Motor City Comicon

I know that the spring show is way better, so disregard this review if you're thinking of doing Motor City's May show date. But if you're thinking of doing the November Fall show, don't. Not even if you're local. Compared to the high table cost and the amount of time you have to commit over the three-day weekend to vending, the money and attendance just isn't there. Friday was literally dead and felt like a 200 or less attendee show for the entire day, and I had my worst one-day performance of the year there -- which is incredible when I've done some actual minuscule cons this year as part of experimenting and branching out as a con artist. Saturday was definitely better with much stronger attendance, but maybe 1/5th of the maybe 10k attendees were actually looking at artist alley, and many of them didn't even look at my table either. Somehow I still made back table cost and profited, but coming off the heels of my best con of the year this much dead time during what should otherwise be peak hours felt painful and boring. In the future, I think the fall show needs to be a one or two day con and the date shouldn't be so close to two other major Michigan cons (Youmacon and Grand Rapids Comic Con), as I definitely felt that there was competition for attendees that stretched spending money thin. However, the attendees were pretty nice when they did stop by and I did make some big sales that helped me recoup my costs, so I at least didn't have any bad experiences there.

The venue is also notorious for bad mobile data signal (I honestly think the venue deliberately blocks signal to get exhibitors to pay for the overpriced wi-fi, since I've never had this issue even in bigger convention venues...), so plan ahead for that if you're planning on taking card transactions. I'd recommend bringing a hotspot if you have one and connecting your terminal to that, or trying to hotspot your phone to see if it worked. My helper had AT&T and I had Verizon; his connection was generally better and we used that to run the Square terminal, so take that how you will. However, attendees are aware of this issue and generally pay in cash; definitely expect to make a bunch of sales in denominations of twenties or tens as a result.

Best thing I can say about this show is that the staff are extremely nice and the green room they provide to both guests and artists is excellent, as it's stocked to the brim with several tables of free tasty food and drinks. As a result, I will consider giving the spring show a try next year even though I have sworn off ever doing the fall show again, but I'm going to still go in with low expectations since I think my work just generally doesn't do as well with the comic con crowd as with the anime crowd. But hey, it's local and I still do make some profit, so maybe the spring show will pleasantly surprise me.

This is typically my best show of the year. I've been attending for about 8 years, but they have recently started doing it twice a year, and raised the table fees every year, which thins out the number of people and tires people out. Even with that in mind it is usually worth it. This year they made it so that you have to pay extra to not end up in the dead spot they created through poor planning, which is incredibly frustrating.

That being said, this is a collectors show. Some cons draw anime kids and people who buy prints, but this show tends to draw old people with money as well, which is great if you have originals and high price items. If you have done a few shows, and tend to be profitable, I'd say give it a shot. If you end up in the dead zone by the green room (which is excellent, by the way), I'm sorry.

So they expand the show floor by adding a handful of new vendor booths and couple hundred of artist tables. I heard somewhere that first artists were given a far away spot in a expansion area. The farther you were from the entrance, the less attendees you saw. By second to last row you saw maybe 3-4% of the attendees, and the last row was completely dead. I traveled out of state and barely broke even, only because normally I do very well at cons. Many artists around me didn't even cover table fees, which are high already. So with a $340 table it was like being at a con with 2k attendance. The far away area had nothing to draw people in, it was a giant white wall, plus some of the tables were empty, people were completely discouraged from going there. Artists were setup in rows from A to Z, row J was aligned with the entrance, all activities, autographs, and vendors were to the right, which is where the attendees went and nobody ever came back. And rows C and under saw barely any attendees. If you buy into this and get a table assignment anywhere to the left, you're better off not wasting your time. There way too many artists, overwhelming for shoppers.

*comic con should not be one word for the title of the show

Motor City has been a good show for me to work. The artist tables are not too pricey and they are big. There are wonderful fans there both new and returning. The cost for them to get in is adequate and the celebrity line-up is always decent. Recently they have separated the "flat" artists from the crafters and it seems to help out for the attendees being able to find who they are looking for as well as keep the displays from varying too wildly throughout. They have a green room for anyone working the show where they do provide some decent snacks as well as you can chat with some of the celebs there as they have a snack too. The after party in the hotel is always a good time to mingle with fellow creators and maybe meet one or two of the celebs too. I am excited to see what this next weekend brings and I will do my best to update my review here afterwards too.