Wondering a bit about Nine Worlds' business plan

[major_clanger]

I was initially a bit sceptical when I heard about Nine Worlds (very ambitious plans from a group seemingly without major con-running experience) but saw that the organisers were getting a lot of writers and fans I knew on board and was impressed by some of the ideas they seem to have. So I've joined, as has S, and we look forward to seeing how a

Comments

[gaspode]

I don't think they are paying all the guests as such. I assume they are working on the expenses model. With that number of guests they wont all be around all weekend (I suspect we are looking more at the 'Appearing At' type of guest you get at things like Kapow rather than the Eastercon style guest of honour - that won't apply to everyone - some will be being put up and some may want a fee but not all). Most of them are London based as well so traveling is minimal. Assuming they get the number of attendees they are looking for that kind of model is easily sustainable. They will have to be carefull with some media guests - but others will do it for free - like our Game of Thrones guests did at Olympus.

[ladymoonray]

I've seen some of the figures and the basics of the hotel deal, and it doesn't look problematic to me at this point. I believe guests are well aware of what they're being offered, which is fairly basic. The £10k kickstarter figure should provide enough to cover it, and they're well over that already. As a programme head I even have a budget, though it's not very big.

[despotliz]

Well, memberships for guests are effectively free, and most of them are London-based so I'm guessing it's just free membership + a bit towards travel and food for the non-actors, and then maybe a bit extra for a couple of big name guests, and possibly if you're randomly asking on twitter you need to ask fifty big names to get the couple who want to come along... Assuming your venue gives you free function space for selling sufficient bedrooms, ten grand should go a reasonable way towards a few big name guests. Although I doubt it will get you Hiddleston.

It's certainly a different way to go about doing this, although it might push problems down the line if you get big and lots of authors want to come and all of them want to be guests, but that's maybe not the worst problem to have.

[surliminal]

Cor - if it's free memberships for anyone with a Twitter a/c I will go look :-)

[dougs]

They were at redemption_con, promoting, and I took some time to encourage them to seek out Eastercon-style conrunners, to sit down with them and have a chat about How Things Work. I really hope that they do so -- there's a substantial community of Eastercon-style conrunners who will be at Bradford, many (most?) of whom are keen to see new people in the field, and are keen to see them succeed. I hereby encourage any conrunners who are approached by these guys to be approachable, encouraging, and helpful.

[gaspode]

they may well have already done that ;-)

[cobrabay]

I had a long chat with them in the bar at redemption_con, and I think what they are trying is interesting, they have some good ideas and seem to have their heads screwed on. I've supported the Kickstarter.