Thanks To Nearly 77,000 of My Friends for a Great Con......
I'm tired and stuck in traffic on The Hutch trying to get home to see my resident cat dudes, Editor in Chief and read all the coverage about the con, but I gotta take a moment to say thanks for a kick ass con!!!!!!!
What a weekend and once again New York Comic Con grew by leaps and bounds and we had out first sell out. We are still waiting on a few numbers, but we know that nearly 77,000 people made there way through NYCC this year, up from 67,000 last year. We sold out of tickets on Saturday for the first time in the history of the con and several of our retailer partners sold out of every ticket they had.
All I can say is thanks to all of you. We are living in uncertain economic times and I firmly believed that if we built something cool for you that you would reward us by spending some of your hard earned dough at the con. And in deed you did and I thank you for it.....
I know not everything went perfectly (and I'm also certain that you'll post those instances right here!) But I feel like this con was cooler, more happening and more organized than the last and the last more than the con before that - we continue to grow and strive to give you a better expierecne and I promise we'll keep doing that. You gave me a lot of ideas for improvement this year and I hope you saw some of those ideas in action this weekend and we'll do the same going into next year.
So thank you, 77,000 times, I hope you had as much fun this weekend as we did planning the con and throwing it.
We've got a long time before we do this again (October 2010) but fret not, the fastest growing and second largest con in the U.S. Will not disappoint you when we move to the fall. In the mean time, who's up for some fun in downtown Chicago in a year? Yeah!!!!!
-L
Lance Fensterman
Vice President
BookExpo America
New York ComicCon
New York Anime Fest
Blog: www.mediumatlarge.net
203.840.5507 (o) 203.417.3607 (m)
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld - Please excuse any typos!
27 comments:
Just a fantastic con. This was probably the best experience I've had at a comic con ever.
In particular, I want to thank you for providing space for the academic panels and for Colleen Doran's panel on working as a freelancer. These are conversations that the industry and the medium need to have, often. Having them face to face is so much much immediate than on some message board.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for the con. My only wish would be for it to be longer, but that's not too realistic. Seriously, I had a really good time, and everything was heaps more organized than usual. A lot of signing lines (Fox Booth) were really awful. Honestly I didn't like the guest much this year, but still I had a blast man.
Keep it up and thanks again!
and i never even got your signature!!!
I had a LOT of fun!!! I enjoyed myself and the experience I had. Thank you very much! Keep up the good work!
Thank you for the Torchwood panel!
Hey Lance,
Great con. Very enjoyable. I achieve just about everything I set out to experience with this con.
Thanks again for your help again Sunday on where the Vips should wait for our chance for the Weadon tickets. Which I was lucky enough to get one, thanks.
Just one suggestion for the autograph area. Is to have more drawing for some high profile celebs that drew very long lines like Torchwood, Friday the 13th and more. For an example is to have about 100 stamp on the back tickets. Mix into a bag with some unstamp tickets. You have people go to an open area of the autograph area. They line to draw from the bag. If they pull out an stamped ticket they keep that ticket for the autograph signing. They did this at San Diego Comic Con. There was no need for fans to wait hours early outside because before the drawing they would allow fans to form a line.
I experience this for several events myself and if I didn't pick a winner the first time. I was allow to get back into line to draw again till all the winning tickets were picked.
I never had to arrive early for any day of the SDCC at all. I arrived an half hour before opening and I was lucky enough to win autograph tickets.
It is one suggestion to avoid people having wait early in line for something they may not get and avoid long lines.
Anyway great con and I will see ya next year.
William
I had a great time at the con this year. The highlight for me was the Torchwood panel and signing and hope you will continue to have a Doctor Who presence at your cons. So thank you Lance for putting on a great con that I had a great time at.
JZ
Great con! We had a really wonderful time. It was fun meeting so many writers and artists.
The only low point was how the Kids Zone galleria was organized. We attended Frank Beddor's panel (Looking Glass Wars) at 1:45 PM on Sunday. He prepared a wonderful presentation with Q&A session, but at 2 PM, The Electric Company Performance began on the Variant Stage and completely drowned out Frank. The panel was cut short because there was no way he could speak over the amplified music. Panels should NOT be scheduled around the variant stage during live performances.
Other than that, it was very nicely run and kudos for drawing record crowds!
For my first con, this was a pretty enjoyable experience.
I would suggest some better communication between your volunteers and security, cause a bunch of us fans were rather rudely yelled at by security because we were following the orders of the volunteers. That wasn't cool. Don't yell at the people who were just there to enjoy the con.
I do agree with some ticketing system for Torchwood. Though I have a feeling you guys had no idea how popular Torchwood was going to be since this really was the first east coast con that had a specific TW panel.
Also the guy there that kept telling people to leave and your never going to get in, was an asshole. Turns out I was one of the last few people who got to be in the queue to meet Eve and Euros.
I know trying to move along in autograph queues is a good idea especially when the line is long. But don't have the fans get yelled at when the celebrity is the one asking questions and the fan answers. I think it would be very rude to ignore a celebrities question.
First off - Thanks for the Torchwood panel - it really was fun :-)
Otherwise, I agree that the kids day was a bit mashed together, it was nice to have a lot of room up there, but it would have been nice to have a better way to do the live shows. In addition, my son was really interested in some of the DC and Marvel superhero things going on, which pulled us downstairs for a time. It would have been nice if some of the kid-friendly vendors had smaller booths upstairs to keep the kids from being overrun by the adults.
The panels were fun, but the lining up for hours just to get to see one was horrible - between not even knowing where certain lines were, the actual wait for some, there were plenty of panels where people just parked themselves in the morning and never left, also diminishing the amount of people that could see one. Since the panels and the "normal" entrance were on opposite ends of the Javits, there were a lot of people that just didn't have the time to see any vendors, if they wanted to have any chance of seeing any of the popular panels. COuldn't you combine the Professional and VIP entrance?
Booth signings - I know it's impossible to really regulate as the vendors want their authors in the booth to sell more books, etc, but seriously, when one line actually wrapped all the way around the WoTC booth, blocking any entrance to it (I was in line for the signing and tried to keep some room for people to go by). I think if there are vendors that might have a strong demand for autographs, the should at least be moved to the end of the rows so as not to block traffic, if not move the authors to the signing areas.
In addition, I thought I saw the board for the "official" signing, but it would be nice to have had a central place for all the author signings/booth events to be posted - I got lucky almost walking into certain signings I wanted to be at, but I could just have easily missed them as most of the booths didn't even have good signage up for signings.
Don't take any of these as negative - I've put together conventions in the past, and I understand the work put into it, and these are my only real gripes :-) Bottom line, I can't wait for next year, and neither can my 5yr old :-)
I had an amazing time! Thanks so much for all your hard work.
Others have pretty much touched on the few issues I found. That is the long lines that had no form, although the volunteers and employees really did try very hard to keep us all under control, and some lack of communication between what the volunteers told you as opposed to what the "red shirts" said.
Some of the more in demand auto signings should probably have been tickets you could purchase. As much as I wanted some autographs, the idea of standing in a line for hours, knowing you might still not get an autograph made me decide to forego it and see other stuff instead. I'm not sorry, but I think I would have paid pretty much any amount of money to have met Joss Whedon.
Also, I came with a press pass and I felt like there was a lack of communication as to what that pass actually got for me at the Con. In some instances, apparently, press were allowed to the front of the line and in others, we weren't. Sometimes there was seating in the front for us, other times, there wasn't. Sometimes we could get in close for pics and at other times we couldn't. It would have been great to have info about all of that so no time was wasted trying to figure it all out. It could even be that better communication was needed with the employees, who maybe just didn't know what the press was allowed to do.
But the bottom line is I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. I had such a wonderful time and I'm already planning for next year!! Thank you.
This is kinda embarrassing, but I only attended the show for the sake of my 12 & 14 yr old kids. AND I HAD A COMPLETE BLAST! I couldn't get enough of all there was to do. I wish I could've attended more panels, but the ones I did attend were fun and informative. My kids, who are major DC and Milo fans said, "This was the best thing that ever happened in my life." They cannot wait for next year's Con. Ugh about it being later in the year. Oh well. And Lance, there was tons of buzz about YOU--heck, you're a rock star! (Or a superhero anyway.) I twittered every silly thing I saw. Like my kids, I can't wait to go next year. By the way, I parted with a lot of cash, I was amazed how the comic book artists were charging so little for their work. I have original (comic) artworks for my home. cool. thanks again.
This was the WORST con i have ever been at. I was told that if I wanted to go to any of the panels, after I would have to go back downstairs and wait in the admission lines again. WHY WOULD I WANT TO DO THAT? I just waited over two hours to get in, I walked around for 20 minutes and if I wanted to see the Friday the 13th panel, I would have to go back down and wait again. When i aksed someone from the con why, he said "well how do we know if you are in already". As I was asking my question a JAVITS security guard told me "she didn't care what I wanted to do, just get out of her face". The con worker then smiled at me and walked away. Maybe devise a system like they do at ALLLLL conventions at JAVITS (stamp, bracelet etc). Then I went to get on the line for autographs for Friday the 13th (signing was @ 1:30-2:30pm). We arrived @ 1pm, to be told that the line was closed. The volunteer then proceeded to let 4 more people on the line because "she knew their cousins". Is this fair? I was UNABLE to do anything I paid $40 for. This was poorly, poorly run!!
I'm not going to say this was a bad con, because it definitely wasn't. But like Danny, I was really upset with the autographing time and area of Friday the 13th. There were so many people and they crowded up the entire area. Plus, this might not be the con's fault, but they ended up coming ten minutes late to their autographing time and left 15 minutes early. I waited on the line for an hour and a half, and got nothing because they ran out of time (right before I was about to get a signing btw). It was really upsetting that I couldn't get the one thing I really wanted at the con.
But other than that! There were a lot of great things at this con too! Plus, it was a lot more organized than last year's. :D
I LOVED THE UP PREVIEW. :D It was awesome and worth the hour wait. :DD
Thank you for all of your hard work! Everything this weekend was wonderful, fun, well worth my time and money...Yes, I have gripes and issues about some things, but now is not the time for that at all...You deserve at least a day..maybe two to enjoy a fantastic success. Thank you again!!
Amazing convention!!! Torchwood Panel and Wonderwoman was AMAZING!!!!
my only concern was the strollers on kids day! they shouldnt be allowed on the dealers room, because not only did they run over my toes, people with bags and swords could have accidently hit there kids. I know that would upset everyone but hey don't bring the smallest to the con specially with the amount of people who showed up. but other than that AMAZING Thank you Lance and NyCC Crew
hope you impressed your boss :3
oh and another thing, i had a problem with the security and some volunteers, they were rather rude, when trying to line up for the torchwood panel!!! Specially the guy walking around the torchwood autographs telling people to leave, cos we werent gonna get an autograph (which I did get her autograph, she's amazing) but yeah thats my only other problem
I had a great time at the con! Except for the one volunteer who kept telling people that the room for the Venture Bros was filled and no one was being let in. Good thing I stayed on the line. When I got inside it was half empty!
Aside from not having an express elevator or escalator attaching the panel rooms with the exhibition floor (go to panel, walk up to show floor for fifteen minutes, walk back to panel...) it was a great con.
Loved the bean bags at the kids stage! (One parent was snoozing.)
A lot of panels were standing room only (Green Lantern, Jim Shooter, Friends of Lulu!). Given that you had the ??? panels, you might want to figure out a way to move panels from a smaller room to a larger room. Perhaps judge the lines and switch two panels which commence at the same time. Or find a way to simulcast a panel, so that people can watch outside the room which is full.
The Watchmen panel on Sunday? That should have been in the IGN theater.
Also, while I didn't mind the concrete floors at the New York Anime Festival (it fit the vibe), it did seem a bit low-budget for this show. Does carpeting cost extra? Could a sponsor be found to pay naming rights for the panel area?
Oh... a small quibble... I didn't mind you guys numbering the panel rooms. However, the way the signs were oriented towards the entrance, you had to walk around to see the front of the sign. So, post some big numbers atop each panel doorway, and maybe attach a small laser-printed sign on the back of those big panel schedules.
Oh, and more stanchions outside the panel rooms. It got a bit hard to move in and out of that space.
As for the huge booth signings... compromise. Let the exhibitors sell the books in advance, but the signing takes place in the autograph area. Also, rearrange the autograph lines so that there are one or two lines which are double in length, so that the line doesn't block aisles. An line monitor (anti-monitor?) might be good to have as well, one who can disappoint people tactfully when time runs out.
Yeah, small stuff... you did good. See you in four months!
The VIP "Lounge" was an absolute joke. Also, besides the honestly great perk of getting in early- it did help me visit Dick Ayers and Joe Sinnott before it got too crowded- little else worked out for having a VIP Pass. In today's economy, i expected a little more, considering I spent $450 for 3 VIP passes. Litterally- litterally!- every single Con person I told, "the website says my VIP pass gets me IN here or there" etc. etc., they were completely oblivious and sent me to the back of the line. Other than that- I still love the NY Comic Con, and i am a loyalist, since the first one. But Lance- give us an actual VIP room next time, not some greasy tables with one wall put between it and lines. I might as well have sat near the foodcourt and had better seating.
I really thought it was too bad that there wasn't any music concerts this time. I hope to see some at the next con when you have more space.
It was pretty much impossible to see a panel, not to mention very difficult to find where they were located. But it wasn't so bad since there was lots to do in the exhibit hall :).
I had an awesome time at New York Comic Con! It was my first time attending a huge convention, and I've gotta say, it was an incredible experience. =D
On Friday, I attended the premiere of Futurama: Into The Wild Green Yonder. And then, on Saturday, I walked around the Dealer's Room, looking for things to buy. I also went to get autographs from my favorite voice actors. I was actually the first person in line to get autographs from Veronica Taylor! She even spoke to me for about 20 minutes or so, while signing my Pokemon stuff! That was awesome!! ^_^
After getting autographs, my friend and I went to the panel, "Voice Actors in the City". Of course, by the time we reached the place where the panel was being held, all the seats were already taken, so we had to stand in the back of the room. Heh, it's a good thing the voice actors had microphones! =D
Oh, before I forget, can you do something about those hippy farm collective folks that keep sneaking into every con at the javits trying to sell their magazines??? You know the ones O.o'.
This was my first con experience ever and I have to say that I was not disappointed whatsoever. It was an absolute blast, beyond anything I could have ever imagined. I got to meet all the artists I had set out to meet, with the exception of John Romita Jr., whom I was told was there, but I was not able to find him at all...ah well...
I had no intention of spending any time going to panels, since you can read most of what happened at these panels on the internet later that day, but there was so much more to do. Kudos to all the organizers, volunteers, etc.
Had a great time at the con. My 3 year old son LOVED it and was excited to meet the TMNT and so many people in costume. I have to disagree with the lady who said "no strollers" in the exhibit hall. I wish we brought ours because people really paid no mind if you had a kid with you and didn't care if they knocked into them so at least with a stroller they are more easily seen.
I think the panels need to be handled differently and some of the bigger ones need a ticketing system. We were at the Hip Hop and Comics panel and people who were trying to get a good seat for the Jeff Kinney panel kept coming in talking, changing seats and generally acting rude. I felt bad for the panelists because of the way these people were acting.
Thank you so much. You guys pulled off the hat trick with Yatterman, Torchwood, and Life On Mars. Just whatever you do, DON'T DITCH NYAF 2010!
Just wanted to say this year was the best so far congradulations! I bought the VIP pass and it was definetly worth it this year. Some things I would suggest. First How about something besides a t-shirt with only the logo on it. How about a t-shirt with the same art as the VIP pass. That would have been great. Also how about a little more time for the VIP's to get in to the show. I have to be honest 15 minutes really isn't a lot of time. 5 minutes of it is already gone by the time you hit the show floor. I think as someone suggested earlier putting more tickets for autographing up for pre sale would be good. Just one other thing that could be set up a little better would be the panels and the signings. I know there are a lot of things going on but a lot of the panels and signings overlap each other so its hard to get to everything you want. Maybe an extra day should be added to spread the events out a little more so there is some time between. I wouldn't mind taking an extra day off to come. I look forward to NYCC and am always sad to see it go. Except the first year when we were waiting on line outside all morning in the blistering cold. LOL. I will definetly be a VIP next year although I will be climbing the walls waiting for October to come along. Again Congradulations NYCC gets better with age!
Post a Comment