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Tampa Bay Comic Con - August 23-25, 2013! Game of Thrones guests!

Started by KingOfRulers,

368 posts in this topic

JiveTurkeyMoFo

JiveTurkeyMoFo

Posted
Posted
My only criticism was that vintage comic dealers was a little sparse. Hopefully they will pull more dealers with the next show.

 

My only real criticism as a vintage comic dealer was the scarcity of vintage comic buyers yesterday. :P

 

Thanks for the kind words West. And yes, the show is well organized and all the facilities and concessions are well run and accessible. The aisles are a lot larger and even with the heavier traffic today, are easily able to accomodate. Certainly, a much better venue for the current show as it continues to grow.

 

 

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joeypost

joeypost

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I was at the show yesterday and have to say it had the feel of a larger show without the hassle. Drove over in the morning, met up with George and Rick as soon as I arrived. Was a little disappointed that an artists I specifically travelled to the for had cancelled. 99% of that was my fault for not checking the website.

 

As far as books go if you play in the bronze/copper and modern market it was heaven. I picked up a lot of books for $5-10 each to fill some holes in my runs. Even bought an older book from West because I liked the cover.

 

Having CGC at the show was an added bonus as I was able to drop off books to them. Saved me 2 hours of driving. Overall I would give it an A. IMO in order to get an A+ the boys need more vintage dealers.

 

 

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walclark

walclark

Posted
Posted
My only criticism was that vintage comic dealers was a little sparse. Hopefully they will pull more dealers with the next show.

 

My only real criticism as a vintage comic dealer was the scarcity of vintage comic buyers yesterday. :P

 

Classic quandary :ohnoez:

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400yrs

400yrs

Posted
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It was definitely packed like a mofo. And it got hot (and funky). I feel bad for the people that had to wait in that ridiculous line. Hell, I had a wristband and had a hard time trying to figure out how to get in with that massive ticket sales line. Maybe discount the online sales (and come up with a better way to redeem them than having to wait in a long line with only two slow people working it) or raise the price of the door tickets. Many, many more windows are needed.

 

Bummer on Cohen canceling. That means tomorrow is bound to be more packed than today (unless people don't come out because they heard about the insane line to get in.

 

The floor isn't as big as megacon, but it feels more crowded. There wasn't quite as much grinding going on as the last double tree con, but there was some.

 

The artists and artist alley are awesome (and not overcrowded).

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ZaCrew

ZaCrew

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Was a fairly decent day... No single sale over $100, but I sold a bunch of $10-$20 books.

 

On a very low note. Somebody stole two Thief of Thieves #1 and a Saga #1 from my higher end raw box. I was hoping to be able to have a box like that people could flip through but I guess there goes that hope...

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400yrs

400yrs

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I enjoyed this show greatly since I was there for comics and art and I got my wristband on Friday.

 

You guys do a fantastic job on promoting and bringing guests in, but you need to staff up big time and put more effort toward organization and training the staff and volunteers. The food lines were ridiculous and there weren't nearly enough of them. More ticket booths are obviously needed along with a lot more staffing. This was another one people could waltz in without paying because there wasn't enough staffing at the doors nor guiding people around peak times.

 

Because of the tv guests and advertising, this con got huge in a flash. Seems like you all should invest in / hire one of the people from one of the big cons as a consultant so everything will be prepped a bit better next time. They should be able to anticipate the problems that the rapid growth is causing and have a way to handle it up front rather than having to react to everything on the fly (which is what it seems like as an attendee at least).

 

Don't get me wrong.... I love what you guys have done with the con. I'd like to see it continue to move the right way, but things like keeping people in ridiculous lines outside in the fl weather ain't gonna help with that.

 

If nothing else, you could likely sell the con off at this point to one of the bigger con promoters and make a ton of money.

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1koko

1koko

Posted
Posted
I enjoyed this show greatly since I was there for comics and art and I got my wristband on Friday.

 

You guys do a fantastic job on promoting and bringing guests in, but you need to staff up big time and put more effort toward organization and training the staff and volunteers. The food lines were ridiculous and there weren't nearly enough of them. More ticket booths are obviously needed along with a lot more staffing. This was another one people could waltz in without paying because there wasn't enough staffing at the doors nor guiding people around peak times.

 

Because of the tv guests and advertising, this con got huge in a flash. Seems like you all should invest in / hire one of the people from one of the big cons as a consultant so everything will be prepped a bit better next time. They should be able to anticipate the problems that the rapid growth is causing and have a way to handle it up front rather than having to react to everything on the fly (which is what it seems like as an attendee at least).

 

Don't get me wrong.... I love what you guys have done with the con. I'd like to see it continue to move the right way, but things like keeping people in ridiculous lines outside in the fl weather ain't gonna help with that.

 

If nothing else, you could likely sell the con off at this point to one of the bigger con promoters and make a ton of money.

 

A touch harsh.

 

When a show is growing exponentially it is difficult to anticipate attendee demand. This is especially the case where attendees don't purchase tickets in advance.

 

They will learn from each show and anticipate the changes next show.

 

 

 

 

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TupennyConan

TupennyConan

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Minutes away from saying goodbye & driving home.

 

Tremendous fun & success thanks to our dedicated team.

 

Terrific.

 

Thanks to all attendees & guests.

 

 

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TupennyConan

TupennyConan

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Some media have reported it will be Feb 28 - March 2, 2014. That has changed. There will be a new date announced for the next show.

 

While we used much of the building this weekend, we had only leased 75K sqft of the exhibit hall for our dealer room & 15K sqft of ballroom space for panels. There weren't any other occupants in the convention center this weekend, allowing us run of the house's foyers.

 

Over the course of Saturday, we added 25K sqft of exhibit hall & 20K sqft of ballroom, for a total of more than 135K sqft of dealer & panel rooms.

 

We have moved our 2014 space because we were booked next year for the start size of this weekend & we were going to share the weekend next year with another event.

 

The new weekend allows us to capture the entire convention center, giving us over 200K sqft of exhibit hall & maybe another 100K sqft of ballroom space.

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mangbus

mangbus

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Great show! Had a good time meeting boardies, getting sketches and talking to all the artists. I also picked up some comics for my collection which is always a bonus.

 

 

One gripe I had was on Sunday, a convention center staff guy (not a Tampa Con volunteer or staff member) tried to take my publix sub from me. He told me that the convention center does not allow outside food and drink. I don't recall ever seeing a single mention of this policy anywhere and plenty of other folks eating food they brought from home/hotel.

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