None of us were the sort of person you’d see on the street carrying a kawaii gudetama-chan backpack, wearing pastel color hand made lolita-attire while humming our favorite anime theme and carrying the amazing bento we’d made that morning (including adorable hotdog octopi of course!). Most of us hadn’t even seen a new anime release (in English or otherwise) and only new the classics: Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, Cowboy Bebop, Robotech, Gundam… you get the idea.
Remember back when I told you that I started my convention running career in 2009 after seeing some things and wanting to help change the game for my local anime con? I think I even mentioned that I started as the Facilities Liaison, a director level position that coordinated communication between the hotel and the event.
Well, there was a reason for that.
You see, back in 2009 I was working as the front desk manager for a small town hotel, roughly 70 rooms and 1 meeting space (technically 2 but the other was used for breakfast and was tiny). But the difficulties in managing a hotel scale pretty well in my opinion, and understanding how room blocks, event space and cost variance work for hotels turned out to be a super power few in fandom had. As I left the convention floor and went home to defend the staff and event on its forum, I began to realize that my knowledge was valuable.
And, it turns out, it might still be. So lets take a moment to discuss how room blocks, hotel booking and discounts work and apply it to fandom events.
First and foremost, any convention, event, expo or meetup should be treated and run as a business. That means thinking of your attendees as customers, your volunteer staff as… charitable organization volunteers (you didn’t think I was going to say employees did you? Good heavens, do you want fandom to get in trouble with the IRS?) or at the very least think of yourself as a person who runs a business with the intent to be solvent. I wont say profitable, because not all events are out to make a profit, but it is important for any business to be self sustaining eventually, and your job as someone starting a business that is mainly a event production company is to make choices that get you to that sustaining mark.
With that said, any hotel you work with is going to be a business too, and their job is quite literally to be a solvent business that. makes. money.
Remind yourself of that any time you question why they are not negotiating with you more kindly, why they are not recognizing how important your event is to the community, and why they constantly want to talk to you about their towels (more on this another time). It’s because they are looking at you and your attendees in a risk/reward chart and gauging how much value you have for their business.
But take my word for it, you have value to their business. Even at 2000, 1000, 500 or less attendees, you can have amazing value. But the point is, you need to recognize the business relationship and not be intimidated by the cold and calculative nature of the transaction. Representatives of hotels can be sweet, friendly and very good at marketing their businesses value. You need to be just as good.
An event doesn’t get very far on its own. Even starting out with 100 attendees for a 1 day event, you have allies in the community who want you to succeed. These people are your local tourism, visitor board or chamber of commerce. Organizations in your town, county or state that have the soul purpose of cultivating community rich and attractive events from their youth into destination events that do their travel advertising for them. You want to be best friends with your local tourism board, because they actually want you to succeed at bringing more people into the area and making them look good.
And to do that, they have grants and apps and relationships they have built over a long time that trump ANYTHING your friend of a friend who knows the owner of the donuts shop down the street can do for you. The will elevate your negotiations, encourage more attractive contracts and most importantly teach you how to host an event in their area. But only if you ask and stay hungry for that knowledge.
Every contract you enter into limits your negotiations, so if you must enter into a contract, think 12 steps ahead to any other contracts you made need and think critically about how that contract will affect the others. If you book a cheap venue, will that limit your negotiations with the nearby hotel? If you have your event catered by a company you like, will they work with your venue? Does your venue allow you to bring in outside food or items for your attendees or VIP guests? If you book a certain venue, will that limit the content you can have, the hours you can be open? Will availability of dates attractive to you from a venue or hotel limit your choices and solvency?
If you haven’t considered these questions, or are about to negotiate a contract and are wondering what questions to ask yourself before signing a deal then you are not ready to sign. Take a step back and really think about the 2 year outlook, the 5 year outlook and event the 10 year outlook of your convention. What are you doing right now that will impact your event in the future and how can your choices stifle or flourish your events prosperity.
What do you think? Are you contract savvy, or do you still need help advocating for your event? Do you think fandom conventions deserve more help from the communities they inhabit to grow? Talk about it in the comments!
The first website I ever edited was, undoubtedly, a now completely defunct myspace page. And even then, that page rarely have any of the cool sparkling animated pictures or embedded music that most well designed and envied myspace pages had (I think I once added a little dancing cow to the cursor, very trendy!).
From there, I spent more time adding data and research to wikipedia pages than learning the artistic code of web design and development.
“But wait,” I hear you saying “You were the publicity director of an anime convention for two years, didn’t you have to work on the website?” and the answer would be yes*. That asterisk there is what makes all the difference. See, I had people, particularly one really cool person who as far as I know is still plugging away at that website to this day.
I’m not ashamed to admit that I was never a part of the web design or website development fandom. That passion never really got me. Creating a website that draws people in sounds hard, and boring to me. Which is why this site has gone from drab, to broken, to passable (and that is probably where I am leaving it). It will most likely always be under construction, and if you have an idea for how I could make it more open, friendly or just build on what I have here, let me know. I am open to advice!
The moral of the story: Don’t be afraid to admit you are not a part of a fandom. Being an outsider looking in gives people who are a chance to show off their skills. And making friends with other skills and passions builds a more rounded fandom!
For most of us, fandom is a cultural experience, something we establish on our own as we test the waters of music, art, literature and film. We grow to follow a community based on not just content, but the inclusivity and the familiarity of those we grow into the fandom with. It is a slow process, and not one we delve into lightly or without some established knowledge of the thing.
And then, there are those born into fandom. There are certainly fewer of them, a generation apart from the construction of the fandom, but no less intricately is it sewn into their being. The easiest example of these is a child’s passion for the music their parents loved. I grew up from an age before I could walk or talk listening to the Beach Boys, and found my first steps as I danced wildly around the giant wooden spindle our home had for a coffee table. As I grew, my cultural understanding of who the Beach Boys are and were filled out my love of the music and grew my fandom – but it was always there, from my first memory on, I felt comfortable discussing their tracks and it bring a smile to my face when I hear about a concert (even if I cannot attend) or see a vinyl record for sale (which I snap up eagerly).
But, above all the other children born into and raised up in a fandom, there is one that certainly takes fandom to the most professional and career-centric of extremes. That person, was Christopher John Reule Tolkien, son of J.R.R. Tolkien who authored The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. What could his son have provided to the fandom of Middle-Earth that would grant him such notoriety in professional fandom?
It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
Well, for one, he was the youngest member inducted into the Inklings society: a club of literature giants including C.S. Lewis and his father, who discussed the trials and hurdles of writing for collegiate and consumer.
His presence there might be akin to allowing the biggest fan of The Tonight Show to sit in with all the late night show hosts as they discuss the state of their craft. From a young age, Christopher was the main sounding board for his fathers written adventures, and the biggest critic of his later works. So much so that he was the one who knew intimately the journals and unfinished manuscripts of the compendiums J.R.R. was never able to publish before his death, and was the only person able to piece them together in some semblance of a narrative, now known as The Silmarillion. Other works he also salvaged from the precipice of death include The Children of Húrin and Beren and Lúthien, all of which expand the world that his father created and grew the community, enriched it far beyond what we might have hoped with J.R.R. Tolkien’s passing.
Christopher Tolkien passed away at the age of 95, living a full fandom life and providing us with a much needed mentor and teacher in what it means to truly make your passion your profession. A child of a literary titan who grew up dreaming of the fantastical worlds of amazing contemporary writers, building on his fathers legacy in ways that grow and support the community.
Thank you Christopher, Nínion ned i vened ‘wîn.
Stand back JoJo Siwa, imma bout to shed some deep light on how the hair bow and fascinator apply to modern era business people.
Close your eyes for a moment and picture yourself standing amidst the crowd of the Kentucky Derby. Mint Julep in hand, a bookie slip in the other and the smell of fresh dirt stirred up by racing horses surrounds you as the crowd cheers and jostles to the beat of the announcers jovial tones. What are you wearing? A smart suit, or elegant cocktail gown fitting of the weather and the style of the year? What about atop your head?
Well, no one of good upbringing would be caught at the greatest gala of the year without a perfect fascinator.
In my personal life, I have found the difficulty of dressing up for the business side of fandom while still adding that silent but obvious nod to my roots to be, troublesome at best. That was, until I found the underground community of hair bow makers (and much later, the short lived line of bows at HotTopic). Suddenly there was a class all of its own of subtle yet beautiful emblems of my fandom, from Pokemon to Star Wars all the way through Studio Ghibli films and elements of the periodic table. Representation among bows and bow-makers was full of diversity, and one could conscript an artist to build them the perfect Moana inspired bow, or design it yourself and wear your unique art with pride. Hair bows complete any adorably classic or modern look without becoming the entirety of the look, and while the exist as a conversation piece, I have found that most people don’t even realize the bow represents something abnormal.
This is probably why they work so well as an accessory to a business person’s attire: for those in the know, they are a nod to culture and community, and for those who couldn’t be bothered they are just a slightly more exuberant addition to regular garb.
In that same vein, I have begun collecting (and designing) what some might call “mouse ears” which are reminiscent of the classic Mickey and Minnie Mouse ear bands you might find in Disney Parks, but take on a whole life of their own with themes ranging from the stylish and trendy to the outlandish and gaudy. Etsy is where these artist reign supreme and my goal one day is to have a store I can link here to showcase all my fun and fancy free designs.
Until then, I’ll just keep rocking my bows and dreaming up more ways to show my fandom pride in the workplace. Let me know in the comments below, how do you add your fandom to your business wear?
This is a series of posts on convention running and my journey through conventions. For the entire series click here.
It was Labor Day Weekend of 2009. At the time, I was reeling from a bad breakup and living with my Grandmother back in my hometown while working to save up to get back into school. A friend of mine had reminded me that week that there was an Anime Convention going on in downtown Portland, and thought I’d enjoy the experience. It was somewhat of a spontaneous adventure that got me to call up a friend with a car, and convince them to drive into Portland in the middle of the night for donuts and to drop me off at a plush Downtown hotel where I had no reservation and proceed to crash on the floor of a friend of a friends booked room. I got up early, waited in line for the chance to purchase a weekend ticket to the event, not knowing what events I’d go to or things I’d see.
The convention itself was largely uneventful for me. I went to a few interesting panels about AMVs (Anime Music Videos, or fan-compiled videos set to specific music) and a strange panel for a group called “The Anime Hunters” whom did a YouTube channel of their shenanigans in cosplay making and being fans. I saw a few of the guests and, more than any of that, I witnessed the staff working hard and experiencing serious problems with the venue, attendees and their own limitations.
I knew a little bit about how hotels work, having been the front desk manager of one for a year or so at that point, and could see that a lot of what they were suffering stemmed from a fundamental disconnect between the convention staff and the hotel.
There was a revolt among the attendees about the treatment of their throngs by the security and staff of the hotel, and the complications in rectifying this with staff of the convention. There were forum threads where people pledged anger, frustrated boycotting of future conventions.
I did the best I could to explain why the convention was struggling with their venue, why other venues wouldn’t work and the options the convention had at their disposal to improve the situation. I encouraged people who were negative to get involved – and then I took my own advice and started conversing with the heads of the convention; showing up to the general/elections meeting that year. Fast forward a month and I was asked to take the position of Facilities Liaison, a director level position that built the relationship between the hotel and the convention staff. Fast forward a few years and I have held 4 of the 9 Director level positions at that convention and have been a part of its growth from a 3000 person event to a platform convention recognized across the country that benefits from a beautiful convention center in Portland.
In that time, I got a degree in communication, I liaised with conventions across the country and businesses around the globe to learn more about what it takes to make a convention work.
But I am not the first to do that, and certainly wont be the last. I met with people who ran conventions as non-profits and 100% volunteer run, and convention runners whose full time job was producing events in fandom. And that was the bug that bit me, the thing that kept me up at night. If these people could make a living as “secret masters of fandom (SMOF’s), why couldn’t I? I found there was a whole community of people working to make a stable living inspiring others and building fandom. That is the journey, that is the hope. Lets see how long it takes.
It’s been just over two weeks since the general public was able to sit down and take in the supposed final chapter in the “Skywalker” Saga: Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker. The professional reviews have slowed and we now have a stable rating of just over 54% according to rottentomatoes which hasn’t changed all that much from its early reviews at release weekend. While the popcorn munching public has had a much more favorable opinion of the film (clocking in at a respectable 86% audience review) there is still a lot that die-hard and casual fans have felt was lacking, unnecessary or just plain weird about the film. Now the hasthag #releasethejjcut has exploded in the wake of reddit user egoshoppe posted in saltierthancrait subreddit about an insider account he had been given of the true stressors between JJ Abrams and Disney executives that plagued the production. People are demanding, begging and lamenting the “JJCut” of the film as some bastion of clarity and cohesion that the sequel trilogy desperately needed.
Here’s Five Reasons why the JJ Abrams “Cut” of Disney’s Star Wars Rise of Skywalker won’t actually make you happy:
You will always be angry with Rian Johnson
If you are reading this list, chances are its because you feel some sort of way about Rian Johnson’s entry into the Star Wars franchise, and it probably isn’t the sort of emotion that lends itself to a Jedi. The outcry against Star Wars Episode 8: The Last Jedi has faded, but the wounds are still there. Those scars and feelings of betrayal, the feeling that Disney had allowed the central movie of their sequel trilogy to be helmed by a Director whom many argued did not respect the Star Wars franchise. Or, at the very least – didn’t understand the difference between subversion of expectations and mockery of them. If you are hoping that a JJ Cut of Rise of Skywalker will help smooth the rift that TLJ (The Last Jedi) chasmed into the saga, you are sure to be disappointed. If anything it seems fairly obvious that the movie we got out of Abrams for the climax of the series was never going to attempt to seamlessly flow the contentions of Last Jedi into its narrative.
There is no such thing as a perfect ending to a childhood transcending property
Beyond the films, the books and the video games, past the television shows and the merchandise is an uncomfortable truth: Star Wars is too big a thing to make you truly happy anymore. The narrative has been on a constant uptick, climbing in intensity, mounting the stakes and level of power – and that sort of progressive climb really can’t be sustained. It is why people rolled there eyes at “Starkiller Base” and its multi-planet the-power-of-the-sun-in-the-palm-of-your-hands killing tech – because at a certain point, blowing up planets is just blowing up planets and you really have a hard time making the stakes any higher. This is why The Mandalorian works so well, and why Disney+ really hasn’t experienced any backlash from its episodes or its Season 1 conclusion. The stakes are drawn back, reserved. We don’t need incredible feats of magic or ace piloting, because we are back to the roots of how Star Wars feels – beyond the planet killing weapons, it really comes down to a cocksure rebellious hero taking on the universe, one kooky adventure at a time. Nothing in the JJ Cut will diminish the Theatrical versions desperate attempts to up the stakes and pull in even more incredible feats of daring do – those are a part of the narrative, intentional and important to what JJ was trying to accomplish. If anything, the directors cut would only increase the amount of Michael Bay-esque explosions and frenetic energy.
It will only continue to remind you of your feelings for The Last Jedi
Everything that was set up in TLJ was either retconned or completely ignored. That is made painfully obvious in nearly every set piece of the entire final installment of the Skywalker storyline. Rey’s origins and parentage are hand waived into being important, albeit disposable cornerstones of her narrative and even the tone and treatment of Luke Skywalker’s force ghost removed any question of his loyalty to the force and the training of future Jedi. While that might make you smile, or even cheer triumphantly at the way the movie attacks its cruel predecessor, you will eventually wake up to realize that, while a jovial moment and visual, a cohesive story and trilogy it does not make. At the end of the day, the revenge porn that is the majority of RoS plot adds more questions than it answers – coming in as an alternative second film in the trilogy, rather than a conclusion.
What is missing from Star Wars isn’t more hype – it’s less.
The refrain from most people who are either excited for and love the most recent Star Wars film or simply wanted more of it, is that the film didn’t give them all the conclusions they needed. They site the hyper-space speed at which the plot had to move in order to tick all the boxes that would right the ship from the previous film, and subsequently close everything up in a neat little bow. That kind of plan rarely works, and instead highlights the mistakes made and the rushed nature of the screenplay. What would be truly refreshing for a JJCut is not an extra hour of explosions, lens flare and shoe-horned fan service, but a paired down opening act that removes the first portion of their journey, writes it into the opening crawl as done and allows us to jump in as the action is happening. The best example of this is in Return of the Jedi, where we jump directly into a plan already in motion to rescue Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt. The movie doesn’t spend the time to tell us what the plan is or how they will execute it (or even worse, take us on all the side quests to get the tools necessary to fool Jabba). That is wasted time in an action adventure serial.
Even if you had it, you’d want more
Perhaps the hardest thing to come to terms with is our desire as fans for more. Even if we got everything we wanted from a film we loved, at most it would make us smile and cheer in the moment, but in our next breath we’d be wanting more. That is the curse of fandom, and the difficulty of creating content for fandom: the more you give, the more will be required for the next movie, the next show and the next figurine. And even when we get more of what we want, it doesn’t end up satisfying the same way. This is why it can be so refreshing to see a deconstructed version of our favorite franchises (like The Mandalorian). It allows us to reset all the high stakes we’ve built and just focus on the core of the story – the emotion that drew us in.
What do you think? Is the JJ Abrams Cut of Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker worth all the fuss? Let your voice be heard in the comments below!
Thanks for joining me!
To the man who loves art for its own sake, it is frequently in its least important and lowliest manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived.
— Arthur Conan Doyle
When most people think of fandom (particularly people whom might find this website) visions of Tumblr, or anime conventions, even fan-fiction or art might come to mind. It’s easy to neatly fit communities where the artistic and grass routes discussion, creation and impressions are centered around niche markets of culture into the fandom text.
Savvy people might even recognize the fandom of professional sports, cultures and movie genre’s as fandoms.
But there is another level of fandom buried within all these groups. A deeper level of fandom that is whispered about, understood peripherally, but rarely considered by the mainstream at large. This is professional fandom, and this is where the line blurs between fan and creator.
Professional fandom can be a youtube content creator whose channel discusses the impacts of movies and tv on social issues, professional fandom can be a movie reviewer, a convention organizer, an extended universe writer or artist. What unites professional fans is not just their love of specific popular culture, but there desire to make that fandom a career.
It has been one of my greatest dreams to take my many fandoms and apply my communication degree to the discussion and proliferation of fan-content and fan created business (as well as the overall business of fandom). And now, together, we are going to do just that!
There are women out there in the world who make these amazing realizations, and declare them out like a powerful orchestra of liberty and righteousness. It is often difficult, I think, even for those who dismiss women and their power, to ignore the art that they make with their words. Normally that could be because it gets plastered everywhere and anywhere media is spoon fed to the masses, but also because beautiful and heartfelt words tend to radiate out without discriminating on their recipients.
Loan Tran is one such woman. We know her as Kelly Marie Tran and she was the first main cast Star Wars character who happened to be female and of color. She was the first Asian in a leading roll in Star Wars and she made fan boys rage with their hatred of the way her character handles key plot moments in the latest main line Star Wars movie: Star Wars Episode 8: The Last Jedi.
I’ll be the first to admit, her character left so much to be desired in terms of autonomy, plot relevance and overall thought process in crucial moments. Her inexplicable devotion/attachment to Finn weakened her character in so many ways for me, but that is not Kelly Marie Tran’s fault, or her problem.
You may be thinking “But Ally! Tran deleted her Instagram, she hid from the criticism and the threats, why would that make her your hero?” and on the surface, it seems pretty strange that I’d be cheering for someone who avoided her problems… but honestly? These are not her problems, they are ours.
The reeling and whining of Star Wars fans is not something she should ever, ever have to deal with. Her job is to bring to life the character as imagined by the script and the director and build a believable human from those tiny directions. In my opinion, regardless of how weak and flawed that person was, she did that with flying colors. She created a woman who was broken from the loss of her (clearly) more competent and more respected sibling, living in the wake of that loss and attempting to honor that legacy by stepping up into shoes she wasn’t ready to fill without realizing how complex the world outside of her engineering bubble would be. She never lost face, but it was clear that she lacked the experience outside of a space vessel to effectively communicate her goals and lead the team to their execution.
That isn’t a bad thing either, a lot of the story arcs in SW:TLJ were about having goals and taking control and failing miserably when you do because you aren’t prepared or don’t have all the information. That in and of itself is a great lesson about trust and honesty. And perhaps that is the best lesson Kelly Marie Tra- sorry Loan Tran had learned from the haters and die hards. Rather than blindly throwing herself against the opposition, without a clear goal of how to end the conflict, she stood by herself and took the reflection and the battle inward and one that conflict before bring the battle out to them.
In both instances, its clear that she is the winner. May the Force be with you, Loan.