Fan To Pro - The Blog of Professional Geekery

Cosplay For Japan - Auctions Open

Want a custom-made costume by fashion designer Jennifer Bentley?  She's making not one but two, and giving the proceeds to Japan's earthquake relief fund. 

You can bid here or here .

For more info, see Cosplay for Japan.  The auctions will go from now until June 18.

The Kobayashi Maru....Sorta

“Never promise to do the possible. Anyone could do the possible. You should promise to do the impossible because sometimes the impossible was possible. And if you failed, well, it had been impossible.”
-Terry Pratchett, “Going Postal”

I always thought it would be great to have everyone face some kind of test they couldn’t possibly beat.  It’s like getting a tiny scratch on a relatively new car - unfortunate, but once it happens, you can finally stop worrying about keeping everything perfect.  Unfortunately, life doesn’t offer many situations in which success is not the #1 priority.  It can be daunting to venture outside your comfort zone, but if you never do so, then you will never stretch your boundaries.  Therefore, we need a place where it is okay to fail.

Go Farther: Anime Cons

So I discussed how I think Comic Cons can go farther career-wise, next up is a focus on one of my personal favorite: anime cons.  What do I think they can - and should - do career-wise in the years to come?

Well anime cons have a few unique traits:

• Despite being anime they tend to be multi-media and often cutting edge.  Anime's always had a hip thing going for it, even when it was being made fun.
• There's a heavy emphasis on creativity and use of talent - art, web-pages, costly, etc.  Go to even a small con and be amazed.
• The attendees also tend to be very technical - from programmers to being internet-savvy to digital art.
• There is, in my experience, more emphasis on professional development.  I'm not 100% sure why this is, but I should analyze it.
• People have a more intimate knowledge of the industries they're fans of.

So my take is that anime cons have a good foundation, but need to leverage what's really unique about them.  To do career events, I recommend anime cons:

• Leverage the diversity.  You can experiment with all sorts of career panels and events because, if your con is of any size, someone is probably going to want to attend these events.  This gives you a chance to find out what works best.  In short a decent-sized con is a great laboratory.
• Use the skill-development focus.  Many cons already do such panels, so adding a more professional emphasis to them - such as lists of professional resources and associations - would be a good idea.
• Try project-oriented educational and career events - from works at a con to a project outside the convention such as a group manga, novel, etc.  Since anime fans tend to be "product-oriented" this will help them and help your con's relations.
• Feel free to try more technical panels such as ones on web-design, programming, and so on.  You'll probably find a lot of response.  For extra fun, tie it into your own technical elements - such as if you use webcasting for events.
• Take your industry panels into professional directions, such as talking about trends, industry issues, etc.  There's plenty to cover in international media, video games, and so on.  You'll get a good response I'm sure.

Anime cons are already a pretty powerful package career-wise, with a strong cultural foundation.  Working with this will let you turn it into a powerful career engine.

- Steven Savage

Go Farther: Comic Conventions

So with Convention Career Connection out, I can't seem to step away from speculating on what can be done in the con scene to help people's careers.  So of course, I'm writing about it.  I've decided to analyze what more can be done at specific kinds of cons (in my opinion) to help people's careers.

First up?  Comic conventions.

ChibiCon and More

I just got back from my second year at ChibiCon, a small anime convention at Branham High School in San Jose.  It's a pretty neat idea; their anime club does a yearly mini-con with games, skits, and more.

I did two panels:
The Power of Brainstorming: This was a modified version of my usual panel which some of you have seen - with a new addition, applying the exercises to creating an anime/story.  The end result involved post-magical-apocalypse motorcycle gangs, a kind of Romeo and Juliet story, and an alien observer who had become stuck on earth (shades of Riverworld).  by the end of the event people were saying this had to be made.  Also Hetalia was involved, but we won't go into that.

The State of The Geekonomy: This is going to be a new feature at all or most cons Bonnie and I do.  It's a review of our trend-spotting, ala the Geek Scanner.  This went pretty good for the first time, though this was a condensed version.  It did keep people's attention, and I broke it up with some humor.  I think a half hour isn't enough time for a real interactive panel, but it was fun.  I think it'll be easier when I tag team with someone.

The con itself was nice and tight and simple.  I thought I'd add a few thoughts about it.

ChibiCon is a con run by a club thus 90% of the attendees are from the school or club; it is essentially a kind of club event done as a con.  However this idea works - it takes the "con concept" and applies it to a get-together.  People were joking and cosplaying and having fun, and it was obvious we were all enjoying ourselves.

Think of what a con is.  It's an organized series of events based around particular themes and interests that lets people have fun and socialize.  You could easily use the "con structure" to do similar events, turning your club or group's experience into a mini-convention, with all the benefits (and in some cases, less of the disadvantages).

I think this is something for a lot of us geeks, pro geek and otherwise, to consider.  We have all these examples of how to run interesting convention events, schedules, and happenings.  We know how to set up the LANs and organize the costly and run the videos.  Why not use that to build a fun event for your group or club?

And, to keep this progeeky, do some career events.  Hey, I'm available . . .

- Steven Savage

Profandom And Healthy Competition?

You go to cons and there is a cosplay competition.

Online there's art competitions.

Wargaming conventions have endless battles.

Fandom, for all its friendly nature, likes a good bit of competition.  it's fun, it's challenging, it's exciting, it gets people going.

So I've been speculating - could this friendly competition be used towards the cause of progeekery?  Could we channel friendly fannish compettion to help people in their careers?

Convention Idea - Student Associations

The round-up of convention ideas can be found here.

When you want guests and events its easy to focus on the professional side of things: professional fans, professional groups, professional lecturers.

Keep in mind that many of your attendees with be students, potential students, or people looking to learn more.

So for potential guests, events, and more start looking at inviting student associations.

Your local colleges will probably have plenty of selections:

1. There are those associated with particular professions or skills - writer's groups, artist's, etc.  They can provide people with information on what it's like to learn a skill or pursue a profession - and find groups they may want to join at a given skill.
2. There are those associated with colleges in general.  They may be able to speak on the virtues of a given college or institution.
3. There may be groups that have general interests (anime, SF) that can provide some broad and interesting insights.

The advantages of inviting student associations?

1. Speaking to the right targets.  Most student associations know exactly who they're for and what they provide.
2. History.  Many student associations have long histories that provide information, context, and connections.
3. Build relations between your convention and colleges.  Good student association relations can forge stronger relationships with educational institutions.
4. They are your audience.  There's a good chance the student association members are interested in or are already attending your convention anyway.

Next time you set up your convention's profan activites, don't forget the students.  You'll be missing out.

- Steven Savage

Convention Idea - Speak to Parents, Teachers, and more

(The rest of the Convention Idea series is here).

I love convention professional events, as you've pretty much guessed.  I've  certainly done enough in the past, and am always looking for new things to do and new ideas.

However I noticed one thing lately - convention events focused on professional issues such as writing careers, artists, etc. focus on the people doing the work and looking for jobs.  They focus in short, on the people who need the advice.

Convention Ideas: Meet the Teacher

The summary of the convention ideas series is here.

So you want to add more professional stuff to your convention or conventions.

Do you have any schools, colleges, educational facilities near you?  Then you've got a ton of potential guests right there.  In short, start inviting teachers, trainers, and so forth to your convention.

First, this is an easy way to get guests - odds are that the people in question will have some interest in your convention subject, if only tangentially.  This also means they may be willing to speak for free memberships, or just out of a chance to network.

Secondly, the teachers and educators may have great ideas.  The convention may give them a chance to make new suggestions, do unusual things they don't often speak on or lecture on, or try out new material.  You're going to the experts - who knows what they're going to come up with.

Third, the teachers and educators you invite may already have fantastic materials to use, hand out, or just plain sell (don't begrudge them a bit of cash here).  They'll likely come well-prepared, and may surprise you and your audience - there's nothing like having people attend a simple lecture on, say, writing, and walk out with handouts or a book.

Finally, the educators you invite may be grateful for the attention and publicity.  It gives  them a chance to be recognized, make connections, and try out some new things.

So next time you're asking how to make your convention more professional, go to one of the sources - teachers, trainers, and educators.

- Steven Savage

Convention Idea - Have Business Owners speak

The roundup of ideas for adding more professional events to conventions is here.

Want someone to speak about careers and opportunities at your convention?  Sure you can hope to get some of the big names to speak, get that oddball guest, arrange seminars . . . but you may be missing a great source of professional panelists.

People who already have fannish businesses.  Take a look at your Dealer's Room or Artists' Alley and youll find there's a huge amount of potential speakers on careers, options, and that often-talked of but hard-to-speak on subject of starting your own business.

Career ambition doesn't have to mean working for someone else.  And, yes, at times I see people with fannish businesses invited to speak on such things at conventions - but I think it could go way farther.

The guy whose been running a comic shop for fifteen years has a lot of insights.  The Artists Alley freelancer who manages to survive on her art is going to have knowledge to share few others will.  The couple who runs an anime memorabilia shop out of a warehouse with a tiny storefront is going to have a lot to speak on.

It doesn't even have to be someone whose living on it full time (though I would certainly make sure to try and get such people).  You may have a lot of budding talent, or people who have managed to mix their fannish and non-fannish work, who can speak and lecture on skills, career issues, experience, etc.  They don't have to have "arrived" at doing full-time fannish work to be people with things to share.

Finally, keep inviting such people back.  As their side businesses and personal businesses evolve, they can share more and more insights.

Your next big career panel may mean raiding your Dealer's room.  Go for it.

- Steven Savage