Home from O-ChibiCon...
Aug. 9th, 2005 06:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redneckgaijinWell, it's just a good thing I wasn't picked for a jury yesterday, because I just spent ten toss-and-turn hours more or less asleep, reaching the peak of the all too predictable post-con flu. (Cold. Whatever.)
Business, in short: $350 for tables, free crash space with Russ and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
starcat_jewel, a bit less than $100 for gas and food combined- call it $450 total expenses, and just under $600 total sales. Slightly more than half the total sales were T-shirts, particularly the Glomp, Eyes babydoll, Tofu and Fangirls shirts.
Rather than beginning a detailed chronological report which I might never finish, here are some "highlights".
* It's a very bad sign when the contact person listed on the website for dealers is NOT the Dealer's Room chair... and a worse sign when the DR chair never shows face throughout the convention.
* $20 off per table is not sufficient discount for tables up stairs with no elevator/escalator access. Doubly so if one of the two stairways is practically closed off by the presence of tables on the lower level. I was the only paying dealer on the upper level.
* Never did get my proper dealer's badges, but at least they gave me -a- badge; the badge laminator died early on Friday and was never replaced, so paper bracelets were handed out to con members instead. Oh, and no Bag'o'Joy, program, schedule, etc. for dealers, either.
* Yo, mothers: it's just cruel to take your teenage, possibly even college-age girls to a convention and then demand they spend no money... and send them to return merchandise already bought. I mean, -really.-
* Yet again, nothing in the anime rooms I want to watch outside of DR hours or sleep time. Got in a lot of games of Munchkin and one of Sakura.
* Scantily Clad Cosplay? Sounds good, until you saw Friday Night's contestants; three males (two shirtless, one wearing a "Speedo Mask" mask, cape, hat and speedo, and nothing else) and two females (who think "scantily clad" means "show some skin between knees and ankles." Feh.
* Er... um... check me on this. Con Chair is not supposed to get drunk before 5 PM Sunday, earliest. Con Chair needs to be sober at all hours of the convention proper in case something comes up (and something will always come up).
* If Con Chair does get drunk, Con Chair should not admit she is drunk... much less -crow- about it three times in five minutes where dozens of congoers can hear.
* If Con Chair does get drunk, and does begin saying, "I'm so drunk!", the rest of the con staff should know better than to let her have a microphone...
* OTOH, letting a certain dealer (modesty forbids) burn a bit of time with an a capella rendition of Tom Lehrer's "Smut" isn't so bad an idea. At least the audience seemed to like it...
* Texas Hold'em should not be played with chip counts resetting every five hands, nor should it be played with people who have little clue as to the basic rules of poker.
* STICK TO THE POSTED DEALER'S HOURS. So you made the mistake of scheduling an event in main programming which would prevent setup for masquerade- and so there's a piano in the DR- extending DR hours -indefinitely- (in fact from 6 to 7, but nobody knew that) does NOT bring in customers if nobody KNOWS the DR is still open.
* And changing Sunday closing from 4 PM to 1:30? On one hour's notice? I know you were chronically short on volunteers the whole weekend, but you -have- to find security for the DR. Even on Sunday, cutting things short by -that- much cost us a few sales, even for those who had to begin packing up at noon to be clear of the room by the hotel-mandated 6 PM.
* Artist's Alley in hotel lobby; not too bad an idea. Artist's alley adjacent to the point where the hotel pool extends under a glass wall to allow guests to dive in without going outdoors... perhaps not so good an idea, but nobody seems to have been splashed or anything. That I know about.
All in all, I'm not permanently cheesed off at O-Chibi, but I am much less than impressed. The facility (the Hampton/Clarion conjoined hotels on Beltway 8 near Bush Intercontinental) was horrible, organization was nonexistent, but at least you and yours worked overtime to let people know I was upstairs, and you even herded a few folks up. I didn't hurt too badly by going, and I'll consider it next year... if Artist's Alley rules loosen enough to admit publishers, or if DR prices come down. $200/table or thereabouts is too much for the same rough attendance and sales as AggieCon, which has under $100/table DR prices.
Business, in short: $350 for tables, free crash space with Russ and
starcat_jewel, a bit less than $100 for gas and food combined- call it $450 total expenses, and just under $600 total sales. Slightly more than half the total sales were T-shirts, particularly the Glomp, Eyes babydoll, Tofu and Fangirls shirts. Rather than beginning a detailed chronological report which I might never finish, here are some "highlights".
* It's a very bad sign when the contact person listed on the website for dealers is NOT the Dealer's Room chair... and a worse sign when the DR chair never shows face throughout the convention.
* $20 off per table is not sufficient discount for tables up stairs with no elevator/escalator access. Doubly so if one of the two stairways is practically closed off by the presence of tables on the lower level. I was the only paying dealer on the upper level.
* Never did get my proper dealer's badges, but at least they gave me -a- badge; the badge laminator died early on Friday and was never replaced, so paper bracelets were handed out to con members instead. Oh, and no Bag'o'Joy, program, schedule, etc. for dealers, either.
* Yo, mothers: it's just cruel to take your teenage, possibly even college-age girls to a convention and then demand they spend no money... and send them to return merchandise already bought. I mean, -really.-
* Yet again, nothing in the anime rooms I want to watch outside of DR hours or sleep time. Got in a lot of games of Munchkin and one of Sakura.
* Scantily Clad Cosplay? Sounds good, until you saw Friday Night's contestants; three males (two shirtless, one wearing a "Speedo Mask" mask, cape, hat and speedo, and nothing else) and two females (who think "scantily clad" means "show some skin between knees and ankles." Feh.
* Er... um... check me on this. Con Chair is not supposed to get drunk before 5 PM Sunday, earliest. Con Chair needs to be sober at all hours of the convention proper in case something comes up (and something will always come up).
* If Con Chair does get drunk, Con Chair should not admit she is drunk... much less -crow- about it three times in five minutes where dozens of congoers can hear.
* If Con Chair does get drunk, and does begin saying, "I'm so drunk!", the rest of the con staff should know better than to let her have a microphone...
* OTOH, letting a certain dealer (modesty forbids) burn a bit of time with an a capella rendition of Tom Lehrer's "Smut" isn't so bad an idea. At least the audience seemed to like it...
* Texas Hold'em should not be played with chip counts resetting every five hands, nor should it be played with people who have little clue as to the basic rules of poker.
* STICK TO THE POSTED DEALER'S HOURS. So you made the mistake of scheduling an event in main programming which would prevent setup for masquerade- and so there's a piano in the DR- extending DR hours -indefinitely- (in fact from 6 to 7, but nobody knew that) does NOT bring in customers if nobody KNOWS the DR is still open.
* And changing Sunday closing from 4 PM to 1:30? On one hour's notice? I know you were chronically short on volunteers the whole weekend, but you -have- to find security for the DR. Even on Sunday, cutting things short by -that- much cost us a few sales, even for those who had to begin packing up at noon to be clear of the room by the hotel-mandated 6 PM.
* Artist's Alley in hotel lobby; not too bad an idea. Artist's alley adjacent to the point where the hotel pool extends under a glass wall to allow guests to dive in without going outdoors... perhaps not so good an idea, but nobody seems to have been splashed or anything. That I know about.
All in all, I'm not permanently cheesed off at O-Chibi, but I am much less than impressed. The facility (the Hampton/Clarion conjoined hotels on Beltway 8 near Bush Intercontinental) was horrible, organization was nonexistent, but at least you and yours worked overtime to let people know I was upstairs, and you even herded a few folks up. I didn't hurt too badly by going, and I'll consider it next year... if Artist's Alley rules loosen enough to admit publishers, or if DR prices come down. $200/table or thereabouts is too much for the same rough attendance and sales as AggieCon, which has under $100/table DR prices.
