Tristate Convention Revival Discussion
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Brainstorming

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Post by seastarsADMIN Tue Aug 29, 2017 3:13 pm

What are the Goals of this convention?

-Anime and Animation
-Gaming
-Family friendly
-Cosplay
-Affordable
-Fun
-Diverse
-Safe

Let me know what you think and want to make this a reality!
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Post by JunPlavsic Tue Aug 29, 2017 4:29 pm

I've never been part of starting a convention before. What order do we need to do things in? I love organizing and planning things, making lists, etc. How do we start? Should we try to garner interest and build support to get an idea of how many people actually want to make it a reality? Should we make a donation page with a set goal that we'd like to reach in order to have enough funding to get the ball rolling? I went to every Sugoi since 2005 so I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss it. I'll do whatever I can to bring it back and make sure it's great!

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Post by seastarsADMIN Tue Aug 29, 2017 4:33 pm

Yes, all of those are great ideas. Maybe figuring out how many people would be interested would be a first step t organizing this. Very Happy
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Post by Ald149 Tue Aug 29, 2017 9:30 pm

Id really like to help support this. I loved sugoi. I would one hundered percent help organize the more adult panels. Ive run quite a few and would really love to see a con close to home again.

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Post by seastarsADMIN Tue Aug 29, 2017 9:59 pm

That sounds Great!!! Thanks for volunteering to help us! Just getting our feet in the water for now. I made that FB group to see how many support and actually will help get this going from the ground up! Smile
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Post by JunPlavsic Wed Aug 30, 2017 3:06 am

Does anyone know what exactly we need in order to start? Should we start with a location? Programming? Guests? Vendors?

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Post by seastarsADMIN Wed Aug 30, 2017 7:41 am

Check out this link! I think this would be a good place to start.


https://upcomingcons.com/how-to-start-an-anime-convention
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Brainstorming Empty MY THOUGHTS SO FAR AFTER DISCUSSING WITH JUNPLAVSIC

Post by seastarsADMIN Wed Aug 30, 2017 3:29 pm

What kind of CON should this be?

- Mainly Anime
- Gaming-types of gaming
- board games
- card games
- arcade games
- old game systems
- include some of the new game systems too (gaming is very lucrative and there are a lot more sponsors for gaming than anime)
- Family Friendly (optional)
- possibly provide a "safe room" that is worked by volunteers in 2 hour rotations for kids aged 6-12
- if provided, parents have the option of purchasing tickets for each kids at 7$ a ticket for 75 minute time blocks. This will give parents an
opportunity to go to adult panels.
- the room would consist of board games/ card games/ dress up? (cosplay)/ crafts/snacks
- kids would be checked in with a sticker and parents would sign them in with ticket get a matching sticker and provide phone number/
what panel they will be attending during this 75minutes/ and any allergy info necessary/any paperwork needed to be sign for legal
reasons for the CON.
-Name
- should we stick with Sugoicon- has bad rep around town with prospective venues because of vandalism and the management was not
very organised
- change the name slightly to Sugeecon which was offered by one of the people wanting to be involved. Its a japanese slang for the
original name. Possibly too similar to the original name?
- change completely
- Rin = Gender neutral means brisk or/cold = RinCon
-etc... other names to come
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Brainstorming Empty This Written from UK perspective but everybit as Valuable

Post by seastarsADMIN Wed Aug 30, 2017 5:12 pm

A General Guide to Starting up a Convention for the Prospective First Time Chairman, UK Edition
June 22, 2010 at 9:33am
So you want to run an anime convention?
A general guide to starting up a convention for the prospective first time chairman
United Kingdom 2010 edition

Good day to you fair reader, so you’re considering setting up and running your own anime convention? This urge often overcomes people on the UK anime scene and can often be attributed to one of the following reasons:

1. You have recently been to an anime convention and thought it was so awesome that you want to run one as well so that you can bask in the adulation of your geeky cohorts
2. You run a local anime club/event/university society and think that you can make the leap to something bigger.
3. You’re too cheap or poor to go to one of the many conventions that take place in the UK and think it would be easier to set up your own convention so that you don’t have to travel anywhere.

If your desire to start your anime convention is based on any of the above then this guide offers its first bit of important advice:

YOU SHOULD NOT BE TRYING TO START AN ANIME CONVENTION YOU SELF OBSESSESED ARROGANT TOSSPOT.

Setting up and running an anime convention is a tremendous amount of work and effort which will cause you untold stress and worry as well as eating up most if not all of your free time. It is literally like having a second job, except you work longer hours for no pay so it is not something to be entered into lightly.

However if you are that rare breed of insane person who is prepared to deal with the enormous workload and genuinely wants to set up an event purely to add something positive to the anime community. Something that their fellow anime fans can get together at and enjoy and not a platform to boost your ego or make yourself some form of geeky figurehead. Then this guide will give you a few hints and tips to try and make things that little bit easier for you.

Alternatively if you fall into the arrogant tosspot category and are determined to set up a convention despite earlier warnings this should hopefully help you avoid some of the fuck ups you’re type normally end up making. Let it be known that while this guide hates all your kind and wants you to die in a fire it would rather not see your stupidity cause innocent fans to waste money on crap events that might put them off going to ones that are competently run.

Start Up Basics

Ok, we’ve determined that you are stupid or insane enough to start a convention the first thing you should probably decide as it will effect everything else is how big your event is going to be. This Guide offers the following words of wisdom:

START SMALL SHIT HEAD!

You may have grandiose plans to put on the UK’s biggest ever convention with 50 billion attendees but you shouldn’t run before you can walk and as you’ve never run a convention before you can’t even sodding crawl yet.
Rein in the ambition and be sensible for fucks sake, if your event proves to be successful you can build on it year by year. Just remember that people are very wary of first time events as it’s effectively a leap of faith for them as they have no prior history or reccomendations to go on.
This guide would recommend starting out with a small hotel sized convention of no more than 300 members tops, of course theres nothing stopping you trying for something bigger but you have been warned.
Having decided that the first things you are going to need are money and a committee.

Money

You need this in order to secure bookings for your venue, equipment and if you’re fortunate enough to secure them, guests. Many a first time convention has fallen on its arse because they assume they can just pay for things when their attendees register for the convention, WRONG.
People are notoriously wary of first time events so your sign up rate is likely to be very slow and you may not have the necessary cash to secure your venue booking and other outlays. If you are serious about running a convention you will at least initially have to cough up your own money, you’ll be looking at several thousand pounds minimum going up to tens of thousands of pounds for larger better equipped venues.
Also be prepared to make a loss, very few conventions make their money back when they first start out it often takes several events before the convention accounts are in the black.

Committee

You will not be able to run a convention on your own; you’re going to need a team of people to do the many jobs and duties that are required to successfully run a convention. It varies between conventions but generally you will need people for the following roles:

•Chairman – Person in charge, makes the big decisions.
•Vice Chair – Helps the Chair and makes the big decisions when they’re otherwise engaged or not available.
•Treasurer – Deals with convention finances
•Secretary – Deals with convention admin
•Operations Officer – Deals with the nuts and bolts running of the convention.
•Events Co-ordinator – Deals with, sets up and arranges all non cosplay related events at the con
•Cosplay Co-ordinator – Deals with, sets up and arranges all the cosplay events
•Dealers Liason – Deals with the traders for your dealers room
•Tech Officer – Deals with the running of all the equipment at convention.
•Publicity Officer – Deals with advertising your convention securing guests etc
•Webmaster – Deals with running your conventions website and any other online gubbage.

The roles and duties listed above are just a general guide, depending on the size of your convention and the work involved some committee members can be responsible for several different duties. This guide recommends looking at the contacts list on the websites of UK conventions to see how they have distributed roles and duties.

Where and when to run?

Ok so you have money and a committee of people just as insanely stupid as you are, it’s time to pick a time and place to run your convention.

Where?

This guide assumes that if you have decided to run a convention you already have a general area in mind for where you want to run your event but we would ask you to consider the following before making your final decision.

•The majority of the established UK events are currently held in the Midlands or southern England so while there is nothing to stop you setting up another event in these areas be aware that the anime fans in these regions are already well served. As such they may not be interested in attending your event when they have so many other established ones they can go to.

•Does the area have good transport links? Ideally you want somewhere near a main rail line connection and with good public transportation. People are not going to want to attend an event if they have to walk twenty miles carrying half a dozen bags to get to it or having to pay huge taxi charges.

•Is the area safe? Generally conventions are held in self contained hotel or conference complexes that allow those attending to enjoy themselves without having to worry about the public. While this guide is not saying the public is dangerous there have been cases at events where less desirable non attendees (such as chavs, scallys etc) have wandered in and caused problems.

•Is the venue you’re holding the convention in appropriate? Most conventions are held in hotels or conference complexes that have the facilities and technical set up that allow for the events and activities that take place at a convention. Holding your event at your house or village hall is not going to cut it.

When?

The UK anime convention and event calendar is pretty packed these days as the following shows.

Jan -
Feb – Midlands Expo
Mar - Minamicon
Apr - Kitacon
May – London Expo
Jun -
Jul – London Film and Comic Con, Tokonatsu
Aug – Amecon/Ayacon (Aya and Ame take turns eg. Aya in 2009 so it’s Ame in 2010)
Sep - Alcon
Oct – London Expo
Nov – Auchinawa (alternate years)
Dec -

Please note that this is not an exhaustive list but it does show the main established conventions and some of the larger UK anime related events.

Ideally even if your event is in a different part of the country you should avoid having your event take place on a date that clashs with another. While this is not always going to be possible you should do all you can to avoid the dates of larger events such as London Expo which pull in over 40,000 people as it will quite likely effect the number of people attending your event.

You also have to consider any economic or other factors that may have an impact on the time you hold your convention. For example if you look at the listing above you will notice a lack of big events shown for Januray, December and June. You won’t find anything big in December because people will be spending their money on Christmas goods. There’s nothing in January because people are wiped out from Christmas spending and June is free because most of your target market is in the middle of Exam season.

Getting people to come

As mentioned previously people are notoriously wary of first time events so you are going to need time to drum up interest in your event in order to secure as many sign ups as possible. As such this guide recommends that you pick a date at least 12-18 months in advance of when you want to run, this should give you sufficient time to generate interest. It should also give enough time for you to sort out your event properly.

By scheduling your event that far in advance you will also be able to advertise your event at other established conventions or host some Q&A panels to put the word out. Most conventions are happy for other conventions to do this, just make sure to contact the appropriate convention committee ahead of time to organise the details.

When advertising your event always make sure the advert is in the right place and that you have the relevant permissions, for example if your putting up a post on a forum make sure it’s in the relevant section for events or conventions and you’re not breaking any board rules. If you are unsure about something don’t assume but ask the people in charge for clarification.
Even if they say no at least you will have made a good impression as a polite and courteous organiser, word of mouth is a very powerful tool and if you come across well they may recommended you to someone else who is willing to pimp your event.

For the love of god do not just randomly bug people, be it sending out mass emails or handing out leaflets on the streets you will only piss off your prospective attendee base. If you’ve got adverts advertising your event in relevant real world and online locations people will come to you.

Make sure you have your website and payment systems up in good time if you’ve got people clamouring for more info or better yet to sign up and hand over there hard earned cash you need things to be ready for them.

Final Advice

Well that almost concludes this general guide to starting an anime convention hopefully it will help prevent or mitigate the kind of fuck ups that often afflict those who foolishly walk down the convention organisers path.

Remember that the UK anime community is generally a very friendly place and it’s always worth asking other convention committees for any words of advice. Be aware though that they often get morons who have not thought their shit through asking “Zomg I wanna run convention can I haz help plz” on a regular basis. Often with nothing more than a half formed idea and nothing else, which is frankly unhelpful and achieves nothing. But if you go to them with concrete plans and something they can actually give advice on they are more than happy to help.

Before bringing this to a close this guide offers a final warning, though the UK anime community is a friendly place as with any interest or community there are always going to be some opportunistic or less desirable elements. The community freely gives its advice and time to help out new conventions, be wary of any person, group, company or organisation who in return for there help asks for your convention to be listed under their “brand”. The majority of UK conventions and events happily cross promote one another and operate under their own names without any over arching banner organisation to tie them together.

At the end of the day your convention should be able to stand on its own two feet, if it can’t then you shouldn’t be running it in the first place.

Have Fun Smile
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Post by Panda Thu Aug 31, 2017 5:56 am

Have any of you staffed before? Just so we know what we're working with. I've been staffing around 10 years and chaired a few events.

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Post by seastarsADMIN Thu Aug 31, 2017 9:22 am

I have volunteered before at different CONs. My sister who is also helping, ran the My Little Pony meets in Cincinnati for 7 years and has offered expertise and advice to help us navigate this. My brother owns a Game Card company called "The Gathering Site" so he has some experience attending Cons as a vendor and networking. I also know the owner Mr. Fay from the old Yotta Quest store having grown up playing Magic there. I have over 10 years of customer service experience. JunPlavsic has been attending cons for a long time and has stepped up to help brainstorm and commit to getting this going.  This is going to take at least 18 months of preparation, networking and saving the money needed to rent a venue etc...
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