The question of how it was actually meant to work is fascinating, and I must admit having seen for-profit events struggle before, I was kinda waiting for the penny to drop at some point. At the same time, it's not the first time I've heard of, say, art show panels being shared or rented out from a pan-fandom association. However, in that case the events were in essentially the similar locations (i.e. the same state), so it made a lot of sense. Perhaps that is one reason there was a rush to build up the number of events, as it allows capital to pay itself back more quickly. Assuming, of course, you actually make a profit - which I guess is easier if you don't pay employees and creditors, including the taxman . . .
It's also not uncommon for con staff to serve at two or more events - but it may be less wise for people to be higher-level staff at more than one event in the same fandom, as I could see conflict of interest issues there. And of course, it makes the whole group fragile; if someone goes, every event is likely to be impacted.
Websites are similar with respect to capital - monster server investments are an outlier; the only hardware Inkbunny owns is a tertiary micro-server sitting under my desk. Where it differs is that while in theory you can share hardware, you might do better to just buy - or lease - less hardware, like a smaller VM. Service companies can usually cut better deals than you can - and if you don't need the latest hardware, pricing can be very reasonable. (Though dedicated hosting on monthly up to three-year leases is often a better deal than the per-hour/minute/second cloud services.)
[In case anyone was wondering: this story is five paragraphs now, but that's because it got split during editing.]
The question of how it was actually meant to work is fascinating, and I must admit having seen for-profit events struggle before, I was kinda waiting for the penny to drop at some point. At the same time, it's not the first time I've heard of, say, art show panels being shared or rented out from a pan-fandom association. However, in that case the events were in essentially the similar locations (i.e. the same state), so it made a lot of sense. Perhaps that is one reason there was a rush to build up the number of events, as it allows capital to pay itself back more quickly. Assuming, of course, you actually make a profit - which I guess is easier if you don't pay employees and creditors, including the taxman . . .
It's also not uncommon for con staff to serve at two or more events - but it may be less wise for people to be higher-level staff at more than one event in the same fandom, as I could see conflict of interest issues there. And of course, it makes the whole group fragile; if someone goes, every event is likely to be impacted.
Websites are similar with respect to capital - monster server investments are an outlier; the only hardware Inkbunny owns is a tertiary micro-server sitting under my desk. Where it differs is that while in theory you can share hardware, you might do better to just buy - or lease - less hardware, like a smaller VM. Service companies can usually cut better deals than you can - and if you don't need the latest hardware, pricing can be very reasonable. (Though dedicated hosting on monthly up to three-year leases is often a better deal than the per-hour/minute/second cloud services.)
[In case anyone was wondering: this story is five paragraphs now, but that's because it got split during editing.]