How hard it is to host the event? I *would* like to help, but Idk what hosting the event involves and if I'm capable/responsible enough to do that
(hope you don’t mind me answering this publicly ^^;)
so basically, as the event runner, you would be:
making and maintaining the blog (or livejournal/dreamwidth page, but i’m afraid i don’t know much about the mechanics of that platform ^^;)
opening and keeping an eye on the event email account
writing up the rules/faq/requirements/schedule
answering questions (especially about the finer points of the rules and how certain aspects work for certain roles)
keeping track of sign-ups
collecting summaries/sketches for claim and organizing them into a viewable document
collecting claims and assigning partners and sending each the others’ contact info
keeping people on track, usually via periodic check-ins
organizing check-ins (that is, making sure that everyone gets a check-in, keeping track of who checked in, deciding how to deal with the people who did not check in, etc)
keeping track of those who drop or ghost (miss an important date) or are notably behind on their projects
finding and assigning pinch-hitters to those whose partners dropped
mediating solutions for those having trouble with their partners (e.g. nudging either party into communicating more or communicating less)
making posts (/entries?) to remind participants of important dates and important updates (usually schedule changes, though it’s a good idea to make a post or two when you need pinch-hitters, too)
telling people how to post/compile their collaborations
linking to those collaborations... somehow (either by your own posts, in a larger list of links, by reblogging all the individual pieces, etcetcetc)
it’s... a lot. ^^; it can be done alone, but i wouldn’t advise it, especially not for one as big as the MBB got. i (mod hallie) am currently running the @uravitybang on my own, but it’s much smaller—and designed so that i won’t be managing more than 20~30 people at a time.
managing events is kind of like... herding puppies. you have a bunch of wonderful, enthusiastic participants with varying levels of discipline and dedication that are compensated by fun alone. keep that in mind :’D
if you (or anyone else) does plan to organize one of these, here’s what i’ve learned that i reeeeally wish i’d known at the start.
1. use google docs and google forms for everything you can.
we did email check-ins for the MBB last year, and at the peak of it, i was maintaining email conversations with a good 110 people. don’t do that to yourself. use google forms to collect all the mass information you need from people.
another nice thing about google forms is that there’s an option to send the responders a copy of their answers, which is hella useful on their side, so it’s dead easy for them to check whether they checked in/signed up/submitted claims/etc.
get the sign-ups through google forms. get the check-ins through google forms. get claims through google forms. compile the info through google sheets—which is useful in many ways, including but not limited to: ease of access, gforms has the option to directly compile in gsheets, and in gsheets, there are mail merge extensions.
2. USE A MAIL MERGE.
they’re google sheets add-ons intended for ad campaigns, but basically they’re customizable form emails. i like “G Merge: Mail & Doc Merge with Attachments.” it’s got a decently easy-to-use interface and doesn’t tack on a ‘this email was sent by mailmerge!’ watermark on the end.
so if you type up a form that goes “hey {{name}}! welcome to the miraculous big bang!” G Merge would send out an email to everyone in the “email” column with the name in the “name” column replacing {{name}}. this is useful for many things, especially like emailing collaborators each others’ contact info.
3. the free gmail account can only send 100 emails per day.
if you’ve got more than 100 participants, you’re going to have to stagger them out. if addressed to more than 100 people, your emails will get bounced.
4. pinch-hitter sign-ups
keep them separate from the normal sign-ups. open them as early as possible. advertise them. make posts when you might need more. do this, and you will thank me.
5. the more work you let people take on, the likelier they are to drop.
somewhat common sense, but i’ve seen events that let artists sign up for 5 separate projects. know that out of the 10 well-intentioned participants that sign up for every possible thing, one or two very terrifying people will make it to the end having completed all they said they would do.
my advice would be to cap the number of things people can sign up for at 2 or 3 total, in any combination of roles.
6. google sheets can be used to make exceptionally pretty claims sheets.
you’re going to need to display the summaries/sketches for the responders (artists oin a traditional big bang and writers in a reverse big bang) to look over and choose. playing around with google sheets, especially the font customization/cell merging/text and background colors, shows you all the neat #aesthetic things you can do with them—plus it’s super easy to transfer the data you got from google forms into a fresh sheet and just start stylizing it.
be sure to emphasize readability! i’ve seen too many claims sheets that were a pain to view.
7. learn from example
i had no idea where to find any notable collection of current big bang events, so for you i’ll link the big bang tag of quiznakchronicle. they’re all voltron events, but the vld fandom has kind of gotten into a rhythm with their array of big bangs, and you can learn a lot from just looking through their pages.
THAT’S ALL I GOT FOR NOW. good luck, and if you do decide to open another miraculous ladybug big bang, let us know!