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]

I'm going to throw out an idea (that may go nowhere, but still): why don't you guys do a con? You are clearly very fanwired, so there are several possible ways to take this. Board/RPG game tournaments (aka DragonCon), slash writers, sci-fi cons, cons for specific fandoms, etc. I'm sure you can come up with a dozen sub-genres. And the nice thing is, in Louisville, you have nice weather, beautiful scenery, and excellent drivability from a lot of places. A cycle of 4 events a year could bring a lot of financial stability. Just a thought.

[lysistratah]

Oh man. I had to catch my breath after that.

You're right. It's a good idea.

In fact, it's such a good idea there's a running joke out here that I WILL eventually run a con. My denial amuses people

The problem is, it's REALLY hard to run a con for profit. Most of them end up costing the con-com a good chunk of thier own money to keep afloat. It's a labor of love.

If I could come up with ANY way to make it profitable, hell yes I'd love 4 semi-related yearly events plus some summer movie parties to pad things out. I'm completely dry on how to make something of the sort make actual money, though.

If you know something about this I don't, please, seriously, share with the class.

[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

[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?