Are you or your group interested in bringing a particular guest to CONvergence?
Fan-Featured Guests are brought in by outside groups, organizations, or individuals with approval from and working directly with the CONvergence Guests of Honor Department. The funding for bringing in a Fan-Featured Guest is provided entirely by the group, organization, or individual bringing the guest and can be crowdfunded, fund raised, or privately donated.
Potential Fan-Featured Guests will go through exactly the same approval process as any other CONvergence Guest of Honor, and they will be treated with the same courtesy, honor, and privileges. The salient differences are:
- Because groups funding a Fan-Featured Guest are not bound by the same budgeting constraints as the convention, Fan-Featured Guest funding may cover an appearance fee.
- The group, organization, or individuals bringing in a Fan-Featured Guest will be able to collaborate with the Fan-Featured Guest and CONvergence’s Programming department on said Guest’s programming and activities during the convention.
- Groups, organizations, or individuals responsible for a Fan-Featured Guest’s appearance will be credited in CONvergence publications and web pages.
How Can My Group Invite a Fan-Featured Guest?
Click Here for the Fan-Featured Guest application.
The deadline for CONvergence Fan-Featured Guest applications is January 1 of the convention year.
The Guest Search Committee will review all applications and have a response from the CONvergence Board of Directors by January 15th for all featuring groups who submit an application.
What You Will Need
To submit an application for you or your group to invite a Fan-Featured Guest to CONvergence, you will need:
- To have made contact with your Fan-Featured Guest and confirmed that they are interested in coming to CONvergence, and have the dates of the convention available to do so.
- The Fan-Featured Guest’s resume/CV/IMDB and/or website.
- The following information from your Fan-Featured Guest:
- Mode of transportation (planes, trains, automobiles, etc.)
- Class of travel (if they always travel first class, we need to know)
- Number of hotel rooms required (2 total maximum if they are bringing a personal assistant or additional guests.)
- Any additional expenses such as appearance fees, extra baggage, guarantees, shipping, or equipment rental
- Whether they require their own signing table
- Any additional resources, accommodations, or courtesies they require.
- A submission essay, 1-4 paragraphs long, stating why this person should be a Fan-Featured Guest at CONvergence. (Sell us on your Fan-Featured Guest. If you can’t sell this person to us, we can’t sell them to the Guest Search Committee, the Board of Directors, or our membership.)
- Direct contact information for the Fan-Featured Guest or their representative
- Direct contact information for one member of the featuring group
Fundraising
If your Fan-Featured Guest is selected to move forward, you will be notified as soon as the decision is made and given a required budget you will need to come up with through the fundraising method of your choice.
Fundraising options include:
- A fundraiser within your own group or organization
- Use of funds from garage sales, bake sales, auctions, etc.
- Crowdfunding (using the platform of the featuring group’s choice)
- Sponsorship from local businesses or organizations
- Personal funding from a member or members of a group, collected by the group and donated to CONvergence
- Personal funding from an individual, donated to CONvergence
- Other methods that are deemed legal and legitimate by CONvergence, the IRS, and the United States Federal Government
All funds raised to bring a Fan-Featured Guest to CONvergence are tax deductible. You may use CONvergence’s 501c3 status for fundraising if you want to pass that tax deduction onto your donors, but you are not required to do so.
You will need to be within $500 of your fundraising goal by February 28th of the convention year. If your goal is not met, or close to being met by this time, you will have to reapply next year. We have to insist on this because we need to let CONvergence’s Programming department know whether your Fan-Featured Guest will be coming with enough time so they can schedule their panels.
Questions & Comments
We look forward to being able to bring more awesome guests to CONvergence with your help! If you have any questions about Fan-Featured Guests, the Fan-Featured Guest application and process, or about guests at CONvergence in general, please contact the Guest of Honor Department.
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