So shit has hit the fan, and prospective attendees to this weekend’s con are flaming the event organizers on their official website. Comment-posters are divided mainly into two camps: the people who are raging against the failings of the organizers, and the people who are defending them despite their shortcomings.

The fallout from the fans’ displeasure is now 500 comments long, but upon sifting through all these posts we find very little that can be read as valuable advice. I’ve had my fair share of organizing work — from indie events that took less than PhP 25K to put together, to gigantic events costing well over PhP 1M, so I’d like to take a couple of minutes to share five things that I’ve learned over the course of the past few years.

Create a feasible project plan and stick to it.

One of the biggest pitfalls organizers can find themselves in is overstretching their reach. Sure — all your ideas put together will make one helluva convention, but if its just way too much stuff to handle at one time (not to mention costing way too much money, time, and effort), cutting down to a core line-up of three or four major events should be enough for a small convention. Do not attempt to bite off more than you can chew — especially if it is your first event with a yet untested team. It’s more important that your first event — small as it is, goes off without a hitch. Besides, you can always save your more ambitious plans for next year.

Secure your funding for the event before you even start with logistics.

As an organizer, you should devote a lot of your time and effort to securing funding for your event. Always have a seed fund that will cover most of your projected costs. Raise funds from your group members by asking for contributions or even loans that you can pay back from the proceeds of the event. However, it is absolutely crucial that this seed fund does not include earnings from ticket selling as well as from sponsorship. If you take those two into the calculations, it’s like counting your chickens before they hatch, and will prove disastrous in case neither one of them perform as well as you expected.

Settle your most expensive rentals first.

The most expensive rentals for your event — such as the venue, sounds and lights, and booth tables and panels, should be settled well before the event date. The ideal is one month prior to the event, with either a full payment or a fifty percent outlay with the remaining fifty percent paid a few days before the event proper. Never leave them off at the last minute, as your rental provider can cancel on you if you do not pay them in a timely fashion. If you have trouble securing funding for the payments, it’s also better that you find out about this earlier, so that contingency plans can be made — either by moving the event to a more inexpensive venue or by postponing the event to a later date.

Delegate tasks according to individual strengths.

Your team may be small, but you can accomplish as much work as a much larger group if you delegate properly. Case in point is Lights Out: the team is composed of only six members, yet they held conventions for six years with a peak attendance of 500 people. This is because one person is left in charge of the one thing she does best, whether it is designing event consumables or putting together the butler cafe. Relying on just the group leaders to micromanage every single detail of the event is bad for business, not to mention it’s harmful to group dynamics if one person is doing all the work while the rest are kept in the dark.

Be as transparent as you can about the convention details.

I’m not saying that you should come out with a detailed list of all your convention earnings and expenses — that’s for organizers’ eyes only. What I meant was letting your staff, sponsors, and prospective attendees know about important details such as the convention venue, event times, and ticketing details. You will be relying on this people for the success of your event so keeping them in the loop is SRS BZNZ. If and when you run into trouble, it is also very important to inform them immediately, lest you be accused of deliberately withholding information from them in order to commit fraud. Remember, a ruined reputation will spell the end of the event and its organizers.

That’s about it for the list — if you have other thoughts, the comments box is open to everyone ❤