Read more in this series here.

The party was finally over, and it was deemed a success. We had tons of great feedback both in the moment and later on. We sent out a post-attendee survey and generally heard the same issues reported by several people — cost of the breakfast buffet (out of our control), no massage tables in the suites (they were too small for that), distance from the airport (we tried, I promise), and so on. But people were very happy — especially those for whom it was their first spanking party for whatever reason (mostly location; it’s pretty easy to drive to Atlanta from anywhere in the southeast).

We learned a lot of lessons throughout the process of creating this spanking party:

1. Start slow — don’t just assume you’re going to be able to have a group and a party with no preparation. Build up anticipation.
2. Find a good location — we’re very pleased with the hotel we selected, but unfortunately it is rather far from the airport. We’re working on a solution for that, but we’re staying in the same hotel for 2025. We’ve already signed the contract.
3. Plan for unexpected costs — while that seems difficult to reconcile, project management practices actually advocate for two levels of reserve (contingency and management). We used both because we weren’t expecting a 25 percent service charge and a 7.75 percent sales tax to be assessed on everything we paid for at the hotel.
4. Build a strong team — bring on people you trust, people who are dependable, people who are going to show up to meetings and contribute. We had a couple of our original coordinators back out for various personal reasons, and that does happen, so be prepared with alternates.
5. Use good vendors — our vendors for the school event and the dungeon were both great (Cheeky and A51, respectively). Communication was a little bit of a challenge at times, but once they were at the event, they did an outstanding job. Be patient and remember your vendors have other commitments as well.
6. Be careful with ticketing companies — it was hidden way down in the Ts&Cs that we couldn’t withdraw any money from our ticketing account until after the event, and we didn’t know that. We had to change vendors, which ended up being a positive thing because we were able to use Paypal (and Paypal allows you to pay in installments). The ticketing company we originally went with did give us our money exactly when they promised, though, so I have nothing bad to say about them except for the withdrawal misunderstanding.
7. People buy tickets late — while we did manage to hit our first break-even point by the end of January, we still sold a bunch more tickets in February and March. Plan ahead to spend more money that you’ll have to reimburse yourself later, once people actually buy their tickets.
8. Don’t freak out when unexpected things happen — for example, our original DJ had a health issue and couldn’t make our party, so we had to find another one. Fortunately I had a friend who could do it for a reasonable price (he ended up costing less than our original DJ) but I was worried there for a minute. Risks can become opportunities.
9. You will never have enough volunteers — prioritize where you want your volunteers to be, because no matter how many you have, it’ll never be enough for everything. Have plans in place for when you don’t have a volunteer handy.
10. Overbuy — it’s better to have extra stuff than not enough stuff, especially when it comes to food and drink. That said, maybe next year we don’t buy quite as many pizzas.
11. Space out the classes a little more — ten minutes between them is simply not enough time.
12. Accept space limitations — we used literally as much space as possible for our Spanking Carousel, and it still wasn’t enough because it’s a wildly-popular event at any spanking party, no matter what it’s called. We also had to deal with space limitations for Cheeky (our school event). Know what your hotel can provide and work within the confines of it; they’re doing the best they can, just like you are.
13. Be flexible on registration — there are going to be people who can’t register during open registration times. Make sure your registration equipment is available to the entire leadership team so they can check people in if your registration coordinator is busy (which can certainly happen; we want our coordinators to have fun too).
14. Deal with issues swiftly — we had, I believe, three issues with attendees over the course of the weekend. Each time we dealt with them as quickly and efficiently as possible. We later found out about a fourth issue — someone had staged a spanking photo in the pool area, which in some ways was more serious because it could’ve gotten us kicked out of the hotel. In order to make sure you can deal with issues swiftly, make sure your policies and procedures are clearly set-out and acceded to by all attendees.
15. Have fun — you’re not just here to make things great for others; you’re here to have fun as well. Make time for yourself during the weekend. It helps when you have a large team.

And there you have it: the creation of a spanking party. Hopefully you enjoyed these posts, and hopefully you join us for GASP 2025 in March of next year. We’d love to see you there.