The joys of teamwork

and collaboration.

Mary and I met at a convention. We were both involved in helping to organize and promote the same show, the 2017 Denver ComicFest. If you didn’t read Part One, CLICK HERE.

J. James and Mary,

connected in event production.

For that year’s Denver ComicFest I was selling my own published books at my booth. I designed some of the marketing and branding for that year’s event. Everyone present was wearing my artwork, whether they were a guest, an attendee, a seller, or staff. That event used me as their promotional artist for four years in a row (five if you count the Covid-era event, which was cancelled). Obviously, as you would expect, I was publicly credited for my contributions and talent, and my signature was on all of the work.

This sort of thing is pretty cool, but it isn’t a big deal in the long run. I have hundreds of event badges from shows I’ve been too, and many of them are designed by friends or peers of mine. I have been a part of producing many, many such events.

During this same event, I was manning a second booth at the same time. This was for a THIRD show, the Georgetown Writer’s Retreat. The two primary organizers and owners were having family emergencies and could not attend the show in order to promote their own event. However, I was the marketing and branding designer for their new event, a very expensive writer’s retreat high in the mountains of the continental divide, in a fancy resort town named Georgetown. Incidentally, their emergencies persisted forward into the actual event, and I assumed leadership of a large amount of the actual event itself. Who will save the famous authors? James will!

Of course, as is normal and appropriate, I received credit for my work on the event. (Do you see a theme emerging here?) An art collector from several states away attempted to buy some of my original art from the Georgetown Writer’s Retreat, but I declined.

When large events grow, it is common and expected that the people involved are publicly credited for their work and involvement.

Oftentimes the people running the show are not the owners, sometimes the financial partner is a silent partner staying out of the way of the creatives, sometimes many people are working together to make an event happen. This is what is normal, legal, and expected in the professional world. Every event is organized differently, but the important part is that everyone gets credit for their work.

ORGANIZATIONAL TYPES

The Denver ComicFest has many owners and a board.  There are many organizers working their separate portions of the show.  Everyone is credited.  The Fort Collins Comic Con had an owner / financial partner and paid management, and gave credit where credit was due.  The Georgetown Writer’s Retreat had a financial partner who paid for the entire event, and he was a silent partner with no creative involvement, while the woman who had total creative control of the event had no financial involvement but she was still co-equal owners with the financial partner due to her labor involvement.

 (She was a pretty good friend of mine for a few years, and made many of the props you’ve seen in Star Wars movies).

 These are the circumstances under which Mary and I met.  We were well-loved fixtures in the Colorado large convention scene.  We were not special or unique, we were two among dozens of focused and dedicated people bringing their dreams and other people’s dreams to life.  I began courting her, and eventually we were married.  Her backend administration skills and my marketing, ideation and branding strengths made us a power couple in that market.

 We often spoke excitingly about the future, in which we would create an event together.  Our wedding, which occurred during the Covid lockdowns, ended up being a large digital convention on multiple platforms at once, with a full entertainment production and mail-out opt-ins for financial supporters.  Pretty cool, but it wasn’t our first real public event production as a couple, not yet!   (link)

THE BRUCE FESTIVAL

Mary and I are very Scottish and Irish.  Last year we partnered with a previous client to create a small town event.  It feels like it should have been the solid foundation for that event to continue to build.  Sadly, the working relationship completely dissolved that evening during cleanup in the blink of an eye.  This has become a devastating blow to our long-term health and created a brutal financial crater in our business of which we still feel the effects of a year later.  The Bruce Festival, our first event together, was a public-facing success but has become our great sadness and regret. 

We created it with love, blood, sweat and tears, with great protracted suffering.  You will not see our names or any credit given to us in any way public at the event, nor on the website.  Let’s talk about The Bruce Festival!