Phx Why do you not attend local Cons?

OK, here's the link to TusCon

I'm polling the TFF to see if they want to do something. Anyone in PFF let me know. I'll assume for now that Void and Mick will be busy.

 

Yeah, uhm, I'm sure thats a good way to put it

 

I first heard about local conventions from my local new and used bookseller, Adam's Books at the late Tower Plaza Mall, when I was a wee lad. I didn't actually attend one (due to monetary reasons) until the organization I was a member of in college went to a CopperCon. It was OK, but for $12.50 (our org raised money selling those 2-4-1 coupon books so that we each paid for half and the org paid for half of our memberships). I admit that I wasn't sure I wanted to go again for the full price. The convention was intimidating, from the "Con Virgins" panel, to the cliquish nature of the attendees and participants, to the remoteness of the location (the Holiday Inn SunSpree).

Flash forward a few years to when a few friends happened to be together at the same time who usually weren't. We started talking about how conventions either needed improving or replacing. We pulled out a white board and started making plans. Many of those plans eventually fell by the wayside, and most of us have found different things to involve us within the convention circuit. But we did find things to involve us, in different ways, to help improve the local conventions. Working from within is easier than starting from scratch. Along the way, we've seen that others have come to the same realizations. Many people want to see local conventions get better. The trick is getting people to go from wanting things better to making things better.

Two years ago the DSG, a mere Sniper Detachment at the time, won Best of Show at the CopperCon XXI Masquerade. They made people feel excited about being Star Wars fans all over again. The next year at CopperCon XXII the DSG, RL, and PFF all attended CopperCon and had a room all to themselves! Star Wars costume and prop displays abounded, and the FanForce banner was created (which should be circling conventions still). The excitement continued.

Also last year I was asked to do Family Oriented panels for CopperCon. I organized a japor snippet carving event, a lightsabre dueling event, and a Star Wars reading circle event. These were fun, even though none of the PFF attendees made it to any of them. This year, as Program Director, I made sure we had some fun things such as the LEGO panel, some media and costuming panels, and other assorted things. The sad thing was, most of our best ideas for panels went undone because no one wanted to sit on those panels. What an eye opener that was! No wonder most of our science panels are always NASA oriented. Every non-NASA panel has one or zero people interested in being on it. Every cool thing like Iron Costumer (similiar to Iron Chef on the Food Channel, but with an undisclosed costuming material) failed to make it to program because of a lack of interest. We have a few people with media and/or costuming experience here. It's a shame we can't lean on them to fill some new, exciting con events.

The Southwest Costumers Guild effectively puts on the Masquerade each year. Phoenix Filk Circle puts on the Filk Suite each year. United Federation of Phoenix sponsored some Star Trek guests one year. We have had the Death Star hallway for a couple of years now. We can make it worth our time to go if we try.

CopperCon XXIII was my first experience as concomm, and it was very enlightening. I was a last minute replacement for someone else, otherwise I doubt I would have ever had the opportunity. There are old school ideas within the concomm and there are new ideas. I think Lee did an awesome job of getting guests which would attract people. Is it SDCC or Gallifrey One? No. But it was a start. For the last several years the cons have stayed safe with Artist and Author guests. But I can remember when CopperCon had Science and Media guests as well. With the increased numbers and charity earnings, the non-profit group which hosts CopperCon is likely to let a future chair have more Media guests if their price is right. Perhaps next time a more mainstream sf show than FarScape (which until recent DVD releases was available only to cable and sa

 

Reading to kids would be cool! I'm all up for helping/performing for kids (it is my degree after all - theatre).

 

A few followup notes...

We are trying different things and we are at times limited by participant availablility and function space. Next year at LepreCon, at the Sheraton Crescent, we have a lot more in the way of function space and breakout rooms so we can have a real video and anime room that isn't one half of a sleeping room. Almost all of the con stuff in function space is all in the same area so it will feel more like a convention instead of being spread out at the Embassy Suites. We're working up in the hotel world. Ten years ago, we ended up in Casa Grande because none of the local hotels were interested.

The all three LOTR movies idea is something we could do at CopperCon, but can't really promote it due to legalities of public screening of movies. You can get away with it with a lot of Anime, but you can't legally show a movie or tv show in public. What I'm wanting to arrange with Harkins and New Line for World Fantasy is to screen all three extended versions of LOTR at the Valley Art during the convention (at the end of October next year that might be doable).

I don't know what promotional ideas were suggested and ignored. There may have been good reasons for it or there just wasn't anyone available to manage it. I chaired CopperCon AND did most of the promtion stuff because there hasn't been anyone else willing to do some of that stuff. We tried movie theatre slides at AMC Desert Ridge for $1200 and I know we didn't get that many people to turn out from that. I'm hoping we can work something out with Harkins next year on a charitable basis, otherwise that is just too expensive. We've tried print ads in New Times and The State Press with similar results. The best things we had for this con were the listings in The Rep and The Republic plus the Channel 12 Newscast on Saturday morning.

I agree we need to do more to make the cons more friendlier to first time attendees. What we really need is more volunteers to help with stuff like that, especially those with a fresher perspective.

We got a few people to attend specifically for the Farscape actors, but they didn't do much else at the con. That's a shame, because the other guests we had, Connie Willis and David Mattingly, were very good guests and had fun and informative panels. I picked Connie because of that and she did have a good turnout for most of her panels. When we had Peter David here, we had almost zero additional turnout for him in spite of doing lots of promotion at comic shops (including at-the-door discount if you brought in a Peter David written comic).

Lee Whiteside
SFTV.org Webmaster
CopperCon 23 Chair

 

The best things we had for this con were the listings in The Rep and The Republic plus the Channel 12 Newscast on Saturday morning.

Yeah, you have no idea how cool it is to hear first timers answer the question, "So how did you find out about the Con?", with, "I saw this guy." while pointing to Lancer in his Stormtrooper gear.

This really is the best route the Local Cons have I think, as far as getting the word out to "Joe Public", that something is going on. Grant it, not many folks always catch the morning news on a Saturday, but this last Con proved many did, and the small spots got them to come check it out for themselves.

The trouble with any sort of advertising is trying to figure out how to get your target audience, while at the same time trying to be as "Geek free" as possible so that 'Joe Public' won't be completely turned off by the idea. The "Warp speed to CopperCon!" ad that ran on Sci-Fi Channel a few years back really cranked it up to "Geek Factor Bazillion", and I fear that it turned away many, many folks.

Unfortunately, Star Trek suffers from the stigma of "Geek Fest". Now, Star Wars, on the other hand, doesn't as much, since most adults nowadays were children when the films first came out, and when they see Stormtroopers and Vader, that little kid trapped inside them gets downright giddy. I know this, because I've seen it every time I put on our gear and do an event.

How does this work? I said it before, and I'll say it again. Helmets. When the public sees someone in a canon Starfleet uniform they immediately think "Dork", because they can see that this guy obviously isn't William Shatner or Patrick Stuart. Seeing the person's face shatters the illusion for most people. When they see a canon Darth Vader or a Stormtrooper, they see the characters from the film. Why? Because they can't see thier faces. Simple as that.

The reason I'm going into all of this is because maybe the next time you might consider doing a commercial with masked or helmeted characters. (It doesn't have to be Star Wars either) This way, the illusion is kept in tact. The public sees characters, not fanboy "geeks" in silly costumes.

I think the Cons are doing a fine job moving in a new direction, and I thank Lee for continuing to give it his best to make these things happen.

He's right on the money about the Cons needing some new blood to help usher in the new folks. The only problem with getting volunteers is the compensation idea. One reason most folks don't volunteer these days is because the compensation isn't offereds to them until the next Con, a year away. Most people don't know where they'll be a year from now, so they decide that it's just not worth it to them.

Lee, let me throw something at you that I was dicussing with Jo Levy Sunday at the Con.

At Star Wars Celebration II, the 501st was used to work "security", escort duties, and other fuctions within the massive event. I volunteered myself, as did many other in the DSG. Here's the deal that was offered everyone, and I'll put it in CopperCon terms:

You pay full price to attend the convention, but you don't pay at registration, you pay at the volunteer area (wherever that may be).
This money is kept in a seperate kitty.
You work ten hours, and then, upon completion of your volunteering, you are refunded your money.

This way, the volunteer is rewarded for their service (relatively) quickly. Plus, this gives them incentive to finish the job they volunteered to do, and the Con isn't stuck with a bunch of areas that need volunteers , but no volunteers.

Personally, I see this as a win/win. The Con gets the volunteers it desperately needs, and the volunteers get to attend the event for free.

Is this idea logistically possible for the local Cons?

 

**bump**

 

Everyone has pretty much stated the same reasons that I have for not attending local cons. It's just too narrow a market. And I am extremely busy with school. I can barely make it to PFF meetings.

The one I did attend was fun because a. the PFF was there and 2. the 501st was there.