Theatrical Conventions

Attending a Theatrical Convention

Field Template started attending conventions in 1988. Our yearly jaunts typically include: LDI, USITT, and SETC. We’ve also attended the occasional PLASA, InfoComm, and Super Saturday. If you’ve not attended one of these conventions, there can be many questions about what to expect, and how to prepare. Here are some general and specific thoughts about how to get the most from your convention experience.

Before you Go:

Make the decision that you’re going to the convention, and start making plans months in advance. If you make the decision to attend at the last minute, each aspect of the event will be much more expensive; registration, transportation, and housing.

Hotel & Transportation:

Even before the registration, define and confirm the hotel and the transportation. Download maps to check where the hotels are around the convention, and compare the lower price versus length of commute. Many of the closer hotels get booked and sold out months before the convention. Especially the more economically-priced ones. Define exactly when you want to arrive and when you want to register.

Pre-Register or Not Pre-Register?

If you don’t care about wasting time the first morning you’re on site, then don’t be concerned. Just stand in line and have a good time. If you have other things to do instead of stand in line, fill out the forms and pay in advance, prior to arrival. That way, when you arrive, all you have to do is pick up your badge. For that matter, if the morning plans to be an active one, consider arriving at registration the day before the exhibition floor opens to pick up your badge.

Registration Fee:

Most of these conventions have two basic registration packages. They’re more successful if you pay for a full convention registration fee, which is often no small amount of change. If you intend to attend several workshops, or seminars, or sessions that are not open to the general public, then yes, pay the portion (or all) of the fee in order to properly register.

If, on the other hand, you intend solely to walk the show floor, look at products, talk to booth folk, and attend the social functions (which are usually free to all participants,) then ONLY register and pay the show floor fee. Which is usually a LOT less. And often there’s a discount for advance registration.

For that matter, many booth registrants receive complementary show floor passes to distribute at their own discretion. Check the online groundplan or vendor list posted on the convention website. If you know anyone with a booth attending the convention, contact them directly. Sometimes those passes end up not being used and can be passed on to you.

Most conventions also need many hands. They may be called Production Assistants, or Interns, or any number of titles. Regardless, they are unpaid personnel, and in exchange they get free admission to the entire conference - when they're not performing their specific roles. Find out if there's any openings in these type of positions, and speak with folks who have performed this function at this conference in the past - sometimes there are so many demands, folks never get to see any seminars or the show floor. And that's just dissapointing.

Networking & Job Search:

While sharing knowledge and celebrating our craft are two objectives served by any of these conventions, the primary opportunity provided by any theatrical convention is networking. When a cluster of folks in our little industry get together, there are always a bunch of folks who are employed, another bunch who are looking for employees, and the final bunch who are looking for work.

While you may attend this convention, and not currently be seeking employment, the contacts made by networking at any convention can provide future dividends and job advancement throughout your theatrical career.

Another way to say it; though you may not be looking for a job now, go to one of these conventions equipped to make sure that folks know how to get in touch with you once it’s over. And if you are looking for a job, then recognize this situation for the potentially critical opportunity that it is.

If job-seeking is not your objective, there are numerous other tasks that may be the reason for your attendance. Making equipment comparison and buying decisions, meetings with clients, all of these are potential activities. While a typical three-day convention may seem forever, the time is so compressed that it’s imperative to define what activities you want to attend, where you want to schmoos, and where you need to stop in on the show floor.

Finally, regardless of your reason for attending a convention, these events are a buyer’s market. The potential Employer/Producer/Client doesn’t care. There are many well-equipped folks that can accomplish the design/job/sale that you’re attempting to achieve. Don’t let yourself get in the way of your own success.

Preparation:

Resume: Get your resume(s) together.

Check that all your contact information and all of the reference contact information is still accurate.
Contact the references and let them know you’re going to be passing their name around, and that they might get some calls.
Have a friend check your resume for spelling and punctuation.
Photocopy twice as many hard copies as you think you might need; making copies on the road isn't always as simple as you think.
Forward your resume to your cell phone, so you can forward the attachment to prospective employers while standing next to them on the show floor.

Portfolio: Get your portfolio together. Review it. Update it. Rehearse it. In front of friends. A couple of times.

Business Cards: Get business cards made. Period. Either use an Avery form and have them printed out, or VistaPrint.com (http://www.vistaprint.com), or Overnightprints.com (htt://www.overnightprints.com) Or go to a stationary store and order them in advance.

Don’t get cards that are black on both sides. They may look very ”professional” but if there is no place to write anything, no one will be able to write notes anywhere on them. Which can then translate to any number of people looking at your card in a couple of weeks, wondering who the hell who you are, just before they throw your card away.
Don’t get slippery plastic business cards that resist pen or pencil marks. Same as above.
Don’t get cards that are smaller than a regular business-sized card. They will get lost in a stack of cards, and then your card will not be found as the stack is being sorted and you will miss that opportunity. It may look cute, but for my two cents it also comes off as a sign of low self-esteem.
Don’t use fonts on your business card that are so teeney that they can’t be read by older eyes.
Don’t use fonts that are so cursive/blocky/edgy/sketchy that the text is unreadable. That is counter-productive.

Packing: Comfortable shoes and extra socks; all power supplies for your computer and other devices; outer jackets or sweaters [check the weather]. If you've got a hot spot, consider bringing it - hotels and show floors are notorious for charging eye-bulging amounts for internet access, and if you don't have an alternative plan, your online time may be severely cramped. Or expensive.

Paperwork: List of folks to see; a copy of your schedule [seminars, meals, parties]; any boarding passes or other travel documents; your picture ID.

On-Site Arrival

Check-in to the hotel. If you’re sharing a room, make sure they have your name on the register. If contacts only have the name of the hotel, they need your name in order to find you.
Go to Registration and get your badge (if you so choose). That way you also get the show directory and you can double-check the sessions you want to attend, make sure the people giving the sessions haven’t changed, and check the groundplan for the show floor to define which booths you need to visit.
Check the Show Brochure for the map of the Exhibition Floor. Mark the booths you want to visit to see new gear, visit specific folks, or figure out where the bathrooms are located.
Check the Show Brochure to see the seminars of interest. Better yet; review each potentially interesting seminar and determine who is giving it. Read their bios and determine who you want to talk to. Arrive early and plan to stay late to talk to them. Bring your resume and business card, and make notes during the session in order to make intelligent conversation afterwards.
Start asking about the parties. Every night of the convention, at least two or three parties take place. While some are very exclusive, others are great mixers. Regardless, every one of them is an opportunity for you to meet new contacts.

Day of Show

Before you leave your room, make sure you have everything you need so you don’t have to return until the end of the day or when you choose. Don’t let something that you’ve forgotten interrupt the precious convention time. Sometimes it can take hours to leave the convention proceedings and make it back to your room.
Before you leave your room, look in the mirror. Ask yourself, ”would I like to meet this person, talk to them, hire them?” Are you presenting yourself in such a way that others will hire, contract or buy from you? If you’re presenting yourself as a person wishing to do business, don’t dress like you’re going camping. Or clubbing. Don’t let your appearance be random. Design your costume. Make sure that you are presenting yourself in the way that you choose. First impressions are important. And while we’re talking about wardrobe, make sure you wear comfortable shoes. You’re going to be on your feet for much of the day, and the convention floor is typically lightweight rug laid on concrete. By the third day, there’s little question that your dogs will be barking. As you circulate on the floor, remember which booths have double-thick carpet and which booths have additional seating. If you want, bring soaking salts for your feet, ibuprophen or equivalent for tweeks and leg strains. Take care of your feet!
Make sure you have copies of your business card, your resume, your portfolio, your cut sheets, your samples. Make sure you’ve packed the equipment you need to in order do your business of choice for the day.
Make sure you know which pocket you’ve placed each piece of your equipment so that you don’t search your pockets in front of the potential employer, client, vendor, or contact.

On the Show Floor

Once you get on the show floor, keep the plan and agenda in your head. There is so much stimuli and distractions, it can quickly seem impossible to achieve any of your original goals. Keep your focus. Drink fluids. Take breaks.
If you are not carrying a bag for samples or literature, find one as soon as you can. If you don’t want to return home with an additional 20 pounds of weight, have the sales folk scan your badge, rather than picking up every piece of paper that you see.
As you meet new people cold, do not be shy. Smile. Appear excited. Seek out those who are on your list. Ask questions. Be positive. Present yourself in the best possible light.
Write the context of the conversation on the back of every business card that you receive. What followup task do you need to remember to do with this person? Run through your stack periodically during the day and make sure you have notes reminding you who each card belongs to.
The parties! Remember? Get the invites, talk to the people that need talking to, just make sure you get into them.

Convention No-no’s

Never appear on the show floor disheveled, dirty, or distressed. Regardless of your business, a poor or sloppy appearance will hamper your efforts, no matter what positive attitude you may attempt to project.
Never say ”I forgot my resume.” Almost as bad is: ”I’ve run out of copies of my resume.” A decent recovery is: ”I can email you a copy,” or ”I can leave a copy for you at the front desk.” A better recovery is: ”Let me give you a copy of my resume when i buy you a drink at the bar,” or ”Let me give you a resume while i buy you dinner.”
Never try to be smart or clever or ”in the know” by saying denigrating things about someone else who may or may not be at the convention. We are a very small industry, and the convention environment compresses our connections. Saying bad things can become bad news. Bad news travels fast, bad rep travels at light speed.
Never leave your room without copies of your resume and business cards. While it may seem obvious that the only place you might speak with potential employers will be on the show floor, that’s just not so. As long as you are wearing the conference badge, you are identified, and you may end up in conversation with a potential employer at any time: In the elevator, waiting for a table, standing at the bar, washing your hands in the bathroom. Until you return to your room, you’re in an exposed environment, and a conversation about jobs may take place at any time. Bring your resumes and business cards, and Be Prepared.

Convention Wrap-up

Sort through the cards and label them with your task or goal as you go to the airport.
Make good and follow through with every resume, letter, item, phone call, sketch, drawing, or favor that you stated that you would do during the convention. The faster that you respond and make good on your claim, the faster you will build respect in this business.
Unpack as quickly as you can when you get home. Kiss your loved one; go see friends. Remember that this is not the only thing in your life.