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What’s Wrong With Conventions?
The first convention I went to was Shore-Leave, and I was instantly hooked on the idea of conventions, and starting going to every one that I could. Years later, I would get to attend GenCon, the glory of which was beyond words.
So why is it that now, I found myself leaving conventions with nothing but disappointment?
I recently attended the Star Trek 40th Anniversary Convention in Cherry Hill, mainly so that I could meet William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. The convention lasted three days, and my attendance package for the weekend was several times what I had paid at any other convention. Once inside, I found a small vendor area (taking up one hallway) and numerous rooms set aside for activities and events. I was excited.
My excitement would soon dwindle, however, when I found that though multiple rooms had been reserved across the three day period, only one event would take place at a time. Most of the events constituted three hour blocks of time where you could pay between $25-75 to get a photo taken with a Star Trek Celebrity, which you would then receive in the mail six weeks later.
No fan panels were provided, no game room, no con suite that I could find. When I asked convention volunteers, they said that people might have things going in the hotel room, but that was unsanctioned and unsupported by the convention. The convention, which I had paid so much to attend, was so boring that on the second day, rather than attend I drove half-way across New Jersey to visit Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash.
I have seen other conventions become impossible to communicate with, their P.O. Boxes shut off for months at a time, while their e-mail servers are down and every bit of contact information on their website is incorrect, a dead end, or out-of-date.
I have been approached by convention organizers to run panels and sections, exchanged contact information with the organizers, only to be never contacted again, and find that their contact information is no longer valid.
Convention organizers need to remember that conventions exist for the fans, and without them, the conventions will fall apart. Some conventions, like GenCon, are still doing it right. The rest need to get their act together.
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2 Responses to “What’s Wrong With Conventions?”
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ArmadilloCon is a fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and mystery convention held in August in Austin, TX. It’s primarily about writing and writers, and I’ve often heard it described as the most pro fan con. It’s a real pain to organize, but we run 3+ parallel tracks of programming every year. That way, there’s always something somebody wants to do. A few years back, we also added a game room for board games, war games, and RPGs. It’s not the focus of our convention, but there’s been a lot of enthusiasm for it every year we’ve had it.
The results? We’ve grown in attendance every year. We’ve recently grown out of the hotel we’ve traditionally used and had to upgrade to a full-blown convention hotel.
http://www.armadillocon.org/
- Brian
Brian,
Thanks for the heads up! I’m always looking for good new cons to check out, especially ones with a strong focus on fan programming and simultaneous events.