Initial Ground Work to Start Your Own Gaming Convention
So you want to run a board gaming convention!
Lets start with an introduction and why I can speak on this topic. My name is Chris and I am a founder (with my original partner Greg) of the LexiCon Board Gaming Convention. We have just had our third successful convention this year. We are also starting a new convention in Cincinnati starting in the fall of 2017. We had 600 unique people attend our convention last year, 1,200 turnstile, which makes us mildly more successful then most cons after 3 years. I also have several friends that run their own successful gaming conventions like CharCon, GrandCon, Queen City Conquest, AcadeCon...
Key starting out info.
What kind of convention do you want to be? This is not the question you think it is. Really, what we are addressing is will you be a non-profit or a for-profit. I know many conventions that are non-profit because their focus is giving back to their community. One advantage is that a few businesses are more willing to contribute to a non-profit games, food, advertising... We did not go this way. We wanted to make some money, even if it was just a little. So we are for profit. I can proudly say we made about $.25 cents and hour in our second year! (Really, this is a good estimate). Our third year, this went down to about $.15 cents an hour due to making some capital improvements and over promising on our kickstarter. I am sure at some point, I will do a post on "Kickstarter, it will be mostly good. :) As an FYI, a good convention is going to take 15 to 20 hours a week, most weeks of the year to get off the ground. Make sure you have the time to do it.
OK, so I picked my type, how much will we make?
Based on our first three successful years (based on attendance), I would say anywhere from -$4,000 to $8,000 (yes that was negative $4,000). Our second year actually helped us pay back the initial losses we had our first year. Unless you start really small (a good idea) and have a very cheap space (even better idea), you will likely lose money your first year, due to advertising, getting games, printing posters... People making money in the high end of the range is because they usually got a phenomenal deal on space. Most good spaces are going to run you from $4,000 (wow, what an awesome deal) to $10,000 or more. Depends on the competition in your town. We have been lucky and get our space for about $5,000 to $6,000. This is some of the cheapest cost for space I have heard about for a con of our size and quality. Just an FYI, space will most likely be your largest cost, but not your only cost. Space will still only be 25% to 50% of your cost.
Businessy Stuff
So now you are a business. Congratulations! You need a business plan to talk about how your company is divided. Our plan talks about percentages, leaving the company, roles, expectations, type of market, competition in market...You can find many examples on line. You will also, after developing a plan, need to register your company with your state. Most states (at least in Kentucky and Ohio's) sites have good information about what you need to do to register you company. If you live in a larger city, you may have to do something with that city too. You will need to pay (sometimes) city and always state taxes. Not all of the state taxes are evident. These are low in the $50 to $200 range, and you may have to pay a few different ones, but they are not high unless you make a good deal of money. Our second year, I found a great tax preparer that knew all about the taxes we needed to pay.
Taxes
More about taxes. Each state and sometimes cities have different views of conventions. I know in Kentucky, as long as we sell no physical product at the convention, we will not be taxed on our admissions. Sell T-shirts or glasses or anything else other then admissions and you are taxed on the whole thing! Some larger cities may charge an admission tax (Cincinnati does, Lexington does not). They may also want to come in and remind all of your vendors that they do owe taxes on what they sell. This is normal (at least in KY).
Summary
This is a good start to this series. I will add to it as I go on. There are lots of elements and we are just getting started. At some point, I will post my original overview of "So You Want to Start a Gaming Convention" which is a somewhat humorous view of starting your own gaming convention.
Thanks!
Chris
Founder LexiCon Tabletop Gaming Convention
(held each spring in Lexington KY)
LexiCon Facebook Page
LexiCon 2016 Webpage
A picture of me with a human woopie cushion.
