Let me start off by admitting I am not a costumer. I am a spousal accessory. My wife is a costumer. Oddly enough that made me a good choice to run a Hospitality Suite. As I did not to be at panels and demonstrations, I could be available to take care of the suite most of the time. Of course I did not think of this when I first found out that I had "volunteered" for this job.
I have helped run local game cons and helped with games at Science fiction cons. But the thought of running a suite at a WORLD Costume-Con was daunting. I will not go into too great a detail of all things that went into it. One thing I did find out early was that most of the con veterans had many stories about what went wrong with Hospitality Suites in the past, most were not sure what I needed to have to make it go right.
One note I should have, however. Who the Con Chairperson is makes a great deal of difference. Our Chairperson basically left most of the decision making up to me. That scared the hell out of me at first, but in the long run this made it easier because I did not have to get her permission before doing anything. She gave the information she could and left the rest up to me. It worked for us.
Not surprisingly, many of the people who volunteer their time to manage departments on a conference committee may not have had much experience doing the job before. It's the Con Chair's responsibility to choose people who can do their work with a minimum of management. After all, the primary job of the Con Chair is to delegate responsibility in a responsible way. Who you choose to run a particular department can mean the difference between a pleasant weekend event and long term hair pulling and resentment.
That said, it's also important to remember two things: 1. Your staff is all volunteer. Most (if not all) will have paid for the privilege of working their buns off trying to make sure the work they've volunteered to do gets done to the best of their abilities. 2: Sometimes, when the stress level is high and the time gets short, it's hard to recognize that even volunteers must be replaced.
These are two valuable pieces of information that will ultimately help guide you through the long process from bid to conference and finally through wrap up.
