Hello, I am Jeff Tyrrill, the current Publicity Director. I also held this position in 2007, so I have done it for two years now.
I first joined staff in 2006 after first attending the con in 2005, and started working in Publicity as the Copy Editor. I worked on many documents then, including doing most of the program book and pocket guide.
Also, since 2006, I've worked on the web site and for the 2007 and 2008 years was the primary website administrator. I've done most of the web design and software development work for the 2007 and 2008 sites, with help and ideas from many other staff members (including art, software code, and more).
I live in Seattle, but have been making the trip at least monthly to Portland for meetings and events. In 2006 and 2007 I only missed one general meeting each year, and one exec meeting in 2007, and in 2008, I can't recall any meetings that I have missed (I did miss one mini-event though).
To start out, let me say that I have been recommended for Secretary as well, as has been pointed out. I am very interested in the Secretary position also. However, as at this time I am the only nominee who has accepted for Publicity, my primary goal will be running for the Director of Publicity position. It is unlikely I would accept holding the positions of both Director of Publicity and Secretary simultaneously.
Are you now, or do you plan to be a director or manager of another convention where your term will overlap with your term as a Kcon director? Do you foresee any conflict of interest or possibly having to short one con to properly serve another.
I am a coordinator for Sakura-Con--the position of Video and Support Coordinator. This is at the level below manager. I don't see this as being really a conflict of interest, however, it is true that this adds to my time commitment. I've held this position from years 2006-2008 for Sakura-Con and I feel that this is manageable as it's a technical area that I'm very proficient at and the con is about 5 months apart from Kumoricon.
All: Is there any area of outreach that you'd want to curtail for fear we might outgrow our hotel?
Not yet.
If we do cap, or get too close, we can always scale back later. I would not want to ever do anything to stop our momentum until we're sure it's needed.
That said, it would probably be best to keep our publicity centered around word of mouth, outreach to interested groups and communities, flyer distribution, trades, and possibly very targeted advertising. I don't see starting to buy paid advertising in newspapers, radio, or TV as anything more than a small expenditure to experiment at this point (if that). Having our fan base spread the word is the most effective form of advertising and Kumoricon should be doing the things to encourage that.
If we really did get into a spot where we had to cap way below our demand, and more publicity just meant more people who couldn't get in the doors, then the department could focus on making a better experience for the attendees, like having more merchandise, better publications, at-con communication like signage, and a better web site, so there's still much for Publicity to be doing.
To what extent, and with what forms of publicity, can you involve Programming, for better clarity, timeliness, accuracy, and thoroughness of data?
As the con gets bigger, the Publicity department needs to track far more data about the con. I will have Publicity work with Programming earlier in the year to communicate more specifically what information we need and how much lead time we need it in, for things like panels, schedules, room layouts, and in particular, things that attendees of certain panels need to know in advance--ticketing, dress code, whether to bring anything, etc. Also, Publicity can start promoting some events earlier in the year if Programming is ready.
I'd like to expand the Contests area of the web site to include contest winners from past years, if we have the information and if it's ok with the contest owners.
Which parts of Programming would you like to see highlighted in such pieces as the newsletter, con book, etc.?
I would want Programming to identify areas which may not be as well known but that are expected to be high-quality events or panels and give those the most promotion. The hardest part for these publications is having staff or volunteers to create the content so I'd want to promote the fact that panelists or other attendees are invited to volunteer to write newsletter articles.
Who do you plan to appoint as your assistant director and have they accepted the offer for the position?
I plan on appointing Cassie Richoux. She was my assistant for 2008. She joined staff more than midway through the year, and very quickly came up to speed and was a huge help in the department, having experience creating her own web site and helping at a high level with a con in Nebraska previously. She has experience in all three sub-departments in Publicity: promotions (press, etc.), publications (program book, newsletter), and web. With a great attention to detail, she was instrumental in helping many projects in Publicity get completed.
Do you have any new ideas on how to continually improve Street Team? Do you also have any ideas on how to improve communications with other departments in order to coordinate registration push events?
Street Team is probably the best way we have of getting advertisements for the con out there. To expand this further, (and to give con chair Mike credit, he has been an advocate of this) we should tie it in with the outreach so along with our list of street team drops, we have an organized list of potential venues, anime clubs, and locations for promotional tie-ins, trades, outreach events (like registration tables), or possibly mini-events.
Registration outreach is getting common enough that we should start organizing it as a regular staff activity rather than just treating it ad-hoc each time. We can train staff on what needs to be done at each of these events (equipment setup, etc.), and have sign-up for staffing booths and tables. Some of this may fall under the Outreach Coordinator position, which may not be in the Publicity department, however.
Next year, I plan on devoting more resources in particular to press outreach, merchandise, and signage.
Although we have created digital press kits the past two years, more individualized press contact is needed much more in advance of the con to get more of the type of coverage we hope for.
We had some great merchandise this year, with a few mishaps (for example, the hoodies order getting stuck in limbo without us knowing it due to the vendor mistake, and also a shortage of attendee T-shirts due to a different mistake). With this year's sales numbers and input from our attendees and staff, I'd like to see even more popular items available for next year as well as having an at-con dedicated merchandise staff to best display and hype our items.
We had a fair amount of signage but much more was needed. I'd like to make a shared document (Google Docs, perhaps) available much earlier in the year to staff in other departments to get all the signage requests processed in advance. I also plan to create a dedicated at-con staff position for maintaining signs in addition to the one pre-con for creating them--making sure all the signs are accounted for and posted, tracking requests at-con for new signs, error corrections, and changes and printing them on the spot, and making sure that attendees are finding everything ok.
In every area, what I am finding is ways to improve if more details could be taken care of. I hope to spend more effort early in the year in getting manager and coordinator positions filled, and making sure that the people in those roles have the information and resources needed to take ownership of their positions. I would also like to use more of the tools available to help in this goal, such as storing con information using Google Docs, where appropriate (for example information that is not too sensitive), as this is a great way to give more staff access to data such as content for con books, to-do lists, press/relations contacts, outreach lists, street team drops, bugs and feature requests for the web site, merchandise vendors, and so on.
I hope to post in this thread again in a little bit, once I have more ideas and planning complete.
EDIT: Fixed quoting attribution error.
