Generally there is no pre-reg before a venue is already reserved. For a first year convention, projecting the attendance is usually a scientific half-assed guess. When MFF was started, we knew how many had been registering for the furry programming track at Duckon (a number of MFF's original staff had been staff at Duckon). We also had a good idea of how many we could call on to be staff in the area from various local events. We reserved a room block we were confident we could fill to the percentage required and budgeted for that number, but made provisions in case we got around 50% more. It's usually possible to increase a room block if needed as long as one isn't filling the hotel. As it turned out We got almost exactly that 50% more and things went fine.
As long as most of the attendees are using the roomblock, there's a fairly accurate constant to corrolate number of rooms reserved with the ultimate number of attendees so you'd have some warning if you got an unplanned for growth spurt, maybe in time to recruit some extra staff.
DenFur had the advantage of knowing how many had attended the last RMFC and planned accordingly and intelligently. You need to be conservative because blowing a room block comittment can kill a convention fast. On the other hand, the larger the room block, the better the deal once can get from the hotel. I know how it felt the first year of MFF planning. The first number everyone wanted to hear at staff meetings was how many room nights we'd filled and there was a collective sigh of relief when we hit the number we needed. That was still the case to a lesser degree for a few years after until we got enough numbers to make reasonably good predictions. The DeFur staff now has a good solid number to go by and I'd imagine adding staff will be high on their priority.
Generally there is no pre-reg before a venue is already reserved. For a first year convention, projecting the attendance is usually a scientific half-assed guess. When MFF was started, we knew how many had been registering for the furry programming track at Duckon (a number of MFF's original staff had been staff at Duckon). We also had a good idea of how many we could call on to be staff in the area from various local events. We reserved a room block we were confident we could fill to the percentage required and budgeted for that number, but made provisions in case we got around 50% more. It's usually possible to increase a room block if needed as long as one isn't filling the hotel. As it turned out We got almost exactly that 50% more and things went fine.
As long as most of the attendees are using the roomblock, there's a fairly accurate constant to corrolate number of rooms reserved with the ultimate number of attendees so you'd have some warning if you got an unplanned for growth spurt, maybe in time to recruit some extra staff.
DenFur had the advantage of knowing how many had attended the last RMFC and planned accordingly and intelligently. You need to be conservative because blowing a room block comittment can kill a convention fast. On the other hand, the larger the room block, the better the deal once can get from the hotel. I know how it felt the first year of MFF planning. The first number everyone wanted to hear at staff meetings was how many room nights we'd filled and there was a collective sigh of relief when we hit the number we needed. That was still the case to a lesser degree for a few years after until we got enough numbers to make reasonably good predictions. The DeFur staff now has a good solid number to go by and I'd imagine adding staff will be high on their priority.