Comments | animecat: OMG WHAT?! ( Convention rant)

animecat

OMG WHAT?! ( Convention rant)

Oct 31, 2012 13:42

Okay, seriously. I can understand a new convention that's just starting up has some growing pains. Yeah, that's to be expected. But correct me if I'm wrong in feeling that this new convention just doesn't have their shit together. While I've removes names etc to keep form being terribly incriminating (and because I'm not trying to start drama over ( Read more... )

Comments 19

kalika_tybera October 31 2012, 18:56:19 UTC

Oh wow... that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Yeah, I totally agree with you that that's nowhere near enough time to plan (and ridiculous they'd send the email the same day as dealer reg cut off!) and the juried system sounds like a big problem.

I've only ever had really bad experiences with one dealer room that I thought was very poorly run (not naming the con here, but if you want to know email me), and sadly it was at a fairly established con.
I do however highly recommend FurFright for dealing. That con has been a total pleasure to deal at, and they treat their dealers very well (not to mention sales are always good there).

animecat October 31 2012, 20:23:05 UTC

Well, I've heard FurFright was having problems with the Dorsai, too. CT is a VERY long drive for me, so it's likely that I will never make the con, as much as I'd like to, for the same reason that I can't do Anthrocon. Distance.

shockwave77598 October 31 2012, 19:05:10 UTC

A successful first year con will be about 100-200 people. Furry Fiesta had 272 the first year (2009). If they think they'll have 500 people in year zero, they are in for quite a disappointment.

animecat October 31 2012, 19:16:58 UTC

Actually, Istanbul told me there were over 400 the first year, and that was a compete surprise. I was there the first TFF and there did seem to be a rather lot of folks. And it was well run for a first year, but it also was being run by a lot of seasoned, experienced folks. So, exception rather than the rule.

shockwave77598 October 31 2012, 19:35:55 UTC

We may be confusing terms. Cons their first year oftentimes start at year zero, since nobody has a clue what to expect. In 2009, we had 272. In 2010, we had 780. 2011 saw 1034 attendees and we had 1210 guests this year. Yeah, explosive growth. And all the problems that come with said explosive growth, hehehe.

Even MFF, which grew out of Duckon and thus had an established fanbase before launch, had 388 fans its first year. I doubt this gent with such little experience and established fanbase can garner even a third of that. Which is not a problem; remember that MFM started as a pizza party in a hotel with about a dozen people.

animecat October 31 2012, 20:25:02 UTC

I might be mistaken, then. I was at the 2009 con and when I spoke to Istanbul, he gave us a rather large number, but its not important now. The growth for TFF has been astounding, and I'm happy to have been a part of that con ever since. I'm happy to see it thrive.

But yes, we agree that a first year con should not have such a high expected attendance, especially that it's not in a huge metro area.

Thread 6

growly October 31 2012, 19:11:07 UTC

I seriously doubt this con will even happen at all, with how poorly they seem to be running things. If they get more than a couple of dealers signed up, I will be amazed. I wish them luck of course, but it just kinda seems like they aren't ready to have their first year be this year.

animecat October 31 2012, 20:25:25 UTC

I wish them luck too, I have a feeling they'll need it.

wicked_sairah October 31 2012, 19:36:33 UTC

Sounds like its being run by the folks who tired to start that Idaho con years ago. Ugh.. I would stay away from that.

animecat October 31 2012, 20:25:58 UTC

It's not the same folks, but I'm seeing a lot of the same over-exuberance and overly high expectation, yes.

crssafox October 31 2012, 19:57:22 UTC

From my experience, some cons do jury in artists, AWA does so with their artist's alley but not their dealer's room. And honestly, furry dealer's rooms tend to be more along the lines of anime cons' artist alleys. But at the same time, I don't know of a single furry con that juries a dealer's room, especially not a first year convention, which needs to be attracting as many people as possible, NOT picking and choosing who gets to vend ( ... )

animecat October 31 2012, 20:30:15 UTC

I understand about variety, but having similar vendor items encourages better pricing options, which is good for consumers. There's room for all. I can understand being selective about vendors if you're having 100-200+ vendors in the same space to try and provide variety. But to be honest, most furry cons don't have those kind of spaces and there's not a ton of variety in fur con dealer's rooms to start with, so....

I'm not going to push, I just felt the convention had a right to know why a potential felt they way they did in the manner the con approached them. If you don't tell them what you feel is wrong, how can you expect them to fix it?

crssafox October 31 2012, 20:45:32 UTC

Oh I agree. The problem is, with most people that try to start up furry conventions and have huge "strict" rules like this, they will have it set in their heads already that they know what they're doing and why should they listen to anyone else? Which is a shame, really, because those are usually the people that NEED the advice the most. The fact that they never bothered getting back to you and then didn't even bother to answer your questions, at that? It almost sounds like they don't even WANT vendors. The people they mass e-mailed probably just inquired with the same things you did, and the con person took it as "Hey! We really want to sell at your con!" Uhhh, no. XD
(And on a related note, it was REALLY unprofessional of them to NOT bcc everyone, leaving all the e-mail addresses out in the open!)