Best practices

There are lots of great tips for putting together a Convergence bid on the Bids page.

Bidding and actually putting on a Convergence are two very different animals.

This page contains some suggestions from prior committee chairs and members that will help you as you actually plan a wonderful Convergence for all of us to attend!

Committee Chairs

It is a good idea to have more than one Convergence chairperson. Two is good, three is better. Each chair can be responsible for certain aspects of the event, and during the actual event, you will need to have an official person who can make decisions in several places at once.

Assembling Your Committee

- Experience counts. The more Convergence veterans you can get on your committee, the better, because they know what this party is about.

- Don’t hesitate to ask former chairs and/or committee members for advice. They love Convergence and are usually more than happy to help you.

- The_C*B*L is not some big scary entity in the sky. They’re real people with a royal bumload of Convergence-planning experience among them, and they are there to help in any way they can. Use them.

- If you have friends on the committee, make sure that they are people who won’t get their feelings hurt if you have to be the bearer of bad news. Also, be sure that these friends on the committee aren’t people with whom you will feel weird about sharing bad news. Friends are great, but they’re people, and sometimes they do stuff that could hurt the event. If you think your friendship might be hurt at some point during the planning process, it is better not to have them on the committee.

- Being on the planning committee does not magically make you Scene Royalty. Anyone who signs on to plan a Convergence hoping for this outcome is NOT someone you want on the committee.

Contracting with the Hotel

- Start with a small block, but arrange for expansion if needed. Most hotels require that a group sell 80% of a room block, and you don't want to be financially responsible if you block more rooms than attendees fill.

- Not everyone will stay at the official hotel. This is another reason to start with a small block.

- A hotel may ask if you want to use a rooming list or a block where guests call in individually to make their reservations. You want to use the latter option. Rooming lists for a group like Convergence are a royal pain and will most likely cause committees migraines and unnecessary drama.

- Hotels will generally comp one room for every X number of rooms booked in the Convergence block. We suggest using these comps toward a free or discounted suite for committee use. You will need the space for storage and work.