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Message: <blockquote data-quote="sigfried" data-source="post: 636047" data-attributes="member: 1798">My ExperienceI Ran a Con up in Alaska called Unicon.  I did two of them before moving to seattle.  the first had around 300 attendies, the second around 250.1.  Its hard work, and lots of it.  You have to be excited about it and realy push hard.2.  Gamers are usualy eager to help, but are not self motivated.  If you find someone who gets things done without you riding them, be as kind to them as possible.  Good people are rare and should be treasured.  Everyone else you have to constantly pester, and praise to keep them motivated.3.  Call and talk to everyone you know, and every store in your area, and every gaming club you can track down.  Get them excited and get them involved.4.  Don't form a commites, just be a terrible tyrant in charge.  But listen to your compatriots and thank them for all ideas and suggestions.  Give people responsibility for parts of the con and don't countermand them unless they get totaly out of hand or overstep their bounds.  Think of the Con as a war and establish a chain of command, albeit a friendly one.5.  If your starting small your best bet for a location is a local college during the summer.  They have lots of space, private rooms, cafeterias, parking and all that good stuff.  If you get big enough and can charge enough entrance fee you can move to a hotel.  For most schools you will need to work with a gaming club or students at the school.  Pretend they are running the convention and you can get a good rate.6.  Be prepared to spend your own money.  For unicon I fronted almost all the money (1K or so).  I got most of it back but not all of it as I had to give some to the club I was working with.  I ran my con as a 0 sum game.  If you want to do it year after year, try to plan on making a bit extra for seed money next time.  Eventualy the con can fund itself if you do well.7.  Promote the convention relentlesly.  Work especialy hard to get people to run games at the convention.  Often the #1 problem at cons is not enough games for the players to play.8.  Talk to everyone about the con, you can never tell who will be interested or what group of people they know that might help out.  Get comic fans, anime people and anything else related to join in the fun.9.  When people bitch about how the con ain't all it could be, invite them to get on board and help out.  Either they will put up or shut up.  Both are good.</blockquote>

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