Ops is a large department that does a lot of its work at the convention. There are several sub-departments that fall under the Operations Umbrella.

Convention Operations (Con-Ops)

Con-ops is responsible for the lost and found, team members, and help direct requests and incidents to other appropriate con departments and teams. Con-ops will disseminate information and help coordinate action with all team members on staff. Con-Ops members will also assist in Line control and badge checking in some situations.

CRT (Con Response Team)

CRT helps with a variety of different things at con. They check IDs for 18+/21+ areas, they badge check into convention spaces. CRT helps keep lines under control and helps move people from point A to point B. The CRT members will patrol con space to keep an eye on the convention for safety and CoC and ToS infractions and be the response team for emergencies. Problem-solving skills and the ability to keep a cool and level head in varying situations are huge benefits to this department.

Registration (Reg)

Registration is the first real person that many of our attendees will meet and interact with. Registration will check attendees into the convention. The department is also responsible for taking money from registrants, and printing/handing out badges. Registration team members are the ones that get asked about our reg system the most. Good customer service skills and good computer skills are important here.

Facilities

The Director of Facilities is tasked with overseeing facilities operations in the con spaces, helping with menus for the event, working directly with the hotel liaisons, helping maintain clean and safe con spaces, and assisting with the contractual needs with the hotel and the con.

The program team helps build and maintain the schedule of events before the convention. At the convention members of this team will aid event and panel hosts with ensuring their panels are set up and ready to go, and take an attendance count of each event. Also, part of this team’s duties are assisting with major events.

Many attendees enjoy the game room, both tabletop players and console gamers. Gaming team members help maintain the game room, keep it clean, and help keep a protective eye on all the equipment in the room. Gaming team members will also help run different tournaments, and swap games in and out when needed. Many Gaming staff members help find gaming consoles and games to borrow for the event.

There are many different sub-departments under the creativity umbrella. Almost all of the sub-departments revolve around art in some form.

The art team creates all of the art assets that the convention uses each year. This includes posters, signs, art used in social media, art used in the con book. T-shirts, Pins, and much more. All of this work is done pre-con and sometimes months in advance. If you are interested in working with the art team, please reach out to  idahohorrorcon@gmail.com directly and express your interest.

Theme and Decorating use a lot of the art assets that were created by the art team, and use their own ingenuity and help bring the con theme to life. Hosting treasure hunts and creating themed decorations to help the attendees enjoy the theme of the convention.

Dealer’s Room is the largest non-event attraction for most  cons. This is where vendors sell their products. Art, pins, magnets,  and much much more are sold in the Dealer’s Room. This team is responsible for helping the vendors and attendees have an enjoyable experience in the Dealer’s Room. Helping keep people moving through the aisles, and also helping the vendors when necessary.

Artist Alley is a place where artists and vendors buy tables by the day and sell wares throughout the day. At the end of the day, all items will need to be picked up by the artist or vendor. Volunteers for Artist Alley help get artists settled in and ensure that the rules of artist alley are being followed. The volunteers will need to be present to help artists and vendors as needed.

The Con Store is located inside the Dealer’s Den. It is a booth that sells merchandise related to the con (shirts, mugs, pins, etc.). Con Store staff are responsible for keeping shelves stocked, and conducting sales transactions, using cash or credit cards. People skills are important for this team, as this is a staffed con-related spot, con store gets many questions and inquiries about the Dealer’s Den.

The Audio-Visual team (also sometimes referred to as AV/IT) assists with the setup, operation, and tear down of the more technical aspects of the convention. The AV team helps with setting up and running the audio, lighting, video, and networking systems for all various stages and panel rooms across the convention. This department is a more tech-heavy position and requires its team members to be comfortable with computer systems and electronics. Industry experience is always appreciated, but is not required (if you’re willing to learn new things of course!).

The Dance/DJ Team works as a go-between for the DJs, the Events team, and the AV team. The evening dances are the lifeblood during the night of each convention and require a lot of effort across many departments. This team helps sort through DJ applications, arranges the dance/DJ schedule, and selects which DJs will be performing. This team helps make sure the DJ and AV team work smoothly together to ensure an amazing event. This team is very much for night owls and those that like to stay up late.

Photographers are important to many of the Guest. Photographers either have set hours at the photobooth, work special events, or wander the con space taking photos for the con. Photographers are responsible for editing their own photos and ensuring the proper quality of photos.

IT is responsible for handling all technology to keep the convention running. IT works with a lot of other departments and has a need to be on call when an issue arises.

The IT team helps with setting up and running the computers and electronic systems used by the convention. IT is also responsible for the convention’s setup of servers and databases. IT helps build behind the scene computer processes that are used throughout the convention. The IT team members need to be proficient in working with networking and computers and must be up to date with the newest technology.

The website team uses the latest web-building modules and art assets created by the art team to bring life to the convention webpage. The convention webpage is responsible for delivering information to the public and helping answer many questions that the public might have about the convention.

This department helps bring the community and the convention together.

The Charity team works with the charity contact to help engage attendees, help generate donations for the Charity, and help raise awareness for the charity’s purpose. The charity contact person must usually stay at their table/booth/room, and cannot wander the convention space, this is where the Charity team members can help the charity be more present throughout the space.

The con book team build the online con book that will be present on the convention website. In the future, the con book will be printed and will require ad placement, the con book team will be responsible for finding buyers for the ad space. The Con book team also builds and prints the trifold pocket guide for the convention.

This large group of different departments often tends to be smaller in size but they have some pretty large far-ranging tasks. They focus on the boundaries between the convention and the public.

CoS responsibilities include the hiring process of staff, easing communications, and uniting people across organizations to keep them moving forward. These multi-talented professionals are often the right hand to other top-tier executives, including presidents, heads of departments, and board members. CoS also handles staff to staff improvements, staff enrichment, and community support.

This department is the liaison between the convention and the Guests of Honor for the convention. Made up of part personal assistant, part gopher, and part problem solver these team members make sure the Guests of Honor enjoy themselves and are able to meet their agreed commitments.

This team handles Twitter and Telegram and other social media that might be added. The social media team will keep a finger on the pulse of the convention and oftentimes will know something is amiss before any of the con staff will. I.E. people grump on Twitter way before saying something to staff. This team helps promote and get con awareness to the public but is not responsible for conflict resolution on social media.