Fan Expo Dallas -- March 31-April 2, 2017 1 1

[ADAMANTIUM]

15 minutes ago, kevhtx said:

I believe that place is plenty large enough. Like Kevin said, just needs to be utilized. Its bigger than you think. 

I dont know how feasible this is, but at Texas Rangers Fan Fest, they have LCD, TV screens that display scheduling changes and important autograph times/locations. This is a much bigger event so harder to implement, but seems like if there is a way to let people know of changes, it would reduce the amount of people trekking to the celeb area to find out when so-so is signing or showing up when a celeb is late or delayed. I think a lot of the traffic was people trying to get info or see if someone was there so they could see them.

Ive also still not seen a good implementation of an app at a con, not even ECCC. They just aren't utilized well yet. Maybe its still too early. iBeacon technology is something to start to look into. Low emitting blue-tooth to transmit information to peoples devices. Geofencing as well.

 

+1

The cellphone service (could just be me idk) was horrible in there and internet real slow. I didn't know that so many were having problems with delays and cancellations till I got home. The photo-op annoucers didn't have mega-phones and I felt bad for them being asked the same question over and over and never having updates. Some kind of electronic screen would be great. I notice they had a few screens at the photo-ops. They were small, I guess that is normal, I noticed them after a while but it took me a long time asking workers for updates and the screens were never pointed out to me. The Speaker for the place broke on Friday night, but even before it broke it was garbled and hard to understand except for between 2-4pm when there were hardly any people there. I wouldn't suggest a announcement over the speaker, it's too loud there  

[RattyLa]

55 minutes ago, kevhtx said:

1. Is it possible for those of us with accounts to simply submit comics instead of having to pay for them when we submit on site?

If you have a credit card on file with CGC, in the payment box you just need to write "On File" and they will charge your card once the books get back to CGC headquarters. That is what i did with my submission.

Just need to call CGC to put a credit card on file if you don't already have one.

[kevhtx]

9 minutes ago, RattyLa said:

If you have a credit card on file with CGC, in the payment box you just need to write "On File" and they will charge your card once the books get back to CGC headquarters. That is what i did with my submission.

Just need to call CGC to put a credit card on file if you don't already have one.

I do have one on file and wrote that on the form but here and at eccc they said I had to pay there.

[RattyLa]

Did you do any pressing service? Not sure what happened. They took my form without charging a card on Sunday.

[kevhtx]

19 minutes ago, RattyLa said:

Did you do any pressing service? Not sure what happened. They took my form without charging a card on Sunday.

No I'm not sure either. I'll ask again next time.

[kevhtx]

At Fan Fest, they had LCD screens and also some projectors. They also needed them because they had a lottery system for some autographs. Thats the way they announced the winners.

[mysterio]

Might as well give my perspective a few days removed from the event. I am still trying to get caught up on my sleep...

From a vendor perspective, it was a bit of a disappointment. We've been doing these shows since 2015, and that first show was our high water mark. 2016 was a chunk below 2015, and this year was a pretty good step down from 2016. That being said, buying was steady pretty much all weekend and we sold through quite a bit of material (like 9 copies of Secret Wars #8!). Most of these sales were quite small though, so when all that activity was added up it didn't hit the number we had hoped for. Friday was very solid for sales, but Saturday barely squeaked past Friday for us.

I can't help but think that the inflation in autograph prices we have seen of late is contributing to this trend in sales declines (not just at this show, but 2016 and so far in 2017). It used to be that your upper tier autographs were in the $50 range, with most being like $25-30. Now Stan is $120, Hamill was $195 ($250 if you got him on a poster like I did), and others like the WD stars and Tim Curry were also pricey. That sucks a lot of money out of the room that doesn't go to vendors. We were right along the red carpet, and every morning when people were let in they sprinted right past us down to the celeb section of the floor to get their spots in line. The guest list was great, and obviously worked for attendance (and I paid for Hamill, so maybe I am a bit of a hypocrite here) but it wasn't very helpful for vendors. Of course some did well, so YMMV.

Back to the celebs, there were some well-publicized issues that I will leave to social media. They didn't directly affect me, so I won't comment one way or the other. On the one hand the celeb area was a nightmare to navigate, and was clearly way too small. That will need to be addressed next year with some additional space, or maybe putting the biggest celebs in another area of the center that was unused this year. I am sure they are already working on that for 2018. I do have to say that the Hamill line worked very well for me personally. I had gotten an autograph ticket (thanks to my quick thinking brother, who selflessly got out of JD Morgan's line to get the ticket for me and sacrificed a few spots for himself in the process) and was able to get into my spot easily. The line was handled efficiently, at least up until my auto came up, and I was only in line for about 90 minutes. So my experience in that melee was actually fairly positive.

I agree that LCDs to provide updates on the floor and post schedules would be a significant improvement. Printed schedules just don't cut it anymore. The larger autograph lines and photo ops are consistently late, and people need to know when they need to be someplace.

I like the convention center for this event, and I do enjoy the show. I just hope that sales in 2018 improve from our standpoint so we can continue to keep this one on our calendar. I can't help but feel that some of the larger shows are getting to a point where the vendors are just about superfluous to many attendees, and this is showing in their expenditures. If all they are going to do is stand in autograph lines all weekend, why do these big box shows (Wizard, I'm really including you here too) need vendors?

Edited April 5, 2017 by mysterio

[TheCollector2016]

Day 3 since the Con...still no public acknowledgement there were any flaws or problems.

Meanwhile...

http://nerdsworld.tumblr.com/post/159124589113/fan-expo-dallaswhat-in-the

http://www.comicsbeat.com/con-watch-an-angry-crowd-formed-when-jeffrey-dean-morgan-and-norman-reeedus-departed-early-from-fan-expo-dallas/

[Kevin Boyd]

This was the statement issued by Fan Expo HQ on Saturday night:

Quote

As you may know, Norman Reedus and Jeffrey Dean Morgan arrived late this morning after a series of travel changes due to New York storms.

Unfortunately, they had to leave tonight to beat another storm heading into Dallas so they can return to LA tomorrow to fulfill their commitments to appear on The Talking Dead tomorrow night after the season finale of The Walking Dead.

We are grateful to Norman & Jeffrey for the time they were able to spend with us today at FAN EXPO Dallas and are disappointed that the weather led to this situation.

If your photo op was cancelled due to the change, it will be refunded by Epic Photo Ops as we announced tonight at the time of cancellation. If you need to contact Epic, please email them at Support@EpicPhotoOps.com

We thank you for your understanding, and we encourage you to reach out to our Feedback Team via email at Feedback@FANEXPOHQ.com with your experiences.

Thank you, and we are looking forward to the final day of FAN EXPO Dallas tomorrow.

The FAN EXPO HQ Team

Refunds were issued. credit card charges reversed. Our customer service department continues to address complaints on a one on one basis. If you or anyone else have one, please email feedback@fanexpohq.com and they'll address it with you directly.

 

 

[TheCollector2016]

1 hour ago, Kevin Boyd said:

This was the statement issued by Fan Expo HQ on Saturday night:

Refunds were issued. credit card charges reversed. Our customer service department continues to address complaints on a one on one basis. If you or anyone else have one, please email feedback@fanexpohq.com and they'll address it with you directly.

 

 

I didn't mean to suggest I had an issue with those specific guests, I didn't. I'm glad people who did had them resolved. I was just pointing out the reviews keep coming in, and they're not good.

I was referring to the general issues with crowd control, overselling the show, poor use of space/venue, etc. You can't seriously be suggesting Fan Expo shouldn't be recognizing/acknowledging these things publicly? I saw many comments on Facebook from people who said this was their first and last con experience. How is publicly pretending the event was a success the right course? 

 

[Kevin Boyd]

Customer service issues should be sent to feedback@fanexpohq.com

I don't think the show was oversold - we had a very busy Saturday - Friday and Sunday didn't have these same issues but were also well attended. High attendance compounded by delays related to the late arrival of specific guests that led to large numbers of people waiting in the celebrity photo-op and autograph area for long periods of time. I think that was addressed in the statement from  management, and we certainly don't want to repeat that, and as I said previously, I'm sure that all of this will be taken into account for future planning at that facility and we'll be discussing this from now until next April.

You may see a more formal statement down the line, but customer service is still hearing from and contacting people who had problems.

[jadams]

As far as the overcrowding issue, I saw the Fire Marshall a few times throughout the weekend.  He seemed to be fine with the crowd size.  There was a DFD presence all weekend long. 

When the guest list is that great, the people will show up.

It was a pretty great show.

[mysterio]

5 hours ago, jadams said:

As far as the overcrowding issue, I saw the Fire Marshall a few times throughout the weekend.  He seemed to be fine with the crowd size.  There was a DFD presence all weekend long. 

When the guest list is that great, the people will show up.

It was a pretty great show.

It was a good show, with a great guest list. Obviously the move to March/April didn't hurt the draw at all.

But I don't see how anyone could be fine with the celeb area on Saturday afternoon. You couldn't move around, and if anything had happened in the middle of that there would have been a very serious problem. Not only that, but in terms of PR obviously the crushing lines weren't a good look. This is the #1 issue to address for 2018, and I have no doubt that FE will be working hard on that.

[kevhtx]

2 minutes ago, mysterio said:

It was a good show, with a great guest list. Obviously the move to March/April didn't hurt the draw at all.

But I don't see how anyone could be fine with the celeb area on Saturday afternoon. You couldn't move around, and if anything had happened in the middle of that there would have been a very serious problem. Not only that, but in terms of PR obviously the crushing lines weren't a good look. This is the #1 issue to address for 2018, and I have no doubt that FE will be working hard on that.

Yeah, last year, it was congested, but not as bad. I remember it being annoying trying to maneuver in the celeb autograph area, but this year was near impossible on Saturday at least. I think they will fix it and probably not too hard of a fix for them. Moving big celebs, better schedule communication to attendees and/or line organization. This venue has room to grow.

[mysterio]

1 minute ago, kevhtx said:

7 minutes ago, mysterio said:

It was a good show, with a great guest list. Obviously the move to March/April didn't hurt the draw at all.

But I don't see how anyone could be fine with the celeb area on Saturday afternoon. You couldn't move around, and if anything had happened in the middle of that there would have been a very serious problem. Not only that, but in terms of PR obviously the crushing lines weren't a good look. This is the #1 issue to address for 2018, and I have no doubt that FE will be working hard on that.

Yeah, last year, it was congested, but not as bad. I remember it being annoying trying to maneuver in the celeb autograph area, but this year was near impossible on Saturday at least. I think they will fix it and probably not too hard of a fix for them. Moving big celebs, better schedule communication to attendees and/or line organization. This venue has room to grow.

There is plenty of room in adjacent halls or downstairs (maybe, never been down there to see what is available) to sequester some of the larger celeb lines from the general mix. Hamill alone would have been worthwhile to put in one of those areas to allow more room to breathe and organize the various lines. If there is another group of WD stars that would make a lot of sense for them as well. Photo Ops with those stars could be organized in the same areas without impacting the other celeb area.

[kevhtx]

There is plenty of room downstairs. There just needs to be better line organization downstairs to better delineate where lines start/end and for what signing. When you went downstairs for a private event (like Jim Lee) and saw all those people, you normally had to ask what line it was and where it started. The line moved a lot too. Our line moved several times before we actually went into the room.

Edited April 6, 2017 by kevhtx

[Kevin Boyd]

All of those delays led to a lot of folks waiting around. I honestly love the idea of the television screens with updated times and schedules idea (sort of like what you'd find for flights at an airport), I'm just not sure on the logistics, and where they'd place them - but that's what the managers can work out... but I am definitely passing that along.

We give out virtual tickets so that people know when to come back for autographs and assign approximate times for photos. We need to get the message across that if your signing or photo op isn't happening for a while, here's when you should come back. If there's a two hour delay, come back in two hours. That will hopefully help free people to do other things. But a slow line because of guest interactions it's hard to do that with.

Edited April 6, 2017 by Kevin Boyd

[kevhtx]

Projectors/TV screens in the hallways where people are eating/resting, premium/VIP lounges, and maybe that area where special event ticket booth area/escalators near premium lounge area. Some place where people are already gathering or walking past anyway would be ideal. Projectors might be easiest since they can be larger view. Obviously, they could be utilized for a lot more than this too.

[TheCollector2016]

In addition to TVs, an app with push notifications would be nice, although I know not everyone has a smartphone.

There were times where simply going downstairs was a problem...I had to wait in line to go down the escalator, which was a bit ridiculous.

[kevhtx]

I bet that crowd, 90% have a smartphone and use apps.  

The hard part is getting them to download the app and use it. Gotta have incentive to use it.

Edited April 6, 2017 by kevhtx