Convention Life: Pandemics and You

As I’m writing this, it is almost April and I have been in my house for two weeks straight. Isolation isn’t hitting me as hard as it’s probably hitting many folks. I’ve been working from home for years, so I’m used to seeing the inside of my house for days at a time. But I’m feeling the stress related to not being able to go out socially or visit my family. I have aging parents who are severely at risk. My brother is a first responder, so he is out there all the time. The stress around these things, for everyone, is very real. We’re all just trying to get through this.

The ban on social gatherings is taking a toll in another way. Conventions all over the world are being cancelled and postponed. So, I thought I’d spend today’s column explaining what happens behind the scenes in most small-to-medium sized conventions and how to proceed if a con you were planning to attend is affected.

Decisions Are Hard

The decision to cancel or postpone a convention isn’t an easy or a fast one. I’ve seen a lot of comments on social media calling convention producers irresponsible for not making an immediate decision. I’d venture to guess that most of those critiques are from people who don’t understand how conventions work behind the scenes. If you’ve read my Convention Life columns here, you might have a better idea already.

There are different ways a convention can contract with a hotel to put on their event, but most have some form of room-block-for-event-space agreement. This means that the hotel determines how much event space they will allow for the convention’s commitment to X number of room nights. The event space will often be provided for free or at a drastic discount if the convention attendees reserve that number of nights, called their “room block.” Each hotel calculates it differently and some smaller events may not have the numbers to get their space without paying something. This is why it’s important to book hotel rooms with the convention’s room block, so they get credit for your reservation.

Even if a convention gets their space for free, there might be other charges that are added on for additional services, such as water provided to session rooms, snacks, audio-visual equipment, or internet access. All of these may require additional payment by the convention.

Other non-hotel costs that are often accrued by conventions include signage, food/beverages (as well as plates, cups, serving utensils, serving dishes, etc.) if there is a con suite, swag bags for attendees and/or guests, badges, tech rentals, transportation costs for big-name guests (and/or guest speaking fees), con store merchandise, the cost of storing all this stuff, and, of course, advertising. There can be even more costs, depending on what the convention’s theme is.

Many of these additional charges cannot be recouped. Anything without the year on it may be able to be held over for the next year’s convention (assuming canceling does not bankrupt the convention), but other things won’t be able to be used. Advertising through the date of the cancellation is a lost cost. Airline tickets for guests may or may not be refunded. The same with equipment rental. The convention might be responsible for a cancellation fee or even the entire balance of the rental, depending on the contract.

If the convention has to cancel near last minute, con-suite food is not going to keep til the next year (not that we’d want it to!). And note that the convention will have no income for the current year, so many of these outlays will all have to be made again for next year, and ongoing costs (such as storage fees) won’t stop just because there’s no income.

Most conventions do not have much monetary roll-over from year to year, creating tight margins, so making the decision to cancel or postpone will not be done lightly. And it shouldn’t be.

If a convention wants to postpone the event to later in the year, they have to work with the hotel to see what dates might be available. Remember that most organizations schedule with hotels a year or more out. So a hotel may already have events scheduled through all of August and September and may have one available weekend in October or December, or some other random month. The convention is at the mercy of the hotel, as far as dates. They don’t have the luxury of picking and choosing. And even if they find a date, the hotel may charge a fee for rescheduling.

What About Cancelling Outright?

How impactful a cancellation will be is going to depend on each convention, since contracts with hotels vary. The terms of a contract can depend a lot on the savvy negotiating skills of the convention’s point person. For example, one convention’s contract might stipulate that a cancellation will require a fee equal to some percentage of the cost of the event space. And that’s based on the actual rental cost of the space, not the discounted or free cost associated with having room nights reserved. Another hotel might have a flat cancellation fee. Another might require complete payment for the event space unless the hotel is able to schedule a different event in that time slot.

The terms can be vastly different for each convention, so producers must take the time to check their contracts and to work out how that the cost can be covered. Consulting with an attorney may also be involved. Many conventions have event insurance, and so as long as the insurance covers it, the convention should be okay. However, many insurance companies have requirements for paying out on cancellations, including language about exactly when they will do that and when they will not.

If an event cancels “just to be safe,” it’s probable that their insurance will not pay out, in the same way your health insurance will not pay out if you decide to get a nose job. It will be seen as elective.

If the governor declares a statewide shutdown, then the insurance will have less grounds to withhold payment. So some conventions, in an effort not to be completely bankrupted, must wait for the situation to be truly out of their hands before making an official decision.

Convention producers have a lot to consider. And, as human beings on this planet, these producers are living through this pandemic, the same as the rest of us. They are self-isolating (or not, if they’re essential workers) and worried about themselves and their loved ones, the same as the rest of us. And they are trying to balance the needs of convention attendees with the damage the pandemic may be doing to the convention the attendees love.

My Convention Cancelled! Now What?

If you’re concerned about whether your favorite convention is going to cancel, be sure you’re tracking their social media accounts. One of the cons I planned to attend in March posted their cancellation on social media before emailing their registered attendees. I didn’t get an email from them until two days after they’d officially cancelled.

Many conventions have official Facebook groups for attendees and those interested; join these groups if you’re on Facebook. Follow them on Twitter. If there is some other social media service where they are present and active, follow them there.

When you find out an event has been cancelled, do what they advise in their post or email. If they say that they’ll be conveying information about registration in the coming days, don’t email them asking about your registration. If they say not to call the hotel yet because the convention is still working with them on handling hotel reservations/deposits, don’t call the hotel.

They’re not telling you these things to try to steal your money or give you a headache or stress you out. If they’ve notified you without giving a lot of logistical details, it means they want you to have the information as soon as possible. Trust that when they have more information, they’re going to give that to you as soon as possible as well.

If you have specific questions that they haven’t addressed at all (even to tell you to hold tight on them), give them a few days. They’re likely fielding a LOT of emails from a lot of people. That’s exhausting. And, especially if the convention is in the future (which most are), waiting a few days isn’t going to be a hardship. And the stress you save them in this time will be more than you might realize.

Finally, be sure to check with the airlines about refunds, vouchers, or other contingencies related to travel changes associated with COVID-19. I can’t give any specific guidance, because each airline is different and what they offer for changes in flights is often different week to week. My mother-in-law cancelled her flight from Amsterdam to Atlanta in early March and the airline gave her a full-value voucher to be used within a year. A week later, they were giving partial refunds and no vouchers. So call your airline as soon as the convention announces its change, so you at least know what the current policy is. You can choose whether to take what they’re offering now or see what next week brings.

But I Really Want To Go To a Convention!

If you’re jonesing for that geek time, then you, my friend, are in luck!

A number of conventions have already announced a move to an online space for their events, and many other organizations are making virtual conventions! Some conventions have created Discord servers to host gatherings. Be sure to check your favorite convention’s homepage to see whether this is something they’re offering.

On your event’s homepage, you are likely also to find links to vendors who were supposed to be in the dealer room. Consider buying things from their websites. The same for guests, such as writers, comic book artists (and authors), as well as other types of artsy people. Many of these folks depend on convention sales to make their bills, so they’re also taking a huge hit with these cancellations. Visit their websites. Buy their books. You can still find the cool stuff you wanted to buy, and you’ll be helping them, so that they can survive until conventions get started again! Win-win!

There are Facebook groups for a lot of other aspects of conventions (like cosplay, writing, etc.), so be sure to do searches or keep an eyeball peeled for those sorts of things as well.

If you’re missing panel discussions and general socialness, definitely look at the online conventions. A few cons have switched to online options and a few brand-new cons have sprung up to give folks somewhere to congregate in a virtual space. Between my writing this and publication, at least three online conventions have occurred, and I am positive there will be more in the coming months, so keep your eyes open!

Here are a couple options to get you started:

WorldCon, the 78th World Science Fiction Convention, is going digital and will be opening up for new online registrants on April 15. This is handy for us in the northern hemisphere, since WorldCon was meant to be held in New Zealand! July 29 – August 2

Con-Tinual, the Con That Never Ends, was created on Facebook by some authors who are active in the southeast USA con scene (I’m in there too!). It features panels, discussions, vendor posts, author readings, and various other shenanigans. Seriously, this one is really cool! Happening now until… umm… forever?

Are there any virtual conventions coming up that you want to share?

In the meantime, take care of yourself, and take care of each other. Also, go wash your hands. 😉