I would say for starters, we'd need to work out a budget and a
location.  It would be a good idea to have a duration in mind too.  2
days would probably be reasonable.  Say you had five 1-hour sessions
each day, we could have 10 speakers (or groups of speakers) with lots of
time to look at exhibits etc.  The major costs will be:

- renting a place - would probably need 2 rooms - an 'exhibit hall', and
a 'lecture room'
- electricity (sometimes this is NOT included with rent!)
- travel and accomodations (1 or 2 nights?) for guest speakers (assume
ten groups/individuals)
- any permits, insurance etc. needed if applicable, probably depends on
location
- security (to make sure paying customers go in only, and keep out
trouble)
- advertising (if we choose to advertise anywhere other than free
places)

It might be worthwhile to set up a small corporation to manage the funds
and keep them separate from personal funds but I'm no lawyer.

The costs can be recouped by:

- exhibitors (here are prices from CGexpo for comparison:
  Double Booth - $700
  Single Booth - $400
  Each Additional Booth - $300
  Single Table - $100 - weekend
  Single Table - $30 / 2 hours
- admission - how much is fair?  $50? $100?  Assume maybe 100 attendees
- corporate sponsors, if any

We need estimates on all these things to ensure we at least break even.

One cool thing at CGexpo which would apply here too and draw some more
people is the 'museum' - some collector's 'donate' some of their rarer
items for the duration of the show.  They are pooled together into a
museum room.  It makes quite an impressive exhibit - imagine all of our
rarest items pooled together in one room!  Obviously an extra security
person is needed to keep watch over this too, even if the items ARE
under glass.  They also had a 'swap meet' and auction, which would be
fun but not necessary.

If John R can help track down/convince some bigwigs to come that'd be
great.  I think we could handle making a website for it between us no
problem, and even maybe have people pre-register (for cheaper) with
PayPal or something.  Could sell tickets on eBay to get some free
exposure.  The size of the exhibit hall should of course depend on how
many exhibitors we want/could find.  I think if we want to keep costs
low, Vegas might actually be a pretty good choice as hotels there are
cheap and like I said probably most will be within driving distance of
it.  I'm guessing renting the rooms there wouldn't be TOO expensive
either.

So for starters can anyone in the area (or at least the southern US)
look in to approximate prices for these sorts of things in downtown
Vegas, or other suggested locations?  We could find out about permits,
insurance etc by simply asking the CGexpo organizers Im sure.  In terms
of timing, I would give at least 6 months lead time to plan something
like this, especially since none of us have done this before.  That
would give enough time to scout out places, contact guests, and
advertise to the collecting public.  anyways, thats my thoughts so far..

> Thanks Howard.  I'm a little uncertain how we'd get started, so any help you
> can provide would be great.  Just throwing out thoughts here...  Need to
> book a place on a date before we could do much else.  Once we have a place,
> I think I know someone who'd be willing to print up cool invitations
> (physical or electronic) for the celebs.  We'd need to start publicizing
> this well in advance... anyone know how early submissions have to be made to
> gaming publications?  We could throw together a press release.  Need to have
> a website with info on the show, where/when, who's going to be there,
> events, maybe a link to buy tickets.  I assume we'd charge for admission to
> recoup the travel costs for the guests.  Need to know the legal crap
> involved with that, do we remit sales tax, how's all that work?  Ditto for
> the dealers who are going to be selling.
> 
> Plenty to talk about, everyone's input is welcome.

-- 
----------------------------------------------
Howard Feldman, Author of The Search for Freedom
A Computer Fantasy Role-Playing Game
Visit its Homepage at http://bioinfo.mshri.on.ca/people/feldman/


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