Kansas City in 2016 pre-bid party

[hazelchaz]

Kansas City in 2016 pre-bid party at Loscon, November 2011.

We were the hit of the weekend.

Saturday afternoon fans were heard talking about going to the masquerade and the speakeasy. Some dealers reported customers buying things to wear for the occasion. One fan (trinsf) currently studying out of state made sure to pack the right dress for the flight here.

The party floor Saturday night was mostly "dry." I think we were the only party "pouring" while we were open. Which is ironic, because it's like the Prohibition era extended the entire length of the party floor, not just our suite. But that's Loscon for you.

A word about our costumes. missmea made herself a Flapper-era dress, and styled a wig for a period hairstyle. She instructed me on my outfit, which consisted of plain black shoes (no fancy shoelaces), a new pair of paints with suspender buttons instead of belt loops, proper suspenders, a white dress shirt (without a ballpoint pen in the pocket), a vest (with penguins on it), no beard, no teddy bear ears, and slicked-down hair.

My favorite remark that she reported from three people who had made it past me at the door, and all the way to the bar, was the question "Where's Chaz?"

The password notice needs to be more obvious. My "When Tom Pendergast..." sign was right next to me when I asked people for the password. Some people had read the signs posted elsewhere, but a lot of people were stumped when I asked if they knew the password, and perhaps they could examine their surroundings and hazard a guess.

Passwords people used included GOATS, goat, ghost, goatse, Pendergast, sheep, elk, moo, swordfish, password, fukifino, and I'm-in-ops. My usual answer for anything other than the first three was "Close enough. Come on in."

The teacups and punch cups were a big hit. Lots of people enjoyed drinking their Gin & Tonic from a teacup. We had about 50 teacups and punch cups, and only broke one. Next year the bartender will reassure such a patron that we bought them cheap. If they really feel that bad about it, throw a dollar into the tip hat.

The Hot Spiced Cider with Rum was a big hit, we went through about three bottles of cider a night.

We went through a lot of rum and gin; a little vodka and whisky; and a tiny bit of Vermouth.

If someone didn't know what they wanted and said “surprise me,” Maria (left) gave them a (Canadian) whisky & soda.

Went through 6 bottles of beer, it might have been more popular if there had been a bottle on the bar.

Limeade & Vodka, Limeade & Gin were both popular.

The straight limeade was also popular, as were the sugar Coca-Cola bottles and the Vernors Ginger Ale.

We went through two batches of unsweetened Iced Tea, and not all of it was Chaz. We had two cases of the chibi bottles of water (for a total of 96 bottles per night) and didn't need more.

Soft drinks in the cooler were Coke, IBC Root Beer, A&W Cream Soda, and Vernors Ginger Ale, plus a small number of diet sodas. (Also the leftovers from the New Orleans sodas were on hand.) Next year: three cans of limeade concentrate, two cases of Coke, one case of Vernors (24 per case) and one case of the root beer.

The food, which featured a lot of kebabs (meat/cheese, veggie, and fruit) was popular because it was real food and we kept putting out more all night. We had fancy platters and serving dishes which helped make a classy joint.

We served:
Cocktail hot dogs with bbq sauce
meatballs (chicken/beef) with sweet & sour sauce
veggie kabobs (cherry tomato and persian cucumber on a stick)
fruit kabobs (pineapple, honeydeew, canteloupe)
summer sausage & cheddar cheese cubes on a stick
herbed brie w/ honey. We tried serving it with celery sticks, which didn't work, so we switched to crackers.
Devilled eggs. Next time we want to get little popsicle sticks to stick in the side.

Things to add to Kansas City party at Loscon 2012:

Snowballs. Have the snowball station somewhere other than the bar. Serve them with popsicle sticks or tongue depressor sticks instead of spoons.
Strawberries on skewers, dipped in chocolate, frozen over dry ice, then placed on styrofoam dome over icde.
Use genoa salami or a harder, better quality summary sausage
Use Little Smokies or all-beef franks for the cocktail weiners, the others had too high a water content.
Bite size corn dogs on a stick
Cream puffs, add a stick somehow
Something barbecue?

We also need to make up some "arrow" signs. Pointing to the right, leading the way through the "dark alley" stretch of the hallway to our main door, and pointing to the left, for the blank wall just inside the second door.

Many thanks to Maria Rodriguez, Lynn Baden, Wendy Newton, Dana Ginsberg, Kim & Roger Rose, and Pat & Eric Larson, for their support.

Comments

[auroraceleste.livejournal.com]

How many people does LosCon average?

People

[hazelchaz]

Oh, I should have mentioned that. This year they had 1001 members. We gave out 305 party stickers.

... Which I consider really good. I expect at any convention, between 1/3 and 1/5 of the attendees will come through. Usually around 1/4 for Loscon. (Closer to 1/5 for Worldcon and other large conventions, as much as 1/3 for the smaller conventions.) So 30% is a respectable turnout.

Re: People

[auroraceleste.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks :D After ordering WAY TOO MUCH food for WorldCon I'm trying to figure out how to calibrate for cons of different sizes without buying too much. Your guidelines will help out a lot.

Re: People

[hazelchaz]

Oh, you should expect 1000 people to take party stickers at your party at Worldcon.

It also won't go up too much if you're open more than one night, but I don't have hard numbers for that I'm afraid.

I do, however, have all of my receipts from shopping (and a few notes on what I didn't need to buy). I'll summarize them real soon now.

Re: People

[auroraceleste.livejournal.com]

I wasn't just speaking of WorldCon, but that buying 10~ish blocks of cheese too much at WorldCon is making me try to figure out better planning for all the future con party suggestions. I'd rather not waste the bid's money because I couldn't take the advice of skilled and experienced party planners.

Re: People

[hazelchaz]

That's a lot of cheese. You have to think in terms of serving -- so one 5-lb. block of cheese, say, represents 80 1-oz. servings, maybe more.

When you go out on the trail, a lot of the cons you hit are going to be half or a third the size of Loscon, so you can scale down from our shopping list; not just quantity, but also selection. Instead of both cocktail weiners and meatballs, you might pick one of them, for example.

(For best-looking presentation, we have the in a crockpot in back, and fill a smaller serving bowl. When that runs low, we swap bowls. But you need to have a decent size prep room crew for that -- it won't work if it's just you.)

Re: People

[hazelchaz]

The fudge factor I don't have is how to go from party attendees to servings. I'm hoping to come up with some sort of estimates on what we served.

Room parties aren't like having a party at home, because not everyone is going to have anything to eat.

more party notes

[hazelchaz]

We were fortunate in that Kim and Roger have a lot of pretty platters and serving trays. The ones we served our food in were all loaners, we didn't have to buy anything for the parties.

Start haunting thrift stores now -- find two or three good ones and check them every week or two. Stock up on platters, you'll need them to class up the joint.