Kumoricon
Convention Events and Programming => Get Involved => Get Involved Archives => Topic started by: SailorNaboo on September 24, 2004, 01:57:35 pm
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As you may have seen on the front page, the next general meeting will be October 10th, from 1:15-4pm, at the Portland Central Library in the US Bank Room. The most important order of business is to elect general officers for Kumoricon 2005.
As far as I know, everyone who attended Kumoricon 2004 and intends to attend in 2005 may vote.
Positions that are voted upon include:
- The Convention Chair --The big Kahuna.
- Director of Relations -- This person is our liaison to the industry and our guests. This includes contacting companies for sponsorship, image rights, specific advertising rights, and promotional items. Also works with Director of Programming to insure smooth operations of companies and guests involvement with convention functions.
- Director of Publicity -- The person deals with the overall 'Marketing' of the con. This includes advertising. This person should have experience in dealing with media of all types and professional training and/or previous experience in marketing is highly suggested.
- Director of Operations -- This person deals with making things actually happen. As an example, the heads of security, registration and the infodesk would be appointed by this person. This person also deals with equipment and setup (coordinating equipment needs with the Director of Programming). This person should have a long history of attending and working with conventions and large gatherings.
- Director of Programming -- This person deals with what will actually happen at the convention selects the people to run events and panels. Schedules events and use of convention space. Among the sub-departments that report to this person are the Panel Coordinator, Video Room Coordinator, people in charge of various minor contests, Gaming events (console and computer), Cosplay, Karaoke, AMV, Dance, and Fan Fiction. This person needs to have a current, in-depth understanding of Anime fans of all ages to make sure the proper amount of emphasis and budget are placed in each area.
If you are interested in working in one of these departments, attending this meeting is your chance to have a say in whom you would like to report to and to vote for the people that you think will best put on the kind of event you, the Anime fan, would like to attend.
(These are just quick descriptions of the Director Positions. There are much longer official descriptions wth more details that will be edited into this post over the next week by different current staff members.)
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I wouldn't want to be the director of anything, but I'd be very interested in being someone's assistant if need be.
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I am running for Director of Relations.
If you have any questions about the details of my plan, please feel free to contact me:
Sean Larson
seanlarson@{nospam).gmail.com
AIM: VashUO
My qualifications:
I previously was the Convention Chair for 2004, and I also did a lot of work with Relations, as that's where my focus was before being appointed to Convention Chair. I've already made contacts with most of the anime industry, as well as have a good grasp of the different aspects of the convention that Relations has to deal with. I work very well with people, and can deal with Industry and professionals interested in the convention in a professional manner.
Goals for 2005 if selected:
Larger Exhibitor's Hall
Popular Guests
More industry involvement (more prizes)
Involve the Japanese-American Society of Oregon to help promote the Japanese culture more.
Build a strong repitoire with local businesses and businesses that have dealings with both Portland and Japan.
Work with publicity to execute a great public image for the convention.
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Just as a quick note, the Directors appoint people to run each area below them. These areas include, among other things, each of the programming events/areas, i.e. fanfic or cosplay.
Blackjack, do you mean to be an assistant to one of those positions, rather than assistant to a Director? I know your focus is fanfic, but I wanted to ask to be sure of your intentions.
I'm not sure how assistants to Directors are handled. I do know that we are avoiding "co"-appointing major positions. That means one position shared equally. Most assistants will not have that restriction.
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I am known on the forums as Sailor Naboo, but my name is Beth Wickel and I am running for Director of Programming. I feel I bring the right combination of life and job experience as well as specific experience with the anime and gaming community with me that make me an excellent choice for this position.
Though adulthood is by no means a prerequisite for maturity, for the past two years I have been one of the oldest staff members and over the years, I have built up some very transferable skills that suit the job. One of which is my experience in radio. I was a medium to major market radio personality for well over 10 years. During this time, I held different concurrent responsibilities at different stations. I have been a music director, which required me to select the new records to play, how often to play them and the scheduling of all of the music. I have been a promotions director, which required me to work with the industry and listeners to develop the kind if events the audience would like to attend and to plan all aspects of them from start to finish. One other position held that I wish to emphasize is my experience as Research Director. In this position, I learned to look at the world “as my focus group” and have never really ever been able to take off that ‘hat.’ I’m constantly keeping my finger on the pulse of what people who enjoy the same kinds of things that I do are interested in. In this position I researched music to see if our audience was getting tired of hearing certain songs and also moderated and designed “Focus Groups” that allowed me to question groups of the public about what they wanted in a radio station. This skill will help me when selecting the programming that current anime fans of all ages are interested in.
My second career as an adult lasted about 5 years and was in internet security and antivirus. For the first two years, I was in network technical support and handled security issues for small to major corporations. I climbed the ladder quickly and moved into management. Instead of scheduling music, at this point I scheduled people, made sure the phones were covered to the best of our ability at all times of the day and was in charge of hiring, firing and selecting the right people for the right positions. It would not be an exaggeration to say that in that three-year period, and the previous year when I was moving into a leadership position, that I participated in at least 1000 job interviews and a very low turn-over rate compared to the rest of the industry. As I am going to have to select many people to run the various programming sections of the convention, this skill will come in handy.
I am also the graduate of a year-long intensive Paralegal program with an A+ average. Though I was trained using the same textbooks an attorney would use in law school, I ethically cannot give legal advice, but I can point out areas where extreme caution or legal advice is needed.
Both jobs were notorious for emergency, “No time to discuss it in committee’ decisions that needed to be made. In radio, when news happens, one needs to be able to decide when the importance of a news issue means a break in programming. Internet Security, included handling Virus Crisis Situations that needed ‘on the fly,’ decisions about scheduling, and using all methods available for notification of public information. This experience came into play in Eugene on the Friday before Kumoricon 2004. Our reserved truck was not available to for us to bring all of the donated televisions to Portland. When I was notified that I would not be needed to drive the truck, I came up with the solution used for the situation within seconds. The two people that would have been driving the truck ended up driving their cars instead, fitting every item that would have gone into the truck except the large screen projection TV. Without skipping a beat, obviously knowing that this piece of equipment would not fit in a car, I asked the person I was talking with to get word to Portland staff that a large TV needed to be rented locally, and with that everything was handled.
Switching to Anime. I have been very active in the Anime community for the past 5 years. Anyone can research what current conventions do and just mimic them; I have a proven history of taking new ideas building them into popular events. I have first hand knowledge of events that are getting old and tired and ideas for new programming. At Kumoricon 2003, I was shot down when I suggested showing an episode or two of the brand new Live Action Sailor Moon television show. Feeling strongly that this was something that a great deal of people would enjoy seeing, instead of continuing to try to get it added to the viewing schedule, I put together my own event, the first, “Live Action Sailor Moon Slumber Party.” Even though it was scheduled at the same time as the Karaoke and then the Dance, it had a packed room for almost the whole night. The event was so successful, I also got permission to run the event again 5 months later at Sakura Con 2004. At three AM when we showed the last available episode, we still had over 25 people in the room, some of which had been there the whole night. I’ve been involved in decisions surrounding Karaoke, lending my own Japanese gaming equipment to the console gaming, and changing the way Hall Cosplay and Cosplay competition is run at starting at Kumori Con and now at Sakura Con as well.
Plans for next year, of course, involve selecting the correct people to coordinate events, but keeping a master plan that will have something for everyone.
Some of My Goals include:
- Continuing to improve the Cosplay with the support of the Portland Costumer’s Guild. The entertainment value of the show has already attracted national attention, but the focus for next year is to make it a much more smooth process for the contestants.
- Evaluating the Anime Viewing rooms to come up with logical blocks of programming that will draw specific groups of fans. Much will depend on licensing and availability (which I would work with relations to get), but I would look at things like blocks of “old school” anime that many people in their 30s, 40s grew up with that haven’t been given much attention recently, (Gigantor, Marine Boy…), History of Shoujo, and as one more example perhaps a group of programming that would appeal to fans of Gundam Wing type shows.
- Working to bring network gaming to the convention as well as more console gaming, including arcade versions.
- Working with the Karaoke Director on a plan to improve the event.
- Staying the course in the Fan Fiction department. (Showing an understanding that ‘change for the sake of change’ isn’t a good thing, and the current plans for Fan Fiction and it’s expansion will not need much guidance as it is already an Anime Convention Leader!).
- And last but not least, listening to the congoers and making sure we are serving the needs of all the fans.
Thank you very much for your consideration and I hope you vote for me on October 10th.
Beth Wickel
Director of Programming Candidate
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I would like to say that I am not running for anything.
I support both Sean and Beth in their respective nominations.
Do not vote for me, though.
Volunteer for life!
*runs*
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As long as SailorNaboo is still the Queen of the cosplayage I'll be happy :)