Overall, I think it was a tremendous success. We sold somewhere around 250 admission tickets (final count in a few days) and most events were well-attended. Even the 10 a.m. panels seemed to have more audience members than panelists. :-) I heard very few and very minor complaints (generally about tiny logistical matters) and got tons of comments on how fabulous it all was. The older generation in particular seemed quite surprised that we had managed such a professional and organized conference. :-)
There were many small difficulties. I think we could have used more volunteer staff throughout the weekend, as we ended up either relying on tired staff members or co-opting random folk from the crowd (my sister and her boyfriend ended up setting up the art show, for example). That problem should solve itself for next time, since we now have lots of new folks interested in getting involved.
The most serious consequence of that lack is that we didn't count attendance at every panel, nor did we get nearly enough questionnaires filled out (either intake forms, or post-panel forms). Those are important to us for funding reasons; that information helps us tremendously in our grant application process. I'm thinking that if we can do a fillable version of the forms on our website, maybe some of the attendees will fill them out post-conference. That's not ideal, but it'd be a help.
We'll have a post-festival meeting sometime soon to sort out various and sundry elements. We have tons of video recording the event that we need to edit down; I hope to post much of it to the DesiLit site. I have a few more checks to write (though most stuff is paid for at this point). I need to bang my head against the finances for a while; we really are going to need an accountant at some point, ideally for both DesiLit and the SLF. And we need to make plans for 2006, when we'll have a bimonthly reading series and possibly a writers' workshop. We'll bring back Kriti in 2007, gods willing.
I slept eleven hours last night. If I do that again tonight, I might even feel like a normal person again. :-)
Happy birthday, N.!
Thanks for the birthday wishes. Congrats on finishing so much so well. Here’s to the 14th of November!