Note: This is a two-part article on the bid process for hosting KASCON. The second part will appear on Thursday.

Each year in the spring, a campus somewhere in the United States hosts the Korean American Students Conference. KASCON attracts between 200 to 400 students from all over the country, but is usually dominated by students from the region where it is hosted. KASCON’s main draw is the opportunity for Korean American students from various universities to come and mingle. It has, in effect, become a sort of “meat market” for those looking to meet other Korean Americans. The other draw, for more serious attendants, is the roster of speakers, usually consisting of well-known Korean American politicians, writers, artists, academics, and businessmen.

KASCON is organized and run by highly-motivated students of the host school, who form their own KASCON Board to take care of logistics and programming. The Mirae Foundation, which is a nonprofit founded in 1991, is the advisory body that selects the host each year and serves as the parental eye for each conference. It is composed of former board members from previous KASCONs and is highly selective about who it lets into its circle. Being a former Executive Director of a KASCON does not ensure membership into Mirae.

(interview with KASCON20 Executive Director Brian Cho, after the jump!)

Where’s the Bid Info?

One of the mysteries about Mirae is its reluctance to heavily promote the bidding process for KASCON. Each year, schools that are interested in hosting KASCON the following year must submit a comprehensive bid packet that includes challenging items such as the theme, a budget and fundraising plan, ideas for lodging and venues, support letters from university administrators, and the types of programs that the conference would offer. With less than two months until KASCON21 in San Diego, one would think that Mirae would have put out notices for fielding bids for KASCON22, but nowhere on their website do they have any mention of how a school can go about putting a bid packet together (www.miraefoundation.com).

The situation seems to be a repeat of last year, when Mirae’s silence on the bidding process resulted in delays and extended deadlines. San Diego was selected as the KASCON21 host months after the usual host selection date. It could very well be that Mirae’s lack of a full-time staff (its members all have their own professional careers and volunteer their time) has made it difficult to execute adminstrative tasks such as publicizing the bidding process or offering help and guidance to interested schools.

To get more information about the bid process, we spoke with Brian Cho, who was the Executive Director of KASCON20 at Princeton University. He explained the process that Princeton went through to ensure its berth as KASCON host.

On the Bid Packet
Brian Cho: If you want to host KASCON22, you’ll have to submit a bid packet a month or two before KASCON21… The bid packet needs to be a comprehensive presentation of what you hope your KASCON to be and how you will go about making it a successful conference. Obviously, if you win the bid, the conference will almost never be exactly like the bid you submitted, but that’s ok. The bid process is really there for Mirae to see how you guys think and if you have the potential to pull it off.

On What Happens After Submitting the Bid Packet
BC: After you submit the bid, a team of approximately five people need to attend KASCON prior to the one you want to host and go through an interview process with Mirae… The interview seems to be a tool for Mirae to feel out your team and see how each team member interacts with others. They want to know that you can work with each other and that you have the leadership to host. For our bid interview, Mirae made our team have a mock meeting where our team had to come up with a strategy to avoid a $30,000 debt one week before the conference. So they also want to see if you can think on your feet. The bid interview for KASCON21, however, was very straight-forward without any surprises. So it varies from year to year, I guess.

Part 2 will contain Brian’s advice for interested schools, sample bid guidelines, and more.

To Be Continued…

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Posted by Peter Kang