Author Topic: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Publicity  (Read 6462 times)

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Offline JeffT

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Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Publicity
« on: September 06, 2012, 12:43:27 am »
This thread is for questions and answers for the candidates for the 2013 Director of Publicity.
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Offline @random

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Publicity
« Reply #1 on: September 06, 2012, 08:48:38 am »
  • What do you see the role(s) of the Director of Publicity as being, and what do you believe you bring to the table in this regard?
  • As the Director of Publicity, what changes (if any) would you like to institute?
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Offline Dealrith

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Publicity
« Reply #2 on: September 06, 2012, 07:35:39 pm »
What are some ways you feel we can expand our media foot print to help reach our to more potential attendees and get our name heard.


What is your take on working with other industries to form more partnerships including possible sponsorships for our different events both before and during con?
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Offline yelloweyedowl

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Publicity
« Reply #3 on: September 06, 2012, 08:27:18 pm »
What do you see the role(s) of the Director of Publicity as being, and what do you believe you bring to the table in this regard?
Simply put, I see the Director of Publicity as being responsible for getting attendees and making sure they stay informed before, during, and after Kumoricon.  This takes many forms, like having booths at other events, talking to the press, putting together the con book and facilitating the Kumoricon social media platforms.  What I bring to the table is experience in marketing, planning and leadership, as well as enthusiasm and a love of Kumoricon.

Quote
As the Director of Publicity, what changes (if any) would you like to institute?
If I were elected there aren't any large changes that I would like to make, but I do feel several things should to be improved. First of all, I'd like to facilitate more communication between publicity and other departments, especially at con.  And I think we can do a better job at bringing in attendees by going to more events, passing out more fliers and continuing to form connections with high school and college anime clubs in the area.  I would also like to increase the organization within the department to allow us to operate more smoothly.  
« Last Edit: September 07, 2012, 09:18:29 pm by yelloweyedowl »

Offline Bresslol

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Publicity
« Reply #4 on: September 06, 2012, 08:38:41 pm »
Tell us about a time about a great success you have had working in this department, or in the one you currently staff for.

Tell us about a time where you did not do as well as you had hoped with something regarding your department, or the one you currently staff for. How do you think you could have handled it better?

If you had no resistance or restrictions, what is something you would like to do with Publicity?

What is your definition of a successful Publicity directorate?

Thank you for your time, and best of luck to you all!


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Offline yelloweyedowl

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Publicity
« Reply #5 on: September 07, 2012, 08:51:59 pm »
What are some ways you feel we can expand our media foot print to help reach our to more potential attendees and get our name heard.
I think one of the biggest things we can do is to physically go to more events or just hit the streets on a regular basis. People are a lot more likely to remember a cosplayer handing them a flier than a poster at a restaurant.  I would also like to explore the possibility of holding one or two mini-events throughout the year and putting advertisements in local publications.

What is your take on working with other industries to form more partnerships including possible sponsorships for our different events both before and during con?
I think working with other industries is a great idea! We just need to make sure we can dedicate the resources (time, staff, etc.) to make it work the first time, or it will end up reflecting badly on us. 

Tell us about a time about a great success you have had working in this department, or in the one you currently staff for.
Our social media impact, specifically with facebook and twitter, has risen since I started working with these platforms in the Spring. The beauty of social media is that increased interaction with our attendees means increased advertizing for us via their activity feeds. 

Tell us about a time where you did not do as well as you had hoped with something regarding your department, or the one you currently staff for. How do you think you could have handled it better?
I came into Kumoricon this year not feeling as prepared as I would have liked to be.  I ended up learning quickly and getting to a point by the end of day 1 where I felt comfortable running the press office in Ally’s absence. But I should have taken more initiative to ask questions about how things were going to be run before I got there so I didn’t lose a day of full productivity to a steep learning curve.

If you had no resistance or restrictions, what is something you would like to do with Publicity?
That is such an open ended question that I could go on forever. If I had a large budget I would love to do television commercials and MAX ads. If I had enough staff I would like to do some sort of publicity event every other week to keep our name out there. 

What is your definition of a successful Publicity directorate?
A successful publicity directorate is one that makes Kumoricon visible in the community using a variety of mediums to reach as many people as possible, and ultimately draws new attendees to Kumoricon and keeps the old ones excited about our convention year-round.

Offline numair42

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Publicity
« Reply #6 on: September 08, 2012, 12:23:58 am »
Last year there was talk of a Kumoricon Podcast. From what I can tell, that went nowhere. Can you share your thoughts on the viability of adding a podcast to the promotional toolkit?
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Offline yelloweyedowl

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Publicity
« Reply #7 on: September 09, 2012, 10:58:47 am »
Last year there was talk of a Kumoricon Podcast. From what I can tell, that went nowhere. Can you share your thoughts on the viability of adding a podcast to the promotional toolkit?
While a podcast would be a lot of fun, I'm not sure it would be more effective, or reach a larger audience, then our current publicity channels.  It's a lot easier for people to watch a YouTube video, as opposed to navigating to iTunes (or Kumoricon.org) and downloading it. Of course, the viability of a podcast does depend a lot on exactly what content we want it to contain. If it's primarily Kumoricon announcements or staff meeting recaps, I think our attendees (and future attendees) would find it easier to watch a YouTube video with the same content. On the other hand, a podcast featuring discussion on anime and various industry happenings in addition to general Kumoricon news might draw in a larger audience.  Of course, a production like this would be a lot more time consuming and may still not reach a lot of new (or even current) attendees.  If there is interest among the staff in perusing the idea I would not be opposed to asking attendees (via social media) if they would like to see a podcast, and doing research on exactly what kind of returns we can expect to see from said podcast, but I don't really see it realistically adding that much to our current publicity efforts.

Offline superjaz

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Publicity
« Reply #8 on: September 10, 2012, 05:51:34 pm »
These positions are picked by the board, who do you like for them
Vice Chair

Secretary
 
Treasurer


Facilities Liaison
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Offline yelloweyedowl

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Publicity
« Reply #9 on: September 14, 2012, 12:29:51 pm »
These positions are picked by the board, who do you like for them
Vice Chair

Secretary
 
Treasurer


Facilities Liaison


This is a tough question to answer.  On one hand I want to give the best and fullest answer possible and on the other I’m not entirely sure who I would like to see in most of the director-elected positions.  I do have a couple people I’m thinking about, but I don’t feel I should give names when I’m still unsure.

Offline Bresslol

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Publicity
« Reply #10 on: September 25, 2012, 04:30:47 pm »
For the first time in three years, Kumoricon experienced a growth in attendance, and a record one at that. What is your opinion of growth of the convention, and what more likely would you give an aye vote to if the convention outgrows Vancouver: Staying in Vancouver and instituting an attendance cap, or moving to a venue that would work well with growth?

Give us your schedule of major milestones for Publicity in 2013 (Publications Deadline, Manager hires, Other convention appearances, anything else I may have missed)

Teph, you're currently running unopposed. Tell me who would be an ideal assistant in your department.


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Offline Bresslol

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Publicity
« Reply #11 on: September 25, 2012, 04:50:05 pm »
Oh yeah! One more question!

What is your opinion of the proxy balloting system for elections?


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Offline yelloweyedowl

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Re: Candidate Q&A - 2013 Director of Publicity
« Reply #12 on: September 27, 2012, 08:37:23 pm »
For the first time in three years, Kumoricon experienced a growth in attendance, and a record one at that. What is your opinion of growth of the convention, and what more likely would you give an aye vote to if the convention outgrows Vancouver: Staying in Vancouver and instituting an attendance cap, or moving to a venue that would work well with growth?
I am very excited about our recent growth, and would like to see us grow more in the years to come.  Growth is the ultimate feedback that says we’re doing well as a convention. And freely choosing to put a cap on attendance when there are other venues available doesn't make sense to me.  Our attendees want more variety in programming and higher profile guests, and as a larger convention with a bigger budget we would be in a much better position to bring that to them.  While moving to a new location would provide other logistical challenges I think the work is well worth it for the overall quality and well being of Kumoricon.

Give us your schedule of major milestones for Publicity in 2013 (Publications Deadline, Manager hires, Other convention appearances, anything else I may have missed)
Publicity is a little different from the other departments in that events happen shortly after elections that we need to prepare for and staff, for example Orycon and Mochitsuki, and we continue to have events practically every month leading up to Kumoricon.  This means that I don’t have the luxury of waiting around for the perfect graphic designer or promo force staff to come along.  Does that mean I’ll take just anyone or that they’ll necessarily be the manager? No.  I have more than the required skill set to manage those teams until until managers are hired. I’m looking specifically for people that have the skills needed to do the job, or the skills needed the learn the job, are responsible and good at communicating their needs and concerns in constructive and appropriate ways. I’m hoping that we have a good number returning staff members from last year, specifically in these two positions, so that we can get the ball rolling as fast as possible.  Ideally, I would like to have my assistants hired by November and my managers by January.

Other positions, such as photographers and publications staff, can be filled a little later. However, because Publicity has so much up-front work, the sooner I can get a good staff together the better positioned we’ll be to get everyone excited about Kumoricon.

I would also like to address our publication schedule, specifically the Program Book and Pocket guide. Simply put, I think we should push our deadlines up by at least a month for several reasons.  First of all, it’s not fair to those staff.  Having worked on the Program book in 2011, and in professional graphic design settings, I feel that the amount of work that goes into the con book is a month’s worth of work, which we currently squeeze into a week and half.  This sacrifices the quality of the book itself and forces us to pay extra-rush printing charges.  That being said, the publication deadlines are not only set by publicity.  We get a lot of our content from other departments, so the actual moving of those deadlines would be a collaborative effort on the part of the board of directors.  Ideally, I would like to have 80% book content by July 1st, absolutely finalized content by the 3rd week of July and the book sent to print by the beginning of August.  The pocket guide is a much simpler matter, but I feel that similar content and acquisition deadlines would make the whole process go a lot more smoothly.  The shifting of deadlines will also allow the publicity department to put more time and energy into the things that DO need to happen right be con, such as getting signs printed and reaching out the media outlets as part of our last push before, and during, con to get the word out there.

Teph, you're currently running unopposed. Tell me who would be an ideal assistant in your department.
I want to back up for a minute and explain the breakdown of roles within Publicity, at least the way I see them, for anyone who isn’t familiar. Publicity is easily divided into two subgroups.  The first group are the people on the streets, making sure we’re getting our name out there and staffing our events and appearances throughout the year.  This includes the Promo Force, Publicity Staff, etc..  The other subgroup creates the promotional materials, such as our graphic designers, videographers, etc.

Because our staff has a diverse set of skills, I feel the most appropriate way to organize the department is to have 2 assistant directors, with each working with each of these subgroups.   My goal is to get people for the roles that are already familiar with that area of publicity, and hopefully with a basic working knowledge of the other as well.  This will allow for a more natural workflow within the department, as well as more specialized support when the staff need it.

What is your opinion of the proxy balloting system for elections?
I think it’s important to offer some way for staffers that can’t attend the elections to still have a vote. That being said, I think our current proxy system could use some improving.