Doug: Today's Face-Off is sort of a do-it-yourselfer in that you'll be the ones to provide the conversation pieces. We're looking for those products that have a major (MAJOR) competitor, and you're voicing of a true love for one over the other -- and never shall you use the other! Some examples follow:
UPDATE
Doug: Those of you who have been around over the past week will recall my consternation with the way large crowd numbers were handled last Saturday at the inaugural Indiana Comic Con. When I got home from Indianapolis, I penned a letter of concern -- not really complaint, as my partner insists I can sometimes be too diplomatic -- to the contact address found at the bottom of the Indy Con website. I received a reply yesterday morning, and I feel it's my duty as a complainer (er, concerner?) to share it with you. Here goes, me first:
I want to thank you for the wonderful guest list that your
organizers/promoters put together for the Indy Con. I was very much
looking forward to meeting several Bronze Age creators - it was
refreshing to see a guest list with some of the "old guys" as opposed to
current creators.
That being said, I arrived at 12:30 to the Convention Center after a drive from the Chicago south suburbs. The line was easily over 1000 people long, and ticket sales had already been cut off. That was incredibly frustrating, as it is hard to believe that demand was that grossly underestimated. After waiting for a short time and listening to the ushers make a few announcements, I turned around and went back home.
Hopefully if the Con is held again next year, it will be larger and better able to accommodate the fans. I would very much like to attend, as I know that Indy would have had a much nicer feel than WizardWorld Chicago. Your prices were incredibly fair, and parking is always so much more affordable in Indy than in the Chicago area. This had so much potential, but I fear that a lot of revenue was left in the concourse on Saturday afternoon.
Best wishes,
That being said, I arrived at 12:30 to the Convention Center after a drive from the Chicago south suburbs. The line was easily over 1000 people long, and ticket sales had already been cut off. That was incredibly frustrating, as it is hard to believe that demand was that grossly underestimated. After waiting for a short time and listening to the ushers make a few announcements, I turned around and went back home.
Hopefully if the Con is held again next year, it will be larger and better able to accommodate the fans. I would very much like to attend, as I know that Indy would have had a much nicer feel than WizardWorld Chicago. Your prices were incredibly fair, and parking is always so much more affordable in Indy than in the Chicago area. This had so much potential, but I fear that a lot of revenue was left in the concourse on Saturday afternoon.
Best wishes,
Hi Doug,
Thanks for the email and the feedback. Lots of attendees are angry that they weren't able to get in and sent very angry emails, not being able to see or reason past their personal frustration. So I greatly appreciate your calm and reasoned email. Thanks for that.
I’m very sorry that you were disappointed. Believe me, we were also disappointed in having to turn attendees away at the door. That brings us nothing but heartbreak.
The room could accommodate roughly 6,000-7,000 attendees. It simply wasn’t designed to accommodate Saturday’s roughly 15,000 attendee turnout. Unfortunately, there is no way to know how many people will show up the day-of to purchase tickets at the door. Lots of people cite Gen Con without reflecting that Gen Con has been around since the late 60s and has over four decades of attendance figures to plan with. This was the first Indiana Comic Con with no past attendance record to work with.
If you attended on Friday or Sunday, you would have seen a very organized and streamlined ticketing system because the attendance on those days was within the hall’s capacity and therefore within our ability to serve. We actually tried to obtain more space, but there were
other events going on as well—the convention center was unable to sell us additional space for 2014. We had to be creative and do the best we could with the space available to us.
Our space for 2015 is currently over 3x the size of this year’s space—and we are trying to get even more space than that. I hope you’ll return next year and watch the convention grow!
Thanks,
Stephen
Thanks for the email and the feedback. Lots of attendees are angry that they weren't able to get in and sent very angry emails, not being able to see or reason past their personal frustration. So I greatly appreciate your calm and reasoned email. Thanks for that.
I’m very sorry that you were disappointed. Believe me, we were also disappointed in having to turn attendees away at the door. That brings us nothing but heartbreak.
The room could accommodate roughly 6,000-7,000 attendees. It simply wasn’t designed to accommodate Saturday’s roughly 15,000 attendee turnout. Unfortunately, there is no way to know how many people will show up the day-of to purchase tickets at the door. Lots of people cite Gen Con without reflecting that Gen Con has been around since the late 60s and has over four decades of attendance figures to plan with. This was the first Indiana Comic Con with no past attendance record to work with.
If you attended on Friday or Sunday, you would have seen a very organized and streamlined ticketing system because the attendance on those days was within the hall’s capacity and therefore within our ability to serve. We actually tried to obtain more space, but there were
other events going on as well—the convention center was unable to sell us additional space for 2014. We had to be creative and do the best we could with the space available to us.
Our space for 2015 is currently over 3x the size of this year’s space—and we are trying to get even more space than that. I hope you’ll return next year and watch the convention grow!
Thanks,
Stephen
Doug: Sounds good to me. Schedule permitting, I will definitely try to go to this con again next year. However, I'm doing a little head-scratching at one major issue -- the tickets were super-affordable at $20 apiece. Do you think that when they double the size of the show (obviously increasing their rental fees for the space) that tickets will remain the same price? Or do you think that the revenue they lost on Saturday, once realized, will make up for it? Interesting marketing call. We shall see.