More Than You Ever, Ever Wanted
to Know About SF Convention Dealers’ Rooms
. . .  and the WisCon Huxter Room in Particular

Feedback Requested
E-mail me at hank.luttrell@gmail.com

I have a lot of experience operating science fiction convention Dealers' Rooms, and a lot of ideas about how it can be done effectively, efficiently and in the interest of the convention and convention participants. I would never pretend to have a definitive viewpoint on this topic, but I do think my ideas might be of interest to some SF convention organizers. Take note (and warning), this essay will be personal, autobiographical, prejudiced, and focused on experience gained at WisCon and other Madison area events; intended to help future WisCon organizers analyze their responsibilities, and offered with the hope that this might occasionally be of interest to other readers as well. (When I realized how much work writing a job description would be, I decided to make it even harder by attempting to generalize my discussion to make it relevant to Dealers' Room at many other SF conventions.)

Let me please introduce myself. I'm Mr. Huxter Room is the Most Important Part of the Convention. It will certainly be useful to keep that in mind, it will explain a lot about my ideas and viewpoint. I'm going to devote a few more words to explaining just who I am, in order to inform the derivation of my ideas, and the nature of my background and experience.

Let me recall my last conversation with writer and editor Kathleen Massie-Ferch, who I know we all miss dearly. Kathy said to me, "This," she gestured broadly around at the WisCon Dealers' Room in which she stood, "This is the best part of the convention!" I must have looked more than normally confused, because she asked, "Don't you agree?" I replied that, yes, I certainly did agree, but that I was surprised to hear someone say that, because most convention participants, even convention organizers, tended to take huxter rooms for granted.

I need to re-define just what function a dealers' room has at a science fiction convention. It isn't merely a room full of stuff for sale. It is a room with a staff of experts in a wide range of fields, ready to consult with convention participants, to answer questions related to any of the discussions that come up in the course of the event. You'll see this happening in a good room; every time a program ends, convention members flock into the room and start asking questions -- and getting answers -- from the world class experts who sit behind all those tables.

I've been doing the WisCon Dealers' Room for more than thirty years. I might add that I've managed other similar events in the Madison area during this time as well: comic book and collectibles shows and sales, science fiction convention dealers' room besides WisCon, as well as general Book Fairs. So I'll make this assertion: I'm the longest serving, most senior science fiction dealers' room manager in the universe (and since I plan to continue managing some smaller rooms for events in the Madison area, I'm sure my record will stand for a long time. Maybe forever).

Science fiction and the science fiction fan community has been my hobby and my bliss for a long time. I started reading science fiction when I was in grade school, and just a few years later, by the time I was in high school in the mid-sixties, I was involved in the science fiction fan community, publishing fanzines, helping to form a local SF fan group and attending conventions. The first convention I went to was a Midwestcon in Cincinnati. I went with a family of fans from the St. Louis area where I lived, I was too young to drive at the time. We all thought it was such a good idea that we decided St. Louis should host a regional science fiction convention as well -- at the time the Midwestcon was the only SF convention in the Midwest, and one of the few in the country! Later in the sixties I graduated from high school and went on to University (eventually in Columbia, Mo., where I also helped start a SF fan group), but I still found time to publish fanzines and help with the 1969 Worldcon in St. Louis.

After a few years in Columbia I moved to Madison, in the early 70's. This is about the time my fanzine was nominated for a Hugo. By this point, I couldn't help myself, I had to help organize yet another SF fan group, which quickly started publishing fanzines (for a while I printed it on my mimeograph), and eventually we started WisCon. (As an aside, and because it is usually forgotten, I'll note that I've filled a number of other committee positions for WisCon over the years. I was "vice-chair" for the first two, a co-chair when the event was about 5 or 6 years old, and I arranged public relations for at least a decade's worth.)

Since this essay is going to focus on Dealers' Rooms, let me back track to that first Midwestcon I attended in the mid-sixties. Apparently this was before we had invented having Dealers' Rooms in, you know, rooms. Oh, there were books for sale. I can recall people like Howard DeVore and Rusty Hevelin selling books and pulps out of the trunks of their cars, parked close to the motel swimming pool. As soon as I was old enough to have a car, I joined it. I can still recall getting a phone call one summer, from Howard I think, to ask if I would be interested in going together on a room at the motel so we -- and the books -- could get inside out of the sun.

General Job Outline/Timeline

This section is going to be a brief chronological discussion of the duties and interests of the Dealers' Room Manager. Many of the topics will refer to more detailed discussion to follow:

• Work on each WisCon starts during the previous year's convention. Copies of the vendor application can be distributed on paper to all the dealers attending the convention, and complete forms collected in person, or mailed in later. (This is the application form.) Application forms can also be distributed on the convention website, or hard copy mailed to anyone who requests it. All applications are due in the hands of the Room Manager on January 15. At every point along the timeline, there are sure to be inquiries to be answered.
• After the applications are all in, table allocations need to be made. It is possible that not all applications will be acceptable, and it is likely that some vendors will have to be allocated fewer tables than they request (see further for a more detailed discussion of the issues involved with this process). If there are more acceptable applications than can be allocated tables, a waiting list can be established. (Applications received after the deadline will normally be part of the waiting list.) It is also possible that not all tables will be allocated based on applications collected by January 15, and if that happens it needs to be announced that applications will continue to be accepted until all vendor spaces are allocated. It is always possible that unforeseen circumstances or emergencies might cause vendors who have been allocated tables to cancel, making the waiting list useful. Assuming that enough time is available for a cancelled vendor space to be reassigned and resold, canceled vendor table fees should be refundable.
• I've never actually used this application process before, so this might be a bit tentative -- but I'm hoping that by the end of January (or perhaps the first week in February?) I'll have a room vendor list worked out, and at that time all the potential vendors will need to be billed or invoice for the number of tables that they have been allocated, and they will need to additionally pay for convention registrations for all members of their party or staff, all of this before the advance membership deadline of April 30. This process obviously needs to be coordinated with the treasurer. If some of the vendors back out during this time, either waiting list applications (if any) or new applications can be considered.
• The information collected on the applications includes details that can be published various places in order to share advance details about the huxter room with people planning on attending the convention. The vendor name is required to be available for publication, and many or most vendors will also be happy to promote their businesses by sharing contact names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, website URLs, and a brief business description. This information might be published in the convention email newsletter, on the website, and in the pocket program. The Room Manager will be responsible to organizing and sharing this information with the appropriate convention volunteers on a schedule established by the collaborating volunteers.
• About three or four weeks before the convention I like to email all the vendors to make sure we are all up to date with information about the convention. This includes the room hours/schedule, load in/out details, the number of tables each vendor has reserved, what special arrangements they want, stuff like that. Anything I want them to know about or understand when they show up on the first day.
• Some time within a few weeks or days of the convention, a tentative vendor table assignment can be drawn up. This assigns each vendor to particular tables in the room, taking into consideration room characteristics and esthetics and vendors request (see "Room Layout" below). I write "tentative" because last minute requests and changes can cause adjustments in the table assignments. It has been my experience that it is easier to do last minute fine tuning if some sort of plan is already in place. In addition to a sketch of the room on which I diagram the table assignments, I write each vendor's name on a separate sheet of scratch paper, along with the number of tables allocated, and special vendor requests, if any. These can be distributed to the appropriate tables in the room to help everyone find their way around during the chaos of set up.
• Show up Friday at about 9 or 9:30 and make sure the room is set up correctly. Maybe this is just me, but I've never been completely satisfied with the hotel's set up. For instance, this year there was a lot more room in the back isle than in the front isle, which had to be corrected. Also, the walk ways between the vendor tables vary in location depending on vendor distribution, so these will need to be adjusted from year to year (see "Room Layout" below).
• Let the vendors in when set up begins, help them find their tables, answer questions and make suggestions about load-in. Make sure everyone plays together nicely.

Allocating Vendor Space

In my experience there are usually plenty of vendors who are anxious to sell at any given science fiction convention. Even smaller conventions frequently find that there is more demand for selling space than they can provide. So it becomes the responsibility of the convention committee and the room manager to fairly allocate that space; fair to the vendors, and in a manner that provides the most benefit to the convention and convention attendees.

At least one vendor criteria is easy: no illegal merchandise. In the context of a science fiction convention, the most common problem sellers offer bootleg movies. Any sort of un-authorized intellectual property should be forbidden.

WisCon is a very specialized event compared to many science fiction conventions. It is interesting to note that a specialized event has prospered, while some conventions which try hard to be of interest to as wide a range of people as possible have had a hard time growing or even maintaining attendance levels.

For many years the central part of my pre-convention vendor relations has been to try to make sure potential vendors understood what they were getting into when they considered selling at WisCon. It seemed to me that many vendors -- with various amounts of experience at selling or attending other conventions -- tended to assume that all science fiction conventions were more similar than not, and that their business model could be equally successful at any event. So I would ask questions, make inquiries, and tried to find out what they expected to do, what they expected to sell, at WisCon; and at the same time encouraged them to research WisCon to make sure it would be worth their investment of time and money. For example, I might have offered the opinion that since WisCon wasn't particularly game-oriented, selling surplus merchandise from a game store might not work so well, or that selling Japanese energy drinks and Pooky might be more appropriate at an event with different demographics.

For many years at WisCon, in fact since it was founded, vendor applications have been accepted pretty much on a first-come, first-allocated basis. And while I was always more than willing to offer opinions and advise, I have been less willing to jury the vendor selection. In fact, I have reservations about juries, based on real world experience. One big city SF convention that I attended for many years was looking at dwindling attendance, and trying to improve the quality of the experience in order, hopefully, to attract more people. Since even in the face of declining attendance they continued to have a waiting list for their vendor space, they decided that a juried huxter room was in order, and it was quickly determined that more diversity would improve the room. Part of this "more diversity" equation meant limiting the number of vendors selling any particular category of merchandise. They decided to have fewer book vendors.

In fairness I'll write that this flies in the face of all my feelings and prejudices. To me, SF huxter rooms mean, well, you know, stuff printed on paper and bound. I'm not really interested in anything else. My own prejudices aside, it should have been perfectly clear that the various book dealers who regularly attended this event sold completely different title lists. Experienced, tenured sellers at any SF convention will work hard to have inventories that don't overlap with that of other vendors. When I applied for selling space in this room, I was asked to provide information and even photos that would help them understand my business and inventory. I didn't think there would be any problem. In addition to information about my current business plan, I even sent them a link to a website which archives quaint old images of people (including me) selling out of our car trunks around the swimming pool at an antique Midwestcon. So I was disappointed when my application was rejected. Other book dealers were similarly rejected, including one of the convention founders. So as I wrote earlier, I do have reservations about juried rooms. (Perhaps, perhaps it was for the best; attendance at that convention continued to decline, and I'm sure I wouldn't have sold much there anyway.)

The situation with the WisCon Dealers' Room has become intense, however. My "first come" approach, even with an educational outreach, doesn't seem dynamic enough. I felt I needed tools that would help me force dealer applicants to find out what WisCon is, and to make them think about how their business model would work there. Also, I needed to make it clear to every applicant that the convention's most important concern was the quality and diversity of the room, and this priority would frequently mandate compromises in the amount of space that could be allocated any particular vendor. One example that will explicitly illustrate the issue of table allocation -- consider the relative importance of table space to a vendor who is willing to do the work (and go to the expense) necessary to sell _many hundreds_ of different books, those titles all chosen based on data such as past sales, authors in attendance, and topics discussed on the panels, versus a small publisher who wants to exhibit a few or a few dozen titles.

Since I've already written about my prejudices about books, I should write about the importance of true diversity in the Dealers' Room. I'm very aware of my blinding interest in books, but I also try hard to compensate in ways that create a level playing field for all sorts of sellers at WisCon. The most important information I have in this regard is the great success that various other types of sellers have had at WisCon, including arts, crafts and costuming. Clearly all these sellers are valued by people who attend WisCon.

I don't think it will ever be a Dealers' Room Manager's job to pass judgment on the quality of a business plan -- if I were better at that, clearly I'd be a lot richer than I am -- but I do think it is part of the job to consider how a business plan benefits and contributes to a convention.

So, to state this more systematically:

• Vendors selling illegal or bootlegged merchandise are forbidden.
• Vendors need to be encouraged to think about how their business plan and inventory integrates with the WisCon specialization. Vendors with appropriate, that is, compatible business plans have priority for space allocation. The most obviously inappropriate vendor applicants might be encouraged to withdraw, or simply be rejected. (It seems dubious to add to the examples I’ve already cited, but how about movie/TV star autograph vendors?)
• Returning vendors have had demonstrable success at WisCon; they wouldn’t return unless they had done well and WisCon attendees had valued their products or services enough to make purchases. Returning vendors have priority for space allocations. To some extent table allocations are rather organic. Successful vendors will return, and inappropriate vendors will give up.
• Vendors always want more space, and feel that more space will mean better display and better sales. WisCon as a convention, however, needs to encourage a diverse mixture of vendors, even if this means asking vendors to compromise on the number of tables they use to exhibit. As a vendor myself for almost forty years, it is my opinion that innovative, clever display, using vertical as well as horizontal space, is a better solution than simply more frontage. Vendors who are actually selling many different items or titles have some priority for table allocation (when more than one table is requested) over vendors who want to give a few items special display.

Room Layout

I can't assume that the WisCon Dealers' Room will remain in the Madison Ballroom at the Concourse Hotel forever, so it might eventually be necessary to create a totally new room design. And anyway, I'm hoping that other SF convention committees might find this article useful.

There are a number of basic principals to keep in mind. Designs must be created using these ideas for the rooms to work well for vendors and convention members. SF convention committees usually sell vendor space by "the table," but this can be a misleading concept if care isn't taken. What vendors are actually using when they sell is table frontage, and also booth space. They need all their frontage space in order to interface with their customers. If any room or design element compromises that frontage, it diminishes the value of their selling space. Similarly, the area in back of their table (part of their "booth") is critically important. They will be living there, working there, storing their inventory, tools, belonging, possibly their family and helpers. So back space is also important and necessary!

Here are notes on table layout:

• A simple room layout is best. A complex room design which creates cul-de-sacs or dead ends, or even multiple choice traffic patterns, will create traffic which is better in some areas than in others. A smaller room might only have room for a single rank of tables around the perimeter, while larger rooms might be appropriate for both wall tables and one or more islands of tables.
• These are rules of thumb, but just as a guide line, I would never lay out a room with less than 3 feet of back space for a wall table, at least 6 or 8 feet of space in the center of an island (thus allowing back space for all tables in the island), and at least 6 or 8 feet of space in the public isles. Larger aisles are generally better! I love rooms with ample back space and roomy customer aisles!
• Aisles between vendor tables must be arranged frequently enough so that each vendor can reach his booth without walking through another vendor's area -- and without, need I add, crawling under a table (undignified, and some of us are getting too old…). Since vendors might have one, two or three tables, and access need only be provided on one side of a vendor's space, the necessary sites for these walk ways will vary.
• There are special considerations (especially in smaller rooms, like WisCon) on the corners. On the wall perimeter, if the tables are laid out continuously, table end abutting the side of the next table, this is going to cut down on the frontage available to the vendor by an amount equal to the width of the table. I don't think this is a huge problem for most vendors, some might even prefer it for various reasons. But shortening the frontage might make a huge difference to some vendors, and it would be unacceptable to assign these two corner tables to different vendors. In a larger room, they could be laid out front corner to front corner, or with space between them, but in a smaller room where they have to be laid out front to side, both tables would at the very least have to be assigned to the same vendor. (Some vendors like to push one of these corner tables into the back space, and then work in the back space of the other table, in order to be able to use all the frontage. These corner locations can also be a good spot to locate vendors who, for instance, want to remove one of their tables in order to replace it with another fixture, such as a clothing rack.)
• Similarly, corner tables on islands might need to be abutting, side to back, in smaller rooms. On an island, no frontage is lost, but back space is compromised, so again it can be important to assign both corner tables to the same vendor -- unless it is very clear, and understood, that the vendors don't mind sitting in each other's laps.
• Many vendors will have "special requests." It is a good idea to constantly remind all of them to let you know about these requests well in advance so you can try to work them into your layout. Otherwise, they will ask you as they arrive, and either you won't be able to accommodate them, or you'll have to rearrange the whole room. Some of these requests are more reasonable than others; the usual ones are:
  • Location, such as "a wall location" or "a wall location not in a corner" or even "a wall location in a corner." They might need an electrical outlet. The Madison Ballroom is great for electric, most locations are fine, even the floor area in the middle area of the room has electrical outlets. The only area that doesn't is the air wall to the right of the entrance. Exhibitors who want electric should be reminded to bring heavy duty extension cords and power strips.
  • One regular vendor has asked to be located as far as possible from anyone selling scents or scented products (like candles or soap). So far I have never had a huxter with this sort of inventory (well, that I've noticed -- recall my observation that I'm a bit oblivious to stuff that isn't printed on paper.) But I suspect that if a vendor of scented products does turn up, it will be brought to our attention, and it might become an issue.
  • Vendors frequently ask to be located next to a friend or associate, and a few times a vendors has asked _not_ to be located next to another person. At least once vendor "a" asked to be located next to "b", while vendor "b" asked _not_ to be located next to "a." This put me in a rather awkward situation. I don't remember what I did. Needless to say, not all special requests can be accommodated, but in general I try to keep everybody happy. Vendors will have to understand . . . that you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.
• Besides tables, there are some other items that need to be provided, normally by the hotel or facility. A large trash can, and a recycle bin, one or more of each. One each seems to be enough for WisCon, I think the entrance isle on the right as you walk in is a good spot. Larger rooms need more. Chairs. I think one per table is enough to begin with. Some vendors will need more or less, but two per table is almost always too many. A modest supply of additional chairs will be enough to provide for vendors who ask for more -- you'll find them in a storage room or a service hallway. Table clothes. The vendor tables can certainly look better if covered with clothes. Some vendors will want to decorate their tables with all their own devices. Many vendors want an extra table cloth -- one for each table -- with which to cover their displays over night. There seems to be some feeling that this is a security measure. If it is, it is certainly a modest one -- what, it is supposed to remind everyone not to steal the stuff under the cloth? I suppose it might help make a theft more observable, if there are others in the room to witness someone fooling around with a table covering. I don't mess with the top cloth, usually, for my own exhibit. But since vendors ask for them (some bring their own!), I always ask for the hotel to provide extras. Hotels are usually willing to do this, especially if you mention that the extra table clothes can be seconds. (I'll recall that WisCon was once located in a facility where there were birds living in the space used as a huxter room. It was certainly important to have an over night covering in that room!)
• When a huxter room fills up, and there is still demand for more seller space, it is always tempting to add an additional room, another location. Aside from the obvious fact that this is harder to manage (I'd write that it would require two floor managers, at any point in time, rather than one), what I've seen every time this approach has been used is that _all_ the vendors feel discriminated against. Vendors in both rooms feel that the other room is the better location. Several years at WisCon we have located a particular vendor, a non-profit organization, in the lobby outside the huxter room. I actually think this worked out okay. This location was sort of grand mothered, since the organization used it when they were simply recruiting members, and not selling books. It is so near the rest of the huxter room that it is hard to think they don't have at least as much traffic, and I don't believe any of the vendors in the main room would complain about a non-profit (which doesn't significantly compete with any other vendor) having a "better" location. Whether or not this location will be continued to be used in this manner remains to be seen.
• Actually, the lobby location for a non-profit group is similar to a two-tiered system of vendor space assignment used at some events. Frequently, there might be an "Artist's Alley" or a small press space, which can only be used in defined ways by particular sorts of vendors, in locations which might be a bit off the best part of the beaten path, but made available at reduced fees. The Concourse lobby space might possibly be used in this manner. Actually, I think the biggest, perhaps only, down side of the Concourse lobby space outside the regular dealers' room is that the exhibits have to be set up and torn down each day, rather than secured over night.

Signage

One of the ideas common in retail -- not shared by all! -- is to keep signage to a minimum. For one thing, people don't pay much attention anyway. Signage can tend to seem overbearing or pushy. It is much more effective to talk to customers about stuff, anyway, even if that means repeating the same information over and over. Frankly, most retailers should be looking for reasons to talk to customers! There are a few signs that are really called for in a SF dealers' room, I think, all to be posted on the entrance:

• "DEALERS' ROOM"
• "Hours: (daily schedule) This information will appear in the pocket program as well, but people might actually read it if it appears in front of them near a locked door.
• "CLOSED except for vendors" This is used during those pre-open for business times when only vendors are to be admitted. The top two signs stay up all the time, but this one is added only during those periods when it is needed, on the door which remains closed but unlocked.

Room Hours

They look like this right now: Friday 2-7; Sat. & Sun. 10-6; Monday 10-2. Set up is from 11 to 2 on Friday, and I allow vendors into the room an hour early Saturday through Monday. Frankly, I'd rather not have to be there until 9:30 Saturday through Monday, and that would be early enough for most vendors, but some vendors have pleaded that they have complicated set ups that require extra time. The 2 o'clock opening on Friday works okay, I think, although some vendors come a long way, or work jobs in the Madison area, and can't come until later. I don't see this as a particular problem. The later, 7 o'clock closing on Friday is supposed to allow convention members who arrive later (because of jobs or travel) a glimpse of the room. The huxter room actually isn't very busy during that extra hour, but I don't think it has much of a down side in any event. Some SF conventions open later in the day on Sundays, presumably because everyone is up late at parties, and at WisCon you might expect this on a Monday as well, but that first hour is busy enough that I think it is useful.

Staffing During Business Hours

Too often at science fiction conventions "security" in the Dealers' Room (and actually the totality of convention staff attention) manifests as volunteers on the door checking for convention registration badges. This is the result of several convention committee assumptions and goals. First, it is assumed that the room needs little or no committee attention, that it will take care of itself. Foremost, the committee wants to drive the purchase of registrations, and it seems clear that the best way to do this is to require registrations to enter the dealers' room, since, obviously, that is where everyone wants to go.

I think most science fiction conventions would benefit -- in the long run -- from a more generous attitude towards their Dealers' Rooms. Rather than attempting to force casual visitors to buy memberships or day passes, they should allow everyone to visit and enjoy the Dealers' Room. This is the best way for casual visitors to sample the event, and hopefully become additionally intrigued, and more willing to make an investment of time and money in actually attending a science fiction convention in the future.

As for what staffing is actually required in the dealers room . . I think a convention staff member needs to be on hand all the time. Not someone standing at the door, and unable to leave that position, but someone who is easily recognizable as the responsible floor manager, either circulating the room or at a predetermined place. This not only includes during business hours, but during those times when dealers are setting up, and after the room closes in the evening, until the last vendor leaves. Most vendors leave promptly -- they want to relax or go to dinner! But there are always some who have things they want to do; pack away their stuff, or count their money or something. I have little patience for vendors who want to stand around and chat with friends, they can do that some place else. Never the less, the room manager or some other convention staff member or trusted volunteer has to be the last one to leave, making sure all the doors are secure.

There are many situations or events that can require a room manager's attention. Just as a few examples:

• Running and/or rough housing.
• Disagreements between vendors.
• Requests to re-arrange the table layout (usually different arrangements in the back space are fine, as long as they don't affect another vendor, but arrangements that comprise aisle space can't be tolerated).
• Questions or requests from vendors or convention members.
• Problems with the physical room (door, locks, carpets, walls, trash, recycling, electrical systems, lighting…) These issues might require help from the hotel's set up crew, maintenance or even engineers.
• One might hope that fights, scuffles, theft and other serious problems like these would never be an issue at a WisCon. In fact, the most frequent (minor) problem I've seen in all these years at science fiction conventions in general are tight knots of conversational convention participates causing traffic congestion and limiting access to vendors and even areas of the room. None of us want to micro-manage the behavior of convention participates. And really, what are science fiction conventions _for_ if not conversations. Never the less, these self-absorbed clusters of people cause problems for vendors who want to allow easy access to their table space, and can even cause access problems for people with mobility issues. Frankly, I'm not very good dealing with these situations. I don't like to confront the groups unless they become a serious problem, and if it is a serious problem, well, by that time I'm probably irritated and might tend to be rude. I've seen other people deal with it in an altogether charming and non-confrontational manner, reminding everyone that the middle of an aisle in front of a huxter table isn't the best place to have a long conversation.

Common Problems

Over night security is one of the most troubling problems that sf convention huxter rooms can deal with. It is distressing that people in our community might victimize others by stealing or vandalizing material left in the Dealers' Room overnight. Of course there is always the chance hotel staff might have access to the room after business hours. I can recall one facility we used years ago; there I believe the employees were used to using the room as a smoking lounge at night, and didn't believe anything we had in there was of any particular value. Certainly I never heard reports of any over night theft, but neither did the employees bother to re-lock the doors when they left. As often as not, the room doors would be unlocked the next morning.

Some conventions allocate considerable resources to over night security. There might be volunteers sleeping in the room. Some larger conventions have even used professional security guards. When ever there are over night staff or volunteers in the room, I usually find signs that they have been reading stuff on my tables to pass the time; sometimes this has been a totally positive experience, such as the volunteers buying some of the books they browsed over night as soon as I arrive the next day. In any event, I certainly don't ever mind a little recreational reading!

My chief concerns with over night security at WisCon have, over the years, mostly been making sure that all the doors are locked (there are _a lot_ of doors), and this means that all of the locks must actually function. I've got to think that most functions that take place at the Concourse don't have any use for locked doors on the Madison Ballroom, because there have been many years when I had to insist that locks be repaired. Also, I always ask convention security volunteers to check the huxter room doors several times over night to make sure they remain locked.

There are some problems common to SF convention huxter rooms with which I don't see at WisCons, so no longer bother to worry about:

• "No smoking." Smoking is forbidden in all public spaces in Madison.
• "No Food or Drink." Open beverages in particular can be an invitation to an expensive accident, so maybe I should have that rule. But after years of not having any problems, I sort of forgot to continue. I'll note that the WisCon Dealers' Room is far enough from the Hospitality Room that the distance cuts down on the number of people with food and drink. Also, if there was a rule like this, it would not apply to vendors in their booths, as they have to be allowed to eat and drink while working.
• "No open flames or aerosol paints or similar systems." I consider this stuff irritating and potentially dangerous in a crowded hotel exhibit space, but nobody has wanted to do things like this at a WisCon for many years.
• "No music or other audio systems loud enough to bother your neighbors." I would enforce this (at the moment) unwritten rule if it became necessary.
• "No sales of real or realistic looking firearms, or projectile throwing toys."
• There is a common costuming rule at many SF conventions, "All knives or swords, sharpened or not, must be sheathed and peace bonded at all times." This has a relationship to various rules about the sales of knives and swords, or replicas thereof, which sometimes requires that (for instance) swords cannot be demonstrated, that is, waved around, during sales, and must be wrapped after sold. Quite apart from the obvious safety concerns with demonstrating swords, I can say from experience that it can give you a terrible headache to have people constantly waving swords in your peripheral vision throughout a weekend.
• Wooden practice swords and even plastic foam fighting systems can be a nuisance and safety concern. Let me promise you something. When vendors are selling these things, they like to play with this stuff themselves. There will come a time on the last day when they get bored enough, they will decide that the rules against mock duels in the huxter room and other public spaces no longer apply, so they will begin to run around and swat each other.

One Big Happy Family

Every year at WisCon, a first time vendor will ask me if vendors get any special badges or stickers for their convention badge, to identify them as huxters. They are used to this practice, since most SF conventions do it. It allows volunteers guarding the doors to allow vendors into the room during the times when the room is open for set up but otherwise closed. I must admit that I love it when they ask me this. I stare at them a moment, and say, "No. You won't need it. I know you, you know me. We are like a family here." However, if there is a situation where there are a number of Dealers' Room Floor Managers, or if some of the Floor Managers are less confident about recognizing all the vendors, a special vendor identification of some sort is a good idea.

Public Address Announcements

The floor manager needs to keep everyone in the room on the same page about the schedule. I try to announce when the room will be opening, maybe 5 minutes before I allow in the hoards. I announce when the room will be closing, probably giving a 10 minute warning, and then again at closing, when I need to ask customers to leave promptly. These aren't easy tasks for me. In the first place, of course, I'm terribly shy, and shouting at a room full of people is daunting. Second, as a television technician once told me, as she fitted me with a microphone and checked sound levels, I have such a tiny light little voice. (Some conventions will have amplification systems, but frankly that doesn't help overcome the shy part.) When I can, I ask someone else to do this stuff for me.

Legal Issues

• Sales Tax. One of the most common questions I get from prospective vendors is some variation on "What about Wisconsin Sales Tax." This is a question which brings up a bit of history, and actually identifies an area which has been and might continue to be volatile. In the 80's Wisconsin became very aggressive about collecting sales tax from mobile sellers -- sellers at things like flea markets and antique shows, for instance. And science fiction conventions. Organizers of events like these were required to submit a list of participating vendors to the Department of Revenue. The situation has changed, however. When potential WisCon vendors inquire about sales tax, I tell them to take their questions to the Department of Revenue. A vendor like myself, who has a regular business in Wisconsin, I already have a sales tax account, and of course I am required to pay sales tax on all sales within the state. I've heard back from WisCon huxters that new sellers are asked how many times a year they expect to sell in Wisconsin, and how much they expect to sell. I have no idea what the Department's thresholds are, but small sellers are being told that they need not have a Wisconsin Sales Tax account, because it isn't cost effective for Wisconsin to collect sales tax from these sellers.
• Madison hotel/motel license ordinance. Madison has an ordinance which requires a special license for individuals or businesses to sell in hotel/motel rooms. This is an old law which was intended to protect local business from predatory vendors who might sneak into town, set up in a motel, poach local sales and then disappear. It has always appeared to me that if it was enforced, it might apply to the WisCon huxter room, perhaps even to the art show. I have never known it to be enforced for any science fiction convention in this area, or any other event for that matter. If for some reason it was enforced, there are ways with which it might be dealt. For instance, rather than allowing the city to require a license for each vendor, perhaps we could form an organization, say the Madison Science Fiction Vendors Association, which could be the only vendor of record in the Dealers' Room. The Association would purchase the license, and each vendor would be a member of The Association. In case you were wondering, I think it would be a huge mistake to press this issue with the city, and unless some aggressive city official starts to worry about it, I don't believe it will be a concern.
• Public access. I've already written that I think the Huxter Room should be open to the public, as a way of allowing people to sample the convention, and ultimately promoting the convention to people unfamiliar with science fiction conventions. While I make it a point to tell people that the WisCon Dealers' Room is open to the public when the subject comes up in conversations, I also feel that it wouldn't be a good idea to promote that in a high profile way -- for instance with press releases. One clear reason that heavy promotion isn't a good idea is the possibility of crowding, which would diminish the value of the room for everyone, including convention members. But I'm also somewhat nervous about, say, a city attorney noticing a newspaper story about vending in a hotel meeting room.

Statistical Guidelines

These are numbers that I (and many other huxters and huxter room managers) have made up over the years, and not based on any survey or hard research. But I have found them occasionally useful as benchmarks and guidelines.

• Looking at the relationship between the number of convention attendees and vendor tables, it can be suggested that it takes between 10 to 25 attendees to successfully support each vendor table. Ten attendees for each vendor table is clearly a low-end situation, but not uncommon at smaller conventions. Clearly _all_ vendors at any particular convention are competitive, they are all looking for part of the limited amount of money that the convention participants can afford to spend. But in another analysis, a lot of SF convention participants have rather flexible budgets -- they wouldn't be traveling and attending a recreational event if they weren't financially comfortable -- and they have credit cards. And many, most, SF convention vendors are careful to offer rather unique products, so they don't directly compete with other huxters.
• A successful vendor at a healthy convention can expect about $1 in sales per convention participant. Alas, this doesn't seem to hold up at the largest of conventions.
• 3 to 4 _additional_ convention memberships will be sold for each additional vendor. These memberships will be purchased for members of the huxter's staff, family, friends, posse. Any convention hoping to grow in size needs to keep this in mind. Not to mention that improving the quality of the Dealers' Room (which does have some relationship to the size) will clearly improve the quality of the experience offered by the convention, and thus in the long run, might increase the size of the event.

Different Strokes

I'm not really sure of too many things, but one thing I am sure about is that any particular set of goals can be accomplished in many different ways. Also, worthwhile goals can be defined in radically different ways. So I would never presume to say that the ideas and methods outlined in this article are the only ways that science fiction convention dealers' room can be organized. I'm much more sure that I've identified a number of areas that require attention! As I retire from running the WisCon huxter room, I'll remain vitally interested in seeing what new ideas are brought to the job. And if I show up at any other science fiction convention, you can bet I'll be looking over the shoulders of the huxter room organizers there as well. I mean, I've been watching how these rooms work for about forty years, why would I stop now?

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