So, let's talk about this here, since I made a flippant comment elsewhere

[ericcoleman]

This started with a flippant comment on philady's LJ, but it seems to have escalated, so I feel I should discuss it.

As some of you know, I do not attend Convergence



philady posted a poll here that said

Are you getting stoked for CONvergence?
Yes.
HELL YES!
I'm not going. I'm lame.

Me being me, I said

"I'm not going, the people who run Convergence are lame"

433 took exception to this, and for good reason.

So, the reason for my problems with Convergence go back several years. When I was trying to do the 12 cons in 12 months I contacted them to see about playing.

I have one rule when it comes to cons, if I contact a con about playing, it is my responsibility to pay for my badge. If they comp me, that's a good thing, but that is up to them.

If they contact me, they are contacting me as a pro. I don't make much of my living playing music, but I certainly do at least a little. Unless you are a tiny tiny con, you comp the pros. Period.

The next year I was contacted, please come play at the con. Cool. I had a good time the year before. Oh, if you want to do anything else, you have to buy a badge.

I said that I can't do that, you're asking me to drive there and play a show for no recompense except hopefully selling some CDs, I can't. I was nice about it, I do try to treat any venue I play with a good degree of professionalism, then the guy got all defensive and weird and went off on a rant about how it is not "pay to play" since I would get into my own show free.

I live 200+ miles away from the Twin Cities. At that point driving there and back cost me around 60 bucks. This guy asked me to play a free show that is costing me money, and tells me that it is not "pay to play". If I was local I suppose that I might have had a different reaction. I'm not.

The way I see this is like ... well ... if I was playing at a club, and they said, "sure, you can be on the stage, but if you want to go anywhere else you have to pay the cover charge".

It's a terrible way to treat people who you invite in to perform for and entertain YOUR guests. We are part of the show. You should show us respect. I think I may have had a different reaction if not for the "it's not pay to play thing". It would have just been left there, and I wouldn't go to Convergence. But the guy was an ass.

I know a little about the history of TC cons, and I know that there was a point where too many people got comped, things got out of control. But there is a point at which it is just silly.

So there is why I made my little flippant comment 433. It wasn't the best way to handle it, but maybe this will do some good. I have talked to other folks involved with Convergence about this, but nothing has come of it. It's a big con. You can do what you want because of that. But it does not serve the con well to treat people badly.

Comments

[prettymuchpeggy.livejournal.com]

I think the people who run Convergence are definitely not lame. I think the person you worked with needed to develop some understanding that pros, semi-pros and working amateurs that come to conventions are not only the writers and scientists. It is anyone who gives their time and expertise to perform, to be on a panel or to be a judge. Each person who contributes should be treated as valuable. Chances are that if you are a guest one year and are treated well that you will come back another year as a paying guest and become free advertisement for the con.

I agree with Eric that if you are invited to a con to perform, to be on a panel, to be a judge or to "add color" as an out of town guest that being comped is not unreasonable. At the very least there should be a paying concert at one end or the other of the convention to help offset the costs. As one of my mentors has said, "That just giving you your propers."

He did say up front that one of his rules was that he expected to be comped if invited. The fact is is that for musicians the weekends are valuable. Inviting a musician to a con is asking the musician to take time off work. To be considered for a record deal a musician must be a paid performer on most weekends of several years. So I can understand completely, Eric's indignation about being chastised into playing "a free show that is costing me money." I am sorry, but yes it is "pay to play" whether it comes out of the con's pocket or not.

That being said I don't write off a con completely for rude behavior that may or may not have been the norm of a particular person or a group a people. I have, however, stopped going to cons that do not treat me as valuable unless I can afford the cost and there are people at them that I wish to play with (musically and not).

Post Script-
Before someone says, "Hey wait, but you haven't been here for years" I should add that there are many cons (in Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan and Manitoba) that I would love to attend again, but the choice for me has come down to "pay down my debt to live as an adult again" or go to cons. Sadly, the former has had to win out. Sigh. As for Convergence I usually have made the choice to go to Baggiecon which (besides being a place where I am valued) is overall also less expensive. I may poke my head into Convergence this year as this year limited vacation time has made a change my regular plans. Whew! end rant

{Darn forgot to check my spelling-ruins a perfectly good exit}