Discworld final day (and I survived it!)

[dalekboy]

Turned up to see the Jack Cohen interview, and yes, he was just as worth it as I remembered. Smart, funny, witty, and just a little naughty. I took some time to catch up with Jocko, which was lovely, then crashed out.

After that was the panel of the future of Aussie Discworld Cons. We got it down to every second year seeming like a good idea, and I suggested that Terry didn't have to be a guest, either. He's 60, he has times of poor health, and the trip out here is hard for most people. Plus the books will outlive him anyway, so the occasional con without him shouldn't kill people.

After that came the auction. I was paired with a wonderful bloke called Miles and we auctioned our little hearts out. The con wasn't quite breaking even, so Terry said that while the auction was for charity (orangutans) the money could go to the con until it was in the black, then to the apes, in the hope of allowing future cons to happen. It went for 2 and a half hours, and there was some gorgeous stuff. In total we raised about nine thousand dollars, got the con out of debt and still had a hell of a lot of cash left over for the orangutans. Yay!

And I got through the auction, and could still walk by the end of it! Woohoo! My throat was buggered, my legs were weak, but I still did ok. The closing ceremony was brief, Pat and his brilliant committee got a standing ovation by everyone including Terry. I retired to the bar and was there until way too late last night.

All up, it was good. Very good. Them not breaking even was more down to lots of people deciding to go to the thing at the library tonight. If a few of those people had bought memberships the con would have gotten through. But the con was a resounding success, and if there's another, I'd certainly be interested in heading along.

And I'm not doing bad today, wobbly and permanently stuffed, but surviving. Either I was having a good run that was masked by the con, or my exercising is paying off in terms of increasing my stamina. I've slept a couple of times and suspect I'll be paying for the con and auction all week, but so long as I get to rest and sleep, I'll do alright.

I'll probably not leave Tiki's much and when I do I'll just have to limit socialising carefully. I find going out tiring, and I struggle with city driving at the moment, there's an awful lot to keep track of. My balance isn't a problem, but I get exhausted, so I'll keep my bedding in the car so I can sleep when tired if I'm driving about, just in case.

If I'm up to it, may hit the MSFC Friday. *fingers crossed*

Comments

Breaking Even?

[thinarthur.livejournal.com]

I heard that con had 300 people at the opening ceremony and it cost $200 for the weekend. Ok, so a lot of people got in cheaper earlier and not everyone went for the full time but I would have thought they'd be coining it in. Is the Carlton Crest that much? Also, I don't think you can say publicly that a certain con event is for a charity and then divert funds to a con, even one in the red, I think that's kind of illegal. If you say upfront that you'll give any money over from a non profit con to a charity that's ok but not "sorry, we're skint, the charity auction is going into general revenue"

Re: Breaking Even?

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

I've done a post reply to the cost aspects of the con.

The amount the con was down was only a pessimistic guess. You can't know how much you've made until the final books are done some time later. Maybe the con was down three grand, maybe it was one, perhaps it broke even and all the cash will go to the apes. No-one will be sure for a few weeks.

The auction, as far as I know, was only ever advertised as an auction. I may be wrong. It was only late in the day that it became known to be a charity auction, I didn't know until the week before and I was auctioneering, and the charity was always going to be Terry's choice. His eventual choice was to let the money be used to make sure the con broken even, that way ensuring other cons would happen and that they could raise more money for the orangutans. Everyone bidding knew what the money was being used for. It's not like two weeks after the con we find out that a portion of the money was used to bail out the con.

I think it was the right choice, and when it was announced to the audience, no-one complained. And it would not have happened without Terry's blessing since as the guest it was his choice as to what the money was donated to.

Re: Breaking Even?

[the-starshadow.livejournal.com]

The charity auction was advertised as such, however most charity auctions are designed such that their profits go to charity, not the proceeds as a whole. This is true even for events run by charities themselves. After all, such events cost a significant amount of money to organise.
I'd like to assure you that the amounts of funds used for this purpose will probably be extremely negligible, although I cannot elaborate on the exact details.
Furthermore, the con is a non-profit organisation, so it's not like the funds raised during the charity were diverted to a full commercial business. In the end, this insures that a future Discworld con in Australia will be possible. I think may would agree that's a worthy cause.

Re: Breaking Even?

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

Well I think it's a worthy cause.

Given that it was run by newbies, it's one of the better organised cons I've been to, full-stop. It had a nicely varied program. It had a lot of new people, which is good for fandom as a whole. It had a really good feel, people had fun. If there are more Discworld cons, then we may get beyond one convention a year in Melbourne.

Re: Breaking Even?

[the-starshadow.livejournal.com]

My personal expectation is that there will be an Australian convention once ever two years, to attempt to coincide with signing tours with Terry, which is what he prefers. Once the committee has recovered and had a chance to recuperate, we will probably start considering our options.

[fuschia17.livejournal.com]

I attended the talk at the library. I didn't know much about the convention - I've never been to one I'm sorry to admit... At least the con broke even, and there was money for the orangutans.

Maybe I'll drop by the MSFC and say hi.

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

I'll post if I think I'll get there. Depends, I haven't been resting properly this week and it's catching up with me. But would love to see you :)

[fuschia17.livejournal.com]

Hey

Did you get my e-mail address/photo? I would like to send you an e-mail (I also have a few questions about the upcoming con event in June/July - just a few general ones)and I wanted to make sure that you knew that I replied. Please post a comment to my lj!