Hi, I’m John Krall, and I am one of the candidates for your Kumoricon 2014 Director of Relations. I’ve actually been told by some people that answering questions on these forums is unnecessary, because it will have no effect on who wins or loses, but I believe that any avenue for bringing in new ideas and gaining a different perspective is well worth the extra time to hop online and read a few` paragraphs. (I also want to apologize for the delay in answering your questions, but I took vacation to Disneyland[YAY!] directly after Con, and have been working 10-12hour days to make up for it since.)
Before I get into answering your questions, I’ll start by telling you a little bit about myself.
I’m a cancer, and I enjoy candle-lit dinners at my favorite theme park… Okay, maybe that’s not the kind of information you need (but it’s true and I figured I’d throw it out there). I am a life-long nerd, whose first memories are of Star Trek, Adam West as Batman, and Mickey Mouse. I grew up on Anime without knowing it with StarBlazers and Battle of the Planets, and remember when Anime Expo was ‘it’ as far as anime conventions go. To say that this is my passion is a bit of a soft sell. And on occasions, I watch sports. I will also be quoting or paraphrasing Pete Carroll and Walt Disney ad nausium, I’m afraid.
Instead of giving a bulleted blow-by-blow of every position I’ve ever held at every convention I’ve ever been to, I’ll just say that I have worked in every department of a convention, at every level, except registration (and I give those who can do registration all the props in the world. Sitting in one spot for any length of time is not in my psychological make-up). I’ve held Director level positions at both Kumoricon and Sakura-Con, and have been security staff and video room monitor (where I learned I cannot sit in one spot for any length of time at a con, and how I started working security). I was at the helm of Sakura-con when we made the leap from the hotels to the WSCTC, and was one of the driving forces behind that move. I was also a driving force behind both Sakura-con and Kumoricon moving to the automated playback machines in theatre rooms (see again about room monitor).
Finally, before moving onto my vision for Relations, and answering your questions, I want to answer one that is inevitably asked: why am I running for this position. The answer is simple: I feel I am the best person for this job. Not that I will do a good job, or that I’d do a better job than my opponent, but that I will be the best. This should be the reason everyone running should have.
With Kumoricon expanding to a four-day format, we have an excellent opportunity to look at how we’ve run the event in the past, and where we can expand, improve, and replace (if needed) the way that the institutions within Kumoricon work. For the Relations department specifically, and its sub-departments, this will start with Guests, Sponsorships, and Exhibits.
With Guests, I want to look beyond the simple “How many”, and “Who”, and strip things down to basics. I want to look at not just who we look at bringing, but how we find them, why we bring them, and what they bring in return. The first major idea that hit me, upon learning that Kumoricon was expanding to four days was “how can we use Guests to entice people to pay for the extra day?”
What I want to look at is having two tiers of Guests of Honor (GoH, from here on):
One to three “Headliner” GoH, who will be at con all weekend long, and will have events and panels planned for them across all four days. Further, there would be several “Fri-Sat” and “Sun-Mon” GoH, who, while they may be at the convention more than those days, will have their schedules tailored to those specific days. Hopefully, this, alongside expanded programming, will give our attendees a reason to spend the extra time and money to come for the full weekend.
With Sponsorship, we start with the name: Sponsorships. This department will replace the Industry relations department, and will expand its scope to look at alternate and currently untapped avenues for finding anything from swag to guests, to helping Publicity get the word out. I think this is the area that will lend itself to the most creative improvements, and is one I’m really excited for seeing who wants to jump on board.
For Exhibits, I really want to see about maximizing our space, as well as giving both our vendors and our attendees the best possible experience. I’m already researching on finding better lighting alternatives, and to see about how to get cooler air all the way to the back of the hall. There are some other ideas that I’m looking into about the disposition of the department itself, but they will need to be talked over with the other directors first.
At the heart, I want to see innovation, expansion, and improvement in all areas. I want to see an expansion of the relations staff, and an improvement in how they go about their jobs, and the results of their work. I will consider this year a success if, beyond having an amazing stable of fresh and interesting GoH, and a top-notch Exhibits hall and Artist Alley, a swag bag fill to burst, and incredible prize support, and a record-setting Charity Auction, I also have several people who have worked with me, and learned what it means to run this department, be nominated and willing to run against me, not due to animosity, but to make sure that I continue to stay to the path of innovation and improvement, and because they also are the best person for the job. Each Executive needs to earn their place every year.
Now, to your questions.
With the con extending to have Friday being the new Day 1 and Labor Day now being a Day 4, what do you hope to do for the Charity Auction on Friday?
First, and foremost, I want to hear your ideas, as well as any ideas other staffers have for improving and expanding the Charity Auction. I’m not arrogant enough to say that I have all the answers, and that all the ideas need to be top-down. Others have been more intimately involved with this over the years than I have, and they will know better what needs to be done. So, if you have an idea, get the thought together, and show me how it will make things better, and give me “Yes, If” options for making it feasible.
How much help will you be asking for your staffers who, in previous years, have had nothing to contribute to their teams until con time?
Simply put: as much as they are willing to give. Once again, this is where your ideas come into play, as far as specifics go. I’m planning to have regular department-wide meetings outside of the traditional break-outs, if only so it will give me an excuse to ride my motorcycle down to the Portland area (which is beautiful during the spring and summer. We’ll see how exciting it is during the winter months), and more pragmatically, to help build the cohesion of my team.
What changes (if any) would you like to see within the Relations department?
I hope what I wrote as my vision for the department answers this question. If there is something specific that you would like to know, or that you would like to propose, I want to hear it.
Similarly, what changes (if any) would you like to see with regard to how Relations interacts with the other departments?
Interact more, sooner, and with better results.
I use the analogy of a convention being a restaurant: The Chair and other officers are the Host and the support staff. The entire board is the collective head chef. Ops set the table. Publicity gets the word out. Programming prepares what the attendees are served. Relations, goes out and finds the ingredients. The sooner I can hand off ingredients to Programming, the sooner they can get the menu ready, and the sooner Publicity can get the word out. Based on what I’ve observed, I need to give Programming and Publicity more time than a “Mystery Box Challenge” to accomplish this.
In the above two areas, what do you think has been going particularly well and needs to be maintained or reinforced?
We are not a perfect event, and never will be (the day we are, I will die happy). Everything we do, even things established two, three, or five Directors ago, needs to be looked at, and seen where it can be improved. Even if something has been going particularly well, we will still look at it, so everything is on the table.
