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I had this crazy idea the other day of holding some sort of Once Upon a Time convention, so I went about writing a post over on the Vancity Filming Forum to see if there’s any interest in such a venture and to get my thoughts down.
[adrotate group="5"]Running a convention is a pretty hardcore task which is usually why established third party companies run them. Every single thing you need is in the thousands of dollars. A venue costs 5K+ easy, depending on amount of days, how long, and what services you need from them. I’d go with at least 10K. Actors themselves cost $5-15K if you can even schedule them. You’re obviously going to want sponsors and run this by legally with ABC if you’re going to use any copyrighted materials for advertising. And of course, there is advertising which costs a bit.
While wanting to put on a fan convention is quite an admirable thing, just want to let you know it is seriously no easy task and is quite a risk monetarily.
Disagree somewhat with you Schmacky. Conventions vary in size, from small ones, organized by fans for fans about one show (comic, game or whatever), often more regional orientated, up to huge professional cons, which are attracting people from all over the world and done by third party companies. Recent example for the first I know of was the RizzlesCon for Rizolli&Isles (American crime show), which took place in summer 2012 in LA, example for the later is the annually ComicCon in San Diego, or something like Fanexpo in Vancouver and in Toronto (not as huge and international as San Diego but big enough).
Of course we all dream of the big annual international fan meeting, but maybe start smaller.
Nevertheless in any case a good advice to have solid financial planning, venue, costs for guests (cast and crew or any other guests you have for panels or something), security if needed, catering, promotion and all the tiny stuff nobody thinks of at first. Could help to find someone with good financial skills and at best experience in fund raising (doubt it can be refinanced all by ticket sell). But it depends much on how big you want to plan, how big you can plan.
Nope, sorry, I am not that person with financial skills. Drawing only from my experience of organizing events at university here, and thankfully never had to do the financial stuff all on my own. Not to mention I’m from the other side of the Hemisphere, for me Vancouver is farther away than the real Enchanted Forest 😉
No idea what policy ABC has if it comes to fan organized conventions, and I’m not just talking about copyright issues. Might be in general good to have their support or at least acceptance.
All that said: Hope you can make it happen, it certainly would be great even if starting small. And if I in time find a way to move to Canada, best Vancouver, then I guess, would drop by.
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What exactly are you disagreeing with me about?
Conventions that have actors in it get quite pricey because they’re quite pricey. Your primary cast members are going to cost in the high thousands of dollars. Like I said, 7K+ And that’s for one cast member. The smaller known name of the actor, the cheaper they are. but, they still cost money (and that money also includes the fee for either their agent or convention agent/handler). Then you have to pay them per diem. Their hotel. Their transportation (usually first class plane or ground transportation). They can make you back your money with the autograph sessions and photographs but that money comes in after the fact when you need to pay them up front. I know we would all love to think they do this stuff for free out of love for the show like we love it but it is their job.
But, if one can get guests for free or by just paying transportation/per diem and forego actual paying them, then great!
Even a small time convention costs quite a bit of money due to venue. Venues aren’t cheap. Of course, the smaller your convention is the smaller the budget needs to be. But even having a venue for a day or three will costs in the thousands.
Unless you’re going super small convention with a bunch of fans hanging out then it’s just a fan meetup.
If anyone wants to do a type of convention, honestly, I would suggest with fan meet ups. Do local fan meet ups. Try to organize with other locations where it all happens around the same time. Keep it building. Then try and merge these meet ups and invite low profile names. Some of the lower tier writers, any make up crew or costuming, etc etc. And build up from there.
But, if anyone is thinking of doing a convention where Lana Parrilla shows up then just be prepared to spend a lot, lot, lot of money.
Yes! I was just thinking how fun it would be to have a fan meet up! I wonder how many of us are clustered in a close enough vacinity to get together. I would totally host a CA Bay area one if there was enough interest…maybe even the LA area too- I have family in LA and a free place to stay. 🙂
Schmacky: Think we have a different understanding of convention. 100-200 people coming together for one day in one place to discuss, exchange information, show fan-art, and as well have time to just hang out I wouldn’t call a meet-up. Even not if it’s just fans and no more or less prominent guests
Places, rooms to meet in whatever form in bigger groups always costs money, no doubt there. Agreed guests always at least should get travel and overnight stay paid. Don’t even expect cast and crew to do things for free. Advantage for Vancouver is, that there are some of crew and cast living there (no, not talking of those staying there while filming), that might help to start. On the other hand I think a satisfying and good convention not always needs stars – it can be about the fandom.
Yup, even a small convention costs money, although not all necessarily thousands of thousands. But it sure should have solid financial planning and find funding besides selling tickets. But to me it sounded like you were hinting to better leave organizing a convention no matter what size to professionals – and that is what I disagree about.
And I think that VancityFilming is no fool. Yes, it is a crazy idea, if you’ve never organized anything alike before, but right now it’s an idea and someone looking, if there is interest, people wanting to take the risk and the challenge to organize it. If there are people let them makes plans and see what it takes. If they decide it’s not doable, then there is no shame. If they make it happen than we all will applaud.
If it is not about meeting the big names but about the fandom itself, people sharing an interest and wanting to socialize beyond web and social media (some call that in real life, as if internet isn’t real at all), local meet-ups, non-recurring or recurring is something that could be of interest, more interest even. In Germany I think so called “Trekdinners” still are alive in some places (sort of regular’s table, recurring local meet-up, but they do organize talks and discussion to specific issues of Star Trek and beyond as well). If you want to do more than socialize but are satisfied to meet just fans take a look eventually at the concept of BarCamps.
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But to me it sounded like you were hinting to better leave organizing a convention no matter what size to professionals – and that is what I disagree about.
No, I’m saying there’s a reason why professionals do it. Because it’s a big undertaking. Of course non-professionals can create a convention but it is a huge financial risk. I’m just letting people know to be prepared for such things. Even for a 100-200 guest convention, you’re still talking in the thousands of dollars to run such a thing. It needs to be done legally,for one, as money is being exchanged. Therefore an organization needs to be created legally. Which is money, not much, but it does. Renting out a room at a hotel or a convention center or anywhere else does cost money. And most times, hotels/convention centers require that you utilize certain services which costs money.
Don’t mistake me for someone saying not to do it. Again, just telling people that it’s not as easy as just planning to meet up.
But normally, conventions (even in the small size of 100-200) start off as just meet-ups. That’s why I suggested doing that first. Organizing local meet ups that then merge with other meet-ups that grow and gain word and favor among the fandom take off and that’s how third-party companies doing conventions started off themselves.
Let’s say you get a bunch of fans together.. about 100.. and any guests you have come for free but with paid per diem and transportation. That small little bit could be anywhere from $500 on up into the thousands. How is that paid for in advance? Do tickets for the convention go pre-sale? How do you get tickets sold if you have yet to lock down a venue (as you need to have a down payment to lock it in)? How do you sell tickets when you don’t have anything locked in? It’s a chicken and the egg situation. Unless you have the money up front to pay for it. How do you get that money? Fans can pitch in and make it happen, that’s one way. You could try and find sponsors.
There’s so many ways something like this could go. What is the goal? What is the idea when one says convention? Are they wanting guests from the show? Are they wanting to just panels where fellow fans discuss it? Those questions need to be answered first.
Here’s what I posted on my site:
Select potential sites.
Steveston would be the ideal location for this event, but I feel that there isn’t a large enough space in the town to host it. Also, getting to Steveston is a bit of a trek if you don’t drive. Locations in DT Vancouver are probably better suited in regards to accomodation and accessibility. Obviously, and excursion to Steveston could be an idea, but we’ll discuss that later.- The Westin Bayshore, Vancouver
- The Fairmont Hotel, Vancouver
- Hyatt Regency, Vancouver
- Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver
- Vancouver Convention Centre, Vancouver
- Four Seasons Hotel, Vancouver
- Arts Club Theatre Company, Vancouver
- BC Place, Vancouver
Select potential cast members.
Obviously it would be great if all the main cast were able to attend an event if we ever manage to pull something like this off, as well as crew and producers.Main Cast
- Lana Parrilla
- Robert Carlyle
- Emilie De Ravin
- Josh Dallas
- Ginnifer Goodwin
- Jennifer Morrison
- Meghan Ory
- Colin O’Donoghue
- Michael Raymond-James
- Jared Gilmore
Team Seven
- Lee Arenberg
- David-Paul Grove
- Faustino Di Bauda
- Mig Macario
- Mike Coleman
- Jeffrey Kaiser
- Gabe Khouth
Secondary cast
- Barbara Hershey
- Raphael Sbarge
- Beverley Elliott
- Keegan Connor Tracy
- David Anders
- Tony Amendola
- Jorge Garcia
- Jamie Dornan
- Eion Bailey
- Sebastian Stan
- Bailee Madison
- Chris Gauthier
Show creators and Writers
- Adam Horowitz
- Edward Kitsis
- Kathy Gilroy
- Steve Pearlman
- Jane Espenson
- Andrew Chambliss
Crew
- Stephen Jackson
- Eduardo Castro
- Sarah Graham
- Gaston Morrison
- Craig Powell
- A.J. Gillespie
- Monique McRae
- Luisa Dalmagro
- Helga Ungurait
Figure out when, and special activities.
The date of the event should be during the summer hiatus of filming so that there’s more possibility of cast members being free, but having said that, there might be less chance of them being in the country too. I think that sometime during May / June / July would be best so that we can accommodate as many fans as possible who want to attend the event. This is a family show, so having the event during the school summer vacation is probably a good idea.Special activities for the event could include:
- Tours of Steveston where the show is primarily set.
- Question and Answer session with cast, creators and crew.
- Autograph sessions.
- Photo opportunity sessions.
- Exhibitors
- Retailers
- Once Upon a Time Quiz
- After Party
Put feelers out among fan community.
This is probably something we should start doing right now. Posting here is a start but other Once Upon a Time fan sites should be approached too so as to maximize exposure and get a general feel of how many people would want to attend this event.Put feelers toward Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz.
This should be done as soon as possible. Getting the show creators on board would be a boost and would help the event in regards to it becoming an annual event that is supported by the creators.Select volunteer staff.
This is probably one of the most essential parts of the whole event. Volunteers are the gears that make the machine work and without them the whole event would fall apart. Being a volunteer also has it’s perks.This is just a starting point. I guess it’s a way for people who are interested to show their support and share their ideas, wisdom and knowledge about how such an event can become a reality.
I have certainly never been involved with something like this so have no idea how to go about it. There are still many questions that I have in regards to this. So let’s get the ball rolling.
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