Fan To Pro - The Blog of Professional Geekery

KinToki-Con: Review Part 2

After reviewing KinTokicon in general, I wanted to focus specifically on their Progeek activities - and what your con can learn from them.

First of all, the convention right off the bat, first year, made sure they had a professional track.  They noted it specifically, noted the interest in their audience, and divided up events appropriately.  This was a classy and smart move - and it set the stage for future growth.

A lesson to learn here is that to really do a professional track - it helps to kind of just do it.  I also think calling it out gave the con a professional atmoshpere.

Secondly there was a nice mix of pro panels to start.  I think that's also foundational - you want to mix it up, within the limits of your audience's interests.

Third, they did something I want to see more of - they invited a college of art and design to have a table there.  The people were thrilled to be there and got a surprising amount of attention.  As I've said, I've seen this done before - but mostly at larger cons.  They did this from the start.

Toss on these foundational elements to a con already well-run?  Definitely hit one out of the ballpark.  I think they showed a lot of promise for the first year, but these two moves show an inclination toward professionalism I want to see more of.

Well, heck, I plan to be back, so I'll be there encouraging it directly.

- Steven Savage

A Look At HyperCon 2010!

So I went to HyperCon over the weekend, a convention thrown by local artist, art educator, and entrepreneur Bordin Marsinkul.  It was an interesting first con, I did some presentations, and I got to see some innovative ideas as well.  Let's take a look!

Convention Spotlight: Mobicon

The roundup of Convention Ideas is here.

Mobicon is a convention in Mobile, Alabama with a long history - it's in its 13th year and shows no sign of slowing down.  Mobilcon also takes its diversity very seriously, so its probably one of the few cons that you'll find that includes psychic readings, the Anime Tractor Pull game, and geek speed dating.

Of course, I had to ask them just what kind of fan-to-pro events they had.  It may not surprise you they thought of that too.  What's their secret?

• They leverage experienced con staff to make sure they get events both expected and innovative.
• A heavy focus on leveraging the guests' expertise in subject matter, and to make sure they cover other areas beyond the basics.  For example, their next convention will have guests speaking on indie film.
• Continuing the heavy guest focus by making sure the website contains detailed profiles, information, and even accessibility information.  Mobicon's big on guest involvement and makes sure guests aren't listed as just names and credits.
• Getting people from the dealer's room, the convention, other conventions, etc. to speak on their own career experiences.
• Making sure pros judge contests, which also encourages entrant-judge networking deliberately.

Mobicon's focus on making sure everyone involved helps build fan-to-pro content is one worth emulating.  I'm sure they'll keep surprising us more in the future - and I'll be watching.

(And no, I'm not sure what an Anime Tractor Pull is.  I'm afraid to ask.)

- Steven Savage

Convention Spotlight: Templecon

The roundup of convention ideas is here.

Templecon is a gaming convention in Rhode Island, though calling it a "gaming convention" doesn't due justice to the diversity of the convention.  It's a convention that started as a gaming convention but has expanded to include everything from live shows to bands to workshops.

Of course when I see a convention like that, you know I'm going to do a profile of it.  As you may also guess, it's a convention that has branched into "profan" panels for people who want to use their hobbies in their careers.  A few of these fit the convention's focus on doing things differently:

• Doing a seminar on legal issues in game development and publishing, exposing people to important issues too often ignored, in an area of career interest many forget.
• A panel on game development by actual game developers - an area that gets too little attention as far as I'm concerned.
• Assorted workshops, including those run by known authors, diversifying the convention offerings.
• Finally, the really unusual panel - a panel on why one does not want to turn their hobby into a job.  Now as much as I emphasize using their hobbies in their careers, I applaud a little bit of contrarianism.  Maybe sometime I'll make it out there and have a debate . . .

Templecon's constant growth includes a lot of profan panels and getting outside of focusing on "just gaming".  I'm looking forward to seeing what they do in the years to come, as I expect I'll learn a lot, I think they're a great example of keeping your focus while experimenting and going beyond people's expectations.

- Steven Savage

Convention Spotilight: Hal-Con

The Roundup of Convention ideas is here.

Hal-Con is a convention in Halifax Nova Scotia.  It's got a diverse set of guests and events, and when I talked to the staff, I found the diversity applied to their profan events.

Hal-Con's approach is to be open about new panels of all kinds, and seek a balance of fun and practical.  When I say open-minded, I'm quite serious - Hal-Con looks for and encourages diversity, and you'll find everything from your typical events to serious discussion of lightsaber handling.  They like to see what the fans and guests will suggests and have the courage to try.

This diversity also affects their profan panels in a delightful way.  Among their upcoming offerings:

• Multiple writing panels, playing to the author's strengths.
• A panel with model Drakaina (warning, some NSFW content) whose fannish interests led to her modeling for fantasy and SF works.
• Multiple filmmaking groups discussing their efforts, and even a filmed "nerd debate."

Hal-Con's open-mindedness looks to be their strength in producing pro-fan events.  This is certainly the first convention I've talked to with a discussion of modeling, and I somehow get the impression Hal-Con will find a way to top this in the years to come.

Over in Novia Scotia?  A fan?  Sounds like you owe yourself a trip to Hal-Con!

- Steven Savage

Convention Spotlight: Odyssey Con

The convention idea roundup is here.

For ten years Odyssey Con has been running in Wisconson, providing a diverse amount of events to the fannish community.  They're very much in the vein of the general SF/Fantasy convention, with a great deal of diversity in both events and guests.  Odyssey Con is one of those conventions that takes me back to my first conventions such as Atlanta Fantasy Fair, WindyCon, and other "super-diverse" cons.

They also work on serving their fan-to-pro audience with an equally diverse and interesting mixture of events.  Including a few ideas that may be useful to other people trying to do more career tracks at cons:

• First, they share tracks with other con.  They have an entire track from another convention focused on film and the film industry, including cutting-edge CGI (though sadly it appears that it may not be around next convention - if you're in the area maybe you can help out).
• They focus on very diverse areas for "profans" especially writing, getting beyond the same-old same old with panels on topics like writing for RPG universes and other things professional writers do - but aspiring writers may not think of.
• They also focus on taking people's professional skills one step beyond, with a panel on networking at conventions for professionals and potential professionals.

I was especially impressed with the attempts to cover various challenges facing writers and ways to make a living, as well as the networking events.  There's a lot to being a professional writer - and many things you have to do or consider to be a success and pay the bills - and Odyssey Con's programming staff knows this.

Odyssey is in April.  So if you're in Wisconson, see about going - or volunteering.  It sounds like it'll be educational and fun either way.

- Steven Savage

Convention Spotlight: Icon 34

The round-up of convention spotlights and ideas is here.

Icon is a long-running convention in Cedar Rapids, IA, so it's no surprise it came up in my continuing research on conventions with fan-to-pro elements.

In fact, Icon is one of those smaller, intimate cons with a serious pedigree.  Started by a University of Iowa's writers group, led by Joe Haldeman himself, it stays firmly rooted in its literary/writing background while expanding over time to cover more genres and media.

Icon stays old-school, delivering the kind of fan-to-pro events that never go out of style:

• It delivers a writer-heavy experience by having panels covering all sorts of writing aspects - starting out, presentation, and more.
• It goes out of its way to do events on how to get published in the first place.
• It's recently experimented on adding portfolio preparation for artists to their lineup, expanding the offerings available.  Many conventions do portfolio reviews, but preparation is often an area forgotten.
• It leverages it's smaller size (perhaps 350-400 people) to have intimate discussion groups and heavy audience participation. 

Icon hits the classic notes for writers by delivering a broad range of events to help them out - and isn't afraid to experiment and add new ideas.  If you're in Iowa - and if you haven't ALREADY heard of them - it sounds like they've got some good events, and know how to deliver.  I'm going to keep an eye on what they're doing as it sounds like they're looking to add new ideas . . .


- Steven Savage

Convention Spotlight: WindyCon

You can find the summary of the Convention Ideas here.

WindyCon is one of the older conventions in the United States (I attended one in 1986).  As I've been researching conventions and their "professional events" I was glad to go and see what was up with the convention.

WindyCon is a convention held near Chicago, currently held in Lombard, IL.  Indeed if you're a fan, geek, what-have you in the area, you probably know about it.

WindyCon's fan-to-pro events put a large emphasis on writing  - there are workshops, panels, and soforth for writers interested in science-fiction.  What really stands out is their manuscript review, modeled after the Worldcon Writer's Workshops.  This is something other conventions could definitely emulate.

It works like this:

1. Beginning authors send in manuscripts.
2. WindyCon arranges professional authors and editors to critique them.
3. There are face-to-face meetings between those who submit manuscripts and the pros themselves.
4. There's live feedback and Q&A.

This is a model I think could be extended to any number of profan activities - art, game design, website design, cosplay, etc.  It gives the experts time for review, gives solid feedback, and encourages a professional approach from the start.  My guess is it also would be good for networking or networking could be added to and encouraged at the events.

WindyCon has been doing this for several years.  It sounds like it's worth giving a try at your own convention.

Of course if you're in the area, you could also attend WindyCon and get the full experience yourself . . .

- Steven Savage

A look at Queen City Kamikaze

Part of my continuing series on ways to add more fan-to-pro content at conventions.  The roundup is here.

I made the acquaintance of the head of Queen City Kamikaze, a new anime-and-more convention in New Hampshire, while doing my usual convention research.  Set at a local high school (easy space, easy promotion), it's a new convention that promises to have a lot of fan-to-pro content, so I want to spotlight it.

What's up for QCK?

First, bringing in local talent to speak on career and related subjects.  The focus at QCK is to make sure that local people are there to produce more community involvement, sense of connection - and of course to give local talent it's due. One of the sponsors is even a local company with a national reach - they do GAMER Soda, and are a small-business success story.

Second, the convention is looking at an actual job fair.  This is a formative idea, but the hope is that local business and representatives may be interested in recruiting and/or speaking on jobs.

Third, art schools and similar local educational institutions are being invited to speak specifically on careers and classes involved.  This is designed to both promote them, and to give people a chance to learn more about career options.

QCK looks like they're mastering the art of recruiting and promoting locally, and getting both businesses, schools, and individuals involved.  The convention happens February 13th, 2010.  They're new.  They've got good ideas.  Go and attend - in fact, as I post this, there's still enough time to sign up and help . .  .

- Steven Savage

Convention Spotlight: Daishocon

Part of our continuing series on helping conventions add more professional and career events!  The roundup is here.

Daishocon is an anime and gaming convention in Wisconsin.  As you can guess from this being in Fan To Pro, Daishocon's head of programming has plans to make sure the convention caters to the fan-to-pro crowd along with the usual offerings!

The major innovation at Daishocon is to look at bringing in panelists who have written how-to guides - as opposed to people just speaking on careers, they're looking to bring in one or more speakers who have actually written books to help people in their careers - and who work in geeky areas like manga.

This is an innovation I strongly approve of - because there's many people who write on careers, art, anime, video games, and more.  Speaking on a career is one thing, but getting people who can write on it and communicate it is quite another.  This is an idea i'd like to see other conventions pursue.

Daishocon is also looking to host panels for "breaking in" to industries are properly represented as well - to make sure people get a good launch pad for their careers.

In central Wisconsin?  Give them a check.  I especially hope more "how to" writers get more attention in the con scene.  I am of course biased - but I admit it!

- Steven Savage