If you're lucky enough to have excess money when you're near the conference date, you may be able to spend some of it on items that carry your conference logo. These items may include: prize plaques, notepads, canvas bags or other promotional items. These items are not necessary to provide a quality Costume-Con, but they are a nice touch, and will give your members something to remember (and possibly use) after the conference is over.
Betsy Delaney writes:
CCXV provided custom-designed acrylic plaques for our Best in Show winners in all of the major competitions. These were negotiated with the artist, who gave them to us in exchange for advertising space and an announcement that they were provided by him. Our print coordinator (who worked for a printing company) managed to get a pile of notepads with our logo on them for nothing, which we gave to all of our program participants. We also purchased a small number of canvas bags for each program participant, and gave the extras away as part of prize packages to competition winners. Finally, as a gift, one of our committee members provided us with shot glasses for our Pun contest and $1.98 contest. Our total outlay for these items was actually minimal.
Bruce Mai (CC16) writes:
We'd looked into buying canvas bags with the con logo printed on it. It would've made a handy carry-all for the amount of membership packet materials we intended to provide. We decided against it, however, because we could not absolutely predict how much money we were going to take in until practically right before the conference. As it happened, some clear, heavier-duty bags with sealed string closures were donated, which took care of that dilemma. There weren't fancy, but they worked. Looking back, we probably could have afforded the canvas bags, but we were playing things conservatively.
The best advice we can give is to wait until you're near to the conference date to decide on this sort of additional expense. If you're not sure the conference budget can handle it, you're not out of the money, and there's no harm done. Members will enjoy the conference whether or not you provide these sorts of extras.
"What is Costume-Con" information for mundanes
Lost & Found
Child Care
Fundraising
T-Shirts
Raffles
Charity
The people who attend Costume-Con conferences are frequently interested in providing some sort of community service. Partnering with a local charity generally provides good will and promotes the costuming community as a group, and the event specifically. Charity partnerships are not necessary, but they have been done in the past. CCXV members provided dressed-up bears to Johns Hopkins Children's Center, and CC16 provided space for The Cat Network, Inc., a local animal shelter.
Bruce Mai (CC16) writes:
We chose to offer space to a local cat shelter as the con charity. We also sponsored some other activities and money-raising efforts for the shelter. The Cat Network, Inc., was only there for one day, Saturday, because we estimated this was when membership would be at its peak. We also were pretty sure that they would do well, as it seems that a majority of costumers are also "cat people". Between a raffle by us and items sold by the shelter, they made approximately $600. They were on-site for only 8 hours, and the representatives said it was one of the better showings for amount of time spent that they'd ever had. A fair amount of scrap fabric for cat beds was also donated by a few costumers.
Having this con charity also was a good community awareness-raiser. The shelter publicized their appearance in their newsletter. None of them had any familiarity with the costuming hobby, but those who worked the table said they had a marvelous time watching our members walking around the hotel in costume.
When you are planning your Costume-Con, take a look at the charity groups in your area, and see if there's a good fit. You may find crossover interest, and generate additional memberships for your conference as a result of this partnership.
