by Garth Spencer
NOTE: I am always looking for corrections, additions and updates; if you spot errors and omissions below, please contact me at [email protected] so that I can update this page. – G.S.
Back in the mid-1980s I vowed to ask a lot of questions, gather a lot of materials, and construct a flexible, generally applicable guide to planning and running science fiction conventions, after seeing some people who needed such a guide. My plan was to draw upon the several guides written and maintained by several SF convention committees, and I did. But I also planned to make the flexible guide available to people who needed it.
They didn’t want it.
Granted, in the ten or twenty years I spent gathering materials, fandom changed and conventions changed, and most of all the hotel/hospitality industry changed, so a number of the important procedures for running conventions changed significantly. Of course I am generalizing from my experience of general-interest, fan-run conventions to the special- interest conventions for gamers, costumers, comics fans, fanzine fans and filk fans. My experience must somewhat dated, so be on the lookout for some assumptions that may no longer apply.
More importantly, though, I encountered a general lack of interest in a general conrunning guide that could be adapted for different cities, countries, and conrunning audiences. Maybe it was because I have never chaired a convention, so I lacked credibility. (That is strange, since anyone I knew felt free to critique the conventions they attended, and at least two fanzines had reported on conrunning procedures,.)
I could point out that I deliberately avoided a leadership position because it is beyond my capacity, and I said so publicly, but apparently that cut no ice. Well, that’s all water under the bridge.
By the mid-1970s, several individuals and conventions across the English-speaking world had set about compiling notes on the art of conrunning (ranging from Erwin Strauss and Worldcon committees in the United States, to VCON and Ad Astra in Canada, to other fans in Britain and Australia). The samples I have seen often start by defining the several departments of a convention, and the tasks they must attend to.
A few - such as an antique version of the VCON guide - outlined a schedule of the departmental tasks to carry out over a year, between the announcement of a convention and the setup before the opening of the convention. I had to reconstruct a detailed schedule and then found this effort was probably not even needed.
Unfortunately, a lot of important information been skimped in these conrunning guides, for a very good reason: conventions are proverbially hectic weekend events. The committee members are so busy before and during a convention, and so exhausted afterwards, that how they perform on the weekend is the least documented information, if the most critical.
Judging from a number of histories of science fiction fandom, science fiction conventions changed decade by decade, after their inception in the 1930s.
Different generations of science fiction fans expected and provided different things at their gatherings. When the first World SF Convention was held, science fiction fans were few and far between; they mostly knew each other by correspondence; and they had a strong desire finally to meet other people they could talk to. It was like living in a globally-distributed small village.
The point of holding conventions was originally for fun, not for profit or fame or a step toward some professional career. They seemed to proceed from the conviction that fans formed a community, and for a time, fans behaved that way.
So, originally SF conventions began as house parties for a few hundred of your best friends, at least in spirit. In practice, this meant renting a hotel and calling your gathering a convention.
This background explains some features of SF conventions which may not have made much sense, to the growing number of fans who entered fandom after about 1970; for example, attendees buying memberships in an event, and then contributing volunteer labour to it.
Conventions were not originally expected to make a profit, and it was gratifying if they simply made even, according to my informant Robert Runté (now Dr. Runté) in Alberta. The fact that they did begin to turn profits was a significant change, in the 1970s.
By the 1980s, there seemed to be a number of common features in fan-run conventions, in regions such as the Pacific Northwest. Probably this is inevitable, since the people who attended and the people who organized events in the region generally attended each other’s conventions. The common model had a lot to do with the rise of several local, or regional conventions of varying size, after a Westercon was held in Vancouver in 1977.
One common way to evaluate conventions was based on the "SMOFCon Game," in which one gained or lost people points, financial points, and goodwill points through the course of running a Worldcon. Points in one category could be parlayed to increase the points in other categories. Winning, or success, was defined as making gains in at least two out of these three categories.
It takes a certain amount of goodwill, or credibility, to attract congoers to a convention. After the first convention in a locality proves to be fun for the congoers, it can be held again, and quite likely attract a higher attendance.
Until the COVID-19 epidemic struck the world, a wide variety of more-or- less science fiction conventions were held on practically every weekend throughout the First World. Some were held only once, some were held just a few times and disappeared, and some were held annually for decades in the same municipality. Some specialized conventions rotated from one community to another, sometimes from one country to another – the World Science Fiction Convention, World Fantasy Convention, World Horror Convention, CostumeCon, Westercon, Potlatch, Corflu, ConComCon – and some drew four- and five-figure levels of attendance.
Fans of Star Trek, Star Wars, and other media franchises adopted a different model. You may think that conventions changed after the early 1970s with the rise of Star Trek fandom, and that it might have had something to do with such a change. You are entirely right. But it meant that Star Trek fans created an entirely new kind of fandom and adopted a new paradigm for conventions.
It is of interest to compare the Trek model of conventions with the fannish model. The emphasis was on the film show (later the videotape, or DVD show), costumes, and a dealers’ room. Panel programming was limited at "professional" conventions (for profit, held by TV/film studios) to the same few actors holding the same interview discussions on stage each day.
There were even people who thought big, studio-run conventions were the only “real" conventions. The Fan’s Little Golden Guide to Throwing Your Own Con (an undated handbook produced by the “Star Trek Welcommittee," presumably dating to the 1970s) defined conventions as follows, and I quote:
1) The professional convention. This is usually a very large convention run by people who may have a passing interest in Star Trek, but whose real love is money. They are often promoters and their goal is $$$. To our knowledge, no professional con has made money. 2) The fan-run big con. This tends to be smaller than the pro con. Although registration fees, events, and other hoopla are the same, since the con is run by fans, they keep more of an eye on fan- oriented panels … Size ranges from 500 to 17,000 attendees, with the majority running around 5,000 to 8,000 … 3a) The fan-run fan con. This is a smaller con, by, of, and for fans. There are no stars, no writers, just fans discussing fannish topics and enjoying themselves … attendance [runs] between 100 and 500. 3b) The fan-run neo con. While the fan con appeals to active fans and its purpose is to stimulate interest in Trek and fandom, the neocon is for acquainting new fans with fandom …
This was a far different perspective than I had gained. I knew about fan-run conventions, as I referred to earlier; and the overwhelming majority were regular annual events in their city, whether they were general-interest conventions such as Norwescon and Orycon, or special- interest conventions such as Foolscap, Potlatch and Corflu (for fanzine fans), comic cons, gaming cons, mediacons such as Star Trek cons, Star Wars cons or Stargate cons; and there were conventions that moved around, ranging from Worldcon through Westercon to national conventions such as Natcon and Canvention.
Question: What Kind of Convention Will You Hold? If at all possible, stop and ask yourselves, “What kind of convention are we interested in going to, let alone organizing?" More to the point, what kinds are potential congoers interested in, in your town, and what kind of conventions already happen in your town?
It may have occurred to you that even when SF conventions drew only about 300 or 400 people, they were rather complex events for fans to hold. People have characterized SF conventions as boat shows, clan gatherings, professional conferences, and businesses; really, they have been pasted together from all these events, like unnatural heraldic beasts … and consequently, even when they were small events, they became a bit complicated.
It may also have occurred to you that SF conventions would take a good deal of planning and preparation to hold, however capable the committee members (although some people appear not to have realized how much preparation there was in the background). An impartial observer, aware of things like event management and PERT and GANTT charts and professional project management, might ask inconvenient questions about business plans and liability insurance.
As I was exposed to it, the first steps in organizing a convention – even a small convention, planning for under 500 members – had to start organizing at least a year in advance. It required canvassing local hotels with respect to their room rates, function space costs, other amenities, what hotel contract terms they offered and what letter of understanding/down payment they would require; and above all, what concessions they would be willing to make to the convention committee. I emphasize this because there appear to be serious changes, in the 21st century, to the requirements and flexibility – or lack of it – on the part of hotels.
It became a Really Good Idea to see how many such events are already going on in a given city, and determine whether there might be an unsatisfied interest group large enough to support a separate convention. (A short-lived convention in Ottawa in the 1990s discovered the hard way that there was not quite a large enough niche for them.)
As several convention organizers put it, convention organizers must have at least:
Which Dates are Available, and Preferable? Among other kinds of research, finding out what conventions are already held in your area is essential. Obviously, you don’t want to hold a convention on the same weekend in the same city as another convention, or even within 100 miles of another event. (Some mediacons run by studios have done that, to out- compete fan-run events.)
Print Advertising. In the 1980s, before almost everyone had a home computer and well before the Internet was a common mode of communication, conventions advertised in newsstand magazines such as Analog, Astounding, and Isaac Asimov’s SF Magazine; and in trade magazines such as Locus and SF Chronicle. (The latter is sadly now out of print). Some fanzines dealt in SF news, such as the dates, venues and attending authors at upcoming conventions. Conventions also distributed flyers, bookmarks, posters and handbills in bookstores, comic stores, even game and record stores. It was common for conventions to hold promotional room parties at other conventions to offer advance memberships.
Memberships/Registration. Unlike professional conferences - for which professional delegates would pay a lump sum for attendance, airfare, accommodations, meals, drinks, and other entertainment - attending SF conventions solely meant paying for a membership, and the attendee would cover the other fees out of pocket. Since a great many SF fans were liable to be lower-income twenty-somethings, like students, some people would cut expenses by packing four or more people into a room meant at most for two, or by eating only two meals a day.
The Registration Table. At a convention hotel, after registering and obtaining your room key, you would find a separate convention registration table set up in a hall, or room. (Navigating a hotel to find the convention events has always been an art, despite the efforts at signage and at presenting a map in convention publications.) At the table, at-the-door memberships would be sold, preregistered members would validate their memberships, and both would get membership badges and bags; the bags would contain at least program books, and probably pocket programs and bookmarks from bookstores and convention flyers and other promotional material.
Daytime Programming, Events and Rooms. During the two or three days of the convention, there would be two or more rooms assigned to panel programming, including Opening Ceremonies and Closing Ceremonies, but ranging from writers’ workshops through themes in SF and fantasy, comics and gaming, to changes in science and publishing, and new films and series coming to TV and movie screens. There would also be rooms devoted to ongoing features such as film/video showings, an art show and/or a dealers’ room, and a consuite or Hospitality Suite, featuring refreshments. In the 1980s it was not uncommon to see both a wet bar and a separate “dry" room in Hospitality. (I gather that at British conventions, the hotel pub serves as the consuite.)
Evening Room Parties. In the 1980s it sufficed to have a room, a bathtub full of melting ice and beer and cider and other drinks, food- like substances on the dresser and table, and a theme such as “Join the Royal Swiss Navy!’, or the “Beaker People’s Libation Front" (read that carefully), or the Dorsai Irregulars, or some other club; or “Worldcon “89 at Myles’ House!" bid, or some other convention. Some droll fans held “Louie, Louie" parties in the 1980s, following a TV show’s suggestion to adopt “Louie, Louie" as the Washington state anthem. (This is what you call fannish humour.) Some room parties, such as filk rooms, simply drew musicians to sing and play and entertain.
However, it became progressively harder to hold room parties at all, as the 20th century ended and the 21st century began. Evidently hotels generally resisted what they saw as encroachments on their sales of alcohol (or meals).
Other Crowd Pleasers. At some point Pacific Northwest conventions began to feature evening dances, on Friday and Saturday nights. Other conventions, I gather, featured Regency dances, or dance and combat demonstrations by the Society for Creative Anachronism.
In the fabled days of our forefathers, some fans liked to push the boundaries and go skinny-dipping in the hotel pool or have clothes- optional hot tub parties. A community of hot tubbers drawn from Vancouver and Portland and Edmonton would foregather, and they would visit each other’s conventions and endeavour to have hot-tub parties there. Moscon (in Moscow, Idaho) was once regularly held at a hotel with a closed jacuzzi room. The former things have passed away, of course.
Other departments include:
Artshow – an Artist Liaison records relationships with exhibiting artists, indexes items of art and suggested values, organizes the artshow room and panels for hanging space, tracks the sales and bids on items marked for auction, oversees the art auction, returns items of art and revenues to participating artists at or after the close of the convention, and details a volunteer to check members’ badges and bags when they enter and leave.
A/V Tech/Logistics/Operations – under these or any other names, the technical equipment department handled microphones, cameras, loudspeakers, audio and video recording equipment, and in later years, any computer equipment and Internet connections at a convention. Chair – the Chair of the convention committee sets and carries out policy, receives information from all department heads, monitors memberships, other revenues, equipment, volunteer manpower and other resources and their use by departments, and is the final authority on whether to install or demote a department head, eject a convention member who commits a disturbance or crime and refund their membership, and when and whether to pull the plug on the convention.
Consuite/Hospitality – the Hospitality Coordinator is responsible for supplying the suite with refreshments and organizing volunteers certified to serve food and drinks, and for tracking expenses and donations. (Note: there seemed to be an occasional but persistent notion going around that the “consuite" was a closed party held at the end of the convention; in fandom as I knew it, the consuite or Hospitality suite was open to all members, both during the convention and during the “Dead Dog" party at the end of the convention. Your mileage may vary.)
Cosplay/Costume Masquerade – the Masquerade Coordinator, by this or any other name, organizes a costume show, and may organize half-time entertainment.
Dealers’/Hucksters’ Room – The Dealers’ Liaison records relationships with exhibiting dealers, organizes the dealers’ room and tables for their exhibitions and sales, and details a volunteer to check members’ badges and bags when they enter and leave.
Film/Video Room – the head of the Video Room organizes a room and equipment to display movies, and details a volunteer to check members’ badges when they enter and leave.
Gaming Room - the head of the Games Room organizes a room and tables for games to be played, and details a volunteer to check members’ badges and bags when they enter and leave.
Guest Liaison – the Guest Liaison contacts potential Guests of Honour and panelists to attend the convention, organizes their panels and schedules and appearance at opening and closing ceremonies, and may organize a Green Room with refreshments where they view a program and prepare for panels.
Hotel Liaison – the Hotel Liaison contacts potential hotel venues which may host the convention, arranges a letter of intent with a hotel, arranges a committee tour of the facilities and photographs of the rooms and function spaces before the convention, negotiates a contract regarding rooms, function spaces, damage deposit and scheduled payments, oversees the setup of equipment before the convention and strikedown after the convention.
Publications – Conventions in the 1980s generally issued a couple of progress reports during the year of preparation, a program book (including a map of the hotel, a program and articles about the theme, the GoHs and program participants, plus commercial advertising at the convention), plus an updated pocket program which also went in the members’ gift bags. (This is one of the departments I personally know about.)
Publicity – Conventions in the 1980s generally advertised in the city with posters, handbills, and bookmarks at bookstores, comic stores, video stores and music stores; took ads or placed listings in newsstand SF magazines, as well as appearing in fanzine listings. Of course, times changed, and a lot of publicity effort shifted to online media. This is a problem if people can’t get word that a convention is in progress, outside of certain channels of communication, or can’t buy memberships because they can’t find a physical address to send cheques, and don’t have e-mail or won’t use e-transfers.
Secretary – The Secretary’s duties involved accumulating membership records, reporting revenues and the progress of departments to the Chair, and generally minded other people’s business. (This is one of the departments I personally know about.)
Security – At some conventions, Security simply means inexperienced volunteers assigned to check that only members are admitted to the consuite, artshow, dealers’ room or video room. At other conventions, Security may be prepared to break up scenes of sexual harassment, attempted theft, or alcohol-fueled violence. At still other conventions, Security acts like licensed bullies.
Treasurer – The Treasurer opens and maintains books of account, receives and documents and deposits revenues, issues payments requested by department heads and cosigned by the Chair, and makes interim and final financial statements.
Volunteers – The Speaker to Volunteers is supposed to receive members’ offers to volunteer their help at the convention, and assign them for a set number of hours to Security or A/V Tech or Hospitality or whoever needs a pair of hands.
Some conventions will have additional features, such as a Fanzine Room (something I used to hold), a Kidcon, a Green Room where GoHs and panelists can meet, be briefed and prepare for panels, a SFWA Suite (as at Westercons and Worldcons), etc.
(My complete critique of 1980s conrunning is available on request.)
A HREF="https://www.vcn.bc.ca/~garth2/welcome.html">Return to "Across the Fandomension" welcome page