Minicon 50 - Yowza!

[dreamshark]

So Minicon 50 happened, and it was a huge success. I admit that I was skeptical of the plan to make a big deal out of Minicon 50, expand to 4 days, invite twice the usual number of GoHs, massively increase membership, etc. I was wrong. All that happened and it worked out great. We doubled our membership, and finally had enough people so we didn't rattle around in the hotel. There were a few glitches along the way, but no big disasters. Pretty much everybody seemed to be having a great time, including the impressive number of Minicon first-timers, and the GoHs went home happy.

I ended up spending much more time working on Programming than I had planned, so I didn't actually have time to ATTEND much of anything: just Opening/Closing Ceremonies and music performances. But as far as I could tell, programming went very well. Ever since we got small, Minicon has had a perpetual problem (which I have been guilty of contributing to) of scheduling too much programming for the size of the con. This year I think the ratio was just about right. There were a few items that overflowed the programming space allotted, and a few items that were sparsely attended, but most of the ones I looked in on were just Goldilocks-perfect. I heard many comments from people who had been on panels or in the audience that support this. Terms like "energy" and "enthusiastic" came up a lot.

The "First Minicon" ribbons were a great idea. I made a point of talking to as many new attendees as possible, and I know a lot of others did the same. All the newbies that I talked with seemed to be having a blast and said they would be back next year. I asked how they heard about Minicon and why they decided to attend this year, and the answers were all over the map. Cats Laughing was a bigger draw for people returning after some years away. But some of the first-timers came for the Cats, including one who came all the way from Atlanta. Several people cited specific GoHs (typically Brandon or Larry). But a surprising number couldn't quite seem to put their finger on why they came this year. They said things like, "Because it was local" or "We were looking for a family activity over Easter Break."  One family saw a flyer or heard someone talking about it at Con of the North. A woman who was introduced to me as "Ruth Anderson's 8th grade teacher" said she came because Dave and Elizabeth Clement were driving down from Winnipeg and she could ride with them. But they drive down from Winnipeg nearly every year - why THIS year? She wasn't sure. It just seemed like a good idea for some reason.

What about you? Did anybody share with you why they decided to attend Minicon for the first time this year, or why they came back after years of not attending? How many of them do you think will come back next year?

Comments

[pameladean]

Everybody who volunteered that information to me was there for Cats Laughing. Two of them said they "just might be back." They had clearly had more fun than just the reunion concert.

P.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

This seemed like an ideal size to me. Lively, but not overwhelmingly crowded.

The panels I attended and sat on were nicely sized - though there wasn't much turnout for the couple readings by lesser known authors.

Brainstorming only

[mle292.livejournal.com]

This is a thing that new authors are consistently frustrated about.

Maybe new authors would like a time slot devoted to very short examples of their work. Everyone could be limited to about six or seven minutes (which would allow three our four minutes for transfer to the next author & intros), and we could get six authors in an hour, which would give listeners a chance to try out something without committing to it. It would need a strong moderator in case anyone went over their time.

There has been a readings co-ordinator for a long time, she is not me, and hers is probably the most important opinion on an idea like this. Please, don't anyone take this idea as written in stone.

Re: Brainstorming only

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

There's a group (MinnSpec?) fronted by Ricky Foos that does something like this called "Rapid Fire Readings." I don't think they were here this year, come to think of it. Maybe nobody remembered to contact them? I think you have to be a member of their organization to participate in their event, but we could organize something similar.

Re: Brainstorming only

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Six or seven minutes doesn't sounds like much chance to get the flavor of a writer's work or a good glimpse of a story. Maybe extend the event over two hours, or have a reading session every day with several new authors? I do like the idea...

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

I know it's sad for authors when they give a reading and hardly anyone shows up. But you can't force people to sit and listen. Sure, well-known, popular authors get good turnouts. But it boggles my mind that new authors expect total strangers to sit and listen to them. Rapid-fire readings are the best solution I've heard about, though I don't know how well they work even. Personally, I hate being read to, so I'm not the audience anyhow.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

I think having multiple new authors during a session is a good idea, am just quibbling about how many over how long a period.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

If you're still curious, the current results at the Survey Monkey Poll are the following:

Of 43 respondents:
53% have already registered
35% have not yet registered but plan to
9% haven't decided yet
2% will probably not attend

Extrapolating from something with a very large margin of error, 1056 people will attend M51.

I think that the people who are willing to answer a survey are answering because they'd like to contribute to improving their own experience in the future, so I'd really guess around 700.