amatyultare (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
amatyultare) wrote2019-01-03 06:23 pm
amatyultare) wrote2019-01-03 06:23 pm
Entry tags:
Universal Fan Con
I wrote this as a response to this amazing article about the collapse of Universal Fan Con.
THOSE WHO DO NOT LEARN FROM HISTORY ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT IT.
Folks who have convention experience: when in the article did you start developing hives? For me, it was at the description of the Kickstarter tiers, with $10 one-day and $35 weekend passes. (Those are HILARIOUSLY underpriced tickets for a big convention. Hell, it’s less than a small convention charges! Renting event space ain’t cheap.) Oh, and both tiers included one free photo with a celeb of your choice. Naturally.
By the time I got to “[this first year con] needs 18,000 attendees to be financially successful” I was at “shrieking and clawing at my face” levels, tbh.
Con drama usually amuses me, but I almost can’t laugh at this one because the dream was so beautiful and the reality so, so awful, you know? A convention that centers marginalized communities - we could absolutely use more of those. And yet….here we are.
I’m gonna repeat my only advice for would-be con runners, which I first said when DashCon exploded: DO NOT BASE YOUR STRATEGY AND FINANCIAL “PLANNING” ON HOW MUCH MONEY YOU THINK YOU’LL RAISE THROUGH AT-DOOR (or otherwise last-minute) REGISTRATIONS. First, because if you overestimate how many people will attend, you’re left holding the bag in a big way. Second, because even if you’re on-target, you’ve spent all of your money on the current convention and don’t have any funds to plan for the next year.
(Of course, as always, that advice only works if the con-runners are honest and just made some mistakes/wishful thinking. Which - the fact that every single person on the ConCom who has made a statement claims to have had NO IDEA about the financial issues, even in the face of evidence to the contrary, and particularly the fact that one of the ConCom members appears to be a literal fucking Twitter bot - look, I’m just saying, I’m skeptical.)
THOSE WHO DO NOT LEARN FROM HISTORY ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT IT.
Folks who have convention experience: when in the article did you start developing hives? For me, it was at the description of the Kickstarter tiers, with $10 one-day and $35 weekend passes. (Those are HILARIOUSLY underpriced tickets for a big convention. Hell, it’s less than a small convention charges! Renting event space ain’t cheap.) Oh, and both tiers included one free photo with a celeb of your choice. Naturally.
By the time I got to “[this first year con] needs 18,000 attendees to be financially successful” I was at “shrieking and clawing at my face” levels, tbh.
Con drama usually amuses me, but I almost can’t laugh at this one because the dream was so beautiful and the reality so, so awful, you know? A convention that centers marginalized communities - we could absolutely use more of those. And yet….here we are.
I’m gonna repeat my only advice for would-be con runners, which I first said when DashCon exploded: DO NOT BASE YOUR STRATEGY AND FINANCIAL “PLANNING” ON HOW MUCH MONEY YOU THINK YOU’LL RAISE THROUGH AT-DOOR (or otherwise last-minute) REGISTRATIONS. First, because if you overestimate how many people will attend, you’re left holding the bag in a big way. Second, because even if you’re on-target, you’ve spent all of your money on the current convention and don’t have any funds to plan for the next year.
(Of course, as always, that advice only works if the con-runners are honest and just made some mistakes/wishful thinking. Which - the fact that every single person on the ConCom who has made a statement claims to have had NO IDEA about the financial issues, even in the face of evidence to the contrary, and particularly the fact that one of the ConCom members appears to be a literal fucking Twitter bot - look, I’m just saying, I’m skeptical.)