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One year before the exchange:
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Put together an
exchange team
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Find dates. Choose a few dates
that don’t conflict with another city’s event. Check out the
calendar to find an opening.
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Reserve venues. You’ll need
venues for
evening dances on Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, and Sunday night. Find
after-hours venues for Friday through
Sunday nights (if you plan to host after-hours on Sunday). Also start thinking
about
daytime events on Saturday and Sunday,
but these are not critical to setting the exchange date. Depending on the
availability of large, danceable spaces in your city, you may need to look at
dates eight months to a year or more out.
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Reserve the date. Just write
us
mail to let us know the dates you’re
thinking about for your exchange. It’s first come first serve. Also, if you’re
not positive about the date you want, but don’t want to lose it to another city,
just let us know the multiple dates that you’re interested in as “tentative
dates” and we’ll mark you up as such on the calendar.
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Create a banner. Exchanges are
represented on the LindyExchange site by banners. There are only two rules for
banners:
- Resolution should be 270x72 pixels
- Banners should not be too terribly
offensive.
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Put together a budget. Items
may include: venues, bands, paid staff, potential compensated registrations (for
organizers and other angels of altruistic martyrdom), food (if you have it),
sound engineers, t-shirts, Web hosting, and any equipment rentals. This is also
where you determine how much you’re going to charge for the weekend package or
by the dance, and how many people you expect.
Tips:
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Budget for the absolute minimum number of people
you expect to attend. That means if you expect 250-350 dancers to show up,
budget for 250. If you exceed that number, you can use the proceeds for next
year’s exchange! If not, then you don’t lose money (or your car, house, virtue,
or anything else you have to sell to cover the debt).
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Try not to include
lessons or workshops when planning your
exchange.
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There are so many large events these days from
some of the major lindy capitals that a small but dedicated group of quality
dancers tend towards the smaller more intimate events that attract fewer than
150 people. The smaller events lend themselves to a very social party-like
atmosphere where people get to know each other and come out of it as friends.
Nurture this as much as possible. Reserve at least one event that is 50% social
and 50% dancing where drinking is permitted and there's at least some food. Make
sure there is a significant amount of loungeable furniture and a relaxed area
that's near the dance floor but obviously separate.
Step 2
- Six Months Out
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