WikiFur:Conventions/Anthrocon/2007

Anthrocon 2007 is happening early this July, and WikiFur is going to be there in force, if possible.

Dealers table
WikiFur has booked table B13 in the Dealers' Room. The objective is not to actually sell anything (or to raise donations) but to promote the site and its content, and perhaps run coverage of the event for WikiFur News. The cost for the table is relatively small - the convention subsidizes the area, and as we are not selling anything, we are able to save $25 for the lack of business license.

While the table could work fine as a static display, ideally it would be staffed at busy times. For anyone interested - it's good practice for talking to people and nice to find out whether or not they like WikiFur (most think it's neat, a few are worried about it for various reasons). Unlike most promoters, chances are people will actually be interested in what you're talking about. ;-)

What else can we do from here? What should we offer to people?

Printouts

 * Featured articles/comics?
 * Big list of contributors? (Special:Activeusers might help, or the stats)
 * Simplified "how to edit an article" (or just samples from help)
 * Category:Policies and guidelines
 * A big sign telling people about the WikiFur party (x3, with space for room)
 * A big sign saying "Pick up your free WikiFur contributor badge here!"
 * An "WikiFur article count" page with space for corrections through the con

Dry-erase board
For organic editing at the convention. Possible sponsorship from Wikia for this or a similar promotional item if Wikia's involvement is noted.

Flipchart
As above, only more durable/less easily editable. Can we convince people to do art in it? That'd be cool (and more likely than the dry-erase, which would be erased)

Pen and paper
"Submit some information to WikiFur"?

Mascot
WikiFur doesn't really have a site mascot. Perhaps this could be a good opportunity to obtain one, and drum up some excitement for WikiFur in the process. We may get better results from this if we sweeten the pot with a few cash prizes.

Best of WikiFur booklets
These would be similar to the books of prints that people flip through, but instead of prints we could do articles and comics, giving people a sample of our best work. Probably not to take with them, as that would be too expensive to print. A single photo book of WikiFur's featured images would not be out of the question, though. ..

Fliers
Last year, we did a con bag flyer, and we may do so again this year. Unless there is a good reason to do so, we will only buy enough for the convention, as storing and shipping the extras has proven to be both prohibitively expensive and time-consuming.

Con-book advert
As an alternative or complement to flyers, we could have an advert in the con book itself. Rates vary, but the best cost/value proposition appears to be $70 for a 1/2 page ad. This runs to about three cents per view if we assume 2000+ people will read it - about what we pay for WikiFur ad clicks on Google.

Conbadge holders
We have a large number of WikiFur contributor business cards (over 500 - see front, back). Previous attempts to distribute them have been faced with the problem of identifying said contributors. Once found, some people tried to wear these cards as identification for other Wikifurries, which looked pretty neat when it worked. Some managed to insert their cards into the back of an existing holder, or held by one side, but a better way of ensuring that they are worn would be to provide them with holders.

While the cards are 3.5"x2", it may be a nice idea to get the standard 4"x3" holders so that it will fit the larger size of cards, so that our contributors can get some use out of them for actually displaying their own badges. They can be obtained at a reasonable price in bulk - 500 acetate 3"x4" with pin @ $0.10 would be $50 plus shipping, or we could get the nicer top-loading vinyl for $85 plus shipping (alas, the nice polyester ones would be $245).


 * Finally went with 500 of the vinyl ones with a elastic cord, on sale for $135 + shipping. Over 450 were distributed at the con.

T-shirts
Expensive individually, but can be had for as low as $5 per shirt in bulk - CafePress or the like. Will probably be popular if offered - furries are always running out of things to wear at cons.

Frisbees
Relatively cheap and cheerful - around $1.20/frisbee - less in bulk, but we probably could not afford that much bulk. Conventions are indoors though. . . maybe it would work for something like Feral!.

Magnets

 * fridgemagnet.com - around 20 cents/magnet, or cheaper over 1000.

Buttons

 * busybeaver.net - 25 cents/button for 500 1" color buttons, other sizes and numbers available

CDs
Available for 20 cents/disk, but we'd need to have relevant content. We don't have an off-net version of WikiFur, and it would soon go out of date.

Caribiners
As cheap as 60-90 cents each with custom printing - or down to 25 cents with a setup fee. Perpetually useful item (could be attached to con badges even). Some possible merchants: lazerdesigns showyourlogo extra-mile, carabinerkeychains. Their cost makes a large promotional giveaway infeasible, but 100 for members would not break our budget.


 * Tried to contact carabinerkeychains, but no luck. Purchased 100 2.25" carabiners from lazerdesigns.

Pens
Depending on how cheap we want to go, could go as low as $0.22 per pen. Using what MFF has ordered in the past as a guideline, we can get 300 Bic Clic Stic Pens for $111.00 plus shipping.

Panels and round tables

 * Discussion of WikiFur, and/or the wider world of furry media? Kuddlepup said he liked the idea when suggested in Autumn 2006, need to follow up.
 * A more general "panel" idea - creating furry communities online. Participants could include forum moderators, webmasters, MU* wizards, etc. Topics covered to include figuring out your community focus, promoting it appropriately, managing community when things get hot, how to prevent them getting that way in the first case, and whatever other things the members of the panel come up with.

Workshop

 * Held at the Internet Room? Will need to talk to Tigerwolf. Basic editing, help with making your first article, etc.

Meet-ups

 * A social event - 8PM-Midnight Friday in Giza's room, see the message board by registration (under W) for the room number.

WikiFur members attending

 * GreenReaper (Thursday night-Monday morning, Omni, working in con ops)
 * Duncan da Husky (Wednesday - Monday, Westin, running Artists Alley & Con Store)
 * JaeSharp (Approx. Thurday night-Monday morning, Omni -- Room with GreenReaper)
 * Simba B (Thursday-Monday, Westin -- Room with Xander Scaggs, Digiroo, and Roo3k)
 * Giza (Tuesday night-Monday morning, Westin corner suite -- Room with Tailen, leading ops)
 * Mark McCloud (Thursday-Sunday evening, Omni -- Room with GreenReaper and JaeSharp)
 * RainRat (Omni -- Room with GreenReaper and JaeSharp)

Dealers' table volunteer signup
As noted above, WikiFur will be at table B13 in the Dealers' Room. Many WikiFur administrators will be busy staffing the con, though, so we need an hour or two of your time to help run it.

All you need to do is:
 * Invite passers-by to examine examples (provided) of the site's content
 * Give an overview of WikiFur's purpose and history, and hand out fliers explaining the same
 * Explain the process of creating and editing articles (there will be printouts to remind you)
 * Give general information about our site's policies, such as the neutral point of view
 * Hand out badges (see below) to WikiFur contributors
 * Let people know about the WikiFur party on Friday night
 * Not perform unrelated business (i.e. no selling con-badges on the side - though working on them should be fine)

If there are any questions you can't answer, just tell them to find a WikiFur administrator and ask us. We will probably be wearing green ribbons.

The dealer's room is open Friday: Noon to 5 PM, Saturday: 10 AM to 5 PM and Sunday: 10 AM to 4 PM. The most important times are likely to be Friday early afternoon, Saturday morning, and Sunday afternoon, because those are when a lot of people think "hey, I should go see the Dealers' Den". However, there are 2,500 people around at the convention, so chance are there'll be some there all the time. Any time you can spend helping out is greatly appreciated!

Please see the Anthrocon schedule and then add your name to the times below that you think you'll be able to help. Even if someone else's name is there, put yours as well! This is not a commitment to help on all those hours - it's so if only one person can do a particular hour, we can ask them to do that hour rather than another one which many people can do.

Friday

 * Noon-1PM: GreenReaper
 * 1PM-2PM: GreenReaper
 * 2PM-3PM: GreenReaper
 * 3PM-4PM: GreenReaper
 * 4PM-5PM:

Saturday

 * 10AM-11AM: GreenReaper
 * 11AM-Noon: GreenReaper
 * Noon-1PM:
 * 1PM-2PM:
 * 2PM-3PM: GreenReaper
 * 3PM-4PM:
 * 4PM-5PM:

Sunday

 * 10AM-11AM: GreenReaper
 * 11AM-Noon: GreenReaper
 * Noon-1PM:
 * 1PM-2PM:
 * 2PM-3PM:
 * 3PM-4PM: GreenReaper