Convention Musings

[tabbiewolf]

So, as I think I've stated previously, I'm honestly considering not going to Anthrocon next year. Though Spot and I treat it like a little vacation (spending money on dinners out is a treat, stuff like that), it usually ends up more stressful than anything. This year at FurFright -- which is extremely local to us so requires very little cost to get there, and we can eat food from our own fridge -- I made a fair amount more money than I did at Anthrocon. It could just be the economy, admittedly, but figuring it out, the ratios of attendees to dealers is as follows:

Anthrocon - 20:1
FurFright - 33:1

Those extra 13 people made a huge difference in the money I made. I might look into other conventions and do comparisons.

When you figure out the cost of everything for a single person (counting that the room and ride were split), I actually made very little at Anthrocon; most of what I made went into paying for getting there, getting food, and staying in Pittsburgh for 5 days. And if me and Spot were to do it ourselves -- no splitting the room or the ride -- it'd cost something like $1500 (which what I make wouldn't pay for, even if you halved it). Which, when you figure it out, is a lot of money to spend to be stressed out and tired and come home with Con Crud.

I think I've just been frustrated with people lately, and perhaps come the new year it won't bother me as much. Just little things keep building up. The newest thing is that a game from the gaming room at FurFright somehow ended up in someone's hotel room. We marked the majority of the games with stickers with our contact info on them, but those games aren't supposed to leave the gaming room. The majority of the games at FurFright are Spot's personal collection, folks -- he loans them to the con for the weekend because he is the Gaming Director and he trusts people to not be dicks with them. And this is the first time in nine years that this has happened…it may just be a deck of cards, but I'm taking it as a severe warning.

Not to mention the supposed "volunteers" who are supposed to man the game room door and prevent this kind of thing often treated the entrance to the gaming room as a social area…as in, you actually couldn't get through the mass of people standing around and chatting. I ran into this a few times over the course of the weekend, and it's something that needs to seriously be discussed with the folks in charge of the volunteers. You wanna be social at a con? Don't volunteer to be part of security!

So I'm genuinely trying to decide what cons I want to go to next year. Furry conventions seem so laced with drama right now that staying away from them is sounding better and better.

It's a shame; I really like doing conventions (or I used to). It's just people who are violating Wheaton's Law have kind of ruined them for me lately.

Comments

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry this year hasn't turned out as well as previous years.

Perhaps you guys need a non-convention vacation? Crazy talk, I know. But having had an actual vacation this year where I didn't just live in con world, it was strange and interesting to just simply do something else and not be on a timetable as much of the time.

Of course, you've got Disney to look forward to. Maybe that will cleanse your palette for the con scene later. :)

[tashabear.livejournal.com]

I definitely think that I will have to be a little more vigilant about keeping the volunteers on the door on point. One of them moved the chair inside the door with their back to the outside wall, not only not taking advantage of the optimal view, but obstructing the flow of traffic as well.

I'll be working on that list of suggestions and sending it on soon. :-)

[mwalimu.livejournal.com]

Now I'm trying to work out in my head what the dealer/attendee ratios are at the two main conventions I attend...

Midwest Furfest has 100 tables in the dealers room, but many dealers take up more than one table and the actual number of dealers on this year's list is 62. MFF had an attendance somewhat over 2600 last year, so that's about 42:1.

Mephit FurMeet doesn't fare so well. In 2012 attendance was 548 and the number of dealers was 38 (at 62 tables), so the ratio is not even 15:1, but that's offset somewhat by the fact that MFM has a higher average age than most other cons - I'll bet more than half the attendees are over 30 - and it is my impression that older folks spend more. You would probably be in a better position than me to judge that - at any given convention you've been a dealer at, is the average age of your customers higher than the average age of the attendees overall?

[tabbiewolf.livejournal.com]

I actually did the math for Midwest Furfest -- there were 72 dealers and 2600 attendees, for a ratio of 36:1 (I'm very fortunate that I can contact con-going friends and the people in charge of these things to find these numbers out).

And actually, I'd have to say the age of people purchasing stuff probably averages out; a lot of my badges go to first-time con goers (usually the younger set) because they're priced low for a nice big full-color badge and people seem to trust me to be the first to draw their characters (which is probably one of the coolest aspects of doing this). The youngest person I've done a badge for was I think 8 or 10 years old (she was there with her mom); the oldest was in his 50s, I think. The Stuff -- portfolios, CDs, comics -- do seem to go to a slightly older crowd (25 - 40, I'd say, as compared to 18 - 30 for badges), though like I said, I think it evens out. Now that I've got a button maker, it totally throws off the age ratio because people of ALL ages are willing to toss me a buck for a neat button.

It'd be interesting to poll various dealers on the money they make at different conventions and do an overall comparison...but that's a MAJOR project that I have no idea if I'd have time for!