Originally written by David D'Antonio

I have a lot of information to pass along to the next person (assuming it isn't me) to run Art Show in addition to what is in this report. Feel free to ask questions and if I remember any more, I'll pass it along.

What you did?
Ran the Art Show.

The Art Show this year went well, judging by comments from both artists and guests. We had 73 Artists and sold 64 panels and 29 tables. In addition, we had a fabulous Student Art Contest (detailed elsewhere) and a piece (and prints) from next year's Artist GoH. We had no incidents and lots of people came. Despite some glitches, the Artist GoH appeared to have a great time overall.

What went right?
Merv led the setup and teardown crews and they did a great job setting up and tearing down; Marrus was able to start setting up her art at 9:30am Friday. The IECFASC (Incredible East Coast Floaring Art Show Crew) was invaluable in both running the show and fixing problems due to my oversubscription of pre-function space. Having the bag check on 16 worked very well as did the express elevator. Putting both Marrus and the Student Art in pre-function worked well to draw people's attention to them. Having Print Shop and Bidder Number right next to the elevators and next to bag check worked quite well since it clearly separated the front office from the show.

We had two sleepers and that worked as there was no way one person could hear both screamers (we checked). Quick Sale was very popular as were the docent tours. Having staff-only hours allowed most of the DivHead level and above staff to see the show and have a docent tour, to boot. The hotel manager did manage to prevent hotel personal from just wandering through in the wee hours and we were able to store pipe carts and pegboard carriers in the kitchen area without a problem. Staff Den was able to send us up lunch on Sunday despite last minute changes. Feeding the setup crew worked well; they enjoyed the food and the break. It was nice of Krista, I believe, to send the left-overs from the GoH dinner up to us.

Being able to pack up on Sunday allowed Logistics to move everything out of 16 with minimal disruption of the rest of the con; it was all back in storage by Sunday night, I believe. I think this made Monday's load-out easier.

Checking cell phones actually went very well; most people were understanding.

What went wrong?

Most of what went wrong was due to my inexperience with the position. More prep work should have been done; I showed up at con without some necessary forms already filled out; one of the Crew had to do it before we opened. I didn't set up time for the ConChair and the other GoHs to do their award selections. Lack of proper labeling of the totes delayed Marrus's setup and unnecessarily burdened Ops. Marrus was late in finishing her setup and so the show opened about 1/2 hour late. The hotel never did manage to unlock the fire door next to the elevators; this caused people to not be able to get in at times so we took to propping it open during the day.

The temperature on 16 was quite unpredictable; it was too hot with a lot of people in the show and the sun coming in but it was too cold out in the front office. Closing the curtains helped the former but then it got very cold at night. It took an entire day to unlock the bathrooms and my "all access" key to 16 quit working Friday. As mentioned above, I had oversubscribed pre-function trying to do too much with too little space; fortunately, the Crew was able to work around this and fit Sales into the area without having to move the bay. Only one piece went into auction and by the time this was noticed, I had sent the auctioneer away. No one voice bid on the piece, anyway.

In general, I needed more people; while the VL did send people, most of the Crew and I rarely left 16. As a result there was no opportunity to train new Crew. There was a large miscommunication with Marrus about when she should pack up and if she could sell her art after the show closed; this was smoothed over but shouldn't have happened. Getting the elevators locked out was often time-consuming and I was late in getting them unlocked on Saturday as Marrus wanted to get into the show before it officially opened and I didn't know this. I never did get my show information into Zambia.

The lunch on Sunday had some issues that took several of us off 16 to resolve. We didn't get any other food from Staff Den most likely due to lack of volunteers to deliver it. Feeding the setup crew ran into a big snag as the key to BU I was given didn't work and it took quite some time to get one that did; meanwhile the GoH leftovers went to the Ballroom first and then up to BU where they sat in the hallway until we could get a key.

Several of the forms need updating (I have a list) and we need better explanations of Quick Sale. The rules about after-show sales need to be clearer, too. Radios didn't work well getting from 16 to Ops and the house phone on 16 often couldn't reach Ops (I'd call the operator, she'd transfer the call but it would just ring and ring). As stated above hotel people did come onto 16 at various times in the wee hours, thus disturbing the sleepers. In one case, a hotel employee couldn't get to 16 because of the elevator lockout so she use the stairs and disabled the screamer! The hotel led "tours" of Charles View to folks thinking about booking the space while we were doing setup and slinging pipe and pegboards around. I asked them not to do so and was told 1 more tour was coming in Friday; in fact about 4 tours came through.

One artist didn't pick up her art until well past closing and several bidders didn't pick up their winnings; I was able to track down some of them while still at con but others still need to be found. Due to this, there was overlap between the teardown crew and the IEDFASC which caused friction and made packing up more difficult. One mail-in artist's stuff never arrived and I'm still not sure if she sent it or not. Many artists ignored the deadline and were asking for space right up until 2 days before the con; while I could accommodate most of this, it was disruptive.

Due to the food situation, I and others on the Crew didn't eat enough and that contributed to the crankiness. Apparently, two elevators were offline during the peak 10-Noon Sunday rush.

What should be done differently next year?
Have more volunteers. Do more prep work so that all necessary forms are done before arriving at con and all GoHs and the ConChair are appropriately scheduled. Allow on-line registration; while it was suggest this year, it wasn't mentioned in the artist letter so I declined. Either bring in snack-type food and soda or have runners to get it from Staff Den. Have a better space plan for pre-function; the way the IECFASC set up Sales worked well.

Deal with temperature better; either have a schedule for the drapes or get the hotel's climate control better adjusted. Make the rules about Quick Sale clearer. Redo forms that are out-of-date.

What sort of schedule/timeline did you use?

Dr. Karen provided a good timeline.

Are the any changes you'd make to the schedule for next year?
I wouldn't change the hours; I don't think extending the show would really be worth the disruption.

Vendors you used?
Staples for duping forms. Christmas Tree Shops for the butterflies. UPS and the post office for mailing art back. Excel and Word for mailings and the master reservation spreadsheet

Experiments to try next year?
Integrate better with Climbing Mt. Arisia. Perhaps panels along the windows both to block light and to allow more panel space; this will depend a lot on structural integrity, though. Have an apprentice program; recruit volunteers and assign them to a Crew member for training. Bring back the Art Show Reception in some form. Perhaps a docent tour that starts in the lobby and can commandeer an elevator.

Any comments about the rest of the con (other divisions, hotel, ...)?
I didn't see much of the rest of the con. :-( Hotel division was very helpful as was Ops for the most part; someone did get up to 16 with CEs, for example. I believe Staff Den did the best they could but we had needed more food. Pubs was gracious about getting my newsletter info in, despite the 4 drafts I sent them. Sign Shop was quite helpful; we had all the signage we needed and putting signs down on 1 and 2 about where the Art Show was helped.