Caveats:

This is not about the details of running a con. This is not, per se, about funding. This is not about how to handle all-volunteer staff. This is not about how to get the hotel to act like professionals. This is very theoretical. But it's also very practical and if more people in fandom would keep it in mind, alot of their tactical issues (losing staff, departments up and quitting, arguments between guests, even hotel problems) would be reduced. (Reduced, not eliminated.)

This applies only to the sort of 'popular entertainment' con that StellarCon falls into. Also TriniCon, DragonCon, WorldCon, SheVaCon, etc. Hell, it even goes for things like FroliCon. Anything with guests as a draw.

Herewith 'John's Theory of Cons '. (Cue Moses music.)

There are three legs to a con. The con-goers, the con-staff (including con-com) and the guests. Each of them have needs and each of them have something they bring (supply). Order of importance is relative to the individual. And I may have missed some needs and supply at each point.

Con-goers:

Needs. They want to meet with like minded people, have a period (length dependent on the con) of entertainment/education and meet people that they've only previously known from writing or screen. Some want to pick up some tips on writing/breaking into publishing/films, whatever. Inside access/information. In the case of actors and such, they want to get a couple of seconds of their time to gush and get a picture signed.

Supply: Funding for the con, the 'energy' of the con to a great extent (sort of the fuel where the con-staff is the engine) and supply of emotional needs for con-staff and guests. (See ego-boo.)

Guests:

Needs: Increase to degree relative to their market in market. (Minor in my case and any other relatively established 'pro' author. Major in small press/self-publish. Which is why they want to go to cons so much.) Similar needs to con-goers, interact, etc. Interact with other professionals . Meet new people (important for writers who spend too much time alone). Get ego-boo from being stroked by con-staff and con-goers. Get paid to travel. In the case of fully paid guests, well, get paid. If they're signing pictures at $20 a pop, that means having people who want their autograph at the con.

Supply: They're the entertainment. They're the actors in the play. They're the people who give the writing seminars. They're the main thing that many con-goers (the people that pay the bills) come to see. Probably a plurality and possibly a large majority. Depends on the con, the guests, etc.

Con-staff:

Needs: HIgher level of access to guests. There is a positive emotional charge for most people in 'creating' something as part of a combined effort. (And an even higher one from getting it right.) Ego-boo from both higher level of access and stroking by con-goers and guests. (I'm not knocking any of these by the way. Cons for all but small-press/self-published people, unpublished writers and fully paid guests are all about emotion. There's no money to be made by pros except actors signing autographs.) Positive emotional charge from higher level of control in con than in "real life." At highest level in fandom it's how they make their money for the year. (Even in 'non-profit' cons.) Order depends on con-staff/con-com member.

Supply: They're the framework of the con. In good cons the con-staff and con-com provide the thematic basis of the con. They will, at a tactical, operational and strategic level, make or break a con.

So we get to examples of how this does and does not work in 'RL.'

One of the things that con-com rarely considers, because they don't understand it intellectually, is the importance of thematics for synergy. (I know, that sounds like a damned mission statement. Bear with me.)

Consider a con that is just starting out. Fifteen people have been meeting to discuss SF every week for five years. Maybe a touch of gaming thrown in. Maye they started by playing D&D and shifted to just talking. More people have 'accreted' to them, especially at the annual party. It's getting too large and too long to call a party anymore. They decide to start a con.

There are always internal differences but generally it's become a more-or-less homogenous group. Think Harlan vs Heinlein. I'll take them as Heinlein people then discuss Harlan people.

I will skip difficulties with funding.

:-)

They decide that they have enough contacts in the local SF world that they can get the word out. They sit down and start hammering things out.

'Where are we going to have it?' 'Who are we going to invite?'

It's at this point that a con can often fall apart. In this case we'll say they tend to be fans of positivist space-opera, no fantasy, no erotic horror etc. Touch of hard-SF. 'Things may be bad, now, but we're working to make them better through improved technology and sufficient firepower.' Bab5 vs current BSG for example. Heinlein vs Harlan.

They automatically invite writers and media people (assuming they can afford the latter) that they are fans of . And when the word gets around, people who are like minded tend to attend.

This creates positive synergy. They get all three legs balanced. Similar con-com/staff, similar con-goers, guests who fit the bill.

This can be taken to an ugly extreme. You then get what I call 'incestucons.' The same core of 20 people who've been meeting since Christ Was a Corporal and the same guest list and maybe some gamers tacked on to pay the bills. Don't care for them, either.

But, in general, this is what a 'good' con will effect; getting positive synergy.

Panels at such a 'Heinlein' con are going to tend to be things like 'Are blasters realistic?' 'good and bad designs in space armor.' 'How to kill characters.' Liberal weanies in SF.' Along with, possibly, some writing panels.

Panels at a 'Harlan' con: 'Three Dimensional Characters; the secret within.' 'Nihilist space-opera; the new wave.' 'Dissection, deconstruction and critique of A Boy and His Dog.' 'Those horrible blasters and how can we get rid of them?' 'Masochists only: An hour of being verbally flayed by our Master. (AKA An Hour With Harlan Ellison.)'

(Note: hyperbole in both directions.)

Send me to a Harlan convention and I'll be a goat. As should be. Those people do not enjoy my sort of stuff. (TriniCon is a Harlan con. LibertyCon is a Heinlein con. And, note, in 2006 had more hard science panels, with two tracks, than WorldCon with something like fifteen.) If they've established their branding, very few of my natural local fans are going to have been previously associated with the con and there will be tension between the two groups. It will break the positive synergy and induce non-positive conflicts.

I have nothing against Harlan cons. Don't get me wrong. I don't find them 'snobbish' or 'inbred' or any of the rest of the negative descriptions people have thrown my way. Live and let live. Many people enjoy them or they'd have gone out of business. I don't attend them because nobody is going to enjoy the experience. I don't write 'for art.' I can explain the difference and why I don't. It's philosophical as much as anything. I can have rational discussions about it. But the people who had been going to those cons and talking to guests who do write for art don't want to hear about, don't care about, commercial writing.

Nor do I (really or much) write fantasy. Or about happy little bunnies, chamomille tea, 'minority' (including transsex) activist writing, etc. I've tried, really tried, to write a story where nobody dies. Didn't work well. Not my cup of chamomille tea.

Inviting me to cons that focus on those areas Does NOT Make Sense.

Furthermore, if the con can't figure out its branding and its business model, it's going to go out of business.

"Cons aren't a business ! They're a mutual enterprise of communal gathering for the association of the whole good of..."

Cons are a business. They may or may not be non-profit. Doesn't mean they're not a business. The Red Cross is a business. The UN is a business. Business is defined as any gathering of persons on a regular basis that has cash flow. They need customers (con-goers) to continue to survive. (Absent entire funding from con-staff or some other source.)

There are certain laws to businesses. A certain percentage of your customers must be repeat customers. A certain percentage of your customers must be new customers that are going to become repeat customers.

It really doesn't matter who your customers are, what their tastes are. Best Buy and Claires both stay in business quite nicely. So do the NRA and the Brady Group.

But if Claires one year was selling accessories targeted at 12 year old girls and the next year was selling electronics targeted at adult males and the next year was selling clothes targeted at adult females… Well, it probably wouldn't last more than the second year.

Figure out where you're going with your con. Think about short, medium and long-term strategies. Two examples:

Long term: 1. We want to dwarf every con in the world. 2. We want to keep it small and friendly.

Medium Term: 1. We want to grow x percentage per year. 2. We want to maintain our preferred location.

Short Term: 1. We want to invite guests that will grow our audience, whoever they might be. 2. We want to invite guests that we like.

Con ConCept: The strategy of Concept is to become the largest North American SF convention focussed primarily on bioethics and reproductive issues.

Short Term Goal: By focussing on minor authors that have written about conceptual and bioethics issues, attract a group of persons interested in this field.

Medium Term Goal: Attract academics who have done significant and ground-breaking papers on bio-ethics, bio-engineering and other related fields.

Long Term Goal: Become a multi-user, academic, non-academic, writer, yearly 'must attend' destination spot for exchange of academic, political and media information.

First year: Guest of Honor: Lois Bujold. List of guests who have written about bio-ethics and bio-engineering in 'futurist' environments. (Hell, I fall into that category.) Perhaps a couple of minor academics to discus the current state-of-the-art.

Continue.

Last thing. Let's do a reducio absurdum on a bad con move related to guest choice.

Imagine for a moment a hard-SF con called UberGeekaCon. Independently funded by a guy who made a bunch of money in the electronics industry. Has built up to moderately large size for such a niche con (1500 people). Panels tend to be things like: 'FTL is fantasy.' 'Build your own light-sail.' 'Particle or a wave, how to tell the difference.'

They're large, very intelligence/geek oriented, well organized and very well funded. Previous guests of honor have been Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven, David Brin (insert other brainy writers here.)

Then imagine for a moment that they were given the opportunity, and boneheadedly took it, to invite J. K. Rowling as GOH. (I assume Paul All... Anyway, I assume the guy who had been running it for years died.)

Well, first of all, they'd better get all their regular con-goers to work staff. Because they're about to be overrun by 12 year olds in Hogwarts robes screaming Cruxiatus curses at each other and poking each other in the eye with their phoenix feather wands when that doesn't work. (Yes, I know there are many many adults, I among them, who read Harry Potter. I said 'overrun.')

Then, imagine for a moment, the following two panels:

Panelists: David Brin. Robert L. Forward. Larry Niven. Travis Taylor. JK Rowling.

Topic: How to Make Your Own Light-Sail.

JK Rowling is not unintelligent. But I suspect the first words out of her mouth would be 'What in the hell is a light-sail and why am I on a panel about it?'

Second Panel:

Panelists: JK Rowling. David Brin. Larry Niven. Arthur C. Clarke.

Topic: The science of the moving staircases in real life.

Arthur C. Clarke: There is no science! You can't get MC Escher in real life! Not short of a different universe!

David Brin: Free the house elves from their enslavement! Arise house-elves of the world, you have nothing to lose but your chains! End the tyranny of magical enslavement! Kill the bourgeoisie wizards!

(But I digress…)

Think about what you want long term. Think about your thematic purpose of why you're having a con. Choose guests and panels that enhance that, that will bring back not only more con-goers (if you want to grow) the following year but con-goers that have your sort of tastes. Repeat.

Don't invite someone just because they're a 'name' and can get a few more badges sold. It ruins the synergy and is insulting to the author.

But most of all, have fun! And if you keep some of this in mind, it will be easier to have fun.