Comments | trinsf: My letter to the Utah 2014 Westercon Bid

trinsf

My letter to the Utah 2014 Westercon Bid

Jul 05, 2011 16:22

Dear Utah 2014 Bid,

I'm writing as a member of the 2011 Westercon in San Jose to give you some insight into the "hearts and minds" of the voters this past weekend and to make some suggestions about your bid, bids in general, and how you can ensure your bid is strong and appealing to the electorate.( Read more about my suggestions. )

Comments 46

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trinsf July 6 2011, 00:22:27 UTC

Yes, exactly. I understand the urge to answer a question you don't know with misdirection, but it's not a good strategy. I would rather hear "Let me find out and get back to you" than, "I have invited the Queen of England to cons in the past!" It's okay to say you don't know something. I think that's something that Utah already was doing right -- they were honest about what they could and could not do.

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trinsf July 6 2011, 00:49:46 UTC

Oh, that's something I really wanted to point out -- Put your best communicators out front! When I think about bids that really worked for me, I often think about how friendly, energetic, and well-spoken their spokesfolks/chairs are. Glenn Glazer is a great example of that. Not only is he funny and friendly, with a ready smile, but he's even adaptable. When I'm around, he reins in the puns a bit -- and I like and respect him that much more for it. It's unfair to expect your geeky introverts to be the voice of your bid -- even if they do the best job organizing it. Let them do the work they're good at, and give your chatty extroverts some time behind the bid tables and hosting parties and panels. :-)

caprine July 5 2011, 23:59:30 UTC

I have saved this to use as reference in promoting small San Diego cons. Also, this deserves a wider audience.

galtine1 July 6 2011, 18:19:25 UTC

caprine, I tried to educate in the past...I hope you have more success. SD needs to reach out further to help grow the traveling-fan interest given the higher costs of San Diego.

caprine July 6 2011, 19:15:53 UTC

That's why I've organized a "San Diego Conventions" table at Baycon, Westercon, and Worldcon. None of our six small cons have the spare resources to field a fan table of their own, but we can pull off one table promoting our city as a vacation destination and promoting all of the cons. (Well, except KingdomCon, because it doesn't have promotional materials out for next year yet.)

galtine1 July 6 2011, 19:24:13 UTC

Back in '04-'06 -- I tried very hard to get them to play together; one group was worried about "dilution of brand identity" and was not wanting to grow in size of attendance...if there has been a change in their mindset, you may finally have some support for this effort.

kudos to you for taking those reins.

Thread 5

thatwordgrrl July 6 2011, 00:36:43 UTC

I think what really bothered me the most about the Portland bid was the "Forgotten" theme of bringing back "the classics" for a new generation of fans.

I'm no spring chicken, but I've heard the way in which established fans try to edumacate younger ones about the classics, and it tends to boil down to "Damn kids, don't know what REAL SF is!"

Frankly, I find that distasteful.

No, Portland was NOT blindsided. They simply had blinders on as to what fans wanted.

trinsf July 6 2011, 00:40:27 UTC

I agree with you wholeheartedly. I even note that days before this Westercon, someone on the Utah yahoo mailing list pointed out to the Portland folks that their website had problems. That's a 'smoking gun' that the Portland bid knew there was a problem -- and chose to ignore it.

I'm tired of bids and cons talking about how they're going to appeal to young fans. It's not working, guys. You're not hip. *grin* Want to know how to appeal to young fans? Start by talking to folks running successful cons like that.

thatwordgrrl July 6 2011, 00:57:16 UTC

Or actually, you know, ENGAGING younger fans.

By which I mean actually LISTENING to them.

By which I mean not using the phrase "Damn kids, get off my lawn!"

Because before you know it, the kids HAVE gotten off your lawn and are busy throwing their own party down the street.

trinsf July 6 2011, 01:03:11 UTC

LIKE!

Thread 9

cmdrsuzdal July 6 2011, 01:47:37 UTC

My two cents: The bidding process is not just about winning against the other candidates. It is also the primary method of promoting your bid to potential new members.

Many folks are not wondering "why should I vote for Site A instead of Site B" they are wondering "Oh, what is a Westercon? Should I go to this thing?"

This is particularly true when promoting at events other than Westercon, of course. Which any bid worth it's salt should have some presence at. I know Westercon 64 drummed up interest from brand new fans at Baycon and Nova Albion, for example.

kalimac July 6 2011, 03:40:53 UTC

I found the Utah bid representatives in San Jose friendly, though I didn't ask them any "tough" questions and we mostly talked about the practicalities of getting to SLC.

On the other hand, their web site is strikingly minimal. Nothing but a brief front page with a link to some city information and to a flyer which only gets me a message saying "cannot be displayed, because it contains errors." Nothing naming the committee, or about the facilities: do they have any facilities, yet?

trinsf July 6 2011, 06:12:42 UTC

If you read their Yahoo mailing list, you'll see that they're on it! :-) Working on correcting the problem with the website.

Utah 2014 has some candy for Leigh Ann dander1938 July 19 2011, 04:46:29 UTC

Thanks for stopping by the Utah 2014 table in San Jose. I bought some sugar free candy -- not chocolate -- for Renovation just because you asked.

The Utah 2014 Westercon bid committee is filling in key positions. A table at Renovation. Seattle Westercon 2014 invited us to help party.

Thank you for generating 48 comments to help us in the bid.

David-Glenn Anderson