Deadlines

Every year we have some important deadlines we need to pay attention to.

Con book deadline, generally 1-2 weeks before con book hell. All content that needs to go in the con book should be submitted, spell checked, and grammar checked. The con book staff will also spell and grammar check, but please review your content well so we don't have to do so much.

"Con book hell", generally 3 weeks before con. The last possible weekend before we have to submit the con book for printing. This is usually an exercise in pain for Sammich, Beta, and any graphics staff who can assist in the con book layout.

Preregistration closes, approximately 1 month before con. This is also the deadline for badge art because after preregistration closes, badges are exported for badge generation.

Merchants turned in to city and state, 15 and 14 days, respectively, before start of con. After this date NO MORE MERCHANTS may be added to the con.

Room Block Cut-off, 1 month before start of con, after this date we need to have booked at least a certain percentage of our room block (usually 80 or 85%) to avoid the venue charging us a ridiculous amount of extra money. Or canceling the event. Room block is crucial.

VIP Cutoff, 1-2 weeks before the room block cutoff. We set a VIP cutoff before the room block cutoff so we have the option to push it out without begging the hotel. Deadlines make people purchase and there are always people who purchase immediately AFTER the deadline.

Schedule Completion, usually 2 weeks before con. We have a bag-stuffing party the weekend before con during/after our last meeting. We try to stuff the schedule, too, so we try to complete the schedule 5 days before that to have time to print it. The schedule-stapling party is usually an all-nighter before that meeting.

Panel cut-off, usually about 1 week before the schedule completion deadline. PREFERABLY at the same time as the con book deadline, but we do sometimes add panels to the schedule that don't make it into the con book.