Some quick notes taken during the Future of Eastercons panel at 8SquaredCon, plus some notes scribbled down during the con closedown.
See if any of the previous ConComCon or SmofCons have any useful publications available. Dig out the Eagle book of conrunning, the Mad Three Party, the Nessie stuff from 1995 etc. to see what can be gleaned from there.
Interview people to get articles for the Wiki ... don't just ask someone in, say, publications to write a guide to PRs ... sit down with someone, interview them, and write it up.
If you are taking on a job for a future convention, ind a current specialist, buy them a beer, get them to tell you what they learned.
Develop feedback channels from one Eastercon to the next, to pass on warnings, comments, good ideas etc. (most of those should be captured, hopefully here, but there may be some private things that need to be communicated that shouldn't be made public ... such as allegations of impropriety or inappropriate behaviour by an attendee)
Discuss online payments and capture the problems people have had, and seek better solutions.
Tech briefing/tech training.
Any solution that we write down here will be true for one convention, at one venue, in one year ... so try to write open articles that ask the correct questions and give advice, and not tell people "you must do it *this* way".
The big issues with convention organisation include: Communication, Continuity, Resilience, Money
There's been investigation into the financial set up of Eastercons ... the pros and cons of limited companies, charities etc.
A good model for producing future conrunners is to think about guilds and apprenticeships.
We need lists of things for what happens in the closing ceremony etc.
Convention close down thoughts: what happens to stuff bought for use at con but not needed afterwards (furniture, extension leads, spare printer cartridges, gaffer tape etc.), what time do groats end? How do dealers cash in groats? Clearing down posters etc. (and who is responsible for any wall damage caused by the wrong fixing method), what to do with leftover beer or other party supplies, unclaimed art, where does the lost property go and who looks after it?
Need to think more about maps and signage.
Need to think more about electronic schedules etc.
Some of this stuff is Eastercon specific, but much of it is generally useful to conrunners, so do we want to duplicate stuff that's already out there on other sites? For example the The ConRunner's Wiki