This will probably be the last part of this little series, since the other stuff we do is basically boring as hell.

Today I thought I’d talk about Guests. Guests aren’t usually the reason people go to cons. From the market research I’ve done, the biggest draw to a major con is the ability to visit with friends you don’t usually see. In fact, for most of the people I know who have gone to more than three cons, this is the *only* draw.

People seem to burn out on cons after the second or third one, then bitch that nothing is as good as the first con they ever went to (completely missing the irony there.) They still go, though. Over and over and over, like some kind of otaku Sisyphus, damned to attend cons despite the effort and lack of enjoyment. LOL

Honestly though, in my experience in running events, drama, rituals, etc, I’ve learned one major thing – people like stuff better when they’re involved. I certainly do. In the case of cons, most folks who say they enjoy the panels actually mean they enjoy the panels they are on, and folks who like cosplay, like they costumes they do best. It’s just human nature.

Here’s what I learned this year in my travels to every bloody con in the universe (ok, it wasn’t that bad, but it seemed like it); people don’t come to cons for Guests. People come to cons for 1) friends; 2) shopping; 3) cosplay. Guests and what’s being shown as part of Video programming are *waaaay* down the list of importance to the average congoer (In fact, I know several people who have yet to see a single anime *at* a con. I broke my own record this summer by watching one anime at Anime North and one at Otakon – mostly just to sing the theme song, though….) This is especially true when Guests are more like old friends and less like important anime-related people. And this doesn’t apply to a con that gets a really exceptional, popular, influential Guest, obviously. And it doesn’t apply to the really large, older cons, whose Guest lists are often full of such popular, influential and important people. ;-) But for smaller cons, this is basically the way it is.

So, why have Guests at all? Japanese conventions do not have Guests…or Contests, Panels, Games, Videos, etc. All they basically are are big DRs with a Cosplay area. So again we have to ask, why have Guests? My answer is what I like to call the “whoa, fuck!” factor.

Let’s say that there is a con local to you. You’re *probably* gonna go, even though you don’t care about the anime, or have seen the same Dealers a thousand times and can get the same stuff off the internet, anyway. You’ve got a few buds who are going, so you’ll probably go. But then you hear that the con hase as a Guest the person who writes your favorite manga – or did the voice of your fave character – and you go, “Whoa, fuck! How cool!” And now, in your mind, you’ll *definitely* go, because it’s not likely that you’ll bump into that mangaka or seiyuu on the street.

So, here’s the deal with Guests. If you are best friends with someone who does a voice, or wrote a manga, then you’re golden – if they can make it, they might come just out of friendship. This is how many conventions actually get their Guests – through personal relationships. There are organizers who know plenty of these folks personally, or know people who do. A Guest who comes out of friendship will expect to be treated well when they are here – and the reputations and friendship of all the people involved will be on the line. Think about it, if a friend invited *you* across the world and then, when you got there, you had a crappy hotel to stay in, or were left without a translator or guide….you’d be pretty pissed at your friend, wouldn’t you? So, even if it’s a good friend, you have to think what kind of impression you’re making. We’ve got a few different types of Guests coming to Yuricon, from our Guests of Honor, who are well-respected mangaka, to academic speakers to a j-pop band. Each one will expect to be treated well. I may not owe each person a suite with personal masseuse, but you can be sure that I’ll treat each one like they are actually *my* guest personally.

The other way to get a Guest is to beg. ^_^

No no, I’m kidding, the other way is through torturous negotiation. If you don’t know someone well, then you’re going the business relationship route. This is one of the popular questions at “So You Wanna Run A Con” type panels and forums. Inevitably someone asks, “How difficult is it to get a Japanese guest?” The answer is, of course, very hard.

Expect to take many months of back and forth discussions of all *kinds* of details, if you get that far along. Japanese companies are notorious for making decisions slowly and demanding many, many details. In our case we’ve been in negotiations for months with a potential Guest. I can totally understand the hesitation with which we’re treated. Imagine if someone you don’t know emailed or wrote you and asked if you would fly halfway around the world to a place you’ve never been and to meet people you don’t know! It’s a terrifying thought – even if the people who invited you do seem like you could trust them. (In my personal case, I *was* invited to a con that was pretty far away as a Guest. I had to decline, because even if I had wanted to go, I really didn’t think that the kids putting on the con were professional, or that they could afford to pay my way out there and put me up. It was nice to be asked, but frankly, I didn’t trust them to treat me right and I’m too old and curmudgeonly to put up with shit. Which is *exactly* what I expect any potential Japanese guest feels when a no-name con writes them out of the blue.

My experience has definitely given me a good perspective, I think,on the kinds of concerns that the company has. Much of these negotiations have been reassuring the company that we are real, business-like, will not leave them hanging, etc. In all honesty, I don’t actually expect to get this guest, but if we do, then we’ll have a hell of a “whoa, fuck!” factor for Yuricon. LOL If not, hey, we gave it the old college try.

In any case, the process has been exceptional. I couldn’t have done it at all without the dedication of a single woman, our translator Shoko, who I worship with every fiber of my being. Shoko, who is not at all an anime fan, has found this challenging and very amusing, so we’re even, because I’m not a fan of negotiating and I’ve found it challenging and amusing. We’re both hoping that the potential Guest will *also* find it amusing. ^_^

And that’s basically all I can think of that might be even remotely interesting to tell you about the stuff that goes on behind the scenes. As I said, I believe that everyone has more fun when they are involved in a thing – and this means you!

Next time: Language Paralysis

Let’s talk Entertainment today.

For the normal attendee, a con can be broken down into three major compnents: things to watch; things to buy; things to do. Leaving aside panels and workshops, which are kind of a separate thought (and one we dealt with briefly last time) lets thing about the “to do” part.

The biggest “to do” for many congoers is cosplay. This is, in some sense, a very interactive thing – one person dresses up and lots of other people take their picture and talk to them about the costume, the character, the series. A really good costume is frequently a real ice-breaker with some fans. The enthusiasm people have for this interactive costuming makes the Masquerade or Cosplay Contest one of the most popular events at most conventions. Cosplay is no longer simply a fashion show – people get together, design skits around their costumes and the characters they represent. At larger cons, the masquerade is a full-multimedia event, with high-end prizes and tremendous acclaim for the winners.

But there’s alot more than just cosplay happening at any given convention. While you and your friends are wandering the Dealer’s Room or watching anime, there are probably dozens of other “events” happening at the same time. Live Action Role Play – think about the preparation that has to go into an event that will bring together a variable number of total strangers to compete for a prize. A story must be written, characters’ skill sets have to be accounted for, contests of skill or will arranged – the logistics are a nightmare! ^_^ But when you sign up and at the end, you’ve had fun, you don’t often think about what went into the preparation. In fact, if you notice the preparations, or the execution – it wasn’t well done. A seamless activity is something that’s hard to appreciate, because you don’t even notice the work that went into it!

At Yuricon 2003 we’ll be having a j-pop concert, rather than a dance. And a bunch of contests, and games. And for all those things, we have to decide what we’re going to say, how we’re going to present it (go ahead, *you* write a script for a Dating Game! Go ahead, I dare ya! ) and on and on.

So, next time you check out a con program – take a moment and think about all the hard work that goes into making that auction or whack-a-thon, or DDR contest happen. And when you’ve done that, find a staffer and thank ’em – it might just mean one more event for next year!

And if Entertainment is your bag – why not join the Yuricon Entertainment committee – we can always use fresh blood, erm, enthusiasm. ^_^

Well, we had dates, we had a hotel, we had Staff – now we were getting into the nitty gritty. I needed people to take care of things that I couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do myself. First off, I needed someone who actually cared about the kind of events that take place at a con, I needed someone with some understanding of computers to get me a working registration and someone to do PR. I found people to do all these things, along with a liason with several Dealers, and a Video person…and on and on. These were all things that had to get started right off, or we’d never get anywhere.I figured we’d worry about guests a little later.

To determine what kind of Staff I needed, I looked at existing con hierarchies and made some decisions based upon reasonable expectation of our size, the functions I needed taken care of and what I could and could not reasonably expect to do myself.

When I look at the way a con functions on the actual weekend it happens, it breaks down into these basic functions:
Guests
Videos
Entertainment
Panels and Workshops
Registration
Dealer’s Room
Security/Safety
Volunteers

This list doesn’t include *alot* of what goes on behind the curtain, most especially PR, but these are what most congoers see as being “the con.” Public Relations is responsible for everbody and their cousin hearing about the con… frequently. LOL But for me, Entertainment was the key. Almost everything that comes under Entertainment are things that annoy me to pieces…cosplay, the dance, games, contests, etc. NONE of these hold an ounce of interest for me, so it was crucial that I find someone insane enough to take this on. I think I found someone more than insane enough and I can safely say that our Entertainment program rocks. LOL But this summer, as we pounded out descriptions and rules, it was alot of work – and there’s more to do.

Remember the motto – “everyone wants to help, but no one wants to help”? Welcome to PR. PR is a nightmare all on it’s own. It’s about cold-emailing and calling a gazillion people until one in a hundred gets back to you. And people freeze up and disappear before they will admit to being as scared of a “yes” as a “no.” So PR is what I like to call the “Home of the 100% turnover.” LOL

Dealers are great people, they really are. They are also overworked, understaffed and flaky as hell. This is another fear-inspiring committee. Who wants to have to play phone tag with an elusive dealer? Answer – no one.

And so it goes…committee after committee, we’re dealing with volunteers who’d like to help, as long as it means not being on deadline, or having to prove anything, or follow up on anything, or answer emails, etc. It’s not easy stuff, and it’s the stuff most people don’t think about when they think about building a con. For instance – Registration…I don’t build databases – do you? Do you know someone who can build a database with a searchable archive, that’s got adequate security? Do you think you could find someone to do that in about three months…for nothing? LOL You see what I mean.

What was I doing all this time? Promotion, promotion and more promotion. I set up a party at a lesbian bar in NYC, promoted it out the wazoo, and hoped for the best. Thankfully, the best happened. A Japanese woman came to the party and talked with us for a while. it turns out that she was a well-known Japanese lesbian mangaka – would it be alright if she came to the con? Not surprisingly, I was hornswoggled at this. *Of course* we’d love to have her! And, no kidding, that’s how we have one of our two Guests of Honor – she asked us if she could come.

All this time, up in Canada, Kathryn Williams was busting her hump promoting us too. Since Kat’s work is so relevant to us, we figured that she’d make a terrific addition as a GoH, not to mention the fact that she’s a powerhouse for Yuricon promotion. So there was GoH number two. The guests seemed to be taking care of themselves. :-)

Then con season hit. Almost every con I knew of had at least a Yaoi panel. I wrote to several asking if we could make it a Yaoi/Yuri panel, or give Yuri a panel of it’s own. Since, for many reasons, good panelists and moderators are very hard to find, I received alot of positive responses and started planning my traveling schedule for the Summer. In the meantime, we were promoting our NYC events and working to build our Committees.

I ended up with a schedule that looked something like this:

Con in Canada, week off, trip with friends, week off, con on West Coast, week off, film festival on West Coast, week off, host Guest and friend to local con, week off, con in Baltimore, three weeks off, local con. And that didn’t include the random other cons not during the “official” con season, or the festival in Florida, or my day job, or the night classes I teach. Or, just to be pissy, my writing.

It was pretty fun, actually, but I wouldn’t want to do it too often. I ran no less than a dozen panels, moderated some Guest of Honor Panels, participated in a dozen more, ran two workshops and talked to about a zillion vendors, guests and other con personel. I have to say that nearly every single person I met working for every other con was terrific. There is some serious talent and zeal out there in con land. If you haven’t offered to help out your local con, you really should – they are decent folks and always need the help.

And while I was doing all that, my Committees were reinventing the wheel and trying to figure out how to handle things like registration databases, running a live event, organize a Security team. LOL

Now, at the end of all that promotion, I’ve gotten alot of feedback praising my panels and speaking. (And one VERY long, diseased negative feedback.) I thought I’d offer my insight into what makes a good panel:

1) Moderators should moderate – you are not there to function as a doorstop. Come to the panel with several prepared questions. Don’t ask the guests to introduce themselves and then just say “go ahead and keep talking.” Coming up with ideas is *your* job – not theirs. I don’t know when the doorstop moderation technique became the standard, but it doesn’t work and makes for a sucky panel.

2) Instruct the audience, politely, that you are willing to entertain *questions,* not comments, rants or complaints. The panel is about the panelists opinions, based on their experience and expertise – not a time for some audience member to discuss the crappy state of fanfic and how different it was when they created fanfic in 4 BC. It’s boring and not fair to people who actually *do* have questions.

3) Direct questions to participants who are being overwhelmed by other panelists. Unfortunately, this isn’t always possible when the moderator is the loudest person in the room. (She says sheepishly.) But it’s good to make sure that everyone gets a say. I usually direct questions to each panelist in turn, so everyone gets to talk and no one feels left out or overwhelmed.

That’s it, really. Just remember it’s supposed to be fun for everyone, panelists and audience. LOL

Next time: Ways to lose money

So, now that I had decided that ALC would be “real” in the sense that it would become an actual event where people would meet face to face, I needed three things: 1) dates; 2) a hotel and; 3) staff. I put a general call out to the mailing list, recruited a few folks I knew personally and hit the boards running.

I started with the Hotel part of the equation. If I couldn’t get that, then there was no point in going further, really. I did a little market research and realized that basically, either people will come or they won’t, so I picked hotels close to where I wanted to be. After some preliminary investigation, I chose the hotel that Shoujocon had used in its first year. There are a variety of good reasons why this hotel is a good choice – primarily, location. They were amenable and we took out first step forward.

Now we had 1 and 2 – dates and place, but we needed staff.

Let me tell you right now that *staff* is the biggest issue you will run into if you want to run an event. My motto is “Everyone wants to help, but no one wants to do work.” That’s the basic truth. Everyone thinks it will be “fun” to run an event, get a title, a free t-shirt and their name in the credits. What most people don’t realize is that between here and there, there’s a ton of stupid things to do that have to get done – and done right – or the con sucks.

I am very lucky. My staff is primarily made up of really nutty people who, like myself, are pretty tired of cons and aren’t planning on having any fun during this one – this frees us up from the illusion that Yuricon will be “fun” for us -and means we can focus on the work. That doesn’t mean we don’t all flake out, or have disappearing spells or nervous breakdowns along the way, but it does mean that we take less time to cull our staff of people who don’t hold up under the pressure. Being Staff is not like being a Volunteer, being Staff is taking on a job that will actually require follow-up and organizational skills. Here’s a few thoughts for those of you who think you want to be on Staff:

Staff Rule #1

Don’t mind rejection.

Seriously. Most people are *terrified* of being rejected, and fans in any fandom are moreso, because they start off a little fettered, socially.

But it’s okay, really. So, you send an email to a person you’ve never heard of asking for something. They don’t answer you. You mail again. They don’t answer. You stop emailing them. Or, they say no, you thank them, express your desire to work with them one day and move on. *Don’t* take it all personally! Just send the damn emails. ^_^

Rule #2

Don’t disappear. If you get overwhelmed, by life, or exams, or a personal thing…don’t just not answer emails. Take 5 seconds, tap out a “sorry, I can’t do this” when you *first* realize that you can’t do this. Don’t wait until you’ve annoyed your Committee Chair, pissed the rest of the folks who are doing the work off, and had everyone lose faith in you. There’s no reason to act that way. A polite note, not a three page long rant with personal details, gets the point across just fine and saves your dignity.

Which brings us to the Corollary to Rule #2 – Sign up for your staff mailing list with an email you actually check. When you use an email that you never check, it means that you are essentially ignoring this list. This can cause pointless confusion. Don’t like how much mail you’re getting? Well, that’s the price of offering to help. Even if it seems like a little chitchatty and no work, it’s important that you can be reached when other Staff need you. Or you might as well not have signed up.

Rule #3

Ask questions!!

When you first volunteer to do something, there is an excellent chance that you have no idea what you’re doing. There is also a good chance that your Committee Chair and possibly the entire Organizing Comittee also has no idea. So, if someone says, “email ADV and ask for permission to show therse three titles,” and you don’t know what that means, or how to go about it…ask. Please don’t put off doing it, then hide and not answer emails. Someone, somewhere, was relying on you to do your bit. Just ask what they mean, or how to find the emails to mail or what to do. Maybe all of you don’t know what’s going on and the committee chair has to clarify – or learn. Just ask and find out.

***

Anyway, back to ALC. We started to pull together a basic staff and a few committee chairs and then it was time to admit that if this was going to be real, we were going to have to act like it was. :-) My original intent was to use the name Yuricon for the convention, and use ALC as the organization behind it. One weekend our mailing list crashed and I recreated it with the new name. And so we headed into 2002 as Yuricon, a celebration of shoujoai and yuri in anime and manga.

Next time: On the road