MerCon type of gathering for 201?? what do you think??

[New York Mermaid]

It’s funny I see that some people were talking about WMA's/MerCon.

Malinghi and I talked recently about maybe an East Coast MerCon type of gathering in the future, I’m sure there are many people on here who would like to possibly put something together in the near future. Maybe get ideas and a Group of people who would like to be apart of making this happen. I can see MerNetwork pulling off an awesome bash in 2012-13 or later. I’m sure it will take at least a minimum of a year or 2 to put something together. (Think wedding planning)

What do you guys think?

Here are 2 links which i think would begin to help out on maybe planning for Mernetwork's MerCon 201?http://www.trhonline.com/viewcat.pl?howtostartacon
http://www.upcomingcons.com/how-to-start-an-anime-convention

[Mermaid Saphira]

OMG! This is such a great idea! I would love to meet my pod members! If everyone agrees, I would love to help with the planning...I want to be a wedding planner
We could make t-shirts, and pins and...o listen to me when I get excited! LOL

[AniaR]

I think anything that is being planned needs to be planned a year in advanced honestly, and I also think it requires a certain amount of fund-raising or at least someone who's willing to put down payments. Otherwise you run into a lot of the problems we saw at mercon this year,.

[Mermaid Saphira]

Someone could design and sell fund-raising t's on cafepress or something...

[Spindrift]

What someone needs to do is make a coherent business plan -and- business pitch* detailing exactly what the Con will entail, how much it would cost, and how much volunteers would be needed. This includes detailed notes like a cost-benefit analysis and a contact list for who's who (venues, food suppliers, transportation, lodging etc) to make such an event happen. This needs to happen -before- anything goes into motion though.

*if you can't sell it to your peers, there's no way you could get away with it for the public. The first con worked because it was new - but didn't meet expectations. Anyone who steps up now has to be sure they can deliver - and has to prove they can back that claim up.

[Spindrift]

... and all that stuff comes before factoring trivial costs like pins and t-shirts. Also someone would need to be in charge of a kickass marketing plan that doesn't consist of just spamming Facebook walls.

[New York Mermaid]

^lol yes, i remember a group i worked with had a "street team" which would advertise vias posters and other things. It worked out very well. Lol if we only had the money for a billboard and some press, which would be pretty important. im sure it can be done.

[Spindrift]

Advertising comes after a working product. :x Good thinking ahead though

[Mermaid Photine]

I help a friend with an ice skating charity show, and it is most certainly a TON of work. They secure the ice rink, find skater willing to donate their time to perform, advertise (both online and with posters, flyers, etc.), and set up an auction for skating gear- they need to get donations for that, also. There's back and forth planning and communication pretty much all year, once they have recovered from the last one. I couldn't imagine running the actual show (I set up and run the souvenir stand with a team of whoever is available to help out.) Once the day of the show is upon us, we have to arrive early to the rink, and set up for several hours- this includes some heavy lifting to keep hooligans out and make the on-ice seats safe for skaters and those watching alike. The enitre thing is organised chaos, and we never seem to have enough volunteers. I absolutely love the idea of a mermaid convention on the east coast, but there are many things that would first need to be thought out.

How is it going to be paid for? You need the payments in advance to secure everything you want.
How is admission going to be paid? How is it going to be enforced? Breaking even is really important. I have had people come up to me asking if they can go to the ice show for free, and even caught rink rats stealing the ham and cake that was in a sectioned off area for the volunteers.
How/will would performers and vendors be found?
Do you have the proper liability and insuances? I know nothing about these, so I think they are extra important to read up upon.
Do you have a reliable venue with enough parking and room for eveyone?
How will volunteers and other people be organised?
There so many things that would need to be juggled to get it to work.

To whoever(s) would be in charge: Everyone in this community has brilliant ideas, lots of them, but there would be no way that they could all get done in one convention. How will you handle choosing the ones to go with? Can you (or ya'll) be diplomatic when deciding upon activities and such, and also choose ones that would please the community as a whole, not just the ones you personally find superduper awesome?
Can you deal with the inevitable difficult people who want THAT vendor space (THAT one right THERE! or else!), want free admission for themselves and exended family of 15 toddlers and their aunts and uncles to go to the after hours mermaid bash of awesomeness, or just want to be difficult because they got stuck in traffic driving there from Alaska?
Are you willing to contribute more than all of your available time into making it work? The day of the show, I got up super duper early, traveled two hours to VA, set up, ran the stand during the influx of patrons (they filled the entire upstairs floor packed tight), then helped take the enitre show setup back down and loaded back into the vans. Then was invited to join the skaters (gulp! talk about starstruck!) at the after-eating-festival. I did not get back until very late, even after excusing early so that I could get back home. And that's just my part, the planning would have been an entire 'nother odeal. It was a blast, and I was so tired afterwards.

I am really not trying to be a debbie downer, but I do want to bring attention to important points and things to consider before putting together the super-most mermaid con in the east coast- the things that are less fun to think about than buttons or posters or colour schemes. The tough, annoying stuff should also be taken into consideration before other things so that this might work out wonderfully!

Hopefully this comes out as more of a thoughtful postthan a shoot-down-ideas one, but in case it was read badly, no idea-shooting or anything was intended. I wanted to share my experience of how much work everthing can be.

[Spindrift]

Yeah I get what you mean. My friend and I just organized a campus-wide luau by ourselves. It worked out great, but it was a lot of work and we had to start an hour late because of issues with food not being ready.

[melbel1023]

Ooh! I likie!
What if we tried asking the Georgia Aquarium to host? It might be expensive, but they might be interested in at least hosting some events (Not swimming, I'm sure)

[Mermaid Saphira]

melbel- That would be a great idea!
What about the baltimore aquarium?
Haven't been there much but it might be cool

[New York Mermaid]

though GA sounds like fun however, I was thinking more like a hotel or even a place like the the vetitian pool in coral gables as one choice of possibility for a swim session or something of the sort. I wish we could rent the weeki wachee pool for a day, but of course theres so much issue on that behalf especially for non swimmers.

scroll down to Kanti's Post # 6 : http://mernetwork.com/index/showthre...-Amazing-Pools

heres some information on it: http://www.coralgables.com/CGWeb/par...s/vp_home.aspx

[Mermaid Saphira]

Now THAT is perfect! Just look at the place! It's mermaid heaven! A HUGE pool is perfect...

[Spindrift]

Was the draining water thing an issue for anyone? Or is it not really an environmental issue? I don't think we ever came to a conclusion on that.

... Not that the venue has to be environmentally-friendly. It'd be nice to be able to give back or do something to the ocean, but we could also just not. :x

[Mermaid Saphira]

hmmm good question spindrift

[New York Mermaid]

i suppose thats why we choose multiple locations and find out which might be better suited for a convention. I hope soon we do find one that convenient for all of us.

[Mermaid Saphira]

The place we have in mind sounds beautiful, but 820,00 gallons of water drained everyday!!!???
Maybe we will be able to find something just as beautiful, but more eco friendly. Like spindrift
said "it would be nice to give back to the ocean.."

[Mermaid Saphira]

This message was originally written by moonflower--

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"So, in doing my research on The Venetian Pool, I found out a few things:

http://www.coralgablesvenetianpool.com/ <-- Mermaid!

The pool ranges from 4 to 8 feet deep and there's a grotto as well as natural waterfall!

It is the largest freshwater pool in the US.

The water is drained DAILY, however, as it's filled from a natural aquifer, the water is drained back into the aquifer to use the 'natural filtration' it offers. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venetian_Pool)

For non-Coral Gables residents it costs 11.00 per day (adult) to use the pool. What I didn't manage to find out is if they allow swim fins (which is usually the only reason they wouldn't allow tails), but after reading some in-depth reviews, I didn't see anyone mentioning that they didn't. I just wouldn't want to drive all the way out and not be able to wear my tail... "

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just thought this information was useful

[malinghi]

Its awesome seeing how much interest there is in this! Thanks for making this thread Lanai. Here are a couple things I'd like to say on this matter:

Everyone that pointed out that this would be really hard and take tons of time and money, you're right. That's the biggest issue right now.

I think one way to try to put together a convention would be for each pod to start trying to organize small gatherings in their region. Everyone gets experience at the whole thing and learns from everyone else's mistakes. Eventually whoever is having the most success organizing regular get togethers would simply declare that one of their gatherings will be a convention. All the other pods would then work together to try to increase the turnout by getting all of their members to come, and by spreading the word to people outside the community. Since lots of people would already know other people in their region, people could carpool and share driving duty to avoid paying for airfare. Instead of paying $300 to $500 for travel, three or four people could share the cost of gas and take turns driving. Now if you live 14 hours away from the convention, you can get there for $40, instead of $500. This could definitely improve the turnout. And the venue would already be used to hosting groups of merpeople, so that would simplify a major part of it.

Can you guys give me feedback on this? What do you think?