Mishalak's Worldcon

[mishalak]

It has been a while since I posted in my own journal asking who would be coming to Denver for Worldcon in 2008. I thought I'd ask again to see how things are coming together (or not) for everyone else and to inform everyone of the shapes my own plans are taking.

Last time selenite, celticdragonfly, actiasluna, kevin_standlee, vincent_d, lsanderson, bovil, and kproche said they'd be coming with some degree of certitude. While whumpdotcom, cynthia1960, and julesjones either could not plan that far ahead or posted something non-committal. It will be interesting to see how many might be added to the list. I suspect the number of people intending to come will go up right until next to the last minute when there will be plans falling through and memberships being sold.

Sidebar if you are thinking about coming: Right now memberships for Worldcon still stands $130, but only through the end of May. Then it is going to go up to $175, buy now even if you only do it on the installment plan to hedge against changing circumstances! (There are about six quarters left until the convention, that makes (130-40)/6= $15 every three months after paying the $40 up front, more or less. If you want to be totally paid off by the convention. You can just pay $10 every three months and pay the rest at the door.) Also I plan to have an apartment very soon and I know people who are willing to put up fans for a few nights before or after, so if you want to make a whole week of it we should start doing planning.

Room rates are higher than I had hoped. That seems to be the main effect of the Democratic National Convention being in the same down two weeks later. Other events and trips are either getting delayed or moved up, so there are less rooms, and naturally hotels want to charge more for them. Most of the rooms in blocks for Worldcon 66 are going to be $159/night. (Ouch!) There will be some rooms at the Downtown Courtyard Denver Downtown for $129/night. The reservations for rooms will be open in January. They will need to be booked through the Convention to get the convention rate and because there are going to be so many different hotels with rooms. This is not actually that back a price for a downtown hotel in Denver. I checked the Adam's Mark Hotel (the party hotel) to see what they would charge for a comparable week this august for 1 person (they won't quote a rate more than 11 months in advance). Result: Best price $259 a night, $110/night savings. Zowie!

Incidentally the search begins go to help me make some cost estimates for my party. I plan on hosting a party for at least four (4) nights at Worldcon and I'm undecided if I should have a party on the Dead Dog (last) Night of the convention, Sunday. For four nights a Junior Suite without any convention discount will cost $1,236.00, or $309 a night without tax. Quite the expensive proposition and that's not as big a room as I would like. Ideally I want either a full suite with a sitting room or two adjoining rooms if a suite isn't available. I'm going to guess there will be some discount for a suite booked through the hotel, but it will probably still run about $400/night. At a guess.

So right off the bat I'm looking at a budget of about $700 a night on average. My personal invitation only party on the first or second night of the convention will probably run less. I plan on running at least two MileHiCon/DASFA parties or possibly a night of each highlighted by itself and a big blow out/combined night on Saturday. I tend to have a bit more than half the price of the room in food and drink. This usually results in a surplus of food and drink. If I have the money I will run two test of concept parties at MileHiCon this year. One invitation only party and one DASFA promotional.

DASFA has no money to promote itself in this fashion. I'll be footing the bill for it along with whatever other Dasfans wish to kick in. MileHiCon may contribute part of the money for a party, though I wonder if they'd balk at the high cost of what I'm planning even for one night. I would love to raise some money, perhaps by selling my body or having a bake sale. I will be cutting costs by doing a certain amount of baking/cooking ahead of time rather than buying all store prepared foods. I'm a deft hand at cakes and they come out VERY good. Cost is minimal since none of the ingredients in any cake are terribly expensive. Soup would also be a good item for preparing ahead of time, but it can get very messy. Then again so can brightly colored cocktails and wine. I will consider the idea of having some of the soups that I have gotten the most complements for prepared, frozen, and then thawed out in a giant 8 quart crockpot for the party. I have some really innovative ideas for easy and impressive Canapés. No crackers and plastic tub dip for parties I'm putting on!

The way I tend to deal with the problem of spills is to get some economical floor coverings. In the past I've taped down plastic sheeting of various sorts. I am considering trying a combination of second hand rugs and/or massive numbers of cheap towels from Bed Bath a/ over plastic to keep the floor pristine. It will look better and probably not be dislodged by people walking on it as easily, though rugs over carpet do have tendency to migrate.

Potential Themes: (Themes liable to change without notice, suggestions welcome, especially accompanied by a modest donation.)
•Private Party- Decadence Colorado Style, Fresh Colorado Peaches, Colorado Wine, Fruit Wine, Grand Junction Toffee, seasonal fruit, Chocolate Velvet Cake, carrot soup
•DASFA Party- Old Fashioned Debauchery, Mai Tai, Old Fashioned (mixed drink with whiskey), carrot cake, etc.
•MileHiCon Party- Pirates of the High Plains? The MileHiCon People's Soviet? Mega MileHiCon or Little Tokyo MileHiCon?
•DASFA & MileHiCon- The Snow Monkey Party(?), Ice Drinks, Colorado Beer, Rum Balls renamed Snow Balls, cheese platter, seasonal fruit, and possibly local ice cream. Some sort of chocolate cake glazed and/or dusted with powdered sugar. (If possible get a friend to do art of Snow Monkeys in a Hot Tub for the flier.) White M&Ms? Potato Soup?

Questions? Comments?

Comments

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

DASFA has no money to promote itself in this fashion.

Hardly anyone ever does. BASFA wouldn't have parties either if we didn't have a Party Fund to which people can and do contribute -- but at least as important is that we have someone willing to organize the parties.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

If the chocolate fund money still exists perhaps I'll ask the membership if we can use that for the party. In years past we had a fan fund to bring back Dasfans to MileHiCon. It was called The Chocolate Fund because that's what we raffled off to get the money.

Wonder, wonder, wonder. Or I could sell a bunch of books off.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I'm having another party theme idea. Fear & Loathing in Worldcon. "We can't stop here, this is fan territory!" Hunter S. lived in these parts after all.

[thirdworld.livejournal.com]

We plan to be there. agrathea and I both have memberships. We both voted, and I supported the Denver Bid to boot, so converting early made sense.

On the parties, 4 Worldcon parties is a hell of a lot of work. I know you have hosted many parties before, but few fans enjoy hosting 4 parties in a row. Even with a lot of help. Depending on food choices you could be shopping every day, and sleeping in late because your party ended late, putting up posters, and with starting late afternoons (earlier if you have elaborate setup), you can find that you have little or no time for Worldcon itself, or sometimes even for seeing other parties. Themes are great fun, but it means you have to take down décor and put it new décor several times. You might want to do some tricks to minimize this.

I'm probably preaching to the choir, but keep it fun and not too much work, and make sure you have plenty of help. Parties are easy-ish with plenty of help. You clearly have a good idea of what to expect, and planning a big room is a smart idea. But consider having some time off. Even the Xerps folks take time off ;). Possibly another can take charge of the party one or two of those nights.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

The problem with DASFA is that if I don't do it no one else will. I suspect the same may be true with MileHiCon. I'm am a pretty major party person in the Denver area, at least at conventions.

My three scenarios are:
1. MileHiCon didn't have any idea it would be THAT expensive and only want to put in about $100-200. Result I'll have their fliers out, explain stuff, and take memberships, but I'm not going to call it in any sense a MileHiCon party.

2. MileHiCon is willing to put in ~$300-600. Combine it with the DASFA party, co-sponsorship. Plus fliers out and memberships taken on other nights. And their name on the fliers for that night.

3. MileHiCon puts up a full $700-900. A big night with fliers and no co-sponsoring stuff. And a co-sponsorship on another night. Plus fliers on other nights.

[thirdworld.livejournal.com]

In any of those scenarios, get all the help you can. Four Worldcon parties are an immense amount of work, and of food and drink. You can expect to see 200-800 people every night, depending on location, room size, night, etc -- i.e. more people in a night than go to most small cons.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Well one of those parties will be a private event. Invitation only. (You're on the list.) I expect it will be a quieter event. The only thing I have to decide is which night I can get the majority of my friends there and which night would be best for it. Wednesday, the first night of the convention is the one I'm leaning towards.

In addition to people I already know I'll be handing out extra invitations to some friends to bring in others they think would add to the event.

If I do really classy stuff that will be THE night for it.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

You can add me to your "expect to be there" list. I upgraded my supporting membership to attending at Boskone.

I've run similar convention-long party suites at a couple of Worldcons. Your starting estimates sound realistic. In both cases, I stayed in one of the bedrooms and recruited in party-friendly fans to pick up the expense of the other bedroom. The first time, my suite-mate was also a convention-long co-host. That proved very useful. The second time, my suite-mates signed on to help host one of the parties and lent a helping hand at others but also headed out to enjoy the rest of the convention. Both approaches worked, and really helped on the expenses front.

When I did it in Chicago, I also found it exceptionally useful to sublet the suite one night to a compatible group (the UK bid party, in my case). I used the very welcome night off to check out the rest of the Worldcon party scene. Again, it helped on the expenses front, and still left me with the party suite during the daytime, which was useful for smaller, more relaxed gatherings.

It's early on in the process, but I'd also consider carefully just where you want the suite to be. In Orlando, we were in a lower traffic spot. That was good, especially because the suite was one of the smaller ones. In Chicago, we dead center on the party path -- between the huge Boston bid party and the elevators. We went through the bheer I'd bought for the entire weekend on the first night.It was great for outreach, less so for the settle-in-and-visit crowd. I especially remember the rasff party night -- I was expecting to know about 85% of the people there, and to accommodate 15% passers-by. Instead, the percentages flipped themselves. Rasffarians were in the minority and we had lots of party-hoppers who didn't even know what Usenet was, let alone rasff.

The different themes help keep the whole thing fresh and interesting. I'm all over the Snow Monkey party. I'd go to one of those in a minute. It's different, memorable. None of the other MileHiCon themes catch my interest even though any of them could work. Somehow, they all seem more "inflicted" -- like as a party guest I'd be expected/required to do the pirate thing, the political thing, etc. etc.

It's useful to remember that there are lots of other parties at the convention, that you don't have to lay in the full set of basic party supplies you normally would. It took me a while to learn that -- I think it was the ConJose "Thanks a Mint" parties that really drove te point home. We didn't have to serve a full line of soft drinks. We could have one or two party-themed drinks and let people get their sodas from the consuite, or another party. That helped on the budget front, and on the manpower front, too. Other times, I've enjoyed running full-service, better-than-the-consuite style.

On the spills and cleanliness front, my party kit contains a little handheld carpet cleaner vac, a dustbuster, and one of those mechanical (i.e. quiet) carpet sweepers. I'm less certain about how cheap towels over plastic would work. Even if they were taped down, I'd think they would tend to bunch up, look crappy, and feel weird underfoot. Hmmm...have you ever experimented with flannel-backed vinyl table cloths secured on all edges with gaff tape? The heftier ones, not the ultra-cheap flimsy type. Don't know that they'd hold up to heels, but there are some interesting decorative possibilities.

Hmmm...I seem to have exceeded the LJ comment limit. The rest coming separately!

And the rest....

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

There's a fantastic fabric outlet in the Twin Cities where I've found useful, cheap waterproof 60" wide fabrics that work on tables and floors. I've used several yards of that in front of bar areas and on the main food table. I'm really big on fabric for decorating -- if there's a super cheap fabric outlet in Denver, you might find some good stuff there. And if you end up doing anything tropical, or blue-sparkle-glitz, I could loan you my stash.

The Brits made a big impact with their Hugo Losers Party at N4. They obtained a few dozen extra sheets from the hotel and turned the party white. Sofas, chairs, tables, curtains -- everything was sheet-wrapped. White, white, white. That could work for your snow monkey theme.

Soup is marvelous from a sustenance point of view, but you're right about how messy it can be. The transformation from frozen to edible can also be surprisingly time-intensive. I spent most of my time in the Arisia staff den thawing bags of frozen and semi-frozen soup in a convenience microwave. It went in the crock pots after that. Your proof of concept/test-run parties in advance are a *very* good idea!

As you know, kproche and bovil also have outstanding party sensibilities and experience. lsanderson, too.

Okay. That got long. Done for now. :-)

thirdworld replied while I was writing. Yep. What he said!

Re: And the rest....

[thirdworld.livejournal.com]

Also see this collection of party-host advice for a collection of party-host advice.

Re: And the rest....

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

On waterproof 60" wide fabrics: I had not thought of that. Could work. I am going to see if I can pick up some rugs second hand for very little money after pricing waterproof fabric. Rugs would be especially good if I go with a theme suggested to me today: Arabian Nights. Though I might modify that to Desert Nights so I could pull in DUNE stuff. But Arabian Nights would be a just killer theme. Lots of good (inexpensive food) to put out. And the decor could work really well.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'll be glad to see you!

On being overwhelmed: One saving grace will be only three of these potential parties will be open to just anyone. One will be invitation only. (And yes, you are on the list. As if you'd have to ask.) I expect it to be a little less crazy than the DASFA, MileHiCon, or Dual Purpose Parties. If there is another convention or group (perhaps Minicon?) that wanted to sublet my room one night I might cut it down by one more. Depending.

I do have some help in the form of my boyfriend, hopefully we'll still be together. Other than that I might be able to get help from two more of my friends as party hosts. That I can think of right now.

On carpeting: Well perhaps I'm back to getting some used rugs. I emphatically do not want room damage. Emphatically.

[julesjones]

Still in a bad state of can't make plans that far ahead. I was going to say that I'd buy a membership anyway and sell it if necessary, until I saw the room prices. No *way* can I currently afford that even with sharing with one person, and sharing with more is likely to lead to no sleep and a very unhappy Jules. (Two of the three Worldcons I've been to involved commuting, because I have severe insomnia and don't sleep well in hotels at the best of times.) I shall think about it in a month or so, when I might have a better idea of what I'm doing next year.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I'll need to talk to them, but two of my friends live in a house about 10 minutes from the convention center. Just as a thought. I know people around here. Heck, I plan on living somewhat nearby in the next two months. And I might very well not be heading back to my place much for the duration of the con. Just some thoughts about alternatives to hotels.

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

I'll be sending in the membership forms Real Soon Now (most likely on Monday) for mizzlaurajean and myself.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Yays! I shall save an invitation to my private party for you.

Mishalak's Worldcon

[tkunsman.livejournal.com]

Heck yeah, I'll be at the Worldcon. Will have to work on the hotel costs with my potential rommate that I had during LA Con IV.

You have some very ambitious party plans. I hope some of the other members of the local cons can come forward to help you. Most of the "parties" that my old comic book club had were paid out of pocket by myself, and maybe one other of my friends.

Re: Mishalak's Worldcon

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Well I've got to be ambitious to make sure that it doesn't fall down to a lower energy level.

If you're roommate doesn't come through, let me know here or via email. I am going to try to run a roommate finding service via DASFA. We are one of the major local clubs and we need to be good hosts even though we didn't take part in the bid.

[jcfiala.livejournal.com]

Woo! Sounds like a lot of work on the parties.

Tammy and I should both be at the worldcon, but you probably knew that, we live here.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Yes... and I hope to pin some people down on the idea of being co or additional hosts at the parties. The kind of people who are enthusiastic about DASFA and/or MileHiCon and willing to talk them up to people.