One of my all-time favorite side-hustles continues to be working conventions. Most cities host conventions of various sizes, but if you live in a larger city with numerous venues that host this type of event there are a number of opportunities to make money working at conventions as a side-hustle. If you enjoy being around people, aren’t afraid that you might end up standing for part of your shift and like to be helpful then this may be the side-hustle for you.
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How to Find Convention Work
If you live in a larger sized city, finding convention focused work is surprisingly straightforward. You can check your local Craigslist listings. They will have posts for upcoming events, current and last minute staffing needs. As convention season ramps up, you’ll likely see this type of listing pretty frequently. There are also apps that help connect workers to short-term positions that people can use to find gigs quickly. I am not endorsing any of the apps because I haven’t used them personally. I do know of people who have had great experiences using them.
Who Works at Conventions
In my experience, there are a wide range of people who staff these events. There are folks who are working full-time and looking to pick up hours to save money towards a goal or to pay off debt such as student loans. There are entrepreneurs who like bringing in some predictable income as they grow and build their own businesses, retirees who want to supplement their income and students working their first jobs.
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When is Convention Season
Conventions are held all year around but there are some definite high and low seasons during the year. The convention season kicks off in January and really picks up from Spring-Fall. With many events being hosted during this time. In fact, most of the conventions that I personally attend tend to happen between March-October. Down season tends to start towards the end of October, beginning of November when people are slowing down and gearing up for Holiday season and Holiday focused travel. There is one major conference that I keep planning to attend in November (right before Thanksgiving break) that I keep missing because I’m all tapped out of energy by the time it rolls around. I just am not interested in chit chatting with people and networking in November. Then things are dead from mid-November through mid-January. Plan accordingly.
What Types of Convention Work Are There
There’s a ton of work available at most convention centers. There are several tiers of staffing needed to run most convention centers.
- Permanent On Site Staffing-These are part-time or full-time employees who work directly for the Convention Center. These positions would include the following:
- Administrative staffing-There are so many administrative tasks to pay attention to and the admin team assists with those tasks.
- Greeting crew-Not a ton of people, but there’s usually a few folks who welcome visitors into the building
- Cleaning crew-These massive spaces are needing to be cleaned all-day long especially when a convention is being held.
- Event teams who are also supported by third party staffing
- Special Events Staffing
- Food service teams-Each convention may opt to have food and beverage made available to its attendees. In order to do this there is a minimum spend that the event has to agree to. With that said, food services aren’t always made available during an event. What types of services do these teams providee?
- Coffee and drinks kiosks
- Snacks
- Kiosks that sell meals
- Cashier services
- Food service teams-Each convention may opt to have food and beverage made available to its attendees. In order to do this there is a minimum spend that the event has to agree to. With that said, food services aren’t always made available during an event. What types of services do these teams providee?
- Additional Convention Events Staffing
- Badge scanners-Some events want to keep track of how many people attended sessions, or are keeping track of session attendance for Continuing Education purposes
- Registration desk support-One of the most important roles at an event is registration support. This could include helping attendees print out their own credentials, fixing registrant details or printing out badges. Registration desk staff will often hand out swag to attendees as well.
- Directional assistance-This position helps people find where they need to go. Convention centers or convention spaces are usually huge or tricky to navigate. This person has an understand of the facility layout. Typically, if you’re new to the building you would just walk around to figure things out before your shift.
- Bag stuffing-When a conference has hundreds or thousands of bags, they need help stuffing them! These shifts happen prior to the event and involve stuffing swag, marketing collateral, treats and more.
- Security-Additional security is typically hired for each event being hosted in a venue.
- Special event support-If a convention has a party, buses running from hotels to the venue or there are a huge number of attendees departing or arriving at the same time-typically additional staffing support is brought in to assist with the process.
- Promo model-You don’t necessarily have to be an actual “model” to do promo model work. You may be hired by an exhibitor to wear an item or demonstrate how something works.
- Brand Ambassador-One of my all time favorite side-gigs! Brand ambassadors typically pass out and share a product with attendees. They also have to know the talking points of a brand for the specific event they’re working. On site team will train you on what to say.
- Booth support-This person helps out the booth vendor. They are there to answer questions, be there when it’s busy, to work whenever the other person is on break and offer general support.
- Set Up and Break down-Many convention centers will have union workers doing most of this, but companies and brands may still share on Craigslist that they’re needing additional support setting up their booth.
- Technical support-If you’re an audio visual person (AV) enjoy helping to set up presentations and slides-this role is for you.
What to Consider About Convention Work
Working at conventions is not for everyone and I think it’s important to know about the good, the bad and the ugly of working these events.
- Standing All Day-Depending on the role you’re hired on to do, you may end up standing all day long. I’ve stood for 12 hours and that’s not unusual. Some events will bring in chairs for their staff, but some convention clients are adementally against doing that.
- You Have to Keep the Client Happy-The Client is whoever is the lead for running the convention that you’re working. You also need to keep the Client’s team happy. Basically, you don’t want to end up on their personal radar for anything bad. Only for good things!
- Your Scheduled Hours can Be Cut-Usually this doesn’t happen until towards the end of a convention. I have also found that some clients will avoid cutting hours because that may impact their marketing budget for upcoming year. Either way, do be aware that your hours can be cut.
- Hours Can Be Added-Happily, you can also end up having hours added to your schedule. Other workers might not show up, the event staff may find that they need additional staffing for a specific role or they accidentally understaffed. The larger the event the more likely you may end up with more hours. But, don’t go into a side-gig thinking this will happen. Instead, be pleasantly surprised if it does.
- Some Third Party Event Organizers are HARD to Work With-One of the things that might surprise you is how difficult some clients are to work with. I’ve found that third party event organizers often who is running the entire event. They will work with a set number of events for the year and then staff them. They are under a lot of stress and pressure and sometimes that can roll downhill to third party staff. Don’t take it personally. Just do your work and stay focused.
- Some Third Party Event Organizers are INCREDIBLE to Work With-There are teams that are absolutely amazing to work with and I’ve had the pleasure of supporting for more than one event. These are the folks who will feed all staff, make sure you have breaks and understand that there are all types of people working in these roles.
- Finding food during your shift can be challenging-If you’re working a convention that has opted NOT to have food kiosks made available to their attendees the supporting staff will also be impacted by that decision. I always bring a lunch so that I’m not having to roam around a massive convention center, walk outside and buy food. Then, I have to make my way back to wherever I was working. A complete pain in the butt. Food is also expensive inside these venues. I don’t want to work an hour in order to pay for a meal. In my hometown of Denver the current minimum wage is $17.29 an hour. A meal here will be around that much.
- Storing your personal items-Some venues have lockers, some do not. Keep this in mind when you are preparing to work your shift. You do want to keep your personal items secure and safe at all times.
What Not to Do
It feels like basic work etiquette is a pretty straightforward process. But, I’ve definitely seen people get fired for some avoidable mistakes.
- Stay off of your cellphone! No playing games, no watching videos, no texting people, etc. This is one of the hardest habits most workers struggle with. I tend to have a small notebook and will write down notes if I’m in a role that I can participate in that activity without it being distracting.
- Engaging in conflict with anyone during the event-Look, sometimes people will get on your last nerve, but engaging in any kind of conflict with an attendee or staff person is a HUGE NO. DON’T DO THIS.
- You’re not getting paid to:
- Put yourself in harms way
- Deal with any situation that is escalating
- Try to manage unreasonable expectations.
- You’re not getting paid to:
Working Conventions in Different Cities
I will never forget working a convention and discovering that one of my new colleagues was from Texas! This guy told me that he regularly traveled to other towns and would pick up work at convention centers in order to balance out the cost of the trip. He would work during the parts of the day when his friends and family were working. Then when they were free, he would hang out with them. I thought this was a brilliant hack. But, there are a few things to consider.
- Keeping track of your tax documents-From the different companies that you partner with.
- Travel expenses-I think this works well if you’re able to work at least 30+ hours. Why? You have to pay for accommodation, flight or gas depending on how you arrive in the city. And food! If you’re flying Frontier and then staying at a hostel each night-that makes sense. Especially if the hostel includes a breakfast. Or, you have some mileage points saved up to cover initial expenses.
- Transportation expenses to the venue-You have to travel back and forth to the venue. Make sure that it makes sense. I know someone who relies heavily on ride shares as a way to get back and forth to work. Unfortunately, that eats up A LOT of their income.
There are still some more ways to make money at convention that are related to attending a conference as an attendee, vendor or sponsor. But, for now, this is enough information to help people get started with making money working at conventions as a side-hustle.
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