What makes a con successful or unsuccessful?
At what point should a con just give up?
What are the best and worst cons you've ever been to? Why were those the best or worst?
I would like to start a new con out of the ashes of a failed con in my city, but I'm not sure what I need to make the convention successful.
>>9004691
I haven't been to enough cons to awnser that, but in my opinon the most important aspect is the people. it's a social event's so the kind of people there make it.
if your really planning on it your gonna have to get a bunch of people and raise money, even if its a small event at first, i think if its very community based, and the type of people running it, are kind and very open and welcoming, it can become a great con.
>>9004736
No the people running it have to be competent at running an event. OP's picture if fro the infamous failure of Dashcon, run by Tumblr, that prides themselves on being "open, kind and welcoming" but that doesn't cover the cost for actually renting out the space and paying your guests.
>>9004691
>What makes a con unsuccessful?
Being the chair of a con and shit talking other cosplayers directly on the con's Facebook page.
>>9004760
lmao that's actually a thing?
>>9004760
Holy shit. Who did this?
>>9004691
I have to say as far as one of the worst of late: Daisho con was absolutely terrible this last year. I received word that over half of their staff jumped ship a few weeks before con leaving them with too many new staff.
other worst con: Anime midwest.
Panels were moved around last minute and guests had no clue where the fuck they were going. I got to wander around with one of the voice actors and his handler at the con didnt know where to go next. The lines for autographs were in the con center and intersected with the flow of traffic. Some panels were held right next to musicians who were playing pretty loud. There was little to no direction for staff. Had someone from their board of directors shouting in people's faces that he could do what he wanted because he was on the board. In the lobby of the hyatt no less. The whole thing was just a trainwreck. Kudos to getting all the guests that Ryan gets but terribly organized. DC Douglas' panel was almost 45 min late and we had to switch to another room as the projector didnt have the right input. We all were asked to stand up and move but no one filed us into a line by the row were in so it was just a ton of people pushing and shoving. Staff did nothing. We were put into the smallest room even after DC told ryan "I need a larger room."
>>9004768
>>9004769
>>9004810
That was such a shit show.
>>9004769
Santa Fe Comic Con
>>9004810
Not the kind of thing that should be put up in an official page, but it's not like they are saying something that's not true.
>>9004810
It's not a lie, what they are saying, but really shouldn't be posting that on the official social media page.
>>9004803
Man, Anime Midwest sounds like it was a mess. I don't think I've ever been to a con that had something like that happen.
The closest would be this small, failing, local con. Most of their panelists just cancelled after getting their free badges, so there was literally nothing to do all day.
>>9004691
I've been helping to organise a small con that's happening in a couple weeks. It's been done in a bit of a rush, but we're lucky that we've got an auspice organisation backing us up, so they've got the budget to help us for the first few years and can sort all the insurance stuff and gathering resources. They're also non-profit and community-based, which is great for feedback and making sure the attendees are put first rather than the money. A lot of cons tend to die once they involved with greedy corporations.
I'm hoping it'll be successful. Last year we got a surprising amount of people, but my area has this unfortunate trend of going to something the first year in droves and then being satisfied and not going consequent years. We managed to get way more guests and events this year though.
Communication and dedication is really important. We're having weekly meetings at the moment which has helped, but we've got a few people who are so overwhelmed with their own life problems it's making it hard to depend on them even for simple stuff. It's easy to get frustrated.
>>9004739
I think Dashcon's failures came from their ambitiousness and the fact the people they got involved were more involved with pumping up their own egos rather than trying to organise anything.
From the sounds of it, whoever was in the core group went around and asked various "heads of fandom" to contribute and gave them way too much free reign to sort out what they wanted to do. Those sections then squandered all their money away to the point that the guests that did turn up (if they hadn't found out earlier) were so disgusted over the pay situation they just up and left. It was nothing but a giant scam for a lot of people in the end.
What's the best way to raise money to start a con? Obviously there are crowd funding platforms, but how successful are they? What are the alternatives?
>>9004946
You blow your life savings. If you crowd source to get a convention going you're seen as pathetic and broke ass.
>>9004965
Pretty much this. There's few places that don't already have a con and most cons all offer the same stuff. It's moot to raise money to make another one.
What was that con that was supposed to happen in Anaheim last year and turned out to be a total scam?
>>9004893
Exactly. And the few people they did get who were legitimately interested in trying to plan a convention, they were just too young and inexperienced to be having any business trying to plan a convention in the aspect that they did. They tried to do way too much for a first year con while simultaneously being so inexperienced. It definitely all starts from the top though - if you have main administrators who are genuinely interested in putting together a good con, then they should do well enough in picking competent staff and hopefully said interest will rub off on that staff and they'll want to work hard too. The main admins were all like you said, caring more about their own ego's and making themselves look good rather than actually trying to help their staff do things.
I remember a 17 year old girl released screenshots of tons of chat logs of all the piss-poor planning. It was kind of shocking to see how awful the coordination and whatnot was. The main admins running the whole thing had no business trying to run a con whatsoever.
>inb4 this is what happens when tumblr runs a con
don't forget that the majority of tumblr vivaciously made fun of this failure convention as much as we did once word got out about how fast the ship was sinking. people on tumblr even agreed a "tumblr" themed convention was awful.
that said, it made no sense for it to be supposedly "tumblr" themed yet all the stuff was just nerd fandoms. it would've made 10x more sense if it was actually blogging and social media related.
>>9004995
I'm honestly surprised they managed to get any special guests to begin with. I suppose it was because they were targeting niche content creators who didn't have much event experience themselves, but I'm really surprised people didn't catch on sooner to how suspicious everything was earlier.
I thought for sure more people would have rioted and refused after they were locked in that room and extorted for money. Seemed like almost everyone that went was gullible as fuck though and fell for all the crocodile tears. People worked out later that there was no way the hotel could have been asking for more money since it should have all been upfront. Did they ever explain that?
If we are talking corporate, the investor mindset needs to be applied with a focus on laying down a foundation, a system of what every con is gonna be like, making it feel like an annual gathering but still welcoming to newbies who is going to their first con. Case in point Sakuracon, as corporate as it gets but it always has the masquerade, it always has the rave, it always has the game room on the sixth floor with no layout changes every year. When your con jumps to a new place, there are going to be growing pains and you have prepare yourselves for that.
>>9005075
Not just that but it has shit like Miku concerts and movie screenings of stuff just released in Japan
>>9004995
>tumblr runs a con
No, PEOPLE on Tumblr.
When Tumblr found out somebody wanted to do a con called Tumblcon, they put their foot down and said "oh HELL no, we don't want this shitshow associated with us."
That right there says loads
>>9005141
Right, but saying "people" is still too muh of a blanket statement; again, TONS of people on tumblr made fun of this shitshow and thrived on the ensuing drama. A very particular group on tumblr wanted this to happen and really that's the fandom side of tumblr.
>>9005148
It wasn't even representative of the fandom side. It was called the white girl convention because most if the panels and ppl behind it were apart of SuperWhoLock they were given the most power that the smaller fandom's left in planning.
>>9004691
>What makes a con successful or unsuccessful?
No leaky artist alley. Not inviting rapists
>At what point should a con just give up?
Once everyone hates you and yells at you for inviting a rapist and not giving a shit
>What are the best and worst cons you've ever been to? Why were those the best or worst?
Aki-con, hired a convicted sex offender to their con. When a victim came out, they said it wasn't their fault
All drama on tumblr, but hey, at least 2016 is their last year
Successful cons are community-driven and engage in two-way conversation with their attendees. Cons die when they choose to ignore what their attendees want in favor of options that are cheap, easy, and/or personally preferred by the staff.
>>9004979
You mean akihabara expo?
Was any of the rumors going around that caused it to be cancelled true in the very end?
>Florida Anime Experience is “the only 100 percent pure anime convention in Florida”
Tom Croom ruined conventions in Florida.
I went to this shit tier con once. Most of my friends were escorted out by police since they didn't have badges.
I watched as they allowed a Rainbow Dash enter a costume contest, only for him not to win. To ass insult to injury, they had the NERVE to explain why he didn't win. "THIS IS NOT ANIME." Like who the fuck does that?
>>9005196
Yeah, that's the one.
I never got a clear idea of what the hell happened, just that it was a total clusterfuck.
>>9005202
>Male MLP cosplayer
He's lucky they even let him to enter, I would have banned him on the spot for being a pedophile.
Worst con I've been to was probably boston comicon. I think there's a couple but this one was just a basketball court flee market. They blew all their cash on one big name guest, the rest was poorly made events.
I'm not a convention expert, but panel spots open to the public give alot of variety, lots of well known guests do better then one or two very famous ones, and con goer interaction goes a long way. Cons aren't museums, they are a gathering of the target community. Let the community help fill spots. They do ahitty? Cross them off for next year.
>>9005148
>A very particular group on tumblr wanted this to happen and really that's the fandom side of tumblr.
More specifically the SuperWhoLock fandom
>>9004803
Im surprised Anime Midwest is still a thing, wasn't Ryan facing down rape charges?
>>9005193
I agree with this until the point the convention gets for lack of a better term "too big to fail". Acen never listens to its community, let's it's staff make poor choices from the ground up, and has had its masquerade skits cancelled due to time constraints to let the rave have their full slot.
Yet every weeb in the Midwest goes. Its not like we have battered spouse syndrome or anything, everyone will say it's not a well run con . At this point everyone goes to see their friends and drink because for a lot of us it's the only time we all see each other.
Op do you have any experience planning events? Running a business? Large scale budgeting?
Do you have a 10k line of credit? Do you have good credit period? Do you have investors?
Do you know competent people that can staff your event? Have you ever staffed a convention? Do you know someone that can book you guests? Run security? Handle registration? Is good at scheduling?
If you have none of those things then fuck right off. If you do have those things you are probably still better off not doing it. Being a fan means Jack shit when you need to run a business.
>>9004995
This is what happens when you ask a bunch of excitable kids what they want at a convention and fail to apply adult logic. If they want flower crowns and a fat mermaid and panels on why being obese is good for your health and WTNV and the entire cast of Sherlock and Dr Who and Supernatural as guests and a real live unicorn... you're gonna have to cut the list down. You're also going to have to see how many people will actually attend and not charge out the ass for tickets because first time cons should be prepared not to make a profit, or even break even.
Fandoms are the only thing that really make sense for Tumblr as it's what most people associate with Tumblr. If you had blogging related stuff it'd end up being a giant circlejerk with 'famous' tumblrs talking about how ~lucky~ they were to have reached 10,000 followers in five years.
Dashcon was hilarious, though. Watching it go down like a flaming zeppelin was brilliant, the people who'd been so excited about it happening were so fucking pissed at how shit it was.
>>9005812
>"I been to enough anime conventions, so I could start my own convention"
>That is how Akihabara Expo started, and then burned down in flames. Experience in running businesses, having an infrastructure to do it well, and experience in running conventions is very important.
Dammit, I got killed by autocorrect. This is what I meant to say.
I can tell you what was wrong with Dash con (besides the obvious of it being a tumblr con)
It was run by people who knew nothing about running cons. They wanted a big con from year one, they planned on getting more attendees than they were, and were in way over their head when it came to planning and managing.
You dont get a big con from year one, you gradually grow from a small year one con into a big one. You dont rent out a big fancy hotel year one, you rent part of a decent sized hotel or a small hotel, and move up each year or so.
>>9004979
akiba, but it wasn't a scam, the owner fucked up and it crashed
>>9005202
tom ruined the entire country
>>9005802
underrated post
>>9005366
If you look at the "police report," it's very obviously fake and full of spelling errors.
