Some of the folks who are local to Seattle are meeting at the LCC hotel on Sunday; it’s partly for the new folks to see our location and partly to reacquaint those of us who know the Renaissance Madison to go over it again and to meet our enthusiastic and wonderful sales person, Barb who’s been a terrific friend to this convention.

We’re meeting in a conference room and hoping to walk through as much of the meeting space as we can without disturbing people. It’s to provide a reminder to all of us where things do/can/might go; much of our plan we be based on prior events at this hotel since we’ve done both a Left coast and A Bouchercon here, and we know that certain things WORK. We know where the major events go, probably where the Dealer’s room goes and where we should do autographings and registration. We need to consider which of the smaller rooms we’re going to use and for what – extra program tracks, an office, more signings? We might want to hold a space back for specific clubs or organizations who might want to have a meeting; we’ve got to remember to provide a space for a couple of organizations that give out awards during Left Coast – nothing major, but we need to remember. And we need to remember STORAGE, whooo boy.

I bring this all up to ask if anyone has any opinions and if so, to express them. The things I’d like to hear about include the following:

SOUVENIRS– those familiar with the mystery convention scene know that the major conventions, as well as some of the smaller ones, traditionally provide attendees with STUFF. That stuff includes a bookbag and nowadays, it’s traditional to have a cloisonné enamel pin with the convention logo or other specific artwork special to the city or event. Other items have included/can include a pad of paper (with the convention stuff on it, of course) and a pen (ditto). Other stuff is up in the air completely and we get to decide. El Paso provided lip gloss (clever even if it wasn’t the eat of the summer in Texas, we still were in a hotel and let’s talk about dry hotel air, shall we?) I think I’ve got a Bouchercon water bottle, don’t I – from Monterey. An oversized mug from Milwaukee, So if anyone has an especially wonderful idea or has gotten something terrific from another conference or convention they’ve been to, the suggestion would be heard with pleasure here. So what would you like? (keep in mind we DO have a budget so really fancy stuff isn't possible, but there's a lot of stuff out there for not too much money when you're getting several hundred of them made.)

This btw does not include giveaway books or program books or pocket programs; those are all separate issues. As are the author freebies that get put out on tables or put into the bags if they’re received in time. We’re talking souvenirs and if you think I’m not having way too much fun pondering everything from imprinted umbrellas to little squeezies, you don’t know me. (somewhere in this room is the Milwaukee Bouchercon squeezie cow; Okay, I don’t know what they are called technically, stress toys or what – but I dubbed it a squeezie cow the second I got it. And a squeezie cow it remains.)

PROGRAM – Right now the only question I have is if you have reactions to “other than panel” program ideas. I’ve heard lots of “too many talking heads” reactions to mystery con program, but it’s what we’ve got. Mostly. It certainly is the best way to put lots of ideas and speakers in front of people. Few folks can do not-panels; readings can happen in smaller rooms, as can demonstrations of something from tarot card readings to martial arts but for the most part, it’s panels, isn’t it? We can certainly do slide/power point set ups for show and tells if they’re interesting enough. I seem to recall a slot for a gun slide show once and at Bcon we did a crime scene reconstruction which was apparently quite a hit (never made it there.) My job as program person though is, I think, primarily to come up with interesting panel discussions – intermixed with a high quality something else. Thoughts?

BANQUET – we’re going to have a banquet/food event with awards. It’s likely to be held on Saturday night OR Sunday during the day. What would you want? Here’s what I can tell you so far:

I’m strongly NOT in favor of doing a lunch even though there are some good reasons to do it (leaves the evenings open for going out to a REAL Seattle restaurant and this city is so full of great places to eat, from award-winning tom Douglas restaurants to sushi heaven to great Italian and wonderful seafood, damn fine steaks and superb Asian) that we love to encourage visitors to go out to dinner. It also doesn’t cost as much as dinner, which leaves more money to spend on other things for our attendees. BUT…

when you have a large meal, you need to use all your ballrooms, those rooms et up with lots of chairs and stuff for the panels and programs you’re doing during the day. Either that, or you go off-site and that is not a real option here. There’s no place to go and we are bound by contract to provide this event at the hotel. Which is FINE. If you do lunch, though, you a) lose at least 2 hours of mid-day program time as well as time (and thus money) spent by folks in the dealers room. Further, you lose at least another half hour or so for the hotel staff to take DOWN all the chairs and stuff, put UP all the tables and chairs and stuff, then take DOWN all the tables and stuff and reset the room with all the chairs and stuff. Which costs money. Each time. So pooey on that idea. )It was a major point of argument during LCC in Monterey when Betsy who ran program and I just tore our hair out at the huge gap in the day. We lost all sorts of time and momentum, people lost track of when programs were and where they were moved to and I just said that I would never do that. And I won’t.)

Brunch – I tend to be in favor of the Sunday brunch idea in part because again it leaves folks freer for dinner (although we do want to keep them around at LEAST for a few hours on one night for the auction) and because if we do it on Sunday, again, we don’t deal with the room reset issue. Entirely. See I also would like to continue program after said brunch, but if we don’t reset all three of the existing ballrooms, well, we could get ONE reset first, and use smaller rooms for smaller programs. It’s what we did in ’97; to be honest, I have no idea how well it worked. (Except that the kosher meal provided our guests was inedible and they had to go out to eat after brunch, but never mind that now.)

OPENING EVENT – There is NO event that I am aware of that suits here. A very few s.f. conventions (Orycon comes to mind) apparently know how to DO opening “ceremonies” but no one else does. LA does the occasional “ice cream social”, or used to but I have no interest in doing that; in this day and age, lots of people don’t eat ice cream, and well, heck, this IS Seattle. In February. So well, anyone? I don’t want “entertainment”; it just does not seem to work. We don’t get into “mystery plays” or having a performance murder mystery; they’re like ice cream. Some folks like that stuff a lot. Others find it not to their taste and would skip the entire event if that were part of it. Introducing people ONLY works if you don’t have a “reception” atmosphere; at Chicago last year, it was a mish-mosh of both and a failure since there was food laid out BUT apparently people were supposed to be sitting and listening to people at the front of the room. Well the food was allegedly awful (I’m sorry but “Chicago hors oeuvres” as they were described were apparently pieces of pizza and hot dogs; just what you want to eat as served by a hotel. Right. Again, the idea of HOW many people who won’t or can’t eat hot dogs (hands up if you think any thought was given to kosher food or people who don’t eat pork) and I dunno what was on the pizza. Doesn’t matter. It didn’t work. There were those wanting to hear what was being declaimed but who were sitting near the back where those of us attending what was called a reception were doing what you do at a reception – drinking, eating and talking. And some of the folks at the mike were apparently given the task of reading the first pages of books up for an award. Not an idea I would ever have had. I’ve also been at cons which offered “talent shows” which I didn’t attend; word as it came down to me was that they were horrible experiences.

I DO want to offer a fund-raising auction and right now, I’m using the model we used for ’97; Friday night, reception. Food and drink. Period. Loitering, lingering. No announcements, speeches or readings. Saturday, reception with different form of food leading into the fundraising auction. Done EARLY enough and with a time limit of 2 hours so that people could have a nosh and a drink, buy stuff and then still have time to go out for dinner. The auction cannot be on Friday – not if you want good attendance; too many people don’t get in on Friday or don’t know how they want to spend their money. By Saturday, they’ve been through the dealer’s room and have possibly spent most of what they intended AND they’ve seen the auction catalogue so they know what’s being offered, so that SEEMS like the best set-up. Then banquet being Sunday brunch with lots of food, speeches, award giving out. It SEEMS to be the best model. But I could just as well be totally wrong. I can hear other ideas and SAY I’m totally wrong and change it if I’m given better ideas. So please….