So You're Thinking About Hosting a Con...

How to Put on a Beauty and the Beast Convention

updated 2024.8.5

Budget, Fundraising, Pre-Con Organization


Calculate Your Budget


You’ll know the majority of your budget needs once you sign your hotel contract (make sure you consider taxes, service charges and other fees on top of your catering). You should also add in funding needs for the following (if applicable to your con): decorations, equipment/stage rental, buying/printing tote bags, name tags, guests, printing of the conzine, creation of a tee shirt template. Keep in mind that some costs vary - catering and tote bags come to x per person, while things like decorations and guests need to be split over however many attendees you have - the fewer attendees, the greater cost per person.

Once you figure out your outlays, estimate how much you might raise from fundraising, sales of merchandise, etc. Asking previous con chairs how many tees they sold and at what price and such will help you make your estimates as realistic as possible. Silent Auction and Orphan Table sales will be wild cards, too dependent upon serendipity to really build into your estimates unless you want to lowball an estimate.

This will give you a very rough guess of your exposure and income.

Now look at previous con attendance in the recent past and take into account such things as guests, location, etc. Give yourself a reasonable but not too optimistic number of attendees. Divide that number into your expected expenses. Be prepared for a shock! Back away slowly from the table. Get your breath going again and play with the numbers, figure them every which way… and then come up with a registration fee you feel will cover most of your costs, if not all, while still being affordable for many fans.

Try to keep your budget in mind when planning things. You may be tempted to splurge on something. Keep in mind you may end up eating the cost of your splurge. You do want to have some money left over for the charity, over and above what you raise in the charity auction. This is where fundraising and merchandise sales really help you.

Being cheap can be a virtue. Just ask the folks Below. :-) Being cheap means you will raise more funds for your chosen charity. For instance, if you want to have candies on the tables, consider after-Valentine’s Day sales, when heart-shaped candies are usually to be found at half price, and will still be fresh for eating in July!

Download this sample budget if you like. You can enter your anticipated expenses and then play with the numbers of attendees and see how your registration cost comes out. (Contact J'ecris if you have questions about the spreadsheet.)



green money bag with a big dollar sign on it


How to Raise Funds

Solicit donations for the con and/or charity via online forums. Consider merchandise such as tee shirts with the con logo on it, or other items fans might purchase which cost relatively little to produce but which you can market for a reasonable price and make some money on each sale. You may not be able to charge enough for registration to cover all your expenses, so consider other ways to make money.

Think about having items made to sell in your dealer room. One year there were playing cards with Chan's art on them. Sometimes there are bookmarks or luggage tags or the like. They're inexpensive to make and bring a proft even at the bargain price of $1. (Be careful not to make more than you're likely to sell though.)

At the convention, consider putting a piggy bank or donation basket by the dealers table sales person with a sign on it suggesting fans put their change in for the charity. This is an easy way to raise extra money for the charity.

Pre-con Organization

You will find it useful to keep all your paperwork in one place, such as a large three-ring binder. Put tabs in for registrations, orders for merchandise, your final hotel contract, a print-out of con registrants with address, e-mail, and phone info, sign-ups for add-on activities, and any other materials you need to have handy, such as bus contracts and ticket arrangements with museums, etc., for add-ons, plus the names and numbers of contact people for add-on arrangements, if not on the contracts.

This binder may become useful to your con team should something happen and they need to take over for some or all of the convention activities. We have, unfortunately, had to depend on such binders of information (or wish we had them!) on occasion. Remember: You will have the vacations of scores of people in your hands, so anything you can do to ensure that everything is as organized as possible will not only benefit you, but ensure the smooth running of the convention in case of an emergency.

Alternatively, you may consider saving documents to your google drive and sharing with your con team.

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Opening a checking and Paypal account SEPARATE from your own personal ones that you will use only for con monies will make things easy for you and your team when it comes to keeping con funds organized.  You’ll want that ready before you begin promoting your con one year ahead of your con dates so that you’ll have a place for people to Paypal you registrations and to deposit the checks when you get home.

NOTE: You really need to have another person (preferably a con team member, but a spouse is ok, too) on these accounts so that someone else can help with the accounting if anything prevents you from doing so.


Other Concerns

NOTE: You asked attendees for a fair bit of information on their registration form. You need to actually make use of this information!
  • Traditionally, first-time congoers get special recognition and usually extra godies.
  • People who use a different name in fandom than their real name will expect to have the badge name they gave you appear on their name badge.
  • Food allergies and dietary restrictions need to be communicated to your caterer. You don't want an attendee going hungry, getting sick or worse because you didn't plan food for them. These issues aren't as convenient as we wish, but these fans paid full price, same as everyone else and deserve to receive comparable meals. If you don't know what that means, ask them what works for them.
  • Communicate with the attendee about what exactly is needed for accessibility and do your best to make those things happen. If for some reason you cannot, communicate that to the attendee with your sincere regrets. (Example: Maybe one of your add-ons is visiting a cave that just cannot accommodate wheelchairs. Maybe you could offer to video the tour if that's allowed. Obviously it wouldn't be the same, but your efforts will likely be appreciated. Ask.)
  • If you gave attendees the option to opt out of a tote bag or conzine, and some people chose that option, remember to order however many less tote bags and make however many fewer conzines.
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Start a supply box of things you will probably need during the convention. You may get some supplies passed along to you by a previous con chair, but even if you do, make sure you have at least the following in your supply box: 4 or 5 pairs of scissors, 50 or so pens/pencils (sharpened), hangers for art (S hooks, large paperclips), tape of various types (regular, double-stick, painter’s, duct), a package or two of price stickers, several Sharpies, long receipt books which make an original and a copy, a ream of copier paper, flathead and  Philips screw drivers, a stapler/staples, pencil sharpeners, paper clips, matches; sheets/cloths to throw over items when the dealers room is closed.
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