My Experience at Wondercon - Saturday

Saturday is always the biggest day at any of these conventions, so I pulled out all the stops.  I had two volunteers: Laura and Rachel, who took care of the booth.  I also had two models who I had hired to walk around the front area in costume.  I did this because I had noticed that tons of photographers take pictures of cosplayers who look great.  I wanted to take advantage of this, and am I ever glad I did.  The costumes cost a couple hundred dollars, and so did the models, but they really grabbed attention.  They had just arrived and I had just given them the flyers to give out when there a line of photographers formed.  Before I left, they were literally mobbed by photographers as though they were celebrities.  I had intended for them just to give out business cards and/or flyers to select photographers when they felt it would be beneficial, but they went above and beyond, giving out flyers every time, and sometimes to non-photographers.  They got really excited about the characters and posed in character.  And they even posed with the books.  They were phenomenal, and I realized I had gotten my money’s worth.

To be clear, I didn’t not make a profit off of them.  Laura and Rachel were selling books upstairs, (far more than I sold all day Friday,) but the sales didn’t come close to the $400 I put into the models and their costumes.  But that wasn’t the point of Saturday or the convention in general.  It was to get attention, and I definitely got it.  At one point I passed someone who was talking about our models when we weren’t anywhere around them.  At another time I saw someone in a different part of the convention who asked if I was the one with the volcano.  People were getting to know who we were, and they were beginning to learn the name Relic Worlds.

I had also signed up to put on a game in the gaming area during the day.  This one was actually in the convention center, so taking the miniatures was much easier.  This once again got a lot of attention as people saw me moving the volcano, and they got to see the whole, six foot diorama set up.  The best part was that there was a slow moving line right next to the gaming area, and people kept gawking at it.  The game itself only had a few kids, but a bunch of people took flyers because they wanted to learn more.

Part way during the day we started telling people that they could have a free drink if they signed up for the mailing list, which went over well.  We had twice as many people signed up than completed the treasure hunt, so the mailing list grew.  We also figured out how the booth itself should look.  (It helped to have a volunteer who was a designer.)  I learned that the best look for me was to have all the books and flyers on one side of the table, a diorama on the other side of the table, the horizontal banner at the front of the table, and the two vertical banners of the books in the back, with the name tag the convention provides hanging on the wall between them.

And prominently displayed all on its own either in the middle, or on the far side, is the all-important mailing list.

This setup was one of the most important things I learned that day.  I also learned that I need to have a separate person to run a game if I do that, (which is a good idea because it spreads out my exposure.)  It’s also a worthwhile expenditure to have cosplay models who catch a lot of attention at the front.  But it’s important to not just have them in the outfits of your story, but rather a mixture of something established, (one was in the Princess Leia slave outfit and the other was in steampunk.)

Next week I’ll conclude this story with Sunday at Wondercon.

Wondercon

So I had a really good time at Wondercon, and I have a few thoughts about it.

First, and most importantly, as I was predicting, it's taking over for Comic-Con. It started at just the right time to pull the core away from the larger convention. Here's how.

Wondercon originally was taking place in San Francisco. Two years ago they had to renovate the convention center, so they moved it temporarily to Anaheim. The move was intended to be temporary, and served as a testing ground to move Comic-Con there. The contract between Comic-Con and the city of San Diego was coming up for renewal, and if the trial convention worked, Comic-Con might move there. San Diego countered by promising to expand their convention center.

The trial convention was a disaster. Parking was a mess, first of all. Not only was there a shortage of it, the convention had not made a deal with Disney to allow overflow parking to move there, and they had no backup plan, so attendees had to guess at places in the general area; and since Disney takes up most of the surrounding locations, there are few places to go. I personally had to walk for more than a mile with my heavy gear and books. The shopping mall where I parked had no idea why everyone was going there, and were not happy that their parking spots were being taken up by non-shoppers. The organization at the convention was also very poor. The computer system apparently had problems as people who had bought tickets online were not able to get in because of some glitch that had lost their information. Those who did get in had to buy their tickets at one end then pick them up clear at the other end of the convention center, then walk clear back again to the opposite end of the convention. To top it all off, it rained that day. There were several leaks and garbage cans were placed around the convention floor to catch the water coming through. Here's the kicker to that: there were three floors above us, so the water was getting through all those levels.

So Comic-Con stayed in San Diego, and Wondercon returned to San Francisco. But the organizers in Anaheim decided to try it again. 2013 went a bit better, though their parking was still a problem.

What has worked in Wondercon's favor is Comic-Con's complete ineptitude. Despite a promise from the city, the convention center really hasn't expanded much. And despite clear interest from fans and a desire from companies to show more material, the convention itself has not expanded. They continue to keep the convention down to four days rather than going for a week, like Sundance Film Festival, or two weeks, like Coachella. Such an expansion would ease congestion and provide opportunities for more people to come. Instead, they sell the same number of tickets to an ever-expanding customer base, thus making it impossible to please people who want to come.

This expanded customer base, by the way, is primarily people from the mainstream who have little interest in comic books, science fiction, or fantasy. It's celebrity seekers who are following the large corporations that are sending their celebrities and marketing experts to the convention to advertise and make lots of money. It's become a fad, and people who want to see the latest thing are going. These are temporary fans, and when it is no longer the in place to go, they will move on.

The base fans, meanwhile, have been squeezed out. In order to get a ticket now, you have to state your interest, then watch their website for updates because when they announce the tickets will go on sale, (6 a.m. on a certain date,) you have to be on your computer and start clicking buy at the moment they go on sale. Then, if you're lucky enough, you'll get listed in a lottery and they will draw randomly as to whether or not you are allowed in. So, a dedicated fan who has been going every year, (some for decades,) has to literally win the lottery in order to get in.

Some people who have been going to Comic-Con have noticed a change in the fan base lately. Fewer people in costume and more people who seem less interested in the products. This is why.

Wondercon does not have the fame Comic-Con does. It hasn't attracted the mainstream audiences who are only wanting to follow what's popular. As a result, it's a large concentration of true fans. It's great for sellers like me who get more from a small number of sci fi fans than a large number of people who don't care. And it's better for fans who want to see what they're interested in rather than having every television show and movie shoved down their throat whether it matches their genre or not.

There is a bit of a fear, however, that the stigma of Comic-Con will follow. First, and perhaps most disturbing, as you walked into the convention center you passed under the gaze of James Spader on a poster of The Blacklist. A fine show, I admit, but it has nothing to do with Comic books, sci fi, or fantasy. It's just a corporation wanting to sell their product to a large audience, just like at Coimc-Con.

And then there's the parking. Still insufficient, but worst of all, incompetent. When I tried to park, I was told by a guard to go to the lot on Western Street. So I did. They told me to go to the lot on Katella Street, so I did, and they told me to go to the lot I first went to. So they were literally sending the attendees in circles. When I informed them of this, they didn't believe me, and they refused to get on their walki-talkis to confirm what I was saying. I had to go to the shopping center I parked at two years ago and lug my stuff a full mile to the convention.

But they did seem to fix the problem with the tickets, and with the rain, so that's good.