About Volunteering at Icon
Information in this page is for people who are interested in volunteering during Icon. Even if you've already volunteered before, it's still recommended that you read this page, to be informed of the changes that occurred this year about the festival volunteers.
Volunteers are the heart of the festival
Every man who comes to Icon is assisted by the volunteers – weather he purchases a ticket to an event and enters one, interested in information or directions, lecturers or hosts a game or another activity, etc.
Apart from the great help it assists, volunteering is also a rare opportunity to meet many others the will volunteer with you and share some of your interests, and other fans from forums and communities.
As the festival staff, the volunteers get to experience Icon from the inside: watch the backstage events; get to know, learn and work with the senior staff and operators of Icon, as well as more Sci-Fi conventions; help the festival's public, talk with the lecturers and hosts and even meet the guests of honor.
And what's most important – volunteering is fun!
Every year we have some special bonuses – presents and prizes, events and gatherings – especially for the festival's volunteers, and this year more than ever – with events before, during and after Icon for the volunteers.
Notice: you can only apply for volunteering from the age of 15 and above, while under the age of 18, parents' approval is needed.
This year, there's a slight change in volunteering for different roles. What does that mean?
It means instead of volunteering for a certain role, you volunteer for a team that combines several roles which are similar by the knowledge and skills required for them.
The teams that will work before and during the festival are:
Sales and customer's service team – this team combines all roles connected with the festival's public and customers. During Icon the team is responsible of selling events' tickets, selling festival products in the festival's stand, and manning the information's stand. Before the festival, this team will man the information center and the pre-Icon sales center that will run in the Tel-Aviv Cinematheque, for about a month before the festival.
Logistics team – this team will combine the roles needed to run the festival. During Icon this team performs all jobs needed for the fluent logistic run of the Festival, such as – managing the festival's equipment, luggage storage, gofers helping the facility managers and many more. Before Icon, this team will assist the senior staff with several tasks, mainly building the festival's site.
Theaters team – roles combined in this team are connected with the fluent run of events in the theaters. That includes: projectionists who manage the projection's equipment, stewards in charge of audience's entrance and order. Before Icon this team will assist preparing the projection material and other contents.
New volunteers who are not sure which team do they fit the most, are welcomed to contact the manpower staff, we would be happy to consult you.
Apart from volunteering during the festival, all volunteers and operators are welcomed to assist building and dismantling the festival's site, during the two days before it, and one day past.
Free tickets
Those who volunteer during the festival, get a free entrance to events of his choice on their volunteering days. The way of getting the tickets is also different this year. Every volunteer will get a daily punch card, which will allow him getting tickets to the daily events. The volunteer will go with this punch card to the ticket's stand and will ask the tickets for the events he's interested in participating.
Please notice! Since there's a limited number of tickets for every event, we cant assure you there will be tickets left for all of your chosen events. You can ask us to keep for you tickets to five events during all days of the festival. We will do the best we can to get you tickets to three of them.
The sooner you sing up for volunteering, the better the chance is you will get the shifts you wanted and all the tickets you asked for. In setting the shifts and saving tickets, there's a priority for those who will volunteer during all days of the festival.
Even if you will not be signed for volunteering, don't worry. There's a waiting list, and it's very possible you'll be called in at the last moment.
Training
About a month before the festival, we will set several events for training and guiding the different teams.
During the meetings you will get all the details about your role in the festival, know the people you'll wok with and locations you'll work in, and will get to ask all your last-moment questions. If you will explore further, you can get to know much better the festival, it's contents and events and the backstage of it's events.
For any further questions you can display the FAQ page, ask them in the festival forum, or e-mail the following address for Liat Shachar, Icon's manpower manager - :personnel@icon.org.il