Getting Into Cons For Free As A Creator

 INTRO

    I've been going to cons since the weekend of my 18th birthday, and because I've almost never had money to go to cons on my own, I soon started working for the cons I wanted to attend because most cons will give you a badge and a room if you're willing to give them some of your time. That's the easy hack to get into cons for free, but that's not why we're here today. 

    I don't often like calling attention to the work I've done behind the scenes to make conventions work over the last almost two decades - mostly due to the fact that I like working behind the scenes. In the time I've worked for cons up and down the East Coast and the Midwest of the United States, spanning small sci-fi cons at colleges with ~100 attendees up to my current position as one of the two heads of the Indie Tabletop Showcase at MAGFest  (an event that has in recent years consistently hit its badge cap of 20k attendees), much of my time has been spent working as a Professional Vibes Checker - or, to put it another way, whether it be via Guest Relations, Panels, Photography, Press/Media, or for the aforementioned Showcase, my primary job has been reviewing peoples' applications to get free passes based on whatever thing it is they're known for. Some of those were proactive (as in, having pre-vetted people and reaching out to them on behalf of the con), but many more over the years have been reviewing applications submitted by people I've never met and having to judge their vibes based solely on what research I can find about them from what they've submitted and what I can find out about them from the Internet and anyone else at the con. While these are by no means foolproof tips, I'd like to share what I've learned over the years and what I personally do when I'm forced to gatekeep free passes so that you folks out there have the best chance you can (and, hey, if I can solve a few of my pet peeves by putting this information out there and get some things to become standard, what a blessing that would be).

    Also, and this should go without saying but because I have directly mentioned an event I am currently staffing, I would like to clarify that all the ideas, opinions, and anecdotes presented within this post are mine and do not represent the official stance of any event or organization I currently or formerly have volunteered with.

KNOW WHAT YOU'RE ASKING FOR
MARKET YOURSELF APPROPRIATELY

    One of the easiest ways to disqualify yourself and to make people immediately stop paying attention to you is trying to squeeze a badge out of an event that your work does not qualify you for. As an example, when I was the head of Press & Media for Colossalcon, we would regularly get requests from cosplayers for free badges - either with absolutely no reasoning behind them, or with folks trying to position themselves as influencers and trying to pass that off as event coverage. These people generally got a polite "no thank you" if we didn't have free time, or a "you may have misunderstood what we are looking for - if we've misunderstood your platform, please provide additional content or reach out to XYZ departments which may be more suited to your request" if we did have time. What we were looking for, and what we spelled out on the website, was people who had some kind of online presence with a clear history of covering conventions either with video or audio coverage in which they actually talked about the event - not just getting quick videos or pictures of themselves in costume in one spot that everyone got photos of.

    Every event will have a list of guidelines for applying for free passes of various kinds often in the very same place as the application itself. If you have questions regarding a particular event's requirements, the best thing you can do is to reach out for clarity - preferably prior to submitting an application, but at least if you do it after you apply the person responding to you can at least reference what you've submitted. Either way, you should always ask if you're not sure, lest you be Confident But Wrong and lose out on an opportunity. The likelihood of getting a second chance to apply for the same event is entirely dependent on the goodwill and free time of the person processing these things - I personally try to respond back to everyone who gets it wrong because I Cannot Shut Up, but I believe I may be an exception.

WHO THE HELL IS MARK MERCER?

    Here's the deal: you cannot assume that the person processing your application for a free badge is familiar with your work. Even if you're popular. Even if you were at the event last year. Even if you're at the event EVERY year. Staff changeovers happen behind the scenes all the time - most events are run by groups of passionate volunteers which means that at any point, someone vital to an event may not be able to come that year, or they retire, and with them goes the years of knowledge of who you are and what you do. Sometimes, new limits on the number of badges the event allow to go out in a given year change, and suddenly there is a new competitive level to the applications.

    Assume that you're going to have to audition every year. Always provide the most recent and accurate information about yourself, and don't let impostor syndrome get the best of you here - if you're applying for a free pass based on a thing that you do, be confident that your expertise doing that thing should qualify you for a pass! Present the best version of yourself possible - and again, if you do a lot of different kinds of things, be sure that you're very clear about what it is you do that is relevant to the kind of free pass you're applying for (see: the first section again).

CON STAFF ALWAYS TALK AND THEY NEVER FORGET

    If there's one thing I would want to remind people about, it's that no matter what staffer you interact with, how you conduct yourself will always make it to the people in charge of making the decision on whether or not you get in for free. If you're a huge jerk for no reason, if you act entitled, if you try to take advantage of the event or the space - we will know, and it will not be good for your chances of coming back in future years. But also - if you're a sweetheart, we will ALSO know! People love to talk about how nice guests are just as much as they're motivated to tattle on jerks. Having a good working relationship with the event staff outside of any personal relationships you might have with any staffers (or at least just being chill, which believe me, we definitely notice) goes a long way.

    I do also want to be clear here - this does not mean you should feel like you have to bend and scrape and grovel for the privilege of being at the event. This does not mean that you shouldn't feel empowered to bring concerns to event staff - and that includes before, during, and after the event. You should always feel safe and able to discuss concerns - and buddy, if you're at an event and the event staff does NOT make you feel that way, you need to name and shame those folks to whoever is above them in the organization - because again, con staff talk and they never forget, and if a staffer fucks up, you'd better believe the folks who run the event are going to do something about it.

THE INTERNET IS FOREVER
ITS HUNGER LIMITLESS
FEED IT YOUR DATA

    If you are representing yourself as a brand, you need to have some kind of web presence when you apply. And to be clear - if you are requesting a free badge or any other kind of free services from an event on the implicit understanding that you have a platform which you will subsequently be using to promote the event in some way, you are representing yourself as a brand. The good news is, there's plenty of free ways to do this and they're just as good as the paid ways to do it in this particular case. There are pros and cons though. Let's review them now:

Disconnected Social Media Links

    Probably the absolute barest minimum you should have is 1-2 social media profiles, and these should contain information about who you are and what you do. If you are actively representing yourself as a brand, you should be updating these periodically so that you show signs of life. One of my biggest red flags is checking a social media account and not seeing a post for a year or more - if you're telling an event you'd like a badge in exchange for promoting them in some way and it doesn't look like you're even on the Internet anymore, the message that sends me is you're just trying to get a free badge. The good news is, you're probably already on these sites, and updating them is trivial.

A Landing Page/Link Aggregator

    If you have a few social media pages, there's functionally no reason to not have a landing page - whether that be a landing page on a bigger website, or whether it's something like Linktree or Carrd. They're free. For an example, here's my Linktree, which I've organized with links to all the things I've done that I think people might want to know about. I might move them around if I were applying for a certain kind of creator badge at an event, but you can go from zero to functional in about five minutes. For an example of Carrd, here's one I made for the monthly chiptune blog I manage with my pal Ethan. Both of these are the free plans, both of them have as much information on them as is necessary to convey why they're there and to let people know how to find out more about me/my projects. These also have one secret benefit to them - they don't say when they were last updated, which again, per the last section (and upcoming for the next one), if I can't see timestamps that indicate that something hasn't been updated in a while, I'm not going to have immediate concerns - and if it's something where you've got a Facebook page you never update but an extremely active YouTube channel, having all those links together saves time hunting around and verifying you.

A Proper Website

    You don't actually have to have a proper website anymore - and by proper website, I mean a homepage or a blog. I personally prefer them - I think they're professional, but I've never discounted someone's application because they didn't have one as long as they had at least one of the other options listed. Not everyone has the money to waste on Squarespace, nor does everyone have the HTML acumen to make their own website (like, I haven't touched an HTML tutorial since I was in 6th grade trying to customize my Xanga page, don't worry about it). Again, be sure you're updating the copyright date at the bottom of your webpage especially if you're a business that sells a product - if I see someone's webpage with a copyright date several years out of date, that's a red flag that someone might be impersonating the brand. If you do have a proper website though, be sure that it's got updates on what you're doing so that the person reviewing your application doesn't have to go anywhere else to get what they need to evaluate your application.

An EPK

An Electronic Press Kit is a great alternative to most of these options - on the one hand, it somewhat duplicates the efforts of a Landing Page/Link Aggregator, but on the other hand it has the added benefit of having space for promotional images which can be super handy. Rami Ismail made a presskit creator for free which you can find on his Github but I will confess as someone who is good at building computers but not the programs that make them work, I've yet to noodle around with this personally - but I CAN tell you it became kind of a gold standard over on the videogame side of things. There's all kinds of free ones on the Internet though - find what works, go look at some games' EPKs for inspiration.

    AND NO MATTER WHAT, make sure that any of these options have redundant links to the other parts of your web presence and have some kind of contact information for you. In the old days of the Internet, having a webpage with no outbound links was referred to as a "dead end" for obvious reasons. Do not have a dead end - be sure that people can always find more of what you're doing, and even if you ONLY have the one page, be sure that it has a working email for you at the absolute bare minimum.

FOLLOWTHROUGH

    Let's say you've applied, gotten your badge, and now you're at the event to do the thing you do. Depending on the event and what it is you do, there are any myriad number of ways that you should be following through on your end of the bargain. Many events will explicitly state what they want - if you do any kind of press or media coverage, that event may ask you to email them links (or just tag them on socials) so that their press team knows where to reshare that coverage - and, bonus plus, it shows you did the thing you said you would! I'm aware of the fact that PAX Unplugged has a Content Creator Lounge available explicitly to people who received one of those promotional badges - if you did, be sure you pop in and check it out! (See previous point of "the staff always talk and never forget" - if it looks like you're not taking full advantage of something, you may not be offered it again!) If you're there to promote your game or an organization you represent, be sure you're there at your booth for the designated hours to do so! If you said you'd write a blog post after the event or do a podcast about it or anything else - do those things, and make sure the event knows you did them and has access to them to share them around. 

tl;dr
DO'S & DON'TS OF FREE BADGES

DO:

• assume you're auditioning for your spot every year
• keep your information on the Internet up to date and easily accessible
• read the fine print - the event will tell you what they expect from you
• ask questions when you're not sure of something
• be nice to the people staffing the event
• voice concerns if you feel unsafe or abused at any point
• believe in yourself when you apply and portray that with your application
• follow through on what the event asks of you in exchange for a free badges

DON'T

• think that people know who you are, even/especially if you're Internet famous
• think that how you act goes unnoticed by event staff
• do things that harm the event or take advantage of their goodwill
• ignore all the things that ARE provided for you to take advantage of
• forget to demonstrate to the event why you're qualified to work with them

OUTRO

    So there's all of my tips about what to do if you're applying to an event to get a free badge or promotional space based on your project or expertise. I will keep this updated if things happen over the years that would prompt an update. Again, despite namedropping my time with certain events, none of the above should be construed to represent the opinions of any events or organizations I currently or formerly have worked with - this is all just personal advice I've built up over almost two decades of being on the side of this equation that rubber stamps these kinds of approvals. I'm happy to answer any questions anyone ever has about this kind of thing - if it's something I'm directly involved in there may be more correct channels to reach out through than just commenting here or on BlueSky, but one way or the other I'm always happy to help.

Stay weird out there.