From: mcgrew@dropout.rutgers.edu (Charles Mcgrew)
Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors,alt.paranormal
Subject: Re: Eastern UFO Symposium
Date: 7 Oct 92 19:03:41 GMT
Followup-To: alt.alien.visitors
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.


	JLS19@psuvm.psu.edu writes:
	This is a call for ideas, volunteers, speakers, workers,
	locations, helpers, attendees, any and all who want to get
	involved!  Please reply either via private email or let's get
	this discussion going here, alright?


... well, the first thing you're going to have to look for is
sponsorship, so you have up-front money.  Hotels, for instance,
require a lot of up-front money to reserve convention space.  So,
typically, do universities for large projects (universities also
typically require a recognized organization, to deal with).  (Both
will require signing of contracts, making you and your sponsors
legally liable, etc, etc.).  Up-front money will also be required to
provide funds to pay for transportation (if necessary) and lodging for
your major speakers.

   Up-front money can come from several sources.  (Up-front money is
the money required *before* you can get money from attendees -- the
money to actually get the conference "off the ground".)  Your sponsors
(you might try FUFOR, MUFON, or CUFOS, or more local groups) might
fork over some, sale of vendor tables (which is why just about every
such conference has 'em), or other pre-event fundraising (selling
t-shirts, etc.)  This is not a fun thing.  You may have to go into
debt, and hope ticket-sales will bail you out.  (The world sf
convention in 1988, I think it was -- the last one in Baltimore --
went into the hole in a big way, and the convention organizers were
responsible for paying it off.  It took years...)


   After you get the up-front money, you can contact "name" people,
since the more of them you have the more likely it is that attendees
will fork over the bucks.  Also, the more "name" people, the more
likely that vendors will purchase tables.  

   Then you have to assemble a staff to make sure everything works.
This includes assigning people to make sure your speakers don't get
lost, and actually get to the place they are supposed, technical
details like microphones and slide-projectors, TVs, VCRs, and
electrical power (if you're at a hotel, they'll offer to do it all for
you, at union rates.)  Then there's having tables and chairs in the
right place at the right time, printing programs, badges, handouts,
and a myriad of other paper products.  Endless details.


   Then the conference.  Don't expect to see anything or do anything
but fight the fires of chaos, since you won't have thought of
everything, and the programs will probably arrive late, printed
in Swahili.  Hope you get some volunteers who will work for you,
because you'll discover that half your staff has beri-beri, and
you need 20 extra people in addition to do the things you didn't
think of.

   If it sounds like a nightmare, it can be.  There are, of course,
a number of experienced cadres in this sort of thing -- they put on
regional, national, and international science fiction conventions.
(There are also professional convention folk, who put on the big
Star Trek and Beatlefest-type conventions; they typically are 
well-bankrolled, and know how to do stuff.  They also take on
volunteers, so you might want to try volunteering for the next one
of these (professional or non-professional) conventions in your
area -- for instance Philcon is coming up...)

   I suggest you talk to the "Philcon" folks -- they're local to you,
and they put on a fine convention every year.  They have a lot of
experience in this regard, and can give you sound advice.  You may
even wish to make your proposed conference a part of Philcon (next
year), which would give you a huge leg up on the mundane details, and
give them some interesting programming.

Hope this helps,

Charles
Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors