About Volunteering at Gatecon...
Volunteering at Gatecon is awesome. It can also be hard work, depending on what job you get. (Building and striking sets requires some lifting and hammering and painting, so is a bit more strenuous than some other jobs.) But here's the thing - Gatecon won't work without the volunteers. Everything in this post is based on my own personal experiences at Gatecon.
From the registration table to the merch table in the dealer's room to the room roamers in the ballroom and everyone in between, all of the jobs are important.
I've done a lot of volunteer jobs at Gatecon, so let me run down a few of them for you:
Registration: You are responsible for making sure everyone gets their packets, which includes their badges and any goodies that come with it. You may also get questions about the convention. But - you also get to see TONS of people as they collect their tickets and goodies. You're probably the first view of Gatecon a lot of the folks will have. That's important! Also - you never know who will walk up to the registration table - it's sort of like a hospitality booth and information desk. People will come to you with anything!
Merch table: This is in the Dealer's Room. These are typically things like Gatecon merch that people are picking up and sometimes other things. The time I worked the table, we were set up next to a nifty dealer who had interesting jewelry. So you can see some really fun stuff. And you can see more people here too - because they're picking up goodies like at registration.
Stagecrew: Setting up chairs and putting out water bottles for the stage guests. Making sure the mics are on and that the soundboard knows which guest has which mic. Helping out Allan with whatever he might need for his next trip out on stage as MC. Generally just being polite and helpful backstage. And quiet if you're near the stage area, because the folks out front *can* hear you.
Main Auditorium: This is the mic runners and room roamers and door guards. Mic runners, well, they run the mics around the room so the audience can ask questions. They kneel a lot. This is not the job for you if you have bad knees. Room Roamers help people find seats in the beginning of the panels and keep watch for people using flash after the first 5 minutes of the panel and keep a lookout for people videotaping during the panels (videotaping is a no-no). Door guards direct folks to use the correct exits during the panels so the light levels stay as normalized as possible for the official convention video. These are the folks that help the panels themselves run smoothly in the audience area.
Auction: There's cataloging of all the items that come in for the auction - this is pretty cool, b/c we get some really neat stuff! Then there's keeping track of all of the items as they're sold during the auction itself. (If you think this sounds like an easy task, you have never been to a Gatecon auction!)
Those are the jobs I've done directly. Now, here are a few that I haven't done, but I've been to enough Gatecons to know most of the basics.
Photo Sessions: Taking money and printing receipts for attendees when they purchase photo ops is one of the primary functions. (There can be technology issues, but we power through!) There's also usually one or two folks around to guide attendees and guests to their 'marks' for getting their photos. (I've been through this enough that I know it can be like herding cats - sometimes the guests like to play hide and seek :/ )
Autograph Sessions: Typically this involves sitting quietly at the guest's table taking payment and making change for the autographs and photos they have for sale so the guest can focus their time on signing the autographs and sometimes chatting with the attendees.
Guest Services: These people are designated to move the guests through the convention so they can arrive on time for their panels and other events. They're sometimes also 'gophers' for the guests, so the guests don't have to leave what they're doing to go get a water or something. They also keep an eye on the general goings-on of the convention. Very, very rarely is this a gig one gets on their first volunteer assignment. These volunteers are vetted by the Gatecon organizers, most of them long-time Gatecon volunteers. Long way of saying, if this isn't the assignment you were given, don't be upset, most people don't get this assignment.
I think that's pretty much everything that isn't one of the more specialized roles like running the cameras or the soundboard. If you have any specific questions about any of the jobs, feel free to ask and I'll answer what I can based on previous Gatecon experiences.
