Events – Page 6 – Steven Savage

Con Report: Kin-Yoobi Con

August 8, 2009 by Steven Savage

I just did my fan-to-pro panel at Kin-Yoobi con, in Hayward, CA. My second year there – and the last presentation of my current panel structure (a new one is in development for the fall).

THE PANEL:
The panel area was noisy this year due to the architecture of the place. I had about the same attendance as last year (about ten people), and this time I was armed with increased handouts as well – all put in nice plastic folders (these will be up on the soon-to-be-added site library). The panel went pretty good – most interesting was the reaction to the advantage of having fans help you move – I guess a lot of people there had thought about or had had to relocate.

Met a lot of good folks there, chatted with one after the panel who displayed his self-created flash games (including a dynamite enhanced Tetris). He actually had them with him on his laptop – an interest idea that I think could also pay off in an interview.

THE CON:
The con was a bit disorganized to start, but then everything fell in line. Kin-Yoobi has a good energy to it and it was VERY friendly. People chatted, hung out with friends, or made new ones. It skewed to the college age crowd, with some older and younger fans.

A few things stood out:

The gaming area was in a hall – this made watching games easier
Since the campus had limited lunch facilities, the membership fees paid for a free pizza lunch that got brought in and everyone just went at it. THAT was neat and friendly – everyone just hung out eating pizza. It felt like a big PARTY.
The dealers had a lot of fan-artists and fandom-merchandise, kind of doubling as an artists alley. Very nice

So I had fun, met some great folks, enjoyed doing my panel, and plan to go back next year time permitting! More and more I like how the con's developed an intimate hang-out-with friends atmosphere.

– Steven Savage

Convention Ideas: Roundup

August 4, 2009 by Steven Savage

This is a compilation of all the posts done on this blog about adding “fan-to-pro” elements to conventions. I will be updating this over time.

If you wonder why conventions are a big idea, I did an entire book career events at cons – and the reasons why I did it explain it better than anything!

GENERAL:

The list of Profan Panel Ideas.

SPECIFIC SUGGESTIONS:

Convention Types:

Comic Cons – Comic cons have a unique foundation – but also are evolving n ways that career-minded fans can take advantage of.

Guests:

Invite guests that aren’t ‘typical’ – but are of professional interest
Invite local guests that are relevant to people’s career interests
Invite recruiters
Invite business owners.
Invite people from local or local branches of professional associations.
Invite and involve student associations.
Invite retirees who can share unique perspectives and experience.
Invite a range of talent and experience on the same panel, so you can get different perspectives.
Invite people with a part-time fannish business.

Events:

Throw a networking event.
Involve your Attendees.
Have a career table
Advanced Portfolio reviews
Visit a local business
Do events for parents, teachers and mentors
Do events on certifications.
Focus on tools.
Focus on what NOT to do, or other failures and mistakes.
Address must-use technology specifically and in general for progeeks!
Have attendees come together to make actual product.
Go and have a little fun with career-oriented gameshows and other entertainments.
Do events that focus on part-time businesses.

Organization:

Miscellaneous

Try a Minicon or a Proto-Minicon.
Try doing other events year-round.
Leverage local workshops for help and even entire events.
Add career-oriented prizes to your various gameshows or and events.
Explore different kinds of ways to bring people job information – video, webinar, and more.

CONVENTION SPOTLIGHT:

Ani-Magic, the Autumn Dream – Making a convention an entire professional-skill-building experience.
Anime Saint George – Finding good trades for guests, diversifying professional guests, and keeping people informed on how to break into industries.
Anime USA – Leveraging geographic advantages, specific deep focuses, and having a staff with professional ambitions and experiences.
Daishocon – Getting speakers that wrote “how to” guides and paying special attention to teaching people how to break into careers.
Erie-Anime-Experience – Tying history, guests, and ideas together.
Hal-Con – Cultivating diversity on all panels, and working with guests and attendees for unique topics.
Iowa Icon – Leverages classic ideas, an intimate setting, and specific focus.
Mobicon – Leverage your guests and keep your staff primed to develop good profan events.
Odyssey Con – Covers areas of professional writing not everyone thinks of, and “subcontracts” events from other conventions.
Queen City Kamikaze – Calling on local talent, local education, and making career-specific events.
Templecon – Trying a few things no one else tries – including some contrarian elements!
Tigercon – Making guest-sharing deals and adding academic elements.
WindyCon – Following in the steps of WorldCon and doing manuscript review for writers.

– Steven Savage

Convention Idea: Career Tracks

July 15, 2009 by Steven Savage

My original column on how conventions could invite more "career" guests (legal reps, marketers, special effects teams) along with their "name" guests generated a good deal of feedback from various people. After some though, I've decided to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and flesh out other ideas on how conventions and similar fan/geek events can encourage professional development as well as fun. There's no real endpoint to the series – and I'm always looking for new ideas.

For this column, I want to focus on another way to make conventions skill-and-career building as well as social and fun – a career track at a convention. I've seen a few ideas like this implemented from con to con, and wanted to discuss my ideal version of how they could be done.