Me rambling about cons

[olivermoss]

In 2008 a number of medium to large sized conventions in our area did staff swaps. Cons reimbursed key staff to go to other cons to cover skilled staff positions. The 2007 economic downturn cost us so many staff that major cons could not run at their usual size without help. You'd think that free time and resume padding would make it easier to get con staff, but in reality people are depressed and think running cosplay chess, chatting line management logistics and other stuff is a bad use of their time. So, a number of cons started doing complicated staff swaps where they sponsored trips for key staff to work cons in other cities.

I am mentioning this because, well *waves at state of the world*. A lot of cons are going to wind up missing two whole years of in person events. Outside of Creation and other industry run cons, fandom conventions are deeply reliant on people who can de-escalate conflicts, run sound boards, be trusted to be a guest liaison or green room staff, be trusted to drive guests in their personal cars, put together artist alleys, map hotel electrical systems, handle dealers, create graphics, lay out con books, negotiate contracts, handle sex assault reports, and so, so, so much more. I can't even begin to describe how much specialized labor goes into cons and how much big cons rely on people with 5-10 years of experience, or more. When those people drift, they are toast.

Oh, and I almost forgot the missing child training. People always want to do the opposite of what is good in those situations. Retraining everyone every year to try to keep them from turning into mall ninjas is a project in and of itself.

Roughly 90% of the work of a con through the year is recruiting, training, maintaining staff.

I don't know what is going to happen to fandom cons. Hopefully, they all have kept their staff involved somehow, rather than letting them drift off to new hobbies.

I don't really have a point. I don't want to see fan run cons fall apart. But in-person cons are starting to be on the horizon. Some of the conversations reminded me of how much some major cons barely managed to get through the staff losses from the 2007 financial crisis. Imagine looking a group of fans and picking the one to trust in the room with actors and booze? Pick out the one you'd tap to kick people out of closed areas. Pick the ones you'd trust to have the power to stop any attendee they'd like and not abuse that power to creep on girls?

Also, everyone *thinks* they'd be able to de-escalate a situation. Almost no one can.

Comments

[gingicat]

Most cons are running over Discord and Zoom. The technofandom list is very active.

[olivermoss]

The staffing needs for online and in-person cons are radically different. The bulk of the skilled labor needed for in person isn't needed for online.

[mistressofmuses]

I deeply miss the years where I went to cons frequently. At the time I was young enough that I didn't quite appreciate how much work had to go into them. (Also hard, because we tend to hear about the gross failures when someone gets assaulted or hurt, and not the successes where everything runs smoothly and the douchebags get bounced.) I hope that cons can pick back up and don't lose the skilled people needed to run them.

[olivermoss]

Me, too. How much work it is to build a base of people who can do line control and badge checks without ego tripping, being creepy or turning into mall ninjas is a lot on it's own. When you add in that a lot of medium to large sized cons have that that pick up Guests of Honor in their personal vehicles, the potential problems become clear. Certain artists and VAs will panic at the thought of having to arrange their own ground transport so budgeting cab fare doesn't always work.

[mistressofmuses]

Threading that needle to find people who are secure and assertive enough to reliably enforce rules, but who are also collected enough not to give into any power tripping is a WILDLY difficult thing to do.

[olivermoss]

Yes, yes it really is. I've literally gotten calls asking me to go to events to remove people because I am that good at it, but eh, other events needs to learnt to deal with it themselves.