Con Score: 48 out of 50
Ease of Set Up and Tear Down: 8 out of 10
This year was a little bit different than normal in terms of set up and tear down. The building that the convention is held in is under construction so the normal vendor lot was not available and the loading dock itself was watch very carefully when it was open in terms of how long you were allowed to be parked there. Set up was pretty smooth for me. We live about 15 minutes from the venue so I was able to get on Wednesday to set up when there wasn’t too many other people. We also bought the vendor parking pass for the weekend which was easy to use even though it was a last minute expense on no fault of the convention runners. Tear down was where the trouble came in. There was a queue for the dock that you could only get into if you showed them a photo of your area totally packed up. Once you were at the top of the queue they would text you to come get a dock pass and you could park and load your vehicle. We took our time packing because we knew that the initial rush to get out was going to be crazy. We didn’t anticipate however, that it would be a out 45 min in the queue at least. After a while of sitting around waiting to be called for a pass, we just went ahead and lugged everything out of my car and loaded up in the parking lot. It wasn’t ideal but it worked. Again, this wasn’t the cons fault, there was a sold out Drake concert that started Sunday afternoon, only a few hours after the con got out.
Communication With Staff: 9 out of 10
The con runners were great in the amount of emails they sent leading up to the event. There was no jury process to get in so there was no acceptance email to wait for. There were about 3 emails in the two weeks before the event that gave all of the information that we needed in a very quick and easy read. If we did have questions, there was normally someone we could easily find that could answer them or point us towards someone who could.
Crowd Size: 10 out of 10
This year had a larger crowd than last which was great. It wasn’t so big that we were always swamped and people couldn’t walk around comfortably but at no point did the venue seem empty. It wasn't too easy to get to and from the bathroom and food area but it also didn’t take too long. I only got side checked once on the way back to our table so I consider that a success.
Sales Numbers: 10 out of 10
Last year, we were in a booth towards the back of the vendor area and barely broke even so I didn’t have too high of hopes in terms of sales for the weekend. This year I was able to get a table in the artist alley and surpassed my stretch goal for sales. We even sold out of a few of our sticker designs which doesn’t happen too often. There were a few new artists that had slow sales and the same seemed to be true for the vendors I was talking to. From what I could tell, the general trend of fan art doing better than original art was generally true at this con. Some people that had very unique original art seemed to have done great though so, as usual, that trend does have exceptions.
Overall Vibe Bonus : 9 out of 10
I may be a little biased towards Lexington Comic Con because it was the first comic con I had ever done. The vibe for me is alway super fun and people seem genuinely happy to be both attending and vending. Are there sometimes grumpy people? Of course but that’s true for everywhere. Are there some venders that feel out of place? Totally, but that’s the case with almost all first come first serve cons where there isn’t an application process.
Other Info:
Best Sellers
Stickers by far were our best sticker. I sold out of almost all of the Pokemon stickers I had brought with me which hasn’t happened since I had more than just my Flareon design. Stickers normally make up half of my sales at most events but this time it made up around 80% of all the sales for the entire weekend.
General Observations
This year had a younger crowd than last year and that seemed to have a really positive impact on everyone. I also tend to draw in a younger crowd just because my products are really colorful and have some phrases that are more common among people by age. (Gen Z is a great gen to make art for btw but, again, I may be a little biased.) The older crowd, though, seemed different this year too though. Most of the time, the older generation goes for the collectable vendors and the younger generation sticks around the artist alley. This year had a good mix of people that walked around the artist tables multiple times. Still more young people stuck around but it was nice to see some grandmothers laugh about my stilly stickers with their children and grandchildren every now and then.