Convention Appearances 2018

Conventions and other events, fandom, stores, manga-ka, animators, and other people, etc
davemerrill
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Re: Convention Appearances 2018

Post by davemerrill »

I'm finally getting around to saying how much fun I had at AWA this year; seemed to go pretty well over all. Thursday was more crowded than usual, the elevators on Friday and Sunday were impossible. In spite of the schedule times my events went well and seemed to be reasonably well attended. I didn't buy a lot in the dealer's room, but Otaku Joe had some amazing old stuff. Great to see a lot of you there, and Drew I am glad your family got through the crisis OK!
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Parking was crazy because of the facility's new guidelines, which in turn are the result of the new Braves stadium, which made getting to and from that part of town a little more hectic. Paid attendance was a little down (700 less) from last year, and I believe this is because the convention was a week earlier (and hence a week closer to Dragoncon), and partially because of hinky hotel registration software problems that resulted in a few people being unable to get rooms and just saying "to heck with it" and making other plans. We MAY be at critical mass for the convention scene in Atlanta. There are a lot of shows in the area now, fans have a lot of options and can easily be exhausted, overspent, or simply over-scheduled by the time AWA rolls around.

You couldn't tell it from walking around the show, though. The place was packed from one end of the Galleria to the other end of the Waverly. I'm fine with the convention staying the size it is. It could even get a little smaller. We could lose some of the more enthusiastic party-focused people who only show up to get wasted and break their faces when they pass out on the hard marble floors of the Waverly lobby, for instance.

I had a good time myself. Saw a bunch of friends, didn't spend too much money, ate a lot of good food, had a reasonably successful Saturday night gathering that didn't involve too much prep and that people seemed to enjoy, and all the pre-show stress seemed to pay off in fun, which is really all I can ask for.
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Drew_Sutton
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Re: Convention Appearances 2018

Post by Drew_Sutton »

Yep, glad to report that mom and baby are resting well the past week, still in their combined arrangement!
davemerrill wrote:We MAY be at critical mass for the convention scene in Atlanta. There are a lot of shows in the area now, fans have a lot of options and can easily be exhausted, overspent, or simply over-scheduled by the time AWA rolls around.

You couldn't tell it from walking around the show, though. The place was packed from one end of the Galleria to the other end of the Waverly. I'm fine with the convention staying the size it is. It could even get a little smaller. We could lose some of the more enthusiastic party-focused people who only show up to get wasted and break their faces when they pass out on the hard marble floors of the Waverly lobby, for instance.

I had a good time myself. Saw a bunch of friends, didn't spend too much money, ate a lot of good food, had a reasonably successful Saturday night gathering that didn't involve too much prep and that people seemed to enjoy, and all the pre-show stress seemed to pay off in fun, which is really all I can ask for.
Interesting to think of the Atlanta market being at or near saturation; I definitely think you might be on to something. What little I saw the crowd and the vibe was good all around. Everyone was having a good time, even if a lot of people's definitions of good times were different.
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davemerrill
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Re: Convention Appearances 2018

Post by davemerrill »

it's kind of this way here in Toronto, but I'm still friends with a bunch of Atlanta people on social media and it seems like every single weekend there's a convention or a film screening or a cosplay meetup or a nerd trivia night or a geek burlesque or some kind of "nerd" focused event. There's a Dr Who convention and a Sherlock Holmes convention and a monster movie convention and a spy convention, there's a "comic con" that's a room full of dealers that's been happening for 20+ years, every few months somebody else comes into the market to start their own "comic con" event. Right now it's October so there's lots of Halloween stuff happening, and Halloween never. goes. away. Every eight months there's a Star Wars movie or a super hero movie that demands a commitment for being in the theater opening night. There's Dragoncon and Momocon and AWA and Seishuncon, there are two conventions in Chattanooga and one in Birmingham and one in Huntsville and one or two in Charlotte NC.

to drag this around to "old school otaku" territory, when I first got into fandom as a teenager with a part time job and access to a car, there was a similar kind of circuit we could do - Chattacon in January, MOC in March, Phoenixcon or Dixie-Trek in May, Atlanta Fantasy Fair in July, Dragoncon in August/September. There was an anime club meeting to go to every month and there were Star Trek and Dr. Who clubs monthly as well. There would be people you'd only see at these fandom gatherings and you'd know them by sight and they'd be a familiar face in the hallway or in the crowd, and some of those people would become lifelong friends and others would be remembered later as "whatever happened to that guy? You know, the one with the big glasses who did the "V The Miniseries" alien cosplay?"

But with the amount of events happening now, with the difficulty of getting from Point A to Point B in Atlanta traffic, with the expense that most of these events incur, I do not know how people do even half of this stuff. It's easy to see where somebody looks at an event on the calendar, does that mental calculation of How Much Cash Do I Have vs Who Else Is Going vs How Much Of A Hassle Is This Going To Be, and picks a show to *not* go to.

I do feel like this kind of fandom circuit behavior has a definite time limit, from about age 17 until the mid to late 20s. Then career and family take up all your free time. Once you start getting decent vacation time and maybe the kids are old enough to not need babysitters, then you might catch back up with the fandom world and see what you missed.
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DKop
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Re: Convention Appearances 2018

Post by DKop »

Oh man, don't forget that banging Sci Fi con at that shitty Dekalb mall and the JoeLanta (now ToyLanta) that both are in the month of March. That Sci-Fi con i'll never go back too, Drew can back me up on that. Toylanta was interesting to see middle to older men sewing Ultimate Soldier and GI Joe costumes together. The latter interested the heck outta me since I never knew there was a die hard fanbase behind GI Joe toys, so I got to know something new in fandom.

Oh yea, Southern Fried Gaming Expo was in June which had special cheater guest Billy Mitchell, which I wondered how he still went to the thing even after being proven he was a cheater. I came out of that with a booth at Toylanta with samples of his knock off Texas Pete sauce, which might have been Texas Pete with the con label on it:

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Drew_Sutton
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Re: Convention Appearances 2018

Post by Drew_Sutton »

davemerrill wrote: Wed Oct 03, 2018 8:03 am it's kind of this way here in Toronto, but I'm still friends with a bunch of Atlanta people on social media and it seems like every single weekend there's a convention or a film screening or a cosplay meetup or a nerd trivia night or a geek burlesque or some kind of "nerd" focused event. There's a Dr Who convention and a Sherlock Holmes convention and a monster movie convention and a spy convention, there's a "comic con" that's a room full of dealers that's been happening for 20+ years, every few months somebody else comes into the market to start their own "comic con" event. Right now it's October so there's lots of Halloween stuff happening, and Halloween never. goes. away. Every eight months there's a Star Wars movie or a super hero movie that demands a commitment for being in the theater opening night. There's Dragoncon and Momocon and AWA and Seishuncon, there are two conventions in Chattanooga and one in Birmingham and one in Huntsville and one or two in Charlotte NC.

to drag this around to "old school otaku" territory, when I first got into fandom as a teenager with a part time job and access to a car, there was a similar kind of circuit we could do - Chattacon in January, MOC in March, Phoenixcon or Dixie-Trek in May, Atlanta Fantasy Fair in July, Dragoncon in August/September. There was an anime club meeting to go to every month and there were Star Trek and Dr. Who clubs monthly as well. There would be people you'd only see at these fandom gatherings and you'd know them by sight and they'd be a familiar face in the hallway or in the crowd, and some of those people would become lifelong friends and others would be remembered later as "whatever happened to that guy? You know, the one with the big glasses who did the "V The Miniseries" alien cosplay?"
I completely get what you're saying - I think it's a very fair point. I still think of there being tiers of events though: the ones "everyone" goes to like MomoCon, AWA, DragonCon and then the smaller events - SeishunCon, JordanCon, TimeGate, Joelanta, 221B, etc. - that folks are going to pick and choose based on their time and budget (meaning they will decide against doing them first). I think that sort of something, sometime for everyone, staves off an overall market saturation (because everyone is not going to go to everything) but I think you're right in that there's an individual saturation point.
davemerrill wrote:But with the amount of events happening now, with the difficulty of getting from Point A to Point B in Atlanta traffic, with the expense that most of these events incur, I do not know how people do even half of this stuff. It's easy to see where somebody looks at an event on the calendar, does that mental calculation of How Much Cash Do I Have vs Who Else Is Going vs How Much Of A Hassle Is This Going To Be, and picks a show to *not* go to.

I do feel like this kind of fandom circuit behavior has a definite time limit, from about age 17 until the mid to late 20s. Then career and family take up all your free time. Once you start getting decent vacation time and maybe the kids are old enough to not need babysitters, then you might catch back up with the fandom world and see what you missed.
Yeah - agree with this, too although I think AWA this year was the only year I saw traffic and parking concerns (rightfully so) for a "suburban" event. Usually that argument is if something is "downtown". Any other time something is OTP, folks will just show up, regardless of the traffic. And 100% agree on the circuit lifespan, too. How I think about going to conventions has changed a lot in the last few years and they're definitely changing in the next several.
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usamimi
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Re: Convention Appearances 2018

Post by usamimi »

I keep forgetting to mention it here, but I'll be a GUEST at Con-jikan in Albuquerque NM November 17 & 18! If you're in the area, come say hi! I'll have several panels and even an autograph session! http://con-jikan.com/ :mrgreen:
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