How To Not Run An Anime Convention
Remember: This is how to run a bad convention!
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Have we helped you plan your con?
Then please link to us from your convention's website.
Running a good anime convention takes a serious amount of work, time, and energy. Running a bad one is easy! Here's how:
More to come!
- Start with no experience. You don't need it! It's easy to figure out how to run a convention behind the scenes, how to not have enough money to pay for your conveniton space, how to pile-on lawsuits, and how to ensure your attendees have a terrible time. If you have seen how a convention is run behind the scenes, you might know how to prepare against these situations, and you wouldn't want to do that.
- Work to compete with another convention. Your new con will definitely have none of the flaws you found with the convention you want to compete against. You won't have to worry about not having enough Japanese food in your Consuite - you probably won't even have one!
- You can have a social life too! (Unless you only socialize with people who make a life out of going to conventions). Running a convention won't take much time, so you'll have plenty of time to do other stuff.
- Expect a billion people. If you don't estimate high attendance, then what's going to keep you motivated. You might want to underbudget, though, if you have less than 20 people working on full time public relations.
- You can get rich! Convention attendees want to pay big money to go to an anime convention, so you can charge a fortune, spend little, and keep it all for yourself, you lucky person! Try not to worry too much when you can't find any guests that will pay for their own airfare or a convention center that will let you in free.
- Make up guest names. You can tell everyone that such and such guest will come - they won't be mad if they haven't actually told you "Yes" yet. Well... maybe.
- Announce your dates before you have a location. Finding a hotel or conference center that has your dates open will be easy - as long as you have time to check in at least 5 states.
- Don't spend any time asking for sponsors. You won't get anyone to sponsor your first year convention... well actually, this one can be tough. Make an email list of 50 companies and ask very politely for free stuff (nobody gives away money these days) in exchange for being listed as sponsors.
More to come!