Con(suite) Host/Hostess, and Contest Coordinator

Work prior to the convention weekend:

Even for the Host/ess, there are things to do before the convention weekend. Mostly helping to keep an eye on the forums, and generally being approachable for questions, suggestions, and problem-solving. It also entails working out with the staff just what sort of events/items/food (if any of the previous) there ought to be available in the room the convention weekend. If you are running the contests as well, you ought to have plenty to do in the time before the convention weekend really calls on your skills as Host.

On site:

The convention staff - YOU- need to run the Con Suite, maintaining control over it- not handing it off to another person or group of people to handle unless you trust them to run the room how your staff needs it. Besides the socializing function, it gives you a place to stash everything you’re not using at the moment. Also, if some of the staff sleep in there, it cuts down on hotel expenses.

The suite should be tailored to fit the needs and tone of your convention. Some Gatherings prefer that the Con Suite remain open to the attendees as close to 24-7 as realistically possible, seeing the CS is a place where people can go and just hang out, and/or kill time when they’re locked out of their room and can’t find their roomies. Or who need to find a staff member pronto for personal or medical reasons. (Find some people who like to stay up all night to keep the place open.) Others have used the Con Suite as the Staff Suite, using it more for storage of supplies and staff meetings and the occasional panel than for attendee use. Keeping it open all the time does not preclude asking most of the people to leave for an hour or so at a time if you want to use the room to host a mug-a-guest.

Various useful things the Con Suite cna be used for are story readings, table-top or console gaming sessions, and Movie or TV episode airings. (Using the Con Suite to double as a video room, if that is a concept you'd like to include at your convention.)Do remind your attendees that the room is on the same level as sleeping rooms, and to try to keep the noise down. For this reason, the Con Suite has proven *not* a good place to hold the late-night Blue Mug-a-guests (and the rooms usually prove too small to hold everyone who want to attend anyway.) Just use one of the regular Event Rooms for it, see if you can push back the time the hotel likes to lock up those rooms for the night. A good hotel will be accomodating, and may not even charge you a fee for this.

As Con Host or Hostess, your job is to make sure the Con Suite stays clean, ask people to leave if you need to empty the room for staff purposes, keeping an eye on the viewing material and equiptment (DVD players and DVDs, etc) to make sure they don't take a walk, and above all, comforting and putting at ease any con-goer inside or outside the suite who looks like they need it. To find out if they need help, just ask them; if they say they are fine, smile, nod, let them know where they can go to find you, and move on; sometimes people need nothing more than to be left alone for a bit.

To feed, or not to feed:

While the convention isn't responsible for feeding the entire body of attendees, if your Con Suite is open and encouraging people to hang out and chat, snacks are a good thing to have on hand. When you do your food shopping, remember to put a limit on how much food is out per day so that it doesn't all get devoured on day one and leaves you with nothing for the rest of the weekend. Decide what you want to get, and how much, before you shop. Regardless of if you decide you want snacks at the convention, you *are* going to want a couple of cases of bottled water, both for guest and staff use at least.

Don’t forget the Kosher/Vegan contingent when shopping for the con suite snacks. There are people who want to eat healthy, and there are also people who want chips and candy. Try to strike some kind of accord between the two. Don’t forget that some people also have personal/religious objections to diet & generic sodas in general; name brands are your friend.

Dorita, Cheetohs, Oreos, and M&Ms set out in a large bowl; Coca-Cola, Ginger Ale, Mountain Dew and the bottled water; you might want to throw in a couple packs of ice tea mix and have someone bring a couple plastic pitchers. Donuts and Danishes in the mornings are good, too, though again you might want to limit those to staff and volunteer consumption, especially if the food in the area is inexpensive and tasty. Oranges, grapes and carrots tend to travel well, too, as well as helping prevent scurvy in your attendees. ; )

No matter what you buy, some people will bitch about the food in the con suite. Buy stuff you like, in case you have leftovers. No one has the right to complain about free food anyway.

You may want to buy a couple of those cheap Styrofoam coolers for the con suite soda, and some plastic cups wouldn’t be amiss either. Put any actual perishables into the room fridge. If the room doesn’t have a fridge, or if it has a bunch of useless minibar crap in it, call the front desk and request a couple spares. (This is one of those room details you ought to clarify while you are still checking out hotel options, before you sign the paperwork.)

You may also, if your group like the idea of it, stock the Con Suite with other things of interest like board games, amusing gargoyles screenshots to caption, "round robin" style art or writing projects that can be worked on over the convention weekend, etc.

There should also be a message board in the room, whether it be a dry-erase board, chalk board, or a taped-off area of the wall and a large stack of post-it notes. Make sure that there are plenty of appropriate writing utensils around. This board should ideally be used by anybody who needs it, wether it is to post a note to a friend to let them know what room they are in, to say a general "hello" to the other attendees, or for staff reminders.

Contest Coordinator duties:

This is a job that has had surprising conflict surrounding it from time to time. First off, as contest coordinator, you have to realize that there are some contests that the convention may need in order to produce merchandise (like the Calendar) and there are contests that have to have due dates within a certain time frame. You alone may not be in charge of deciding when all of the contests start and end; that aspect may be a staff decision. Generally, any contest (and certainly any contest reward) you'd like to suggest the convention hold throughout the year or during the con weekend needs to be discussed between you and the rest of the staff. You may not have complete autonomy in how the contests are run, and you should be prepared to act with the rest of the staff accordingly.

You are in charge of keeping track of the entries that come in for all contests, for saving backups of entries (especially art and writing) to your own computer in case the email address implodes, for updating the rest of the staff on the status of each contest, for writing up announcements for new contests and generally drumming up interest year-round. This is very important; much as advertising is needed if one wants people to attend the con, you need to advertise the contest if you want entries.

A cheerful and outgoing attitude is a big help; such is also a big bonus for the Host/Hostess duties, which is part of the reason why the two are paired. Also, most of the contest coordinator's duties are over with by the time of the convention weekend, which is right when the Host duties really kick in.

If you are having contests during the convention weekend, such as AMV contests, you are in charge of having all the entries together, and making sure they can be played all at once.

* Contest Suggestions and Notes *

Auction:

Someone needs to be in charge of Auction Items, of soliciting donations and keeping track of them when they come in, of arranging certain items in lots and setting up the auction. Is it a silent Auction? You'll need bid slips, and a master sheet that lists every item up for bid. Is it a live Auction? You need numbered slips created to act as "bid paddles", and to make sure people sign up for and receive a number if they want to participate in the bidding. It really helps keep things organized to tally up everyone's purchases under one lot number and be able to give them a total amount due after bidding is closed.

Someone needs to be in charge of Auction Items, and the nature of the job and the work required falls closest to what the Con Host and Contest Coordinator are already handling, without being too taxing to include with your work load. Again, your staff needs to decide early on whose job this is, and make sure that person knows it.

This is of course assuming your convention has an auction, which has proven in the past to be a good way to raise funds to offset the convetion cost while providing things like original art or gargoyles merchandise to attendees who would otherwise not be able to acquire such items. One or two raffle items are also a good idea in addition to or in place of an auction, tickets to be purchased at the Staff dealer's table or Registration. Ebay is a good source for auction items, if people are not readily donating enough. Just be sure to make the starting bid price equal to or higher than the cost you paid for the item including shipping and handling.