I think its less about some high and mighty classification and more about the convention learning about what you're actually good at.
Lets say, me. I'm good at dealing with people (I am, believe it or not. I just like being obnoxious as all can be - and I'm very successful at that. Now if I could turn that in to a multi-million dollar business, I'd be making trillions), thus, it wouldn't make terribly much sense that I'd be dealing with a super large amount of book keeping (Budget. Numbers and I get along about as well as oil and water).
However, I have no 'degrees', no honest 'qualifications.' I've been through literally 3 positions in the convention before I settled at where I am now (Webmaster, Promotions, and Guest Relations. The last one still scares me to think about), which is running a group that is named after a breed of dog. Not that I mind, I take it seriously. :P
Point being, you can run a convention with literally no more 'qualifying' experance than working at a Walmart. Anything more is an absolute bonus.
Our Con just happens to be ran by someone who graduated with a major in English and a minor in HR Business Administration.
- Industry Relations head has a "Graphic Design" and a "Programming" degree, but does neither for the con.
- Public Relations head has a degree in English
- Operations Head has a degree in History (Specialty in WWII!)
- Attendee Relations Head (Hi!) has no degree, and works as a Security Guard at a beef plant
- Promotions Head is a teacher.
- Activities Head has a degree in Photography. He takes no pictures.
- our Charities Head (VANESSA) is THESPIAN! :P
I mean, all walks of life. And almost NONE of what anyone currently does as a profession or has a degree in is in a position to make use of either of those (Except maybe PR). Anyone with college experance is a blessing, but anyone with out college is just as much. :)
Last year one of the cons I was staffing (I staff multiple. Why? I don't know, probably because I'm crazy or something) had an issue where the Hotel actually -shorted- them tables.
What a mess that was. Glad I wasn't the one taking care of it (The guy who did though was a freak'n master about it. There's a reason I respect him as much as I do.)
I also take it this is when Lynn was an exceptionally angry and confused kid.
The fact that she met Max literally 3 months after her mom kicked the bucket...man bad mojo. Its weird how some of the worst situations create the best of friends.
I will also say in regards to what Langland said: I FRAGGING HATE THAT. I hate hate HATE it when someone makes it like its your fault for being insensitive about something you never knew about.
Luckly, the few folks I know who I've made that mistake to always seemed to give me a mulligan. "You didn't know, so I'll give you this. But next time, please not around me." Usually what I get. I can respect that, and usually makes the situation less awkward.
Ya know, I'm glad I was never the "Switch to Mocking Mode" type. Is this how Max deals with uncomfortable situations? Or is this how he deals with angry goth?
I know there are some folks out there that literally can't help it when a situation arises where someone is mad at them, for them to start mocking them. Always thought it was an attempt to bring the conversation down to a silly level, but it always ends up bad.
Glad I never did that. I've always been a kind person, so I couldn't ever really bring myself to do what Max is doing.
Being that he's lord of this universe, I'm pretty sure that she's been to a few Closing Ceremonies.
It was few and far inbetween, but I managed to go to two Closing Ceremonies for Anime Iowa, and three Opening. Just because you don't have the time to one year doesn't mean you won't the next.
I think I became branded as one of the "NebKon BBQ Cooks" during our annual Cosplay BBQ during the summer...
...I'm not half bad at it, is the thing. :\
(I don't mind smelling like smoke afterwards. The whole 'smoke inhalation' thing I kept struggling with last year...the wind was blowing in a real bad direction...)
Chorme is really hating on your FB button for some reason.
Might have to do a reinstall, anyway!
There's another saying, revenge con's are almost always going to last less than 3 years.
But yeah, NebrasKon was lucky in that A) we were at the UNL Student Union B) all of our staff were COMPETENT, THOUGHTFUL people and C) We were under the umbrella of a UNL Club at the time.
OSFES (a Sci-Fi con here in Omaha) was started up exclusively at a hotel. The people behind it were all old Sci-Fi con vets, so they were pretty aware of what they were doing. (I think we're going on year five for them now?)
Starting a con is a total pain in the neck for the first 5 years.
Fun fact: Last year at NebKon we had a vendor who was selling some very obvious bootlegs.
One of our over zealous staffers (>_<) went over to him and just gave him the works. Dude was so ticked at getting reamed over it that he left immediately.
Suffice to say said person felt the wrath of the dealer head. XD
We had another, less obvious one. We weren't sure if he was intentionally selling them or not, but he was caught repeatedly and booted by the Vendor coord. (Their booth was RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE DEALERS ROOM STAFF TABLE. Seriously.)
Its just funny as to how some of the most inane crap that happens at Anime Con's and any con in general. Dumb folks everywhere.
