the second question should be "How in the hell do we make attending a Worldcon affordable?"
The answer to this has two parts. One: put it in a hotel (not a convention center), within easy driving distance of as many fen as possible. Chicago is doing this, and you could also do it in New York or Las Vegas. Then, and this is the scary part unless you have a lot of cash you're willing to lose, lower the price to the point where all those fen will actually come. A $0 conversion to attending from a $50 or possibly even $40 voting fee, an at door rate in the $80-$100 range, and $20 supporting memberships that come with the right to convert to attending at the price difference in effect at time of purchase, would all be good starts.
One thing that's in the way of a $0 conversion is the way bids operate. But in an age of mostly uncontested bids, they could probably operate some other way, that didn't saddle the winning convention with the bidding costs.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2011-03-28 03:41 pm (UTC)The answer to this has two parts. One: put it in a hotel (not a convention center), within easy driving distance of as many fen as possible. Chicago is doing this, and you could also do it in New York or Las Vegas. Then, and this is the scary part unless you have a lot of cash you're willing to lose, lower the price to the point where all those fen will actually come. A $0 conversion to attending from a $50 or possibly even $40 voting fee, an at door rate in the $80-$100 range, and $20 supporting memberships that come with the right to convert to attending at the price difference in effect at time of purchase, would all be good starts.
One thing that's in the way of a $0 conversion is the way bids operate. But in an age of mostly uncontested bids, they could probably operate some other way, that didn't saddle the winning convention with the bidding costs.