Going to Have a Small Comic book Show. Looking for ideas/thoughts 3 3

[piper]

@Artboy99, @kimik, @thehumantorch, @500Club regularly set-up at a small show in Edmonton held at one of our Banquet Hall Facilities.  The tables are cheap. The show is a mix of comics, toys, and pop culture items.  It's well attended, especially since we haven't had a large show for a couple of years.  I've heard them mention that setting up and loading are easy.

I think admission is $7 CAD or a donation to the local food bank.

Karl, Ryan, Brian, and Dave, what makes this local show successful?

[Artboy99]

On 3/30/2022 at 3:05 PM, piper said:

@Artboy99, @kimik, @thehumantorch, @500Club regularly set-up at a small show in Edmonton held at one of our Banquet Hall Facilities.  The tables are cheap. The show is a mix of comics, toys, and pop culture items.  It's well attended, especially since we haven't had a large show for a couple of years.  I've heard them mention that setting up and loading are easy.

I think admission is $7 CAD or a donation to the local food bank.

Karl, Ryan, Brian, and Dave, what makes this local show successful?

-well run by the organizer who has an email list of attendees so he can easily communicate with them.

-He advertises, I have heard commercials on the radio and I see handouts in comic stores.

-excellent communication by the organizer. Other show runners you can send them an email or call them and never hear back!

-easy load in and load out. The stairs are not ideal, but there isn't many of them.

-the show is small, yet big enough that it has enough vendors to make it worth attending 

-on site catering for food

-low table cost. I had 3 tables and it cost me $315 CDN

-available bus route for non-drivers

-lots of free parking

-The first show of the new year

-It has been going now for 10 years so it has an established history of being a great show.

All this said the organizer has tried to do multiple shows a year and the only ones that seem to work are his March/ November shows. The March show is always the best one because it is the first local show of the new year. The June one is ok but it isn't necessary IMHO, the August one failed because our city has a short summer and suffers from poor attendance.

 

Edited March 30, 2022 by Artboy99

[thehumantorch]

On 3/30/2022 at 3:05 PM, piper said:

@Artboy99, @kimik, @thehumantorch, @500Club regularly set-up at a small show in Edmonton held at one of our Banquet Hall Facilities.  The tables are cheap. The show is a mix of comics, toys, and pop culture items.  It's well attended, especially since we haven't had a large show for a couple of years.  I've heard them mention that setting up and loading are easy.

I think admission is $7 CAD or a donation to the local food bank.

Karl, Ryan, Brian, and Dave, what makes this local show successful?

Well, we just set up at one of those shows a week ago.  The promoter has runs shows for many years and has a strong core of return vendors and a lot of return buyers.  He does a good job promoting the show and that's key, lot of buyers makes vendors happy and makes it easy for him to sell out his tables.  When the doors open we have a steady stream of buyers for 3 hours.  Promote, promote, promote.  Get bums through the door.

[fastballspecial]

Haven't updated for awhile. Been Busy. 
Sent out last flyers to shops last week
Gave out last flyers today locally at FCBD at 3 shops.
Got my yard signs and banner other day.

 

Edited May 8, 2022 by fastballspecial

[fastballspecial]

So I am 6 shows in 2 years in now and I can share what I learned. 

Advertising is expensive unless you go word of mouth. 
Develop relationships with all local shops. Advertise for them they will 
advertise for you. Local shop even showed up at last show with new flyers
for them. Reach out to other shows advertise for them they will do the same
for you. 

Local media in my experience is not very helpful. I've contacted several and
they show up unexpectedly not very professional and have no clue what your
show is. 

You are always going to have a list of people who want to be dealers. So start 
a list after the first show. Make sure you interview your perspective dealers. 
I made the mistake once of letting one in without talking to them. I won't do that 
again. 

Dealers will not clean up after themselves (sometimes) unless you threaten to boot them if they don't. 
Just my experience. 

Free admission is the way to go unless you are a greedy promoter just my two cents. 
Charge the dealers and the crowd will come. I would suggest a cheaper rate first show
just in case people don't show up. Once dealers make good money and most do they 
will not flinch at their dealer fee. 

Some Dealers will blame you for their lack of sales. (Get a thick skin.)

Some fans will blame you for not having books they want. (Again thick skin)
And give fans a place ahead of time to put what they are looking for. 

Set deadlines for dealers to re-up for next show. Have it posted somewhere when the 
dealer contacts you a week before the show and wants to know why he does not have  
a spot. 

I read an online post from a promoter talking about spending 10 minutes walking around
the show smiling that he had accomplished running a show. (I did this as well its a great
feeling.) Take plenty of pictures you can use for advertising. 

Its alot of set up and break down work. Find some volunteers or in my case my family to 
help you. 

Take care of your dealers. Buy their lunch and bring some water bottles. I buy pizza for 
all of us. Keep in mind some dealers will bring other people and think they are also inclined
which they are not. Make sure you state that. Keep the pizza inside your dealer area as
vagrants will eat your pizza and donuts and have no shame for it. 

Start a page for dealers that you can communicate with all of them back in forth. Its a discussion
that you lead, but you want incite from dealers to help make decisions to benefit everyone. 
There will always been a dealer or two who know better then you. The best dealers are ones
that offer their experience without pushing it on you. 

State a page for your fans coming to the show. They will give you feedback sometimes you
have overlooked and some you can overlook. 

Go to other shows. Recruit the dealers you want. They are the ones that will make your show 
successful. Preach engagement, friendliness, and organization. Customers want all 3. See 
what you dont like at the shows and what you do. Try to encorporate what you like. 

Get the number of the guy who stocks the ATM its taken me 5 shows to get his number because
the ATM keeps running out during the show. 

Some dealers will advertise the show almost as much as you do while others will do nothing. 
Its frustrating, but let it go. 

Advertise as much as you can in as many places as you can. 

Cash is king, but online payments are a must unless you want to lose about 25% of business. 

 

Edited January 22 by fastballspecial

[Hschwartz]

Thanks for sharing all of this hard earned good advice. I hope your shows continue to do well in the future. The hobby needs more of these kind of small shows run by people who care about comics.

[musicmeta]

This is extremely informative on setting up a show.