First of all I would like to thank each and everyone that attended and contributed to Magicon 2022. It could not have been done without you.
One of Magicons values is transparency, and a part of that is showing all of you what we spent money on. We are a non-profit organization and we want all our resources to be used on activities and events for the community.
Clarification – Being non-profit is not the same as not being allowed to make a profit on a specific convention. Any profit we make (which we to a small degree did) will be used to host a future Magicon or other activities we arrange for the community.
Let’s start with the income:
- Ticket sales 198.100,-
- Sponsor: Lørenskog Kommune 25.000,-
- Sponsor: UKM 20.000,-
- Stand sales 19.050,-
- T-shirt sales 8.500,-
Total Income: 270.650,-
Then let’s look at expenses:
- Printed materials 65.360,-
- Rent and Hired Personnel 98.095,-
- Travel Expenses 55.454,-
- Production Costs 3.142,-
- Prizes 3.500,-
- Food and Drinks 17.065,-
- Marketing 4.563,-
- Fees 1.400,-
Total expenses: 248.579,-
Result: 22.071,-*
*Disclaimer: Small variables may affect this, like hidden fees, late expense reports etc. Nothing major though.
Further reading and comments from the Producer:
Printed materials:
This category includes a range of things required, like t-shirts for crew, banners, rollups, photowall, festival wristbands etc etc. Although costly, it’s a must for every Con. As everyone in the crew is volunteers, the least we can do is get them a t-shirt. It also makes them recognizable at the event, so you can easily find help if needed. I heard from many of you that you found them easy to find, and even super friendly. Nice! Another point about this cost is that several of the materials we got printed can be used again. Nice!
Rent and Hired Personnel:
Whenever you hire a venue like this it’s usually required to hire quite a few people to oversee and support at the event. We decided to hire 3 professional technicians to support sound, lights and AV operations. Although a bit costly it really adds to the experience, and the whole event will feel more professional. I’m sure we could have done even better, but for a first try it was a success. A final point here is that future events may have higher rent costs, but we don’t really need additional technicians, so double the tickets sold, won’t mean double the cost. Nice!
Travel Expenses:
Norway is a long country, and some people live way out in the districts. When we invite guests to hold panels or similar it’s only natural that we cover their travel expenses. Ticket prices are variable, and because of Corona we had to either wait until the very last minute or buy the more expensive refundable tickets. If all the Anime Gods are with us we won’t have a similar world health situation next year, and therefore save some money here. Nice!
Production Costs:
This really didn’t need to be its own category, but I added it to point out that one does not need massive production costs to create an enjoyable Convention. It’s the people, the interactions, the inclusiveness and all the positive vibes that creates the magical Con feeling. My mantra is, if the visitor can’t interact with it, I don’t want to waste money on it. Nice? Nice!
Prizes:
Ah, the prizes, a very widely discussed subject within the community. I remember from the years I worked with Desucon, that the prizes “didn’t matter”. I don’t really agree, but the idea is nice. Big prizes can take away from the community feeling, and sometimes create a divide which can do more damage than good. This said, they are also crucial to adding a little bit of Magic. So, even if it’s only listed as being 3500,- we actually gave away stuff worth over 25.000,- thanks to all our amazing sponsors. Don’t get me wrong, we’ll probably spend more on prizes in the future, but there’s a balance here, and I think we did pretty well. Nice!
Food and Drinks:
Well, I’ll be the first one to admit, this is where we missed the target by miles. When planning how much to buy you often think of how much you eat for dinner. However, when one is volunteering at a Convention you’re so focused on delivering an amazing experience, you’re simply not as hungry as normal. So, we ended up with a lot of leftovers. Lessons learned, but at least our crew was not left wanting, so that’s good. And we can save a little money here next year. Nice!
Marketing:
Marketing is hard, it’s difficult to know what people want to see, and it’s even more difficult to understand SoMe’s algorithms. That said, we kept a very close eye on your feedback from the start and tried our very best to keep you engaged. This worked out very well and we now have a very engaged following, who is very vocal and honest about what they think. This is perfect, both so we know what to provide, but also so we don’t need to spend money on ads that won’t always reach those interested. We spent a little money on getting a few well known cosplay personalities to promote us, and get some sweet footage from Magicon. If it’s not out, it will be soon. Nice!
Fees:
Why are you even reading this, fees are so boring. Banks, subscriptions to tools we need etc. I hate these, but they are hard to avoid. I’ll tell you about my constant war with these for my next financial report. Nice!
Result:
As any volunteer organisation, not hitting that red line is a constant stress factor. We’re all very happy we didn’t, and even more happy that we now have some funds to arrange smaller happenings in the time before Magicon 2023. The budgettet goal was to have 15% liquidity, which would have been 40.597,-. Instead we only have 8.15% liquidity. These are healthy parameters for any organisation to follow, to ensure continued stability. Not what we hoped for, but not bad for our very first Convention. Be assured, all these funds will be spent on activities for the community, and we’ll continue to be transparent! Nice!
Feedback:
We’re currently gathering feedback from all of our visitors, so we can present yet another transparency article. Here we will show you what we did well, and where we can improve. The form is open until 31.st of March, so if you attended and haven’t filled it yet, please do and thereby help us become even better next year!
That’s it. We hope this was informative, and helps you believe in Magicon as a concept you can trust and hopefully support. If you have any questions, please contact us on info@magicon.no and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
That’s all from me!
Christopher – Producer Magicon 2022
