In part one I talked about the need for data, not guesses, with which
to build the future. In part two comes
the more important part of the plan.
The Team...
And I say team, even if it’s one person at the top organising everything,
they still need a team around them to make sure that everything comes to
pass. At Expo we’ve got to the stage now
where we need a number of levels to the team to make sure everything works
properly. Starting at the top where we
have a set of jobs that are allocated to all of us at that level. We have the
greatest autonomy in our roles, but that comes with the price of having to
ensure that whatever we do delivers what we need to.
From there we go to the volunteer captains, and we’ve got a bunch of
them, from the three volunteer captains who make sure that all the other volunteers
know where they need to be, to the desk captains, responsible for making sure
that the million questions that are asked of the front desk are always answered
and answered right.
Then we’re down to the most vital of the volunteers, and those are the
people that run the errands, move the tables, show people where things are,
even just stand on guard against those that want to sneak in and get the shiny
first, and they’re most vital because of all of us, they get the least reward
from the event, usually the day pass to come in and look around when they’re
not on duty.
But the most important thing for all these people, the single defining
characteristic of someone who wants to be part of the team that runs a
convention...?
They have to love it...
And I don’t mean the rewards, because to be fair, for the rewards any
of us get from running a convention (including the people on the top layer), we’d
earn more working mcdonalds for the time we put in. I mean that they have to love it, they have
to want to be there, not just turn up
for the free entry and the can of coke and chocolate bar. It’s what makes a convention into a great
convention, all those who work there being delighted that they’re part of this,
knowing that everyone’s having a good time because of something they’re doing
and getting a kick out of that.
And that’s where a lot of places fall down, when it gets to a certain
size, it’s difficult to keep a track on everyone, it’s difficult to make sure
that you’ve got the right people doing the right things, and it’s only by
continuing to take an interest from the top down that we manage this year in,
year out. We watch our people more
closely than anyone else does, and we do that because if they’re not enjoying
what they’re doing, if they don’t want
to be there, then we need to do something with that.
Which is not to say bring them in like Alan Sugar and start pointing
fingers, but instead to find out why they’re volunteering for something that
they don’t want to do, when they could be doing so many other things.
For myself, it’s a matter of finding GM’s that actually want to be GM’s,
not because they think it’s the easiest way to get room and board at the convention. Over the last couple of years, I’ve built up
a list of go to people that I know I can rely on, that I know love running
games and even more so, love running games well, and it’s that spirit that
makes the best conventions, people who want everyone else to have a good time.
The management team had a meeting today that lasted a few hours, we had
to cover a number of things in that meeting, and while I can’t give you the
full details of the things that we covered, one of them was the allocation of the
jobs that we take on ourselves, and the need to make sure that we don’t overreach
ourselves in our need to make things excellent, because it’s so very easily
done. It’s difficult sometimes to trust
things to others, knowing that they might not care for it in the way you do,
but as the conventions gets larger, so the trust must grow with it, and the
trust you place in people is often repaid because they can see that it’s all
part of a greater endeavour, and those that want to make it better will work
with you to make that so.
But everything starts with a first step...
