A Dual Proposal

We've had lots of people sign up for the Ning network, but very little activity other than friending. I think this is because blogs tend to be a bit more in-your-face. Social networks just sit there until you visit them. Blogs renew themselves every day in your feed reader, staying in an "unread" status until you either read or clear each post.

Anyway, Hageltoast had an idea to go ahead with the online convention idea. Here is her post:

Ok, since you have everyones attention, I have a proposal.

How about we set a very provisional date for the 09 online BookBlogCon. That way we have something on which to build a timetable for administrative tasks, marketing and contacting authors etc for their attendance and publishers etc for sponsorship.

I think getting sponsorship is a really good idea, it would help with marketing and it would be awesome for future Con's if it meant we could put together swagbags etc to post out to attendees. I realise this feels like jumping the gun, but I think if we have a clear idea of what we want at the Con and when we want it to be it will help it actually happen.

Thoughts?

This is two ideas in one, one for going ahead with an online con, and the other for lining up sponsorships.

What do you think?

Ning Social Network

Ok, so someone came up with a better idea for planning the convention than this blog. We now have a Ning network, thanks to Hagelrat.

Our Ning Network

Go forth and join! We'll keep this blog to update those who just want to follow our progress.

Thanks a bunch, Hagelrat!

We Need a Leader

We need a leader and let's face it--it can't be me. I barely have time to run Fantasy Debut. I'm perfectly happy to take the credit for the idea (wink, nudge), and to sit on the steering committee, but if you count on me to get this thing going, well, it just won't.

My original convention post is still attracting comments. There's a lot of interest for this. It would be a shame to lose the momentum because I'm time-strapped.

Therefore, I invite you to either volunteer for the leadership, or nominate someone who you think would do a bang-up job. Please volunteer or nominate in the comments. When we have a pool of candidates, we'll figure out how to select one.

Idea Chatter: Online Convention

When I first had this idea, I thought keeping a convention blog would be a must-have. However, if we were to do the entire convention as an online event, that would be something else, entirely. Let's discuss this option here.

Idea Chatter: Location, Location, Location

We had several ideas concerning location. One idea was having the convention more toward the center of the country. However, for those of us in the corners, almost everywhere in the heartland will be too far. Plus, what of other nations besides the USA?

An intriguing idea was to have something like BloggerCon East and BloggerCon West (for lack of better names), probably at some points midway between the Heartland and the coast in either direction.

Lets discuss location here.

Idea Chatter: Blogger Book and Artist Awards

A lot of people liked the idea of book and artist awards. Let's discuss the idea here.

Idea Chatter: Piggybacking Onto Another Convention

Please share any ideas you may have about piggybacking onto another convention. For example, if we decide to go to WorldCon, we would attempt to get onto the program.

We probably want to stick to the more inexpensive conventions. If you know of a likely convention, please leave a comment.