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Choosing a Location for Your Sci-Fi Convention
The choice of location or venue can make or break your show, so take the time to check out every possible location and visit it in person if at all possible before signing the contract. Consider smaller towns as well as big cities and don’t forget surrounding areas - a hotel just outside the city limits can be far cheaper than one downtown or right next to the airport. Expo centers or small convention/meeting centers are typically cheaper than hotels and are easier to negotiate with. Hotels will usually start at $20,000 and go up and have a lot of factors to consider including setting a block of sleeping rooms (you will be able to get your meeting space free or cheaper if you fill this block, but don’t count on filling 500 sleeping rooms your first show), and may require use of their banquet facilities.
Make sure you start looking for a venue at least 6 months before your event. I suggest finding one a year or two in advance...the farther in advance you go, the easier to negotiate and the more time you have to advertise your event. Make sure you have back up plans though in case the venue you chose suddenly becomes unavailable or changes owners, etc.
Things to consider when choosing a venue
- Location - Is it easy to get to for locals and those coming from out of town? You might be able to get a great price on that huge ballroom in Outer Nowhere, but if people cannot find it or aren’t willing to make the drive to get there, it’s not worth it. Look for access from major highways, airports, bus and train stations, etc. Also look at the neigbhorhood...if your venue is in the seedier part of town, parents won’t let their kids come and teens make up a large percentage of convention goers.
- Time Frame - Check what else is going on in the area when you are planning to have your event. If you want to use the expo center across from the major sports arena during a championship playoff, there might be traffic or parking problems. Other major events will also draw people away from yours - people only have so much free money to spend in a month. Keep up on other sci-fi events happening your weekend - even ones on the other side of the country can impact you on dealers and celebrities attending yours. While it’s almost impossible to find a weekend without any conflicts, limiting them will help. And figure out a game plan if there is an event you just cannot avoid running against - perhaps give people a discount for your show when they show the other event’s ticket. Try to work with those other events when you can - if you can’t, find a way to use them to your advantage.
- Parking - Is there adequate parking for your event? If people cannot find a place to park, they won’t stay. Look for nearby parking garages and look into running shuttle busses if the venue itself doesn’t have enough space. Perhaps the hotel will help subsidize a shuttle bus or provide a few for you.
- Meeting Space - Is there adequate space for at least 500 people? Your goal should be at least this many your first show - if 500 people would be crammed in like sardines, what happens if 1000 show? Or more? Make sure the hallways are wide enough to accomodate people going to and from your various events. Make sure there is enough room for every event you plan - dealer’s room, main programming, and gaming room are usually the minimum you’ll need, but a number of small breakout rooms can be useful for individual games or smaller programming events. Additional ballroom space can always be useful - now or a few years down the road. If you are not renting all the space, find out what else is going to be in house the same time as your show - you might want to avoid sharing with certain groups. Keep up with the hotel on empty space they still have the weekend of the show - will they give you a discount on taking an extra room or two if it’s unrented a few weeks before your show? If your registration is taking off and your room block is already filled 3 months ahead of time, you might need more space. Can the hotel put a tent up outside if you absolutely have to have more space at the last minute?
- Room Prices - Always negotiate the lowest possible price for sleeping rooms and know what other hotels in the area are charging. If your rooms are $89 a night but the cheap place across the street is $45 a night, guess where most people will stay? As most hotel contracts now include penalities if you don’t fill your room block (called “attrition” charges), this is a major problem. If you can’t avoid it, try to minimize it. Maybe give people staying in the hotel an extra incentive - or make an arrangement with the cheaper hotel to get a kick back for each room booked by people going to your convention.
- Accesibility - Don’t exclude those with handicaps...meeting space that is only accessible by stairs is a big problem. Look for good-size elevators, ramps, handicap accessible sleeping rooms, etc.
- Asthetics - Take a close look at the hotel - every meeting room and several sleeping rooms of various types. Are they in good repair? Does it look good? You don’t have to book the fanciest hotel in town but if there are holes in the wall or dirt everywhere, would you want to stay there? Chances are your attendees wouldn’t either which lessens the chance of your filling your room block.
- Equipment - If you need microphones and a PA system, can the hotel provide it? Do they have a problem if you bring in an outiside vendor (usually cheaper) or your own equipment? Does everything work? Ask for a demonstration of their systems so you know how things work and how to work them. Know where the light switches are in each room, where the service corridors lead if needed, where you can generally find any hotel staff you might need even at odd hours. What about internet access? Can they provide it if needed? What kind of facilities do they have if you need to bring in lots of computers for a LAN party or other function? What about electricity? Will they charge you more if you need a lot of voltage in one room or another? Check out costs for having phone lines, power drops and anything else you can think you might need. Be prepared for dealers that may want to run credit card machines, internet connections, etc. from their booth or guests that may need something at their tables or during their presentations.
- Type of Events Held There - is the venue only used for weekday business functions? They might welcome a weekend event though may not know how to help you. A sci-fi convention is a unique event and not the usual business function or party. Go over planned programming, the type of attendees you expect, if you expect people to be in costume, time you will be running events (are they prepared if you want to do a 24 hour schedule?), etc. Educating the venue is another good reason to try to stay with them for a few years.
- Future Flexibility - Can you grow into additional space at this hotel? Your goal should be to find a venue you can stay at for at least 5 years...it helps increase your attendance if people know you are always at that hotel a certain time of year. If you are taking every bit of space they have to fit the 500 of your first show, then you’d better plan to find a bigger venue in a year or two. Some hotels will give you additional concessions for multi-year contracts (though make sure you have a way to get out of it if you grow faster than expected or something else prevents you from using it).
- Insurance - Does the venue require you to have an insurance policy or rider? This is becoming more and more common for hotels and expo centers so be sure to check into it and add it to your budget if needed. You might be able to get a binder on the venue’s policy to cover your event but worse case is that you’ll have to get your own policy.
These are the most common things you should look for and some of those often overlooked but by no means a complete list. I suggest an early staff meeting consists of going over any unique features of the event you are planning and try to cover as many possibilities as possible. It’s very easy to forget something important when you are down to the wire and have to get things going.
Other Articles in this Section:
Things To Consider Before Running Your First Show - Budgeting A Convention - More to Come
By Lori Anne Brown, Former Chairperson of TachyCon & President of TachyCon International, Inc., one of Florida’s most successful conventions from 1988 through 1999. Lori is now webmaster of www.Scificonventions.com and www.Scifispace.com and is serving as a consultant for several conventions as well as representing celebrities for personal appearances.
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