billroper | Progress Reports (Reply)

From:

Definitely depends on the size, that is, the complexity of the convention.

For Worldcon... I think we still need to have them, but we could certainly do them better. Noreascon's and Nippon's are among the better more recent ones.

For

animelosangeles, we print up postcards with the basic info about the convention (see my "dates rates places faces nametag mailbag" mnemonic) and a few short paragraphs with what new information we want them to know.

Most of the postcards go to people who haven't pre-registered because so many of them join at the last minute or at the door. (Last year at the two-months-out mark we had about 200 people pre-registered; the total attendance was 1785.) So the "news about what we're planning" has to be punchy headlines to get their attention, especially features that are new this year.

I'm also shepherding a similar "postcard progress report" arrangement for Gallifrey One. The headlines -- mostly about the confirmed Doctor Who writers/actors/etc. attending -- go on the card, and it gets mailed out.

In both cases, the postcard refers people to the website for more detailed information. So people get something physical in the mail, they can skim it quickly and see what the "headlines" are. For many of them, that's really all they need anyway. (We might put the hotel's address and directions on the last postcard we send out pre-con.)