| Lostcause 2010: On the cheap |
[Jan. 3rd, 2008|10:54 am] |
If I ever ran this thing, it would start real small. One of the things I have noticed, and my info is a wee bit old so this may be even harder, is that cons don't "break even" until the third one or even later. The cost involved may be more than I can handle, and I don't feel right charging my pals something obnoxious and insulting like $250 for admission (plus hotel and travel). Nor do I want to put friends, some of whom have already had this horror happen to them, invest in a convention that will never pay them back.
I would also like to state that it would start out a lot like TCEP (see, I am stealing ideas from FanTek and TCEP... I have no shame). They only have a few function rooms. I would probably start with 3. A lounge area, a gaming area, and an area for events that would interfere with the other two rooms. Maybe this would save money. I am not sure how many functions rooms one can get free with X amount of rooms sold, or if they even do that anymore. Obviously, if I had any merchants, they'd be stuck with gamers. I might stick an art show in the lounge.
I'd borrow a lot of my equipment. It would be relatively ghetto. Not only because I can't afford to buy or even rent a nice HD TV for videos, but the storage costs would also be difficult off-season. I suppose certain things I could use for personal use, like an HD TV, but I think that would be suspect if I wanted go 503(c).
Food worries me. Hotels shove fistfuls of revenue down their gullet with catering. Back in the day (for me, 1980s), con suites were a staple for any con. Staff suites provided staff with free meals for their hard work. Then the real estate market tanked in 1987 due to a significant tax law, and suddenly, you couldn't roll revenue loss into property, so hotels had to be profitable. Nowadays, hotels have all sorts of rules about food in their favor. You have to have massive leverage and a little palm greasing just to have a staff suite. Some cons still manage to hold onto a con suite, but many have to pay an exorbitant cost. Hotel want you to eat at their restaurant or have you pay $2.50 for a mini soda and $3.00 for a bag of chips. Many won't even allow pizza delivery past their front door. I'll have to ask TCEP what they do since their food is a private room you just have to know about somehow. Even past the hotel's greed, even if I had a Bag of Holding, I don't know if I could afford to put enough food in there to feed a staff. But a lot of this worry is based on ignorance.
All moneys made and spent would be listed publicly. This way, people can't claim I am financing some ulterior purpose. Man, if I had a nickel for every rumor I heard about Bruce's millions, or Katsucon paying 6 digit wages... oh, wait:
$1.25 = Nickels earned from rumors about FanTek and Katsucon's revenue
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$1.25 TOTAL REVENUE (projected)
Another issue about money is the 503(c) option and make the con non-profit. My goals would be simple: any money left over (after reinvestment) would be donated to science education for elementary school students. I would even attempt a scholarship program for those who want to pursue science as a major. The convention would even be tax deductible. Of course, getting a 503(c) is not like filling out a postcard and sending it to Mickey Dolenz for a photo, no. I think it requires donating limbs to a pit of alligators while tap ancing and writing sonnets in assembly code. |
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| Comments: |
for someone that has NO interest in running a con... and is begging for people to talk him out of it... and the realization that perhaps you cannot afford to hold a convention in the first place... you are doing a WHOLE lot of research!
Good on ya man!
Not trying to nitpick, and wouldn't, if it didn't matter.
The designation you'd be after, if you're foolish enough to do this is 501(c)(3).
BTW, you're not forbidden to make a profit under this designation. You're just not a *commercial* enterprise.
You don't exist, as a business does, to make money. You'd have some ostensible mission, and that mission could be the event itself.
And no, these papers are not quite easy to file. But they are not nearly as impossible as they are rumored to be either. In knowledgeable hands, they are routine, and I can get you in touch with people who have that knowledge, except of course, that you probably don't need them, 'cause you're probably not going to do this anyway.
The main thing with the 501(c)(3) is to be able to show the educational value that is part of the event as well as the educational value of any proceeds used (the scholarship fund, etc)
Having the art show is a good point, especially if there is someone - like artist(s) there to discuss their art with viewers
when it comes to dealing with the hotel - beg, cry, plead with the hotel liaisons from other cons to not only give advice, but to get one of them to 'go with' as the mouth piece while you take notes - and regardless of their Assurances - Get Every Word In Writing!
One way to insure that attendance stays low and the hotel is cheap us some place like Red Roof Inn, Super 8, you know a hotel that has only one or two function fooms to begin with, cheaprooms on a daily basis and a FREE Breakfast Bar and a McDonalds out front - they won't know what hit them.
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/56246891/10315210) | From: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) millefailte
2008-01-03 07:01 pm (UTC)
Re: The Cheaper the better? | (Link)
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And the Hotel might be fully booked for the first time in years and we can Freak the mundane Truckers - that and some of the small hotels also have small indoor pools - FEN SOUP!
Have we scared you out of it yet?
thought not.
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/23110285/1152760) | From: ironkite
2008-01-03 07:06 pm (UTC)
Re: The Cheaper the better? | (Link)
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When I took my pool operators license test, we had to do a calculation on "body load" for pools and hot tubs.
So for fun I applied the same calculations to the Fredrick Evecon pool / hot tub. The hot tub was supposed to have been drained and scrubbed every 2 hours, the pool should have been shocked in 20. I counted your average fen as 2, sometimes 4 people, depending on odor. It was scary, and I never went in the pool or the hot tub again, regardless of how pretty the girl was.
| From: millefailte
2008-01-03 07:12 pm (UTC)
Re: The Cheaper the better? | (Link)
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Yes and he could call it the
Cathulurarium - swimm at your own risk
KEEP the name Punky, KEEP the name.
Sooooo many puns, soooo little time
From: wolfdancer
2008-01-03 07:05 pm (UTC)
any chance you can get some one to back it? | (Link)
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Like a Raido station or even the SF Station? Or a book store? part backing for advertisment can help a lot.
But then it might get too big.
You might still check into local talent. Too small can not aford it. too big will want it to be too big.
We've run five 100-or-so attendee Conterpoints in small hotels, the last three in a nice Woodfin Suites in Rockville. If we didn't actually break even (and I'm not sure, not being the treasurer), we did not take a huge bath. And that's with a slate of invited guests. It should be possible to run a true relaxcon (no guests) of the same size or a bit larger and easily break even.
Just for reference, the Woodfin has a 160-person capacity main room (divisible in three parts) one suite that can hold 40-50 people and one suite that can hold about a dozen. The function space rate is not tied to hotel rooms or food functions. It's basically a business hotel for the surrounding biotech and IT firms, so it's only too happy to fill its space with other functions on the weekend. We even bagged it in June which is high wedding season--when most hotels won't even talk to anyone who can't cough up tens of thousands of dollars. | |
