I Am Not Bidding

[kevin_standlee]

And remember, as an ex-Worldcon chair, I have an permanently-paid-up Get Out of Conrunning Free card. Therefore, I can muse about such things and the $20 bills y'all toss at me as bid-starters bounce off me like I was rubber.

After reading this post, it occurs to me that a Westercon at John Ascuaga's Nugget could do worse than to use a steampunk-style mascot named "Sparks Nevada."

The real challenge with a Westercon in the Reno area is that I have yet to find a hotel that is right-sized the way the Sacramento Hilton is. Although I've heard some (sometimes justified) complaints and lukewarm reviews of Westercon 66, overall I think the fact that we "owned the hotel" and had slightly too little room meant that the social aspect of the convention was much better than facilities that have dozens of rooms, thereby allowing Programming to Never Say No, resulting in 27 program tracks, each of which has five people on a head table and two in the audience.

(It is possible that if WC66 had had 50-in-60-minute panels (instead of 60-in-75), they could have put in a few more slots; however, there still would have been a lot of saying No. I like those fifteen-minute breaks myself, and I was impressed at how many panels really did stick to 60 minutes instead of trying to use 80, the way so many 50-in-60s try to make 70-minute panels and don't get out of the way at 50 minutes.)

The Reno/Sparks-area hotels I've reviewed so far (I can't go into a hotel without sizing it up for conventions) are all too large. We could make something happen in them, but the 800 people we expect for a Westercon could easily vanish like a drop of ink in a barrel of water at most facilities. The reason Westercon 66 worked as well as it did was that nearly everyone in the building was One of Us. That doesn't work when there are thousands of other people there while your 800 people are struggling to find each other.

Comments

[hazelchaz]

Will anyone in Sacramento be hosting another convention at the same hotel?

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Not that I'm aware of. That was the hotel in which Sacramento's last general-SF convention (Eclecticon) was last held, back in 1991 (or was it 1990? I've forgotten now). But most of the conrunners who organized things like that either moved on to other things (many of them ended up on the ConFrancisco committee) or gafiated.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

Haven't the foggiest. I don't think it's likely, though. It's been decades since there have been conventions other than gaming, comic and anime conventions (almost exclusively of the "game/comic/anime shop runs it" variety). Most of our sort of conrunner types from Sac work on bay area conventions.

[hazelchaz]

That's disheartening, I'm also disappointed that the Kintoki-Con people didn't come out to network at Westercon.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

You know as well as I do that there's a big chunk of Anime fandom and conrunning that just doesn't want to cross over...

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

I've run head-first into the fact that my local costuming groups will not show up to the local anime conventions, despite the fact that many individual members will attend as anime fans with no visible costuming-group affiliation. There are costumes three to the inch at the average anime con, so maybe it would be a good place to recruit people interested in costuming? Nope...

[hazelchaz]

I managed to convince some of Costumer's Guild West to run our Costume Repair Station at Animé Los Angeles. They get to work on their own projects when it's slow, and a parade of costumers visit them all day. They put out some CGW brochures, and count it as part of their Outreach efforts.

[delosharriman]

Being told "you're not welcome, you're not Our Kind Of Fan" often enough will have that effect.

It's less severe where I am than most places. For one thing, there's a lot of crossover from the local SF conrunners to the anime cons, particularly A-Kon, which has a respectable-sized SF convention (including writer's track) buried in it. And still, the smaller of the two main anime cons here is scheduled against Lone Star Con, & from what I can tell, neither group of organizers thinks that's a big deal.

I am, to put it mildly, concerned, & not just because this means that I have to skip that anime con again this year. Denvention was convenient for me, because I could do both!

[rono-60103.livejournal.com]

Since getting back from Sacramento, I've been trying to figure out how we can even make Westercon 68 not feel like it is rattling around at the T&C.

We went with the T&C because the only other proposal required putting SanSFiS on the hook for multiples of $10k if we lost.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

Does the "wing" you're using at the T&C have any sort of lobby/bar space conducive to unstructured socializing?

That's what was really missing at Seattle, the lobby was crap, the bar was very enclosed and the sleeping space (and two party wings) was spread all over the place. San Jose had a way-huge lobby and that giant ring hallway on second, so it was easy to diffuse, but the party space was decently compact.

Talk to Mike Willmoth about Litchfield Park. It was a big, sprawling property (a golf resort) with lots of self-standing sleeping areas, but it didn't feel as diffused. He might have some ideas that could help you.

[mark e. horning (from livejournal.com)]

The Wigwam (Litchfield Park) wasn't Willmoth's fault, Craig Dyer was con Chair for that one. When Mike ran a WesterCon he used the Tempe Mission Palms. People either loved the Wigwam or hated it. Mostly this seems to depend on how far from the function space their room was. My room was on the far edge of the property, and walking to the con space in 100+ heat really sucked. Being on the far west edge of town it had the advantage of being about an hour closer to LA for folks driving out from Cali but that's about it.

The Mission Palms on the other hand is a great space. 2-story so unless one needs to use the elevator it's easy to simply walk up a single flight of stairs. The Con Suite and party rooms all have a patio that opens out onto the pool deck, which allows both indoor and outdoor gathering spaces, lots of configurable meeting rooms which are mostly co-located. It does have the problem of having one large meeting room off in the hinterlands behind the restaurant (just like the Sac. Hilton). Having an outstanding Irish Restaurant literally 10 feet from the hotel does not hurt either...

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I thought the Tempe site made for a fine compact Westercon. I also liked downtown Tempe. I didn't like being stuck there two extra days due to a vehicle failure, but that's not Westercon's fault!

[redneckotaku.livejournal.com]

I am looking to possibly start an adult (21 plus) anime convention and that's the second highest priority is finding the right space. The highest priority would be finding the space at the right price. I can understand walking into hotels and thinking that same thing.

[rono-60103.livejournal.com]

That is one symptom of con-runners disease. It may be one of the early signs.

Not being able to say "no" is the sign of a more serious case.

[redneckotaku.livejournal.com]

Long past the point of initial symptoms of conrunners disease. I am ending a long term conrunning relationship after this con and want some new challenges. I admit I'm a strange fen.

[delosharriman]

That's definitely becoming more common. With more mature anime fans today, I guess there are just a lot of folks who don't want to have to put up with the screaming fourteen-year-olds. I worked a small one (in a very minor capacity) a few years back.

[twilight2000.livejournal.com]

"After reading this post, it occurs to me that a Westercon at John Ascuaga's Nugget could do worse than to use a steampunk-style mascot named "Sparks Nevada.""

Is this the part where I tell you their hotel guy very aggressively courted me last year, to the point of showing up in Seattle to meet me? (As an Event Planner, you ninny!) - he's a nice guy ;>. I think the facility can be right sized because of it's amazing number of spaces.

(oh, and *volunteering*? That's clearly a critical case - but I've been called worse :>)