#my cons

[roomforwonder]

going to start advertising my cons on here lol if this is a con near you YOU'LL SEE ME THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[zombee]

my least favorite comments to get as a convention organizer

bring con to [place!] - the con is where it is because the con lives in my basement and traveling adds a LOT of money and grievance. and WHAT a coincidence you think the best place to hold the con would be where you live!!! bonus flavor of this: ew why is the con in ohio. it all takes place in one location! you don't actually have to Be In Ohio to attend the con!!!

you should bring [voice actor!] - yes, i'd love to! if we sell enough tickets, we just might! but we can't afford it yet. "i spoke to x at a con and they're willing to come" - oh really? really? an actor is willing to come and do their job and get paid for it? WHO KNEW!

[starks-anthony]

Tessa Thompson and Brie Larson @ Ace Comic Con Midwest 2019

Photos by me, please don’t repost!

[ketchacabra]

a few weekends ago i went to ahbl 10 in melbourne. it is the biggest con i’ve ever been to and by far the greatest experience of my life. i started watching supernatural when i was eight and it has been a massive part of my life since. i’m almost nineteen now, i’ve grown up watching supernatural. i’ve been inspired by and idolised the cast and their characters. i live with anxiety and depression and supernatural is what has pulled me through. whether it’s watching an episode that makes me laugh or talking to one of the many friends i’ve made through the spnfamily, there isn’t a day where supernatural doesn’t impact my life.

Matt and Rich, the karaoke kings. this was the third time id met these two and it was honestly more magical than any of the times before. gabriel has been my favourite character since i first saw tall tales when i was eight. i was drawn to the trickster from the beginning. matt is honestly in a league of his own. he asked what i wanted and i told him to go wild, and he did. this is my favourite con photo op, even though i have other photos with these guys it’s in this one i look the happiest and i love that.

Jared and Jensen. holy shit. i don’t even know what to say. i’m still not entirely convinced this was real. the day before this when i got my photo with Jared i was losing my mind. when he asked how i was i somehow thought saying “mid-panic attack, how about you?” was a good idea. he just bear hugged me and i cant describe how that felt. Jensen is just a bundle of fun and a total sweetheart. my only regret from this weekend was not telling them how much they’ve helped me and how much they mean to me.

Hilly and Hannah (Hillywood). this was another moment i will never ever forget. day one, i went and bought the beanie i’d wished of owning for so long and the girls were sweet enough to chat to my friend and i. we got to geek out over lord of the rings and the hobbit, i even learnt some really interesting things about the movies. when it came to my photo op i was so excited and to make it even crazier as i was about to step up out walked Jensen! Hilly was sweet enough to fix my beanie before we took this and i’m so thankful. it’s also thanks to these two that i stopped procrastinating and finally watched the umbrella academy and i’m even more excited for their new parody now.

Rob, wow oh wow. even after season fourteens finale i still love Chuck, as controversial as that is. meeting Rob was another dream come true. he was the only person who was able to make me cry the entire weekend, when he sang fare thee well i was a goner.

Jason Manns. this was cool as heck. i listen to his music a lot and i absolutely adore his cover of stand by me (as y’all would know if you’ve been here for like a day). we got to chatting about poker and the casino and it was super freakin cool. i was last in line for photo ops and that meant i got to have a proper chat so i was over the moon.

Rachel. now if we’re going to talk about inspirational people she’s the first person to talk about. i’ve always loved Meg, a strong female lead who takes no shit from anyone. she’s always been someone i’ve looked up to so this moment was unreal.

Ruth. i’m honestly running out of words to describe how surreal this felt. as someone who loves characters that live in the grey area between good and evil, i’m a massive fan of Rowena. this woman is strong, kind, beautiful, badass and she does everything with unimaginable grace.

Julian. this was my last photo op for the weekend so i was on cloud nine. Julian was intrigued by my beanie and he told me he loved it (thanks hillywood!).

if there’s anything to take away from this extremely long post it’s that, i am so very tall (jared made me feel average height it was great) and i’m the luckiest girl in the world. supernatural changed my life and this was the most amazing experience, that i though i could only ever dream of.

[bellamys-hope]

So today I met the Harmon siblings, and let me tell you I had such an amazing day. 

Richard remembered me from almost two years ago, when I went to my first ever con in Stuttgart, Germany and met him and Bob. I was completely shook that he remembered somebody who was so unmemorable, and because I was in full Octavia cosplay with war paint and all that on my face. He asked why I wasn’t in cosplay today and I told him my wig for my Clarke cosplay didn’t come in time, so he suggested the idea of a gender bender Murphy with purple hair! On my autograph he wrote ‘Purple hair Murphy... think about it.’

And then I met Jess for the very first time. She’s hands-down one of the sweetest, funniest and most down to Earth people that I’ve met and I’m so glad that I finally had the opportunity to meet her. I was at her autograph table for at least a good 10 minutes just having a chat with her about my art, about Richard, and about the lotion that I added to the gift bag that I got for her. We spoke about Dystopia, and how she didn’t even know that she was going to Dystopia until just before they announced it. 

We moved on to the photo ops, and my one with Richard was first. It was fast but not rushed, people were still allowed to do poses unlike the first con that I went to. I originally wanted to do a titanic pose with Richard, the iconic one at the front of the boat where Rose has her arms stretched out, and I wanted Richard to be Rose and me Jack. But me being shy I didn’t ask so when I walked up to him he went ‘Hey Lisa’ and pulled me into this cute hug and he’s just so adorable. 

For the duo I asked to be sandwiched in between the two of them, and Jess basically shoved me into Richards chest. Richard said ‘I’m gonna stand on my toes so I’m taller than you.’ He literally stood on his toes in every photo during the duos lol, I thanked the two of them and Richard said ‘Thanks Lis’ and I died inside.

And then for my photo with Jess I couldn’t come up with a pose so I asked her to think of one, so she wrapped me up in her scarf, but we had to retake the first one because only half my face was showing. She was like ‘I gotta keep you warm, it’s cold in here!’

But yeah all in all I had a beautiful day today and I can’t wait to see them again next month

[jarpadandjensens]

vancon 2012 (pic cred @sweetondean)

[artbyjenisse]

Wizarding Dayz 2018 Review

This was the first show of the year. It was also my worst show for sales.

Let me start off with the good things about this show.

The Table. The table space I had was piped and dragged and just huge. Honestly I essentially had like a mini booth space with a huge table. When I saw it I felt like I had to run home and get my other table and more stuff to sell. I haven’t had a space that big before and I was standing there for like ten minutes trying to figure out how to use it.

Staff. The staff was great! Everyone was super friendly and went around to make sure the vendors were okay and they communicated to us well.

The Venue. Wizarding Dayz is held at the South Town I mean the Mountain America Expo Center in Sandy, UT. I hadn’t exhibited in this space before and we only had one of the halls but the space was a good size and fit everything the con had to offer very nicely.

Now the bad…

Really the only bad thing about this show was the lack of sales. And I was NOT the only person having this problem. There were a lot of people at the show, that being said, no one was buying anything.

The bulk of the attendees were moms and dads with all their kids; all they wanted to do was the cheap and free stuff. What was free? Well there was a quest you could do and win free stuff from. Characters walked about. There was this thing were you could chase down fictional villains and put them in jail. Live entertainment. Things like that.

Now I’m all for having free and fun things at conventions, I have zero problems with these things. I feel like there was just too much free. And honestly that quest was annoying as all hell. I’m not sure how exactly the quest worked but I was asked at least three times an hour if I was a part of the quest. No I was not.

I will not be returning to Wizarding Dayz next year. This has nothing to do with the staff of the show and everything to do with the sheer lack of sales.

I’ll shoot straight here. My table space was $250. I maybe spent about $150-$200 on printing, buying bags, food, and gas. I only made $60 at this show. $60. That’s it.

Sure, I could go blame the weather on sales (we had a good snow storm that Friday night). But I just can’t do that because that place was pretty full of people on Saturday. Honestly for the amount of people I should have been able to at least make back table. But no. Again, no one was buying. I didn’t really even see many guests with bags or merch from other vendors.

I have never ever been at a show like that. I hope this is the last one because I simply cannot be this far in the hole for another show.

 My next show is in May. I will be at the LVL UP EXPO in Vegas.

[zombee]

tips from a convention organizer

hi there! i've been organizing fan cons for 10 years now, and i have some tips for you:

#1 - don't do it

#2 - seriously, don't do it

#3 - no one reads the emails

#4 - people saying they WANT to come does not in any way translate to ticket sales