Artists Alley Information Thread

Selling at Cons is best during the...

Spring	11.5%	[ 117 ]
Summer	29.4%	[ 300 ]
Fall	7.2%	[ 73 ]
Winter	5.5%	[ 56 ]
Any time!	46.5%	[ 474 ]
Total Votes:			[ 1020 ]

[Nyawyn]

Kaxen

AX does wretched crowd control. I hate going in. It always seems to take hours and hours to get the damned badge even with pre-registering.

I like Comic-Con, you can get in so fast. @_@

Long Beach was definitely not fun. I liked Anaheim Convention Center the best.

But my friend said AX08 wasn't so bad (I only went to Comic Con last summer). Though Comic-Con is getting too big also. The lines for getting into panels was horrendous. I had to line up so damn early to get into the Avatar panel that I sat through a panel on Prison Break!

As much as i hate waiting in lines as much as everyone else, when it comes to pre registration i do tend to cut them a lil bit of slack, and here's why:

the majority of people now pre register. several years ago, the majority registered at door, so the line as a whole was considerably longer. pre registration saved you both time as well as the money. Now, pre registration is more popular because it is cheaper, but they also operate under the misconception that it takes less time, which isnt allways the case. When you pre register, you need to verify name, address and give them the badge, etc etc and thats where you hit the snags of, someone didnt get their info entered correctly, someone doesnt have photo id, the worst is someone gave an address thats not on their photo id, all of that adds another minute of process time. Under staffing of the department is an unfortunate factor, but sadly i think most attendees just dont wanna give up their time to staff so you have a decrease in qualified and competent staffers. The way i treat registering now is, i pay early, save a few bucks or i pay at door and get processed faster.

In the end cons should strive to minimize wait times but often its outside forces working against them.

(ok i think i got a lil off topic of artist alleys there my bad haha)

[[Kako]]

Not entirely. razz After all, dealing with the convention is part of being in the Artist's Alley!

I'll agree that anaheim was best, but it isn't really viable unless the crowd shrinks. ): There just wasn't enough space for that many people.

Anyways, be sure to post a review after the con, Kaxen! I'd like to know how the Alley has changed since I attended. Where it being held this year?

[Kaxen]

I definitely will. xD I love ranting anyway!

It's at LA Convention Center this year.

[Jayde Panda]

Sounds like what's going on with Animazement now. Last year was horrendous because the number of attendees jumped from around 3-4k to 9k+; the staff was completely unprepared for those crowds, and a riot almost started because they put a cap on people allowed in the cosplay--which is one of the big things I've always participated in at that con. They've moved to the Raleigh Convention Center for this year, so we'll see how that goes. They already have a bunch of irate artists though because although they added a few tables to the number they had last year, it wasn't nearly enough to cover the demand this year... Within 24 hours of opening table registration the waiting list was at least half as long as the number of tables available; a lot of people missed getting tables because the AA staff promised on the forums that there would be plenty of space for everyone and that they were going to try and overcompensate and have more tables available than artists to want them.... Needless to say that didn't work.

[Nyawyn]

wow, that sounds like they made a promise they had no way of keeping. I can see broadcasting that they added tables but boasting that theyll 100 percent have enough to go around? That dosnt really sound all that wise to me.

Im very curous to read the review of AX myself as it pertains to the AA. I really wanna know how they do with respect to enforcing their policies and how fair they are with it.

[Jayde Panda]

I think they had good intentions, and I see it as one example (of many probably) of where the staff and organizers at AZ haven't adjusted to the kind of attendance they're going to see this year. I've been going to AZ for 10 years now (not doing AA), and until last year it's attendance ranged from 2k-4k always. And where they added enough tables to cover the number of artists in AA perviously plus 50-100% more tables, it wasn't enough for the demand that comes with the higher attendance. That's my view on it, and I really hope things doing get too whacked out because they're not really prepared... at least we're not meeting in the same hotel as last year; with 9k people there on Saturday, that was abysmal.

[Shadow Ivy]

Kasyrrah

I think they had good intentions, and I see it as one example (of many probably) of where the staff and organizers at AZ haven't adjusted to the kind of attendance they're going to see this year. I've been going to AZ for 10 years now (not doing AA), and until last year it's attendance ranged from 2k-4k always. And where they added enough tables to cover the number of artists in AA perviously plus 50-100% more tables, it wasn't enough for the demand that comes with the higher attendance. That's my view on it, and I really hope things doing get too whacked out because they're not really prepared... at least we're not meeting in the same hotel as last year; with 9k people there on Saturday, that was abysmal.

Although AZ 2008 was my third, I noticed the significant attendance jump; I didn't bother to leave my AA table because getting from there to my hotel room (which was on the first floor) was impossible. D:

As for the tables, I was pretty amazed that they filled up so quickly (though I was one of the lucky ones to get a table)--obviously it's already been said how foolish their claims/boasts of more tables for "everyone" were...hopefully the new venue will work out. It will be interesting, to say the least.

[Jayde Panda]

Yes, I do look forward to the new space; there were times last year where I felt I couldn't breath with all those people crammed in the Sheraton. I just hope that the problems that came with AA registration don't repeat themselves elsewhere in the con (like in the cosplay contest registration). Sadly I did not get a table, which was a little annoying--mainly because I'd written the registration date on my calendar in big letters, but got sick that weekend, forgot to set my alarm clock to make sure I got up and registered, and slept through the whole thing XD, so it's entirely my own fault. I'm going anyways, and I'm going to hit up the at-con waiting list.

[Nyawyn]

I was recently going over the conventions that i was planning to attend and ones that i had allready signed up for, and for a few of them, i noticed that the majority of the conventions seemed to post all of the updated announcement to the convention forums rather than the webpages. This applied to a variety of announcements ranging from updated or clarified rules, FAQ's open registration announcements. In one case I found conflicting contact information between the webpage and the forum information.

Does anyone else find this frustrating? For me, I expect all the relevant information to be on the webpages and not the forums. Especially if i have never attended that convention before, I don't allways think to sign up for the forums.

I'm curious to hear everyone's thoughts.

[Seijaku_Ishida]

Nyawyn

I was recently going over the conventions that i was planning to attend and ones that i had allready signed up for, and for a few of them, i noticed that the majority of the conventions seemed to post all of the updated announcement to the convention forums rather than the webpages. This applied to a variety of announcements ranging from updated or clarified rules, FAQ's open registration announcements. In one case I found conflicting contact information between the webpage and the forum information.

Does anyone else find this frustrating? For me, I expect all the relevant information to be on the webpages and not the forums. Especially if i have never attended that convention before, I don't allways think to sign up for the forums.

I'm curious to hear everyone's thoughts.

The amateur webmaster in me is enraged at it. Keeping a website up-to-date necessary, in my eyes. But since I doubt it will change, I pretty much just head to the forums and not even bother checking the actual site unless I can't find it on the forums.

[[Kako]]

It kind of makes sense to me that the information would at least be posted on the forums first. Cons don't usually have a lot of people who are allowed to edit the information on their website, but any staff member could access/post information on the forum. It does seem a bit silly when the vast majority of the information is on the forum rather than the official page. Fanime did that, and some idiot wound up throwing an absolute bitchfit because he had only read what was on the official page. (He misinterpreted a statement that would have made sense if he had been paying attention to the forums. : )

[Nyawyn]

see that, to me is the exact situation i would think conventions want to avoid, Particularly considering that the conventions arent posting a notice on said page that all updates are made on the forums.

[Adhara]

While I can understand and appreciate the speed and ease of disseminating information via the forums can be for a convention's staff, the official policies and important information like when the applications will be open & contact information for the staff ought to be on the official website. I don't mind that staff uses the forums for a quick way to get the info out, but only if they're trying to get it out asap while waiting for the official site to be updated. Forums are not a substitute for official websites. They are a discussion place where questions can be asked and answered quickly and publicly.

[Vicemage]

And yet, most every convention I've dealt with has used the forums as the primary website, with the actual "site" a pretty mask you see when you enter their url. Lots of shiny, no substance.

In fact, the only convention I can think of that I attend that doesn't do that is Fallcon, which has an information page posted by MNCBA giving you the dates, times, and guests, and no forum. (Registration is kind of an adventure with them, but I've gotten the note that I'm on the list to get an invite this year again, so I'm cool for now, my registration packet should be mailed out in 3 months.)

But that's neither an anime con nor an amateur con. It's a professionally-run comic book convention with an emphasis on creators (both big-name and indie), so it's no surprise to me that the way it runs (with no forums and invites instead of applications) is so completely different.

[Nyawyn]

Vicemage

And yet, most every convention I've dealt with has used the forums as the primary website, with the actual "site" a pretty mask you see when you enter their url. Lots of shiny, no substance.

In fact, the only convention I can think of that I attend that doesn't do that is Fallcon, which has an information page posted by MNCBA giving you the dates, times, and guests, and no forum. (Registration is kind of an adventure with them, but I've gotten the note that I'm on the list to get an invite this year again, so I'm cool for now, my registration packet should be mailed out in 3 months.)

But that's neither an anime con nor an amateur con. It's a professionally-run comic book convention with an emphasis on creators (both big-name and indie), so it's no surprise to me that the way it runs (with no forums and invites instead of applications) is so completely different.

It sounds like the whole process is made as painless as possible, or at least when there are issues, its easy enough to get issues resolved.

maybe its just me, but just because a lot of the anime conventions are ametur based, volunteer staffed, etc etc, shouldn't they strive to be fun as close to a professional level as possible? Often, to me at least it seems that its the little things, or simple changes that when implemented could have a huge effect on the outcome of how things end up being run and perceived by those on the outside.

As a convention staffer myself (different department) and seeing just how bad the communication, information presentation, customer service, rule enforcement, etc can get, its really frustrating to see the same problems year after year.