Penguicon Nifty Guests

I've been a bystander to some interesting conversations between Concom members about Nifty Guests at Penguicon. I've been watching the process of Nifty selection up-close-and-personal under four consecutive Conchairs. It has never been organized and usually nobody has the slightest clue what Nifty even means. Every year we made our share of mistakes in who we gave the status to. But I've listened to a lot of philosophies expressed about it over the years, and condensed what I thought were the most helpful, meaningful set of non-contradictory definitions into an answer on our FAQ page.

"Nifty Guest" is a status we confer on those who are not our Guests of Honor this year, but have been in the past, or they are celebrities in their own right. We only have about twenty or fewer Nifty Guests per year, although that number gets slightly larger each year from the original two. It is not simply to be used an award for people we like who have done things we admire. It is for two kinds of people.
- Celebrities or leaders within their specific subculture or internet community. They have a fanbase within that subculture to whom they announce, "you can meet me at Penguicon," so they are an attendance draw.
- Those who are going to attend Penguicon to provide a specific event which is so glittery and shiny for our attendees that it stands above our other programming. When we feel we can't do without them, but they can't attend without a little modest financial help, sometimes we have Niftified them. This second type of Nifty has been kept deliberately rare, maybe one per year.
"Program Participant" is a general term for anyone who delivers a presentation, is on a discussion panel, runs a scheduled game, or is featured in any other scheduled event at Penguicon. Those who are not designated a Guest of Honor or Nifty Guest receive a discounted admission rate for providing Penguicon content. The reality is, all our Program Participants are truly nifty in the sense of the English adjective. But each year I've seen us turn down several potential program participants because they couldn't show up without a free membership badge. As an all-volunteer not-for-profit convention (and one that is relatively new and still building financial security), we can't do that yet.

So you can see, as Conchair for next year I have some pretty well-defined ideas about it, and I'm going to be able to give some clear guidance to the people involved in Nifty selection. Others will disagree completely or have variations on it, and that's fine.

( 1. We have to limit it somehow. )

( 2. We need clearer guidelines. )

( 3. We can be flexible with one or more guidelines at a time. )

( 4. The real purpose of the guidelines is to get an arbitrary number, but as long as they're there, each guideline may as well help us. )

The code is more like guidelines, really.

So what have we got? Two or more of the following:

1. Strongly bound trait: Fan base who will attend for no other reason than they heard Nifty will be there
2. Strongly bound trait: Good to put on programming
3. Weakly bound trait: If not professional, at least spends an amount of time on their avocation comparable to a part-time job
4. Weakly bound trait: Lives far away and/or would not otherwise attend the convention
5. Weakly bound trait: Invited as a full Guest of Honor at other conventions

Remember, radial category! Most Nifties lack one or more of these, and that's fine. So a prospective Nifty really needs to meet at least one strongly-bound trait, and has to make up for it with weakly-bound traits. If they meet all of them they are the prototype Nifty of which other Nifties are variations.

This system should be tweaked some more. More ideas are welcome, but remember, does your idea solve the problem of limiting the number to 20? And does it do this in a way that squeezes maximum benefit to Penguicon out of the Nifty Guest?

Keep in mind before you comment, the suggested guidelines are about the prototype Nifty, not all Nifties!