TheCollector2016 Posted April 1, 2017 Share Posted April 1, 2017 Incredibly disappointed to see that Hamill wasn't signing all 3 days - he's the reason I bought a Friday ticket! What an unpleasant surprise! Not to mention the poorly handled panel this evening...after he showed up 20-25 minutes late, the moderator went MIA the whole time. People were rudely shouting questions at Mark from the front rows and people were raising their hands...the moderator should have stepped in to indicate the existence of the microphones. Really amateur hour, I couldn't believe that for a paid event. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicmeta Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Friday was pretty crowed, but today(Sat) was insanely crowed especially in the celebrity autograph area. You could hardly breathe it was so packed with people. Not much in the way of the comics that I like but still a very nice Fanday's con. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevhtx Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 (edited) 38 minutes ago, musicmeta said: Friday was pretty crowed, but today(Sat) was insanely crowed especially in the celebrity autograph area. You could hardly breathe it was so packed with people. Not much in the way of the comics that I like but still a very nice Fanday's con. Its definitely a great show, but its gotten bigger and bigger as far as the crowd. Or at least seems like it. The space really needs to get bigger. Many times, the crowd congestion is unbearable. Especially in the celebrity signing area. I try to avoid that area now. I like what ECCC did this year and separated the celebrity signing area. Might be a good thing here too. I dont know. Edited April 2, 2017 by kevhtx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spideyfan68 Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 (edited) Saturday was seriously dangerous, aisles that were impassable. The show was obviously oversold and staff were seriously uninformed and outnumbered. it was almost impossible to stop at any vendors booths due to the crush of people. Feel sorry for the folks still waiting for Norman Redus and Jeffery Dean Morgan photos, may be a riot there tonight. Hope Sunday is calm... On a positive note the artist alley was well done with a good mix of artists. The Snyder and Capullo experience was especially cool. Talked to Kevin Boyd and told him from all the grief he took, me included , over lack of comic guests they had a very nice show. Congrats Kevin. Edited April 2, 2017 by spideyfan68 Misspelled words Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevhtx Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Yeah, the staff was yelling at people to say on either side of the aisle and walk in one direction. Thats great in a perfect world, but you had groups of people completely stopping to take pictures, shop or do other things that would completely block the rest, so that wouldn't work. The area just needs to be bigger next year. Ill be there tomorrow and hopefully its a little less crowded. I went to NYE and my God, you can tell a well oil marketing machine show compared to that disaster. DFW has a huge market of people and this show proves that. I think moving it to March had no negative effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCollector2016 Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Not only was the show oversold, it was clear that exhibitors were over-crammed into the space too. The whole thing was a fire hazard. I hope next year Fan Expo finds a bigger venue, because KBH Convention Center is no longer viable. Special shout out to the team at the CGC booth, who are clearly understaffed - thank you for helping me get Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill these past few days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevhtx Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 (edited) 3 minutes ago, TheCollector2016 said: Not only was the show oversold, it was clear that exhibitors were over-crammed into the space too. The whole thing was a fire hazard. I hope next year Fan Expo finds a bigger venue, because KBH Convention Center is no longer viable. Special shout out to the team at the CGC booth, who are clearly understaffed - thank you for helping me get Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill these past few days. Maybe Kevin can answer this, but I wonder if there is just more room that they can get out of KBH center? At ECCC, they have multiple floors of space and I would think they could expand like that here. Autographs on one floor, exhibitors on one floor and so on. It would be great for this show to get bigger to help some of the publishers to show up. This show could get huge. Id love to see that. Edited April 2, 2017 by kevhtx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCollector2016 Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 5 minutes ago, kevhtx said: Maybe Kevin can answer this, but I wonder if there is just more room that they can get out of KBH center? At ECCC, they have multiple floors of space and I would think they could expand like that here. Autographs on one floor, exhibitors on one floor and so on. It would be great for this show to get bigger to help some of the publishers to show up. This show could get huge. Id love to see that. If they moved autographs and/or photo ops to another floor, that would definitely assist in the foot traffic. I experienced numerous traffic jams today where people walking routinely came to a halt. Whatever decisions are made for 2018, it has to involve something like this, or a change in venue. Period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spideyfan68 Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 It seemed that the part of the KBH with the arena was not utilized at all. They definitely have to move the autigraph/ photo op area. It was a miracle no one was hurt today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevhtx Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Just now, spideyfan68 said: It seemed that the part of the KBH with the arena was not utilized at all. They definitely have to move the autigraph/ photo op area. It was a miracle no one was hurt today. I didnt realize that. Last summer, that was in full use for panels. I assumed it was being used, but had not been over there. That would be a good idea. I suspect maybe they were expecting a smaller crowd this year? Not sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spideyfan68 Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Kev you're right about folks stopping to take pics of cosplayers, completely clogged the floor. Fan Expo has to do something to keep the traffic moving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Boyd Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 (edited) Spoiler I can't at this point speak to changes for next year, but obviously the team is already trying to figure out how to make this a better fan experience. I'm also only peripherally involved in the celebrity events and I'm aware of the craziness and frustrations. We were slammed with people, moving to these dates was a good call, too good? Possibly. A bigger boat would work, or a differently organized one absolutely - the growth would justify it. But today, here's my comics report for Day 2. It was jam packed. Comics stuff went fairly well, frustrating because of Greg's problems getting down here and the effect they had on the busy day of events scheduled but their delayed VIP event happened as planned, but that delayed their public signing which we had to run for an hour after show close. Adam Kubert events went well. The comic guests seemed to be very happy with how things were going for them and the comics team worked our asses off today. We are very proud to make comics a positive and enjoyable part of this event and I tried to talk to as many fans as I could today and aside from some long line waits, I think it was a good day for comics aside from the busy floor that was difficult to traverse at times, but today was comparable to a busy day at MegaCon or Fan Expo Canada for us in the comics section. it was really great meeting the boardies who introduced themselves and shared their thoughts and experiences. Tony Harris had some art stolen from his table, which really angers me. Jim Lee is here safely in Dallas, and we've got a busy day of events tomorrow including that big DC panel and announcement. Greg and Scott events on Sunday should go well, knock on wood. Edited April 2, 2017 by Kevin Boyd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevhtx Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Thanks Kevin. Ill be there first thing in morning at Greg/Scott line then at Jim event at 1115. I might see you around there. Glad to hear the comic guys are happy. It was good to see that area crowded and not just people walking through it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Boyd Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 I could not agree more. Dallas fans love their comics guests and they have been awesome to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCollector2016 Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 I hope the team is aware of the frustrations, because the Facebook comments are definitely piling up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevhtx Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Another packed day today. I had a great time this weekend. I love seeing a Dallas show so packed. Great seeing everyone from the boards too. Nice meeting Dre and Kevin Boyd. My highlight of the day... ADAMANTIUM 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FoggyNelson Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Sweet Batman! 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mysterio Posted April 2, 2017 Author Share Posted April 2, 2017 (edited) At the airport waiting for my flight home. It was a fun show, and on the plus side I was able to get my Hamill autograph and my brother got his from Jeffrey Morgan (though the latter was more difficult than Hamill was for me). Other than the publicized issues with some guests I thought the guest list was great and people responded. On the minus side, sales at the booth declined from 2016, which had declined from 2015. I suspect the ever growing fees for autographs are influencing this sales decline. The celebrity autograph area needs to be expanded considerably. I was expecting the Fire Marshall while waiting for Hamill on Saturday at 2. More after I'm home. Edited April 2, 2017 by mysterio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaolingoat Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 1 hour ago, mysterio said: At the airport waiting for my flight home. It was a fun show, and on the plus side I was able to get my Hamill autograph and my brother got his from Jeffrey Morgan (though the latter was more difficult than Hamill was for me). Other than the publicized issues with some guests I thought the guest list was great and people responded. On the minus side, sales at the booth declined from 2016, which had declined from 2015. I suspect the ever growing fees for autographs are influencing this sales decline. The celebrity autograph area needs to be expanded considerably. I was expecting the Fire Marshall while waiting for Hamill on Saturday at 2. More after I'm home. My son, the Pop figure fan, and I almost hit up the Duncanville store yesterday for his monthly fix. Seeing their wall of figures at the show, might have been a good decision to wait until next week for a run. Sorry to hear about the drop-off in booth sales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jadams Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 What a great show. Great crowd, great staff, and pretty awesome guests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
