From: eriktown*3e.org
Subject: Party Concept
Date: May 27, 2004 5:08:22 PM CDT
Mr. Sterling,
I read your Microsoft speech in your blog, and had a few
thoughts on your problem. As a professional geek who also,
peculiarly, really enjoys parties, I was greatly intrigued
by the whole situation. I go to quite a lot of the things,
so my range of experience is pretty broad in this
regard, and I enjoy hosting them, so I also put
a decent amount of thought
into what goes into the whole thing.
For the last several years I've been involved with a group
called the Merchants of Deva, who gather together once
a year to throw a room party
at a regional SF/Fantasy con known as Norwescon.
By "room party" I don't mean twenty people stuffed
in a hotel room with an icechest full of beer;
I mean we rent a suite of rooms at the con hotel and
put together a sort of miniature nightclub,
complete with a dance floor, a chill-out room, a
variety of edible refreshments and a well-stocked
bar with colorful mixed drinks.
The Merchants as a whole have been around for
over a decade; I'm a relative newcomer, but I've always
been impressed by how very
professional their methods are and
how smoothly everything comes across.
We get hundreds of people through this party,
mostly congoers but also a smattering of
gatecrashing jock types who heard that there
is free booze and spooky death chicks who might,
like, make out with each other or
something.
All of this requires a lot of organization to manage
in a way that the hotel and the Seattle-Tacoma
Police Department find acceptable.
In addition to the DJ, bartender, decor people
and catering people, we also have a staff of five
to ten men and women, mostly ex-military, who act as
roving security through the party. We mark them
clearly with badges and black T-shirts with "Obey Me"
written in neon-green on the back. And then
there are a few more in plainclothes moving
through the party and keeping
an eye out for situations.
Every person coming through the door gets
their ID checked and, if over 21, gets their
hand stamped so they can
drink at the bar.
Some might call it a heavy-handed approach,
but it actually works extremely well.
People look at the very visible security and
seem to feel safer; almost every year we get
one or two young women who flee to our
party from one of the others, because some
creep is following them around
or harrassing them, and they know that our party is safe.
Yet people still relax, drink, talk and have a
good time; we have a whole staff
working to make sure they do,
and we accomplish a lot without the guests
ever knowing about it.
"All right," you say, "That's great, but
I don't think I could make that
work for me. I mean, I talked about
organizing a group of party people to
help me out with this, but then I'd be
obligated to help out with *their*
parties."
The trick here is the same as the one
Linus Torvalds pulled. It's the
same as the one you used with your
Microsoft speech. Appeal to the
hackerly desire to solve problems –
and the hackerly desire to garner
respect and admiration.
Make it so that the party is its own reward.
Just as people will sink
thousands of man-hours into Open Source
projects for the sake of
recognition, reputation and admiration,
so too will people help Bruce
Sterling throw his incredibly hip flash-party.
People – from your most
trusted friends to nearly complete strangers –
will gladly work themselves to the bone
if you can convince them that what they're doing is
worthwhile.
They will work even harder if it will increase
their personal mystique and
cool-factor. Give the party, or at least
your support organization, a
name. Create a little tribe; something to give
your volunteers to bond
over; help them feel like they're creating something.
If they can look out on that party and feel like
they helped pull off something really
cool, all they'll really need in return is
a little recognition. This is
the same principle that Open Source runs off of,
and there is no shortage
of talented contributors to OS software projects.
The trick is making your project attractive to potential volunteers.
This approach has worked *very* well for the Merchants –
who work hard just for the sake of throwing a fantastic party.
Of course, YMMV. I thought you might find aspects
of this approach interesting and worthwhile, and I hope
you found it so. Good luck; I hope
I manage to make it to one of these parties some day.
Regards,
Bjorn Townsend
