Its the Wednesday after the 2011 edition of San Diego Comic Con International and my feet are finally starting to get feeling in them again (although my shoulders are still healing from the backback). I thought it would be a good time to really take stock of what worked and what didn’t (and quite frankly hasn’t). As usual, most of this is my opinion as I am not part of Con staff and have NO idea what they must go through to get this huge event together.
Look at all the Twihards!
The Good
Programming
Obviously, there was no way to get to EVERY panel (and I didn’t get into MANY panels that I wanted to), but the panels that I did go to were ALL incredible. Not only that, but there were panels I was excited and wanted to see each day. Normally, for me, I have a few “definites” and a great many “eh” panels I schedule for myself. This year, I had several “definites” on each day.
As I said before, the panels I ended up at were awesome. I randomly ended up on the “Oh, You Sexy Geek” panel which was taken over by Seth Green. I watched George R.R. Martin stroke his beard like a wise sage as his fellow fantasy authors waxed poetic about their process. I got to see my good friend ask Sir Patrick Stewart a question about his classical training. It was a great year for programming….so good job Comic Con. It may have been the fact that I was able to WALK into Hall H on Saturday Afternoon with no line, but hey, it made my Con.
The People
I’ll get to my crowd issues later, but this year has been my favorite in my 21 years for talking to other attendees. I don’t know if because Con this year seemed mellow or if people were just more jovial, but I talked to more people this year than ever before.
The Use of Space
Comic Con pushed out into the Marriott and Hilton on either side with bigger panels than they had in the past. The Hilton’s Indigo Ballroom, for example, had some of the bigger panels this year. This was a good start and I’d like to see Con move even further into these areas.
Kevin Smith
Of course, Kevin Smith is one of the best moments of Comic Con each year. This year he talked S.I.R. (which I have just recently found), Red State (which looks amazing), Hit Somebody, and his life in general. He seemed to be very introspective, which I imagine comes from age and experience. I’m looking forward to see what we get our of Smith in the next few years as his voice is one which increasingly cuts through the din of Hollywood.
The Price Increase
“WHAT?!?,” you say. Yes, I agree with Con’s decision to raise prices. It is a long time in coming. Think about it, in the past the one day badges were $40 and the four day was $100. That’s a $15 per discount per day on the badge. That’s completely outrageous. By raising the four day pass, it allows con to better control who can attend the convention. You won’t have people who buy a four day pass to sit in line for one panel on Thursday because that’s the one panel they want to see. This way OTHER people who really will enjoy the four day passes might be able to get one.
Personally, I think they can stand to be raised even more
The Bad
The Crowds
The crowds have gotten out of control. I remember (God, I sound old) a day when you could pretty much walk into any panel in the middle of it and get a good seat. You could walk the floor without fearing for your life when you passed the DC booth. I miss that about Con. I know many people argue that it should be for everyone, but there comes a point where you want to enjoy your time and if the price increase means a lower attendance, then that might not be a bad thing.
The Lines and Panels
This is part of the whole “Crowds” problem. I think its an issue when you get in line for an 11:00am panel and the person in front of you is there for the 12:00pm panel and she’s not getting in so there is NO way in hell you are getting in either. This completely takes the fun OUT of the convention going experience. There has to be a better way. I actually propose selling (or allowing attendees to register for) seats in the panels and clearing the halls between seatings. Use the extra convention space at the hotels to get the same number of panels in and put less panels in the rooms that are used. There HAS to be a better way.
The lines are also out of control as well. I honestly believe that the Convention Center staff thing of the most ridiculous line configurations which completely disrupt traffic and make it hard to find the end. OK, mayhap you need to do that because of the fire codes for the breakout rooms….but then reconfigure the rooms. Those walls are airwalls and can be moved. Lets work smarter, people!
The Announcement of the 2012 Passes Sale
WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!?!?!?! Each year, they sell the next year in a lovely booth under the Sails Pavillion. The booths are usually open with nary line in sight. This year, they decided to move it offsite to the Hyatt and make an announcement about the tickets for sale. Why did they A. Feel the need to change from the old way? and B. Tell everyone that not only were they only selling until 11:00am, but that they were only selling a certain number of tickets. By the making that simple announcement, they made the passes into an untrue scarcity which artificially pushed out the demand curve. Because of this we were faced with people who were updating their Twitter feed at 3:00 IN THE FRACKING MORNING. All this because OMG THERE ARE NO TICKETS!!
This is at like 7am at the Hyatt for Passes. People were asleep in line
You want to close sales after a few hours….fine. You want to limit the number of badges…fine. Don’t announce it, it just makes things miserable. I can’t tell you how many people berated the poor security when there were no more badge coupons to be had at 8:15 am.
At the end of the day Con is one of my favorite weeks of the year. I saw a tweet today which said something along the lines of “Con is Geek Spring Break” (my apologies to the Tweeter….I did not get your name), and I couldn’t agree more. I am SO excited for 2012 and seeing some of you there.
Happy 2011 Comic Con everyone!
