NYCC set another record with 105,000 people descending on the Javits Center this weekend over 4 days (yup, our first ever 4 day NYCC). The numbers are not totally final, but it won't go any higher than 105,000 so it's a good round number to use.
I’ve gotten a ton of tweets and emails thanking me and the team, but all the thanks go to all of you that came and rocked NYCC. I think this was the most fun I’ve personally had at NYCC and that is all thanks to the fans that brought so much energy, the talented guests that filled the event with so much creativity, the exhibitors that built the most elaborate booths we’ve ever seen and so much kick ass product that I literally ran out of money shopping.
I know a lot of you look forward to NYCC all year, and remember the entire ReedPop team spends that same year working to build something worthy of your time, passion and yes, investment. Every year the show has grown so dramatically that it feels like we are starting over with our plan and building a brand new show. In spite of that fact, every year we try to make it better and improve upon the things that did not go well the year before. We got some things right and we know we missed the mark on some things as well. What’s important though is that we always are listening. In the weeks leading up to the show, I was getting about 200 emails from fans every day, and I know the entire ReedPop team was too. We do our best to answer every one if we can. My point is just to illustrate that we are listening and we work hard to earn your support.
After the show I get a lot of emails too about things that did not go well in some people’s eyes so let me give you a few points on the good and that not so good from what I’ve seen and heard.
This year was a lot of firsts. Our first Thursday preview, which I think went awesome. First concert with Tom Morello and DJ Z-Trip which is a concept we hope to blow up next year. Our first business summit in White Space, which was pretty mind opening. Our first 3 day, Saturday and Sunday sell out.
For the first time we used color coded, separate entrances to the building, which largely seemed to work well, but more on that later.
It was the first time Hasbro or LucasFilm were at the show as exhibitors and if you saw the Hasbro booth or rode in the Red Tails flight simulator, I am hoping you were blown away.
It’s the first time we filled all of level 3 with exhibits and spread out to Javits North.
I think Anime on the 4th floor worked much better than on level 1 like last year. It was extremely busy all weekend, which says something positive.
We heard loud and clear that many of you felt last year was too crowded and we listened. No doubt the show was busy, but we capped our ticket sales more aggressively so it would not be so “vibrant” as I like to say. We have a formula of gross square feet available to us divided by number of people. We upped that amount by several gross square feet per person this year (we were able to do that and still grow as we added the 4th floor and Javits North).
I’ve heard from a number of fans that they were unhappy with not getting into the IGN Theatre for Avengers and Walking Dead and the organization of the queuing for those events. I agree, it should have been handled better and I am sorry for that, truly. We will have a better plan for queuing in place for next year and we are also looking hard at building out a bigger IGN Theater in another part of the building for next year. No matter though, with 100,000 people and 3,000 seats in the theatre, we will never be able to accommodate all that want to go. Folks were unhappy that we do not clear that room between panels, we never have cleared rooms in 6 years and state it on our web site and I’m not sure that policy will change. Clearing a room of that size after every panel means adding about 40 minutes between panels which would mean about half as much content in that room each day. I do not think that is a good choice there for do not see that policy changing.
I also got some notes about the queue hall on Saturday and Sunday before the show and the fact that people were unhappy being sent there and that not everyone was. This is simple logistics guys, when 40,000 plus people descend on a building over the course of 75-90 minutes, they have to go somewhere. It would be an absolutely unsafe situation to simply allow everyone to free flow about the building. When the queue hall was filled and backing up into the North Concourse area of the show, we could not continue sending people there, so we opened the doors of the blue entrance on level 3. This seemed unfair to some, and I suppose in a sense it is, but in another sense it is an absolute safety issue and a call we had to make. Think of it this way – 9-10:45 of NYCC is rush hour. If you come before that or after that, you’ll have less traffic. Just like driving, if you take the freeway during rush hour, expect some delays. I’m not deaf to the concerns expressed, but with a crush of people of that size, some inequities of who gets in when cannot be avoided and I’m sorry for that, but safety above all else during that hectic morning rush hour is our first priority.
I know there are many more bright spots and many more areas to be improved upon and I’m confident you’ll all let me know about them in the coming days, but I wanted to highlight a few of them here.
Above all else, I wanted to thank everyone that came to the show for making it great. It is a humbling experience to be a part of building something that brings fun and excitement to so many people. Myself and the entire ReedPop team thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
We’ll see you next year, October 11-14 and we’ll have even more space to build an even bigger and more amazing NYCC.
-Lance
