NWSFS has picked me up in their newsblog, so I’m adding them to the blogroll. They’ve got a pretty good roll call in their highlights. I’d join, but the commute its a killer.
I’m ‘working’ today – as in doing something for someone else for pay. Other than writing patent apps, this marks my first ‘work’ for someone other than myself in about three years. (Barring a couple of consulting gigs where I just stand around and pontificate.)
I’ll be field managing at a paintball field and this will be an on-going weekend part-time gig for the foreseeable future, so there goes some free time. Its going to be hard on my intention to attend conventions as well (once again).
Meanwhile. Discussions elsewhere regarding conventions and the recent failure of some high-profile ‘commercial’ cons got me thinking about how similar the convention promotion (for profit) business is to paintball tournaments.
The rule of thumb for a paintball team thinking about attending an event (if they hope to get a decent event, be eligible for some prizes that will actually be handed out and be attended to by people who know what they are doing) is to look into the history of the promoting organization, look into the experience of the operators and then analyze the financials for logic.
To whit: if the promoter has never done an event before – stay away. If the team/group doing the officiating has never done it before, or are people you’ll likely compete against (or have competed against) are the types you know either don’t care or cheat – stay away. If the prize cost exceeds the revenue the promoter will take in from a reasonable number of attending teams – stay away.
There’s a lot of experience and inside paintball info backing up those statements that I won’t bother to explain to a non-paintball crowd. Here’s just a short explanation: teams usually ref teams at paintball events, there is no non-playing reffing crew. Promoters of paintball events almost always have some kind of an agenda – be it promoting their own team, driving attendance to their field, trying to put a competitor out of business, etc.
Most of them count on the fact that their attendees just want to play and will never bother to background check the event before spending their money.
Commercial Cons are very similar. The promoters are almost always robbing peter to pay paul, almost always hyping their event far beyond the boundaries of ‘truth’ and almost always stepping on the toes of non-commercial cons in order to get the numbers they need to support their budgets.
And they are counting on the fact that their potential attendees just want to go and will rarely background check them.
Like a few other folks out there, I early on recognized the ‘hype beyond reason’ that was being promulgated by Fedcon and Jumpcon (both of which have ‘spectacularly’ imploded). Their cancellations were no surprise to me – and here’s why:
The art of promotion does not lie in convincing Mom that Dad said its ok and then convincing Dad that Mom said its OK. (Bad) paintball and convention promoters are one step above being con artists (and maybe even not one step in some cases).
Bad promoters basically lie. They try to convince attendees that all kinds of shiny goodness awaits them at the con, send in your money. At the same time, they are telling the reps of shiny goodness that attendance is enormous and the check is in the mail.
The bad promoter is hoping that this balancing act becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and that enough checks will come in to secure the shiny goodness before the fact that they have neither attendance OR shiny goodness in hand becomes publicly known.
This is not promotion – its a con game.
Paintball tournaments usually end up ‘lying’ about both their prize packages and their attendance. They inflate the prize package to attract teams and tell every potential attendee that ‘they better get their fees in quick because the event is filling up fast’. They usually have ZERO paid teams and ZERO prizes on hand when they say these things
Likewise, many commercial conventions have ZERO ‘stars’ confirmed and ZERO checks in hand when they announce their lineup.
Paintball tournaments have used an out not readily available to cons: they make the prize package contingent upon the number of attending teams. (Can you see a con announcing that the number of attending autograph signers depends on how many people buy tickets?)
But its all the same kind of thing – hype before substance. This is because these folks who call themselves promoters are NOT promoters.
A promoter has the dollars IN HAND before starting to advertise. A GOOD promoter knows that it is probably going to take about three YEARS to begin seeing a return on their investment. They know up front that they are GOING TO HAVE TO BUILD ATTENDANCE ON REPUTATION, not on shiny goodness.
I’ll make the same recommendation to fans attending cons that I do to teams attending paintball tournaments: don’t spend your money unless the shiny goodness is already in hand and guaranteed to be handed out, regardless of what attendance at the event is.
Are the ‘stars’ contract’s already paid? Is the hotel already signed? Is the attendance fee FULLY REFUNDABLE up to a certain date? If you don’t see those things publicly announced, don’t buy in to the hype.
And a note to reps for shiny goodness. Start being a little proactive – please. Do Not allow any convention or promoting organization to play off of your client’s names until after the check has been sent AND has cleared the bank. That way, you can avoid having to explain that your clients really do love their fans but won’t be attending.
Of course, you could all go the simple route of avoiding commercial cons altogether.
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