arisia

[totient]

Warning: self-congratulation follows...

Two years ago, I sat down with folzgold and his college application essay and showed him how to take an existing piece of writing and give it a spine transplant. I made him slice the previous draft into tiny little bits, and then reassemble it onto the entirely new outline I had him write. What he wound up with had the texture he started with but gained punch by being built on a new structure, and it worked. I really admire Jacob's writing and I was really happy that I could add another tool to his toolbox.

That process is what I'd like to think I did with Arisia this year. The convention has the same feel as before, but it's on a more solid footing. I fixed a bunch of underlying structural problems in ways that could have been tremendously disruptive, making radical changes to our budget and space usage and information flow, but (mostly) the old texture transplanted on just fine. And I think it worked, too. We put together a great convention, and we made it look easy. Now we can think about where to go next.

In a funny way, Arisia was anticlimactic for me personally. I think it's the part where we made it look easy: by January, I had transformed the concom into an organization that not only could but inevitably would spit out a terrific convention. It was nice to sit back and enjoy the ride, but it wasn't the same thrill as at the Mini-Arisia when it wasn't clear what we were going to pull off.

Comments

[folzgold.livejournal.com]

Thank you for pointing to my college essay. It's been a very long time since I've seen that.

Arisia was wonderful, and my friends had a great time!

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! I wish I could have been there.

It was nice to sit back and enjoy the ride, but it wasn't the same thrill as at the Mini-Arisia when it wasn't clear what we were going to pull off.

Obviously there's a certain thrill in danger and uncertainty. On the other hand creating an organization which inevitably spits out terrific product is, I think, the greater accomplishment.

[macgyvette.livejournal.com]

Well, I wasn't on the concom this year, but have my other methods of judging how things worked out. First, there was very little traffic (and almost no spam)on the staff list, which I take to mean that people who needed to be in touch were speaking to each other directly and effectively, rather than just poking around for information. Second, I had a great time and everyone else seemed to as well. Great job!

[cogitationitis.livejournal.com]

Mark says that once he builds something (like a proch), it loses its thrill, because now he *knows* how to build it. I suspect a con may be in the same vein: once you've run it, it loses its thrill to run it a second time. And I think you did pretty well the first time, too.

Perhaps your next challenge should be to run a Worldcon? (ducks & hides)