outta here. No kidding.