Difference between revisions of "Publications"

Revision as of 16:20, 13 September 2005

A convention may have many publications, depending on the character of the convention. Some publications may go out well in advance, such a Progress Reports. Some may be advertisements for prospective members or reminders for returning members. Some may be commemoratives of the entire convention or specific special events at that convention.

In any case, the publication should in some way carry the theme of the convention, and be easily associated with it at a glance. Clean design and good content and formatting that entices the reader to want to read more are the guidelines.

Printed Publications

In addition to advance Progress Reports, a convention might have a commeorative souvenir book for distribution to members as they arrive. This book often has photos of the guests of honor, resumes of the prospective panelists, descriptions of panel topics, essays by the convnetion organizers, maps of the local area, restaurant guides, etc.

The souvenir book may be supplemented by a update sheet. This is often published daily as a newsletter, informing the reader of recent changes to the program schedule, and pointing out highlights of the previous day's events.

Electronic Publications

There are many ways to get the word out over the internet. The most prominent would likely be the web site for the convention. Since it can be accessed from all over the world, this may very well become the face the Convention to the world. It can updated relatively easily, so it will be the first place many people will look to find up to date information as the convention approaches, and perhpas even during the convention.

Some information on the web site might be for convention organizers only. It might become necessary to set up a password-security system on the web site to prevent this information from being accessed by the general public. Or it might be better to set up a web site for internal use only, with less publicity than the main site.

Along with the web site, a convention might maintain one or more e-mail mailing lists, for the purpose of discussing or disseminatinig information about aspects of the convention, or for use among convention planners. An e-mail mailing list has the advantage of being targeted to interested parties who can hold discussions among themselves as needed. It has the disadvantage that information in e-mail can be passed around freely, and perhaps out of context to the original discussion.

Yahoo Groups and other portal services offer mailing list services free of charge. It is possible that a convention committee may have technically adept persons that can host their own web site and/or mail servers. While this may be convienient, strong consideration must be given to the long term stability and reliability of such systems, in the face of constant use by the convention organization and members. They may very well become critical systems for your convention, and must have rock solid reliability.