What made you give it up?

How did you go about promoting the convention? Ever see any really big returns?

How's it going Roy?

>>5076734
The second year of my biggest convention was a disaster. Our eyes were bigger than our wallets and we lost the venue at the last second due to (what we suspected at the time anyway) another convention owner quietly contacting our venue and breaching the contract. I was blamed for more or less everything so I kinda disappeared.

Can I have some money?

>>5076742
We weren't expecting returns for the first three years. The first three years at minimum of any convention isn't non-profit is going to be losses. If oyu aren't cutting even by your 5th, you need to reasess your system.

>>5076745
lol I'm not Mr. Metro. I used to laugh when he wore his gears jacket to other cons like Mega, but I never said anything about it when we spoke.

>>5076747
sorry, don't have any myself. best o luck though

>>5076742
>How did you go about promoting the convention?

Everything I could think of. Got in contact with several alternative magazines in the area, including one very influential one. Flyers were our big draw, just go to other cons and litter the place with 'em.

Sockpuppet accounts on forums and viral shit worked for a while but it takes a lot of time and energy

I just watched castle, and no matter how much I don't like serenity, jesus fuck do I have a man crush on nathan fillion.

>>5076765
You didn't like Firefly? Huh. I've never met someone who didn't tbh. Nothing personal.

Who's a bigger pain in the ass to deal with: voice actors or American artists.

>>5076771
I wasn't really a fan of Firefly either, to be honest. No real reason, I just never really got into it.
I know a lot of people like it, but I don't think it's that weird not to.

>>5076781
I'm not sure what you mean by American artists. American animators? Americans in the artist alley? Animation directors?

All the voice actors I've ever worked with were chill. Scott McNeil and Doug Smith immediately come to mind, both total bros.

To be honest the musical guests were the biggest pains. Complete premadonnas, especially when it came to time tables. We would block huge closure times for our ball room for set up and there still consistently late.

>>5076771
Firefly was shoved down my throat as a younger child, along with everything done by joss. So I dislike his work, along with his large fan base that is about as awful as a gay jew from new jersey that likes homostuck.


I also think cowboys are for the west, not for fucking space.

>>5076802
Artist Alley

No one?
No one's noticed this yet?
DAT ASS

Now that we've got that out of the way, what's your least favorite thing about convention goers, and shit we could do to not bug the bajeebus out of the staff?
I just always feel so sorry for staff.
Also, are the dealer's rooms a clusterfuck to get together?

>>5076803

i would normally agree with you, but my love of cowboy bebop keeps me from it completely.

See ya space cowboy

>>5076817
>what's your least favorite thing about convention goers, and shit we could do to not bug the bajeebus out of the staff?

Two things come to mind:
1. Expect things to be late. I know it's my/our job to keep things "on time", but it's a convention. Things will run late. Everyone knows this. TO be honest, most of the time an event running late is the result of congoers in that room from the last event not clearing out on time or extending it somehow. Happened all the time.
2. Stop getting kids drunk. Please. I encourage drinking after hours by anyone over 21 (or fuck it, 18), but I've had no less than three 15-16 year old stumble into ConOps with Security and vomit on my table/floor/shirt.

>Also, are the dealer's rooms a clusterfuck to get together?

Surprisingly no. Almost all of the con dealers from certian areas know each other, so it's rare from dealers to come into conflict with each other. There's a competitive comradere between them or some shit. Like a grudging respect. They all know each other well. I was a dealer before staff and owner, and that's how it was for us.

How much cash flowed through your budget?

I'm interested to know around about how much money go into these things.

My only idea is that, for example, the ball room at the Hyatt convention where Ohayocon is around 10 grand a day.

>>5076814
The only problem with artist alley was preapproving what they wanted to bring. We had proposals for absolutely retarded shit, like a yaoi booth with uncensored art and dildo lollipops themed after those blue ones from kingdom hearts.

to think of it, all the yaoi fangirl alley artists were difficult to work with.

>>5076845
Ironically it was a Hyatt that caused the catastrophe that put me out of cons.

It depends on your expected turnout. If it's your first year, there's no way in hell you're gonna pull down enoguh to cover all expenses AND a 10k ballroom as overhead. You're looking at 5k for a first-year smaller con with a medium-high turnout and moderate sponsorship.

If you could have it all to do over again, what would you change?

And what's the funniest thing that happened while you were running the thing?

>>5076883
One of the owners of the convention I was working for at the time was convinced (as were we) that he was going to jail if he couldn't come up with $10k after a cock-up at the end of one of the conventions.

I bought out his share of the convention with the 10k, he went on to screw me over.

Had I the choice, I would've let him rot.

>>5076904
Wow, man... I'm sorry. I really am. Listen, from one guy who knows what it's like to be fucked over to another, I wish you the best of luck. If it weren't Monday I'd be throwing a few back with you, man.

>>5076883
>And what's the funniest thing that happened while you were running the thing?

One year, our rave was running late because our musical guest was being fucking retarded, so some creative kids started their own rave in an unused panel room. Until we could get the ballroom set up for the dance, I told the staff to help the kids in the panel room by turning off the lights and throwing up some of our extra strobe lighting in there.

Would've been nice had I not found out later that someone snuck beer in there and got a couple kids smashed.

>>5076942
I appreciate that, man. I'd love to kill some tall ones with you had I not drank my pancreas into a near-non-functioning state during my con years.

Due to the high/depression, I'm tempted to start dropping names, but I know it'd be a mistake. On an IRC or MSN or something maybe, but not here. I dunno my head is full of fuck atm

>>5076954
Fuck the police, let the elevator nazi's burn. Were they Texas cons? I doubt it...

>>5076803
>I also think cowboys are for the west, not for fucking space.
Pioneer spirit clashing with a central authority's inability to effectively police the whole of the frontier are perfect for space. Especially how the shrinking of the frontier leads to long held freedoms eroding.
Poo on you.

>>5076963
I've worked as staff/dealer all over the southeast (including texas a couple years), but the cons I ran and all the drama happened in Florida.

>>5076965
My eyes may be playing tricks on me, and tell me if I'm wrong, but do you see any cowboy boots, or maybe a stetson? How about some spurs? Do you see this guy killing injuns? I dunno. My eyes must not be working today.

>>5076968
Oh ho ho ho ho... oh God... Florida. Dude... dude I am so there.

It's funny. I've never, EVER gone to a Florida convention on principle alone... yet I seem to somehow get involved with everything down there.

Keep this in mind, kiddies, there are two kinds of convention attendees in Florida you want to keep away from; women and men.

Treat both genders like The Guide treats love; avoid at all costs.

>Three years?

OOH OOH OOH! Janicon!

>>5076976
SMOKER! SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP, YOU'RE DRIVING ME CRAZY!

...having said that, Serenity sucked and the lighting was shit.fi

>>5076977
I agree, the Florida scene did draw drama like mad. Aside from myself, the girls one con owner was sleeping with and the LARGE cash deals another con owner was doing, a lot of drama happened around us. And that's the high-tier drama, not the OH SHIT THIS COSPLAYER DIDNT MAKE HER WEAPON PROP AND IS A SLUT standard bullshit.

One well-known Florida con owner got 1.5 mil into a project with a major actor, then scewed him, but got screwed back in court. Though that did get reported in small media-centered news, it got more or less buried.

And then you had smaller things like a small cute female cosplayer well-known for doing Ed from bebop running around looking for the guy who slept with some girl in her bed.

It's chaos down there, yeah. But there were SOME good times to be had.

>>5076968
Fuck... so true. Oh FL.

>>5076985
>Janicon

Caught me. Yeah, that was the one that crushed me and put me out of the con business. Dash Nolan, nice to meet you.

>Janicon
>Dash Nolan

>>5076976
My eyes may be playing tricks on me, and tell me if I'm wrong, but do you see any anti gravity boots, or maybe a faceplate that actively filters out the solar wind? How about some pedal locks for his fusion powered EVA? Do you see this guy killing aliens? I dunno. My eyes must not be working today.

>>5076991
Who are you to tell me to stop typing on the internet where people don't give two shits about my opinion? I guess I have proved my point about cowboys. I didn't even have to go into the entire rest of that explanation.

>>5077004
Hi, Dash. I'm Matt. Convention veteran, last-minute security staffer. Professional alcoholic and wannabe soldier.

So how's things happening on the East Coast?

>>5077024
Hi, Matt. I'm Dash, ex-alcoholic, ex-convention owner, mostly ex-cosplayer and freelance bum with an ebay store.

Unfortunately I haven't been keeping up with the con drama since I got out. I can tell you everything that happened right up to 2008. I'm sure there's been plenty of it, I just wouldn't know.

I snuck up to this last otakon with a couple friends and cosplayed, though I was wearing a helmet most of the time so I only got recognized on a personal/business level by one guy. Fortunately he was an old business partner so it didn't escalate.

>>5077030
How do you turn cons into businesses? Almost all the major Australian cons (not counting Supanova) are run by non-profit organisations.

>>5077016
I don't get it.

>>5077030
Oh, you were at that piece of shit too? Such a boring weekend. I spent the entire time a stumbling drunk Kazuhira Miller. Was I alone in thinking that it was a giant waste of a good paycheck, or did you get that same vibe?

>>5077055
Sponsorships, high head count and low overhead. It's tough, much tougher than a proper small business.

The goal is to set your sights low. Keep your costs as low as possible and your liability even lower. This means hiring only people you trust and as few people as possible.

Also, it's less the quality of the venue and more it's location. You could get the most beautiful hotel in the world, but if it's half an hour from the nearest interstate you're fucked.

>>5077064
Eh, I enjoyed it enough. I was with a few friends and we were doing a group cosplay, so we were too engrossed int pictures and the gaming room to really notice if the con's events were shit.

After everything I saw during con days, I kind-of got over main events.

>>5077073
...Could we just import you to Australia so you can work this out for us? :P It's Australia, no one will know who you are.

>>5077082
Throw in a flight for my girlfriend and a V8 Holden and I'm game.

>>5077079
Ah. I hear you. No, I was far too wasted to even know where main events was...

So, what is the real motivation behind running a convention? Is it about the money, or providing people with a weekend escape? And where did the funding all originally come from? I'd love to see the look on a loan officer's face.

"So you want to hold a... Star Trek kinda... convention but it's for cartoons from Japan?"

"Yeah! It'll be great! We'll have artists and voice actors and the members provide their own panels and there'll be professional cosplayers, too!"

"...o...k. And can you tell me what a... Yaya Han is, exactly? Because if there are going to be minors at this thing, I don't think we want to be offering exotic alcohol during the day."

Have you ever got a glimpse of Miyu's ass and thighs in person?

How long were you in the game in various degrees (congoer, staff, owner)?

>>5077109
Business loans for conventions don't exist. There is no proper way to determine a return and FAR too many liabilities.

Motivation? It's not the money, because there's not a lot of it until your 5th or 6th year. It's generating an escape for like-minded people for a weekend. It's tough fucking work, but it's so satisfying watching cosplayers run past, knowing they're more comfortable with themselves than they have been all year.

It'd be nice to get some credit for that sort of thing every now and then without looking like a complete cock (Roy) or being the fallman for a collapse (myself).

>>5077119
8 years. Went to my first con in 2000, ran my last convention in 2008.

In between, I worked as staff, security, a dealer, a gopher, an agent, and a game show host.

Other than the chaos of running the damn things, there were some other interesting incidents, including a 22-hour road trip to a texas con with $150,000 worth of what was legally classified as medical equipment and a .357 revolver.

>>5077115
Miyu's ass? No. Yaya han's tits? Yes.

Wish I hadn't. She's like Cher, she's being kept alive by eloborate outfits and pounds of make-up.

>>5077146
Sounds like one of those sometimes fun, sometimes a pain in the ass jobs. Besides the getting paid part.

>>5077159
That's about right.

Pic is one of those rare enjoyable moments from one of the few cons I attended that I wasn't working. I'm drunk stark in the pic.

>>5077155
MOISTURIZE ME!

Now what's this about medical equipment and a .357? Nothing better than stories involving conventions and firearms.

>>5077183
We were selling cosmetic contacts. Everything from simple eye color changers to full sclera ghosts. They qualify as medical equipment. The company that we were working for at the time required an agent with a firearm to be with the product whenever there was more than $10k being moved. We had $150k worth.

I did 21 of the 22 hour drive, almost crashed a couple of times. Would've been interesting, since the inside of my car was worth 10x more than the car itself.

On a related note, my business partner's boyfriend once stole about $6k worth of the contacts. I haven't heard anything from him since he got out of prison.

ANyone else?

I'm still depressed and high and not quite sure what to do with this thread.

>>5077216
what do you perfer?
bong,pipe,blunt ect ect ect

>>5077231
Benzos

>>5077216
Basically, what were the worst moments or worst guests you've ever had? Or just tell us about any wacky shit that happened in general.

>>5077234
so...What's the worst cosplay youv seen at a con
and whats the worst thing youv seen?
>bad cosplay

>>5077239
Worst guest? Yaya. She was a complete bitch to everyone, our gophers especially. She demanded to hand pick her handler and still trated the poor girl like trash. In the staging hall behind the ball room, she wouldn't let anyone with a three foot rarius of her, which is difficult in a 5 foot hallway full of tables and lights.

Worst moment?
A 15 year-old kid got dragged into ConOps around 11:30 by security. He looked like the saddest, guiltiest pudgy kid ever. Before I could get his information, he threw up all over our table and floor. We had to get our staff to help us clean it up since if the hotel staff had done it, they probably would've called the cops. When we explained to him his situation, he burst into tears.

We got a hold of his father instead of the cops, and his father decided to scream and lecture him in our ConOps. The guy had no idea his son was even at the con, much less smashed. We had to have them both escorted out.

>>5077249
>The guy had no idea his son was even at the con
I bet you that kid is still grounded from ever leaving the house unless it's school.

>>5077240
Worst cosplay? There's a guy known as ManChii who runs around the south east cons. He's about 6'5" and overweight, though not obese. He decided to cosplay in a playboy bunny outfit with falsies and no bodysuit or anything.

The guy was perfectly nice and sane, but that was how he chose to cosplay.

>>5077240
Though to be honest, I've done some relatively bad cosplay in my time as well.

>>5077254

>Not acknowledging ManChii's as one of the greatest cosplayers of all time.

>>5077263
Oh shit, Outlaw Star!

OP: turning things around for bit, what was the best guess experience you ever had?

also, based on everything you experienced so far, what's your overall opinion on cosplay community today?

>>5077275
>what was the best guess experience you ever had?

We had Ami Belcher as a guest artist. She's not a huge star, but she has a very dedicated fanbase of mostly yaoi fangirls, so she's a good draw. At the last second, we had to relocate her booth due to a fire inspector issue with the hotel. She had already put up three vendor booths worth of art, mind you.

She wasn't mad in the least. She even helped the gophers move the heavier stuff. Sweet as you can imagine.

Later on, we held a charity auction for Child's Play. She didn't know about it before-hand, so she quickly autographed 10 of her most popular prints and threw together a very nice yaoi sketch to put in the auction.

>>5077275
>also, based on everything you experienced so far, what's your overall opinion on cosplay community today?

Keep in mind, my experience stops at 2008. But from what I can tell, there's a very thick line between those that take cosplay FAR too seriously, and those that just want to dress up as anime characters.

The most disturbing bit about these super srs cosplayers is that they have this belief in their head that with enough networking and dick sucking, they can turn it into a career. While there are a VERY FEW exceptions in the west, even those exceptions have day jobs.

hey OP, who's the worst VA guest you had?

in your opinion, attended or hear-say, what small-con do you think is the best so far?

>>5077293
None of the VA guests we had were nessiscarily bad people or problematic except Vic. I know it's a cliche, but good lord I have never recieved so many complaints from parents over something at one of my cons, and it was over his continuous prosthelytizing (had to google spellcheck that lol). When I finally had time to check on the problem personally, I found every autograph came with a scripture quote, though he had no problem with how the younger girls were dressing.

>>5077296
I honestly couldn't tell you. Small cons come and go so much, and as I said, my experience stops at 2008. For fucks sake, ManChii was advertising for a convention that was literally a BBQ in his backyard. He had flyers for it and everything. Surreal.

>>5077284
I've never heard of her before now but she sounds like an amazingly nice woman.

Do cons usually have blacklist of people not to invite back as GOH?

also, lemme ask speaking of GOH: how do you decide on what GOH to invite?

I can start a tc or something if anyone wants, I know /cgl/ does that sometimes.

fuck I dunno, my head's still full of wat

>>5077312
There's no "blacklist". We just learn from other con owners (when they're the sharing-type, but word travels fast).

As for who to pick, it starts off with sitting around the table and throwing out pipedream guests for a little while, then someone usually stumbles on one that's actually feasible.

Though some cons pick a star and just gun for them specifically. Roy is known for this.

Protip: Ellen McClain would've been GoH at Jani '09 had it ever happened.

Have you ever had Japanese guest? if so then what's the complications that involve inviting international guest?

>>5077313
you should stay, tc fucks up on my computer and im loving this threads. Also, can you share some of your "Con nightmare" moments? Either witnessed or experianced

>>5077332
Fortunately we never had to deal with getting an international/different language guest. Unless oyu count Canada, had several voice actors from the north.

I've heard plenty of horror stories from other staffers. It was usually a big japanese director or VA. To keep liabilities down, they had attempted to keep him in his hotel as much as possible, but being abroad, they always wanted to travel and play the tourist.

>>5077340
I could do this thread and a TC at the same time, but okay. The thing is, there's some things I can't say on here, but might be able to on a TC.

Con Nightmare?
Alright, have some specifics.
JaniCon 2007. 6pm Saturday.
The three owners have realized that they had completely misbudgeted and are going to owe the hotel a shitload of money. Meanwhile, as one of the head staffers, I'm trying to get them to help settle about seven different issues that you can imagine would come up at the start of the biggest night of the con, not the least of which our musical guest had filled one of the hotel halls with the distinct smell of pot.

But no. These three had gone into full lock-down mode. One was near-tears, one was deathly silent, and the other was calling everyone he could and freaking the fuck out.

I had brought a few close friends to the con as unofficial staff and gave them staff badges for helping a little here and there just in case. Everything was starting to go down and it was time for all the major events and panels to set-up. Chaos.

I ran over to con ops, but security wouldn't let me in. Apparently they were having a closed-door meeting about the financial status of the convention. I shoved past him and slammed my hand on the desk, shouted something like THIS FUCKING CONVENTION ISN'T GOING TO RUN ITSELF. IF YOU DON'T WANT MORE REFUNDS ON YOUR HANDS, I NEED TO GET THIS SHIT RUNNING.

They kinda nodded numbly. I took all but one of the remaining walkie-talkies and snatched the Con CEO badge off one of the owners. I proceeded to rush out and call up the friends I had brought. I put on the CEO badge, gave the staff badge to one of the friends, and handed them all walke talkies.

We essentially held the con together for the rest of the night.

bump I guess

if no one has anything else, I'm out

last bump

>>5077399
What kind of legal shit did you go through setting up your con as a business? I stumbled across this thread while talking about starting my own service of sorts (totally unrelated) and I figured you might have some interesting insights into the legal shit.

>>5077404
Secure yourself before anything else. Don't let your potential business blunder ruin you personally. Set up an LLC and have it checked over by a lawyer. 2/3rds of small businesses fail in the first year.

Aside from establishing the LLC, it depends on where you're planning on doing this. For a convention, you just need to contract the time and space with your venue and keep a close eye on how you need to be taxing you revenue.

>>To keep liabilities down, they had attempted to keep him in his hotel as much as possible, but being abroad, they always wanted to travel and play the tourist.
Does the convention need "in a foreign country accident insurance" or something?

>>5077412
"Liabilities" aren't just purely legal. Having a much-beloved japanese director mugged in New York/Atlanta/Wherever because your people couldn't keep an eye on him is a potential press disaster that would stretch far beyond your convention.

>>5077417
Ah. I guess with the way some cons are short-staffed they wouldn't be able to spare enough people to keep tabs on a guy besides rovers/lower rankers, and who knows how many of those are trustworthy enough to follow around a guy all day while also being non-important enough that you could spare them for a large part of the con.

>>5077423
Some of the larger cons have people specifically for this called Handlers. They know good restraunts and their way around town and such. If a con is big enough to get an eastern director, they will most likely have a couple handlers.

Still, it's better to play safe and encourage the hotel.

>>5077409
What's the short and simple rundown on LLC stuff? I remember my parents had one for our small business, but I'm not sure if I'd need one since my idea would require all of some server space and my car.

>>5077436
An LLC is a Limited Liability Company. It's essentially a bankruptcy shield. If you somehow end up owing someone a shitton of money (or someone eith a good lawyer claims you do), you go to court, declare the LLC bankrupt, and so long as the judge doesn't decide that you've GROSSLY underacted in your job, you can wash your hands of it.

I recommend it to anyone doing anything that they would call a business.

Alright, I'm out. If this thread is still on the board when I wake up, I'll bump it. Peace.

How did you view press applicants? Walking plague that gives you nothing or a valuable way to spread the word? I'm part of the "lol press" which in the real press world wouldn't count but does count for anime conventions. Always wondered how we were thought of. The guy above me says that he knows that some people who got approved for a con one year wouldn't get approved the next.