So You're Thinking About Hosting a Con...

How to Put on a Beauty and the Beast Convention

updated 2024.8.5

Your Con Team & Helpers

Your Con Team

Did we mention: You need a team! Much of the early work (selecting a convention hotel, for example) can be done by you alone, but you really, really, REALLY need a team you can depend on to help you pull off a convention smoothly. It’s lovely to have helpers who are new to the process, but it’s also imperative that you find an experienced fan or two to round out your core team. Divvy up responsibilities. Coordinate with each other. Be grateful, and lavish in your praise for those whose hard work is making your job easier, and allowing you to better enjoy the whole process. Everyone will thank YOU when your convention goes off without a hitch, so you need to mention your team members so everyone knows the success wasn’t achieved alone.

Your con team should also be a buttress against small problems that happen AT the convention, helping you resolve them smoothly. For instance, all con team members, just as the con chair, should put themselves last – if there is a meal mix-up and one of the con team can resolve it by giving up her choice and taking another, it should be done without complaint, or if there’s a seating issue on an add-on trip, the first to volunteer to fix the problem (giving up a seat, etc.) should be a member of the con team. They should support you and you should support them in every aspect of con-running. Knowing you have their backs and they have yours is imperative, so choose your team amongst those with a proven record of support and those with a sincere desire to learn and work hard on behalf of making the convention succeed.

Ask for Help

We are privileged to be part of a fandom that includes many talented, helpful, and generous fans. People are often willing to lend a hand if you ask. Some of them are named in this document, but many more exist and are willing to help.

As a con chair, you have a LOT to do. Any opportunities you can take to spread the load are a good thing! Besides, working collaboratively is very rewarding. (It probably goes without saying that you want to have an appropriate level of trust for each of the people in these roles.)

Depending on your skills, abilities, strengths and preferences, you probably want to get a helper to fill these roles:

Conzine editor

Dealer room manager

Art show manager

You could also pretty easily give these roles to another person:

promoting your con: If you're a shy introvert, having an enthusiastic extrovert compose and send your announcements might be fantastic! Obviously, they'll need to be in the loop about what's going on.
merch: It doesn't have to be you who contacts a vendor, makes the order form, collects the forms and money from fans and receives and sorts the items. But you might want to participate in the selection of items and setting of pricing.
add-ons: If you can get fans to suggest what they would like to visit, it takes some of the guesswork out of what add-ons to offer. If you can't, gathering options and posting a poll could be helpful. And again, this could be a member of your team, not you. You don't have to be local to buy tickets or rent buses or the like. Anyone present can check fans in when they board the bus (so long as they have the list of who's going.)

your con program: If you know this is not where your strengths lie, getting members of your tream to gather and invent the pnaels, games, entertainment and other activities at your con might be a good way to go. This is arguably the most important part of your con, so choose wisely.

Here are some examples of things you can ask of all attendees:

Panels/activities: Ask registered fans for panel suggestions. If it’s an idea they really like, they may even be willing to host it. If you aren’t getting enough volunteers, contact individual fans to discuss the possibility of them hosting a panel – suggest a topic yourself, even. (Asking for help can be hard, but it's one of our tunnel values; embrace it. The worst answer you're likely to get is a polite refusal; positive replies are much more likely.)

Prizes: Ask attendees to bring a prize or two for Beast Bingo and other games. Not only does this spread the load (and the suitcase space and/or savings on shipping), but it also increases the variety of prizes. (Plus if everyone brings a prize they would like to win, it increases their odds of playing.)

Tote bag items: Ask attendees if they’d like to contribute items for your tote bags. Have them check with you (or someone on your team in this role) so you don’t wind up with 3 people supplying the same item. A month or two before the con, let people know how many fans are registered so they know how many of an item to bring.

Table decorations: Ask attendees to sponsor the decorations for a table. If there's a theme you want them to follow, let them know right away. Table sponsors could take their decoration home with them if they like (less cleanup for you) or perhaps donate them for your charity auction (even better!)

Donations for the art show and dealer room: You may inherit some items from the previous con, but fresh items are essential - most attendees have already seen the items leftover from last year - and didn't buy them!

A few weeks before the con, remind people about these things, and about anything else you may want them to bring, music for their talent show number, for instance.

Virgin Wrangler

In recent years, Teresa Batby has been our convention “Virgin Wrangler” to provide extra attention to our con newbies, who may be unfamiliar with other fans or with our conventions. Try to determine how many con virgins you have in attendance and consider some activity to orient them to our convention experience. It’s nice to identify them as con virgins on their name tags or even with different color lanyards, so they can be easily spotted and welcomed.

If you want to include Teresa or another fan in this process, be sure to ask them well in advance.

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