How the hell did a month pass without me posting?

[lysistratah]

Well, hardware crashes and multiple 50+ hour work weeks for no dough might have something to do with it. That and the stupid creeping feeling that if you're away too long, you have to catch up instead of just move along. But mostly multiple hardware crashes and no money for a new computer. Grr. Hardware

Comments

[tarchannon]

Sadly, no inside ideas here on increasing profit for a con, but clearly *someone* is making money. All of the Cons I've been to had a decent cover charge, there were a lot of vendor booths, a lot of cash chaging hands for (admittedly highly overpriced) irresistable goods, and you had to pay an arm and a leg for either a higher tier ticket, or a very expensive photo for signature. And I'm not necessarily suggesting replicating a standard sci-fi con, but maybe something more focused (a single show) or something that you could get rolling on a regional level, like a round-robin board game tourney, where contestants pay an entry fee. There could be a couple featured games and some looser sessions. It should not be a ton of work, and could rake in some cash. Other ideas are themed dinner nights, murder mysteries (guests mindgle with hired actors), casino nights. i'm sure there are local companies that have rentals waiting for an event coordinator to manage. Coordinating bar and bat mitzvahs can be profitable, too. As someone that used to help run an events company, we did all kinds of things to turn a buck - I'm just throwing ideas. :D

[lysistratah]

I appreciate throwing ideas my way! Tis greatly appreciated.

The plotty part of my brain is trying to come up with something that could evolve into my Lebowski Fest. Still not sure what, but it needs to be something I'm passionate about and which other people will eagerly anticipate.

I'd quite seriously love to hear more from you about running an events company.

Sorry about my early cynicism regarding cons. Everyone one I've worked for has lost money and I just don't have that luxury. I shall think more on other one-shot yearly gathering of nerds, though. This city currently has zero cons and zero "real" fan groups, so there should be an opening there. Theoretically.

Other than posters, the intertubes, and word of mouth, how did you promote events?

[tarchannon]

oh, to Clarify, my partner and I ran a small company (just the two of us), where we typically rented out services out to other people that were doing events (aka established businesses) that needed help for special events. We lived in a lrge metro area, so there were plenty of folks that could use my partner to fill in for vacations or busy times (or between regular employees) in the floral and wedding business, so he was ok during the week. On the weekends (th-Sat), we had a lot of business doing flowers and prep work for parties and then the subsequent setup and takedown. I'm a scientist, so I already have a full time gig, but I could make an extra $10 and hour helping out even though I'm only marginally skilled. Of course, Cur, my partner, is nationally accredited. Alas, we stopped that when he got sick a while back, adn now he's changing fields into food writing. He liked the creative side of his old work, but weekend after weekend of working every weekend (and doing takedowns at halls at 2 and 3AM) kinda took their toll after a while.