Saturday Schedule

This is a prospective schedule (as of December 5, 2007.) All times and items are subject to change.

• Friday
• Saturday Highlights
• Sunday

Sat.	Wellesley	Middlebury	ConSuite (New England Ballroom)
10-11	Smofcon 101 - Anne Murphy, Kevin Standlee, Cass Marshall	Stocking the ConSuite - Gay Ellen Dennett (m), Jeff Orth, Sandra Childress	Aging Fans - Sally Woehrle
11-12			Keynote (Branding) - Dr. Gloria Boone
12-1	LUNCH
1-2	New Technology for (Old?) Conventions - Edie Stern (m), Leslie Turek, Nicholas Shectman, Michael Pins	Finding Your Focus - Priscilla Olson (m), Colin Harris, Mark Herrup, Elaine Brennan	The Hygiene Issue - Jeff Warner
2-3	Obs and Egoboo - Joe Siclari (m), Bill Parker, Steven Cooper, Alex von Thorn	Start-ups - Patrick Molloy(m), Warren Buff, Mary Dumas, Gadi Evron	Program Software – the Adventure Continues
3-4	Dealing With NeoPros -Janice Gelb (m), Joe and Gay Haldeman	Purveyors of Fine Goods to Fandom: Marketing to Fandom – Scott Dennis, Barb vanTilberg, Larry Smith	Improving the Online Hugo Ballot (3:30-4:00) - Laurie Mann
4-5	Après le Deluge – the place of Marketing in Disaster Recovery -Jim Mann (m), Kevin Standlee, Patty Wells, Carl Fink	Open mike  /short talks Eemeli Aro – Nordic fandom Jordan Brown – Registration Chris Kuivenhoven – ConHeaven Phoenix – volunteer awards Filthy Pierre - Flyer racks, message/party boards	What’s Happening to Art Shows? - Andrea Senchy, Judith Kindell
5-6	Flow - Mark Olson, Chip Hitchcock	Marketing to the Hotel - Bobbi Armbruster (m), Mark Herrup	Childcare: What to Provide - Naomi Fisher, Lisa Ragsdale, Lisa Hertel
	DINNER
9-10:30 10:30-11	(ConSuite) INQUISITION (Joe Siclari) Smofcon selection
11-12	(Midnight) Horror – Worst Practices in Marketing: war stories and confessionals - Edie Stern

Smofcon 101
- Anne Murphy, Kevin Standlee, Cass Marshall
Why is this convention different from all other conventions? Why do you come? After an overview of Smofcon’s history, newbies will have a chance to meet some of the regulars (guess what! No horns!!) and for everyone to ask questions? What kinds of questions? Well....who is everyone? What can the smoffish community do for local groups....and vice versa?! What do you want to know? To do? What are the questions Smofcon should answer? What did we leave out of the convention program that you’d like to see happen – ah! – and if enough people agree, we have a space for that program (and a fence that needs whitewashing....)

Aging Fans
- Sally Woehrle
What are the uniquely fannish problems of aging? How do the limitations of age (and handicaps) affect the convention? Are aging limitations different than those of younger handicapped people? What can conventions do to support our aging population?

Stocking the ConSuite
- Gay Ellen Dennett (m), Jeff Orth, Sandra Childress
Alcohol or not? Coke vs. Pepsi? Salty or sweet? Soup kitchen or occasional snacks? Do you have to use the hotel’s stuff? The experts here will also attempt to explain how much of what you should get per person attending – and what the various trade-offs are.

Keynote Speaker
Our keynote presentation by Dr. Gloria M. Boone emphasizes the advertising concept of branding: what branding is, how to build an unique brand identity for a convention, and how to capitalize on that brand identity. She will also discuss how new advertising and marketing technologies can be applied to spreading the word about the convention.

Dr. Boone is professor at Suffolk University and communication consultant in Boston. Her research examines new marketing technologies, advertising, and the interactions and evolution of online communities.

Gloria's Keynote Speech slides are available at http://infoacrs.com/branding.html.

New Technology for (Old) Conventions (with Special Attention to Communications.)
- Edie Stern (m), Leslie Turek, Nicholas Shectman, Michael Pins
How can we use new technologies to run better conventions? Are there technologies that negatively affect the convention, before, during or after? Do different kinds of conventions need different kinds of technology? How do you best use (or should you use?) the wisdom of crowds—wikis, reputation services and the like. We'll discuss the use of wikis in planning this Smofcon. How can we use the blogosphere? What other tools are available? Can online survey tools be useful? Is it better to push or pull information to the members? To committee? What has technology improved for Smofdom? What has been worsened?

Finding Your Focus
- Priscilla Olson (m), Colin Harris, Mark Herrup, Elaine Brennan
Who is the convention for? Do you have an obligation to have it open for everyone who might be considered a "fan"? (And how do you decide that?)  ((Hmmm...and who decides it?)) Are you doing it out of arrant self-interest or for the greater good (trumpet blast!) of all fandom.  But – assume your resources are limited – how do you decide? How do you get others (in your group, say?) to agree with you? How do you persuade people you want them/don’t want them/don’t necessarily hate them? These questions are relevant to all conventions – whether they’re general or specialty, new or established, and (maybe especially) those conventions in a state of flux. After all, ya gotta satisfy enough people to keep your convention healthy, or else...

The Hygiene Issue
- Jeff Warner
The complaints start rolling in: "The children were pointing and holding their noses." say the moms. "The smell could make a vulture gag" joke the big hairy guys in kilts.... Should the con itself feel obliged to intervene in cases of (bad) personal hygiene? What could (should?) be done if someone has forgotten the “1” part of the 5-2-1 Rule? Can you be proactive about this? (How?) Should you be PC, and let BO win? ....Yeah, I don't know either. Let's discuss it!

Obs and Egoboo
- Joe Siclari (m), Bill Parker, Steven Cooper, Alex von Thorn
They’re the coin of the smoffish realm...the very basis of the fannish "gift economy"....but why are they so important. Is it really worth it? What makes it so? When is it not rewarding enough? (with some thoughts on how to make it so.... ) But...the real question is...(drum roll?)...how does this affect how we operate? After all, who in their right minds would spend heaps of money to work their butts off like so many of us do?  Why do we bother? ....kinda gets back to the question, who is the convention for.....???

Start-ups
- Patrick Molloy(m), Warren Buff, Mary Dumas, Gadi Evron
New conventions, along with one-shots, and some specialty conventions have special challenges not faced by established conventions. Not least among these is identifying, finding, and (actually) reaching your market. We’ll examine the "start-up" experience: the trials and tribulations, rewards and joys.

Program Software – the Adventure Continues
A roundtable/workshop on program software, with people invited to bring demos. This is a fairly specialized item, but of great interest to those who are interested (at all....)!

Dealing with NeoPros
-Janice Gelb (m), Joe and Gay Haldeman
Neo-pros typically require more care and feeding than the more experienced professionals, and frequently have inflated ideas of their own importance. Discuss neo-pros and how conventions can relate with them to mutual benefit. Many neo-pros did not come out of fandom and are not (yet) part of the community. What do neo-pros need to s/u/c/k/ t/h/e/m/ in/ make them feel at home? What do they think they need that they don't? Why do so many of them have such a sense of entitlement?

Purveyors of Fine Goods – Marketing to Fandom
– Scott Dennis, Barb vanTilberg, Larry Smith
How do you do it? What should you sell? Should conventions outsource to the experts? How do you market to fans? Can you overmarket/overproduce?  What's the highest amount that fans will pay? Can you have too many T-shirts? How do convention goods reflect the focus of the convention?

Après le Deluge - the Place of Marketing in Disaster Recovery
-Jim Mann (m), Kevin Standlee, Patty Wells, Carl Fink
You've lost your hotel! Your chair was just indicted on charges of child pornography! The riots in the streets have finally, finally stopped. Ok, now what's a con runner to do? What are the marketing steps you can take to help overcome the effects of disaster on your convention? Whether the disaster is of your own making, or just plain bad luck, how do you make the best of it? What and how do you tell the membership? the hotel? When should you just throw in the towel and cancel the convention? Is there recourse from unhelpful online commentary? Is there a difference if it's a local geographical disaster or an actual convention disaster? Are there particular influencers that you should court? Can humor help? When does humor hurt? Tell us your experiences in disaster recovery. What worked well, and what didn't?

What’s Happening to Art Shows?
- Andrea Senchy, Judith Kindell
Are they really shrinking? Why? Can this be reversed? And (since this may be part of the problem) what do you do about digital art?

Flow
- Mark Olson, Chip Hitchcock
How do you build the convention (physically and otherwise) to enhance it. Getting the "people flow" right makes a huge difference to a convention. With good people flow people not only find what they want to find, but they run into the people they want to see, and stumble across all of the interesting things they’d like. How do you identify potential problems in the flow? How do you fix these? How do you deal with hotel features that lead to bad flow, or utilize those that might enhance flow? It’s more than just choke points, after all...with bad layout, fascinating exhibits are unvisited and people never feel that the convention is really "there".

Marketing to the Hotel
- Bobbi Armbruster (m), Mark Herrup
How do you identify the hotel you want? Do you market to a hotel, or do you let the hotel to market to you? Can a good hotel nevertheless be the wrong hotel for a convention? How do you convince the hotel that it’s right for you? ....and that you’re right for it? When hotels work with amateurs, they get wary (and that children, is one reason that there are attrition clauses). How do you overcome another convention's bad reputation?

Love Me, Love My Kid
- Naomi Fisher, Lisa Ragsdale, Lisa Hertel
What are a con's obligations to the children of its members? Why? How much ought you provide per child? What are the tradeoffs? If you don’t, do you hate kids? (Can you keep the parents coming, anyway? How?)