I've sometimes responded to that question with, "What, are you bidding?" Of course, everyone answers that question with, "No!" In fact, what most of them asking the question really mean is, "When are you going to go take on another $50K in debt to put on a convention for me?"
The Bay Area is wonderful, but in includes a whole lot of really insular people who will not or cannot make the substantial investment of time and money to go out there on the bidding trail and convince people that your bid is serious.
And that travel is vital. The Columbus bid, which had decent facilities and an excellent price, was hampered by lack of visibility. The modern campaign requires you to be on the campaign trail at certain spots, or people won't take you seriously. I think some folks think the bid campaigns pay for all of that travel. They don't. Oh, Bay Area in 2002 did pay for a couple of people to travel relatively short distances a couple of times (never me; I figured that people would accuse me of lining my pockets at fandom's expense if I asked), but most of the time it was people who were spending their own money to go to Far Off Places and promote us. I, for instance, flew to Ad Astra in Toronto once to promote San Jose. Now, it was a relatively good deal on Northwest Airlines, but it was still around $500 in air and hotel for a weekend trip to Toronto. They couldn't believe someone would actually travel that far. A lot of people in the Bay Area couldn't believe it, either.
You have to be a little bit unhinged to go bidding, I think.
no subject
The Bay Area is wonderful, but in includes a whole lot of really insular people who will not or cannot make the substantial investment of time and money to go out there on the bidding trail and convince people that your bid is serious.
And that travel is vital. The Columbus bid, which had decent facilities and an excellent price, was hampered by lack of visibility. The modern campaign requires you to be on the campaign trail at certain spots, or people won't take you seriously. I think some folks think the bid campaigns pay for all of that travel. They don't. Oh, Bay Area in 2002 did pay for a couple of people to travel relatively short distances a couple of times (never me; I figured that people would accuse me of lining my pockets at fandom's expense if I asked), but most of the time it was people who were spending their own money to go to Far Off Places and promote us. I, for instance, flew to Ad Astra in Toronto once to promote San Jose. Now, it was a relatively good deal on Northwest Airlines, but it was still around $500 in air and hotel for a weekend trip to Toronto. They couldn't believe someone would actually travel that far. A lot of people in the Bay Area couldn't believe it, either.
You have to be a little bit unhinged to go bidding, I think.