failure to con
Mar. 2nd, 2013 12:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davemerrillHere's some stories about failed conventions of the past that I've been to, or close to, or heard about.
EX-CON (1986)- local Atlanta area guy went from a failed comic book company to a failed convention. I knew him from the failed comic book company and wanted no part of his convention, which was OK by him, as he was firmly in the driver's seat for this ego trip. He sold memberships, sold dealers tables, invited guests, printed flyers, booked hotel space. The weekend of the convention, the hotel kindly informed him that he wasn't anywhere near making the room block he promised and that unless he paid for the meeting space in advance in cash, his convention wasn't happening. Convention didn't happen, but I understand there were some cool parties in the already-reserved rooms. A friend of mine in high school bought a membership and bugged me constantly about getting a refund. FAILURE: no reason for this con to exist, no reason for anyone to attend. Prime example of convention for the sake of organizer's ego.
OUTWORLD (1996)- Castlegate. This goth-vampire-white wolf games style convention was at first started by a local fan guy who wanted us to run the anime room. His contact information was a telephone number at his job, which was at Waffle House, at which he was no longer employed when I called. The convention actually happened, and we actually did run the anime room, which was sparsely attended. All in all not a total failure- the 300 or so people who showed up seemed to enjoy themselves - but was there any need for this show to exist? Not really. We spent Saturday night shooting darts at each other and annoying the LARPers. FAILURE: not really a failure, but not enough of a success to impel anyone to want to do another one.
STARCON & COMICS (1995)- organizers of Atlanta Fantasy Fair decided to put on a show that was basically Atlanta Fantasy Fair under another name so as to cut one of Atlanta Fantasy Fair's owners from their share of the profits. Sadly, these were the people that were responsible for turning AFF from Atlanta's largest convention into a shell of its former self, and what Atlanta's con-going audience wanted was not a repeat of the failed AFF but what we were doing down the street on the same weekend, which was AWA. FAILURE: spent a lot of money on unattractive guests. Pretended their failed convention model would somehow magically work THIS time.
ATLANTA COMIC-CON (2001-2003) - This Duluth-based convention was started by a guy who ran comic book shops in Roswell and Atlanta. Started off fairly large in the Gwinnett Civic Center and the hotel nearby. Of course they had to have an anime room and they asked us to run it. The anime room was sparsely attended. The convention itself had decent attendance but totally spent way too much money on the convention center, guests, ancillary stuff like T-shirts, etc. Next year the attendance was about the same, if not a little less. Year after that they were in half the space at the convention center, attendance was even less. FAILURE: starting off way too big their first year with a vastly too ambitious program in a vastly too expensive convention center. Too many Hollywood wanna-be players (the guys who directed "Free Enterprise"?), too many people flown in from across the country, not enough badges to pay for it all.
EDITED TO ADD: Seriously, "Atlanta Comic-Con"? That's the name you're going with? Because that's about as painfully generic as you can get without a plain white box and a sans-serif font.
CON NO BAKA: (2005) Much has been written about this 2006 show. An anime/gaming con in a blank spot on the convention calendar, in Anime North's hotel, the hotel management pulled the plug Saturday night when it became obvious that there was no way CNB would be able to pay for Sunday's meeting space. The convention's failure is a classic case of Con Chair Myopia, inability to delegate, hands-on disease, willful blindness, whatever you want to call it. Chair ignored reasonable estimates of attendance and booked much more meeting space than was required, insisted on micro-managing details that should have been left to subordinates, and generally made everyone realize this convention existed so that the con chair could say "I ran a convention". FAILURE: Pretending your 300-person convention is a 1000 person convention will not magically make it a 1000 person convention, and if you actually are going to pretend your convention will get 1000 attendees, don't insist upon doing EVERYTHING yourself, so that when the shit hits the fan you aren't in the con office stapling program books by hand.
JURASSICON (1996?) - I remember seeing advertising for this convention circa 1997-1999 in Atlanta. Did it ever happen?
ATLANTIS -(1994?) I remember seeing advertising for this convention circa 1994-5 in Atlanta. Did it ever happen?
WEAPONSCON was an Atlanta 1987 show started by Atlanta SF fan legend Irv Koch and a like-minded group who felt that the weapons policies of conventions were infringing upon their personal freedoms. Poor babies. At this show, if you arrived without a weapon, they'd pin a paper dagger to your shirt. In practical terms their weapons policy was (a) no automatic weapons -big deal, that's the de facto 'weapons policy' for America, (b) all swords and things had to be peace bonded - again, what most other shows were doing; (c) if you did decide to bring a real firearm you couldn't bring ammunition for it into the show, which highlights the fan community's genius for taking something normal people would consider common sense and enshrining it into law, and (d) you have to listen to an important speech by America's foremost libertarian SF author on why everybody should be able to carry whatever firearms they wanted all the time everywhere, CASE CLOSED!! FAILURE: I wouldn't call this show a 'failure', in that it probably made money and accomplished whatever it was the organizers set out to do, unless it was to convince other conventions to loosen up on their weapons policies, which hasn't happened, and for good reason. Unless you like seeing granny-lady blood spilled on your convention center floor.
ATSUICON (2007) - I wasn't at this show, but reportedly the convention spent way too much, got in way over its head, and on Saturday night held a mass meeting of all the attendees to inform them that the convention was $12,000 in debt and that all 1000 attendees needed to pony up $12 each or the convention would be shut down. The beauty part is that apparently the attendees fell for it. There never was another Atsuicon, which is a very good thing. FAILURE: poor money management skills. Seriously, all their guests were local Texas voice actors or local Texas fan wanna-be guests, their programming was the same old stuff you see at every other anime con, and the cheapest ticket price was $28, $45 at the door. If they did 1000 attendees they had at least $30,000 to play with, not counting selling dealers tables. What the hell did they blow all that money on?
So, what have we learned. Conventions fail for many reasons. Poor money management, ego trips, failure to delegate, insanely optimistic attendance projections, simple bad luck. A complete lack of understanding or purpose lies at the bottom of many of these failed shows - why are you organizing this convention? Why do you expect people to pay money to attend? Is it because it's a convention and has to exist for its own sake? Because that is so not true. History proves it.
There's an existential crisis at the heart of many of these failed shows; they're doing it because they saw others do it and they want the social credit or the respect or the (imaginary) profits they think others are getting from running conventions. What they don't understand is that if you don't love the holy beejeezus out of whatever it is you're starting a convention for, you've ALREADY FAILED. Nothing will repay the time and sweat and blood and tears you'll spend on this project.
There's an organization failure, too. In that you don't need that much organization. Do you really need badges, program books, T-shirts, con suites, video rooms, panels, costume contests, all that nonsense, just because you want to hang out with people who like what you like? Do you have to have a convention for this? Usually you don't. The kids these days are just saying the hell with everything and gathering casually for meetups, photoshoots, World Hetalia Cosplay Daze, you name it, they don't need the convention model to get together. Let the t-shirts and the cosplay chess come when it needs to be there, and not a moment sooner.
In conclusion. We don't need any more fan conventions. We're full up. Host a meetup or a photoshoot or a book club or a picnic or a family reunion instead.
EX-CON (1986)- local Atlanta area guy went from a failed comic book company to a failed convention. I knew him from the failed comic book company and wanted no part of his convention, which was OK by him, as he was firmly in the driver's seat for this ego trip. He sold memberships, sold dealers tables, invited guests, printed flyers, booked hotel space. The weekend of the convention, the hotel kindly informed him that he wasn't anywhere near making the room block he promised and that unless he paid for the meeting space in advance in cash, his convention wasn't happening. Convention didn't happen, but I understand there were some cool parties in the already-reserved rooms. A friend of mine in high school bought a membership and bugged me constantly about getting a refund. FAILURE: no reason for this con to exist, no reason for anyone to attend. Prime example of convention for the sake of organizer's ego.
OUTWORLD (1996)- Castlegate. This goth-vampire-white wolf games style convention was at first started by a local fan guy who wanted us to run the anime room. His contact information was a telephone number at his job, which was at Waffle House, at which he was no longer employed when I called. The convention actually happened, and we actually did run the anime room, which was sparsely attended. All in all not a total failure- the 300 or so people who showed up seemed to enjoy themselves - but was there any need for this show to exist? Not really. We spent Saturday night shooting darts at each other and annoying the LARPers. FAILURE: not really a failure, but not enough of a success to impel anyone to want to do another one.
STARCON & COMICS (1995)- organizers of Atlanta Fantasy Fair decided to put on a show that was basically Atlanta Fantasy Fair under another name so as to cut one of Atlanta Fantasy Fair's owners from their share of the profits. Sadly, these were the people that were responsible for turning AFF from Atlanta's largest convention into a shell of its former self, and what Atlanta's con-going audience wanted was not a repeat of the failed AFF but what we were doing down the street on the same weekend, which was AWA. FAILURE: spent a lot of money on unattractive guests. Pretended their failed convention model would somehow magically work THIS time.
ATLANTA COMIC-CON (2001-2003) - This Duluth-based convention was started by a guy who ran comic book shops in Roswell and Atlanta. Started off fairly large in the Gwinnett Civic Center and the hotel nearby. Of course they had to have an anime room and they asked us to run it. The anime room was sparsely attended. The convention itself had decent attendance but totally spent way too much money on the convention center, guests, ancillary stuff like T-shirts, etc. Next year the attendance was about the same, if not a little less. Year after that they were in half the space at the convention center, attendance was even less. FAILURE: starting off way too big their first year with a vastly too ambitious program in a vastly too expensive convention center. Too many Hollywood wanna-be players (the guys who directed "Free Enterprise"?), too many people flown in from across the country, not enough badges to pay for it all.
EDITED TO ADD: Seriously, "Atlanta Comic-Con"? That's the name you're going with? Because that's about as painfully generic as you can get without a plain white box and a sans-serif font.
CON NO BAKA: (2005) Much has been written about this 2006 show. An anime/gaming con in a blank spot on the convention calendar, in Anime North's hotel, the hotel management pulled the plug Saturday night when it became obvious that there was no way CNB would be able to pay for Sunday's meeting space. The convention's failure is a classic case of Con Chair Myopia, inability to delegate, hands-on disease, willful blindness, whatever you want to call it. Chair ignored reasonable estimates of attendance and booked much more meeting space than was required, insisted on micro-managing details that should have been left to subordinates, and generally made everyone realize this convention existed so that the con chair could say "I ran a convention". FAILURE: Pretending your 300-person convention is a 1000 person convention will not magically make it a 1000 person convention, and if you actually are going to pretend your convention will get 1000 attendees, don't insist upon doing EVERYTHING yourself, so that when the shit hits the fan you aren't in the con office stapling program books by hand.
JURASSICON (1996?) - I remember seeing advertising for this convention circa 1997-1999 in Atlanta. Did it ever happen?
ATLANTIS -(1994?) I remember seeing advertising for this convention circa 1994-5 in Atlanta. Did it ever happen?
WEAPONSCON was an Atlanta 1987 show started by Atlanta SF fan legend Irv Koch and a like-minded group who felt that the weapons policies of conventions were infringing upon their personal freedoms. Poor babies. At this show, if you arrived without a weapon, they'd pin a paper dagger to your shirt. In practical terms their weapons policy was (a) no automatic weapons -big deal, that's the de facto 'weapons policy' for America, (b) all swords and things had to be peace bonded - again, what most other shows were doing; (c) if you did decide to bring a real firearm you couldn't bring ammunition for it into the show, which highlights the fan community's genius for taking something normal people would consider common sense and enshrining it into law, and (d) you have to listen to an important speech by America's foremost libertarian SF author on why everybody should be able to carry whatever firearms they wanted all the time everywhere, CASE CLOSED!! FAILURE: I wouldn't call this show a 'failure', in that it probably made money and accomplished whatever it was the organizers set out to do, unless it was to convince other conventions to loosen up on their weapons policies, which hasn't happened, and for good reason. Unless you like seeing granny-lady blood spilled on your convention center floor.
ATSUICON (2007) - I wasn't at this show, but reportedly the convention spent way too much, got in way over its head, and on Saturday night held a mass meeting of all the attendees to inform them that the convention was $12,000 in debt and that all 1000 attendees needed to pony up $12 each or the convention would be shut down. The beauty part is that apparently the attendees fell for it. There never was another Atsuicon, which is a very good thing. FAILURE: poor money management skills. Seriously, all their guests were local Texas voice actors or local Texas fan wanna-be guests, their programming was the same old stuff you see at every other anime con, and the cheapest ticket price was $28, $45 at the door. If they did 1000 attendees they had at least $30,000 to play with, not counting selling dealers tables. What the hell did they blow all that money on?
So, what have we learned. Conventions fail for many reasons. Poor money management, ego trips, failure to delegate, insanely optimistic attendance projections, simple bad luck. A complete lack of understanding or purpose lies at the bottom of many of these failed shows - why are you organizing this convention? Why do you expect people to pay money to attend? Is it because it's a convention and has to exist for its own sake? Because that is so not true. History proves it.
There's an existential crisis at the heart of many of these failed shows; they're doing it because they saw others do it and they want the social credit or the respect or the (imaginary) profits they think others are getting from running conventions. What they don't understand is that if you don't love the holy beejeezus out of whatever it is you're starting a convention for, you've ALREADY FAILED. Nothing will repay the time and sweat and blood and tears you'll spend on this project.
There's an organization failure, too. In that you don't need that much organization. Do you really need badges, program books, T-shirts, con suites, video rooms, panels, costume contests, all that nonsense, just because you want to hang out with people who like what you like? Do you have to have a convention for this? Usually you don't. The kids these days are just saying the hell with everything and gathering casually for meetups, photoshoots, World Hetalia Cosplay Daze, you name it, they don't need the convention model to get together. Let the t-shirts and the cosplay chess come when it needs to be there, and not a moment sooner.
In conclusion. We don't need any more fan conventions. We're full up. Host a meetup or a photoshoot or a book club or a picnic or a family reunion instead.
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no subject
Date: 2013-03-02 05:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-02 06:12 pm (UTC)Weaponscon actually happened. L. Neil Smith was the keynote speaker. I did not attend, myself, as I knew it would be the concentrated essence of the bearded, beret-wearing, Dorsai-wannabe military SF douchebags who infest every SF convention, talking about their martial arts skills and their massive handgun collection and the finer details of WWII tanks. They will, however, avoid mentioning their Vietnam draft deferments or the couch they're currently surfing at a buddy's house.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-02 06:45 pm (UTC)1000 would have been a little on the high side for AtsuiCon's attendance. However, the reason it failed was gross money mismanagement. The con chair was a wannabe club DJ, and as I understood it at the time he blew $25K to rent a sound system for main programming. The rest of the con's expenses COMBINED didn't come up to that much, IIRC.
That said, the bulk of the money for the bailout came from three deep-pocketed Houston-area fans who basically bought the con corporation out from under the conchair. Since then the combination of Anime Matsuri in the north Houston suburbs in springtime, OniCon in Galveston in the fall, and A-Kon and AnimeFEST opening and closing the summer con season in Dallas have made a summer anime con in Houston non-viable.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-02 06:54 pm (UTC)There were two things I noted: first, the show really was hopelessly over-ambitious, with halls and viewing rooms almost totally empty. Second, please please PLEASE do NOT EVER put a stage in the middle of a damn dealer's room with the local oldies station blaring at 100 dB between karate exhibitions and wannabe boy bands. Dealers and customers like to be able to HEAR EACH OTHER when they do business.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-02 07:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-03 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-09 05:53 am (UTC)Sorry about that.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-02 10:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-03 10:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-03 10:54 pm (UTC)Matt M
Date: 2013-03-04 03:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-02 11:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-03 02:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-03 11:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-05 09:02 pm (UTC)The Sequel was "Zombies of the Gene Pool"
http://www.amazon.com/Bimbos-Death-Sun-Sharyn-McCrumb/dp/0345483022
no subject
Date: 2013-03-05 10:12 pm (UTC)Having rethought my original comment, I'm not sure you could get a whole book out of it, but I'd love to see what the editors of Harvard Business Review would make of an article.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-05 10:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-05 10:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-05 10:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-03 02:59 pm (UTC)Or how about Confurence (I think it was number 8 or so)? There's an ungodly amount of interpersonal drama in the furry community that puts the rest of the various fandoms to shame. And there's an ungodly amount of porn in the furry community that likewise puts the rest of the various fandoms to shame. Add in some vendetta and hatred directed at the con staff, and a well-placed telephone call to the powers-that-be that enforced the local pornography laws, and the con became the con that almost didn't happen.
Or the ComicFest Philadelphia, at the height of the comics boom in 1993 put on by some shady promoters that (I think) came from sports celebrity world. Their sin was to rank the various guests to the convention into clearly-defined categories...and somehow that list ended up published in the program literature. Many, many, many fragile comic book artist egos were seriously bruised. There wasn't another ComicFest after that.
Anyway, that's just a few off the top of my head.
Matt M
Date: 2013-03-03 08:28 pm (UTC)Sci-Fi Summer seemed to have many of the same problems-assumptions of attendance figures that were patently unrealistic, too much money spent, etc. The arcade was awesome, but I'm amazed it came back for another year at all. Another con where half the attendees ended up in the dart war in an attempt to have fun that wasn't being met via legit means.
Re: Matt M
Date: 2013-03-03 10:21 pm (UTC)I thought the second year of the show was kinda fun, actually. The arcade was a great touch, and if JV hadn't managed to alienate the guy that owned all the games, it might have been a regular attraction.
Re: Matt M
Date: 2013-03-03 11:52 pm (UTC)How is she these days? I haven't heard anything about her in ages.
Re: Matt M
Date: 2013-03-04 03:46 am (UTC)I haven't heard from Yuki in around ten years. As far as I know, she's still teaching at GSU.
I'd no idea that SCi-Fi Summer still existed. Didn't know that a certain person alienated the arcade guy, either, but not like that's a real shock.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-04 01:09 pm (UTC)Matt M
Date: 2013-03-04 08:30 pm (UTC)Re: Matt M
Date: 2013-03-05 12:03 am (UTC)The Dragoncon outfit was always trying to spin off other shows, they had the "Atlanta Comics Expo" a few times as well. I can understand the reasoning; you have the infrastructure in place, why not use it? AFF did the same thing a few times.
Re: Matt M
Date: 2013-03-07 02:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-04 11:13 pm (UTC)That said, have SF cons started trying Kickstarter to get upfront money? That might have saved those Atsuicon guys some grief.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-04 11:58 pm (UTC)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sogen_Con
because somehow I can't comment on your LJ without editing like 4 times
Date: 2013-03-05 03:39 pm (UTC)After that, it turned into the exact opposite of the overestimated, overextended convention horror story. The money earned from the last year of Big Ushicon went towards holding some small genre-specific events, then the con proper came back in 2008 or 2009. It's now 18+, in a small hotel, modestly run with low overhead... it's basically 200 grownup nerds just chilling out together for a weekend. Reminds me a little of AWA2, actually; I think you'd enjoy it.
Re: because somehow I can't comment on your LJ without editing like 4 times
Date: 2013-03-05 04:35 pm (UTC)Re: because somehow I can't comment on your LJ without editing like 4 times
Date: 2013-04-02 03:55 am (UTC)YOU HEXED ME EK
but it's ok, you're a good cuddler
no subject
Date: 2013-03-09 05:44 am (UTC)Yeah, I was one of those wanna-be guests. I'd heard AtsuiCon was falling apart all day Friday, but we decided why not go anyway. Have an adventure and stuff. We should've just gone on to NASA and looked at the rockets and called it a day.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-09 04:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-10 03:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-01 09:28 pm (UTC)Kazecon: took place in 2003 in the scary former Ramada that ACen used in 1999. I think it was one of the cons that was started by people pissed off at ACen management (see also Anime Reactor), because revenge conventions are the best conventions.
ANYWAYS. The place was a dump, complete with a blocked off wing and condemned indoor pool. The signs were written in Sharpie on torn pieces of cardboard. And the (male) con chair punched the (female) vice-chair in the face in an honest-to-god fist fight.*
In the end, we had fun despite the completely boring programming. They eventually ripped down half the Ramada and rehabbed the rest.
Kazecon promised a return, in Milwaukee, in 2005. They were never heard from again.
*This did happen but I can't remember for certain if the people involved were chair/vice-chair or other top level staff members. They were definitely in charge though.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-01 11:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-02 03:53 am (UTC)Other greatest hits include the time in 2003 when I had to make ACen's full-color 48-page program book in 18 hours and then had to put a full-page sticker over an ADV ad the previous designer/DH screwed up... on every single program book printed, on convention Thursday.
IT WAS AWESOME