THANK YOU TORONTO COMICON 2018!
I really want to thank everyone: friends, family, fellow fandom fans for all of your amazing support during the preparation and execution of this convention! This was the first time in nearly 5 years that I had participated in a convention, and the first time I’ve ever done a convention of this magnitude. It was such an amazing and humbling experience. I’m super thankful to have shared this experience with @golden-enigma-crochet! It’s always a blast when we get to people-watch and nerd out with each other. But it was even more special because of all of the amazing new friends we were able to make at this convention!
To the Critical Role fans that came to visit us, thank you so much for being so awesome and excited to share your feels! And thank you for coming back literally every day to share your excitement and con experiences with us!! It was so fun, and I’m so thankful to have met you all! You’re an amazing group of people and I hope we’ll be able to cross paths either online or at conventions again!
To the K-POP fans that came by, did double takes, gasped, and chatted with us: THANK YOU! I made so many new friends within the BTS/GOT7/SVT/KPOP fandom this past weekend and you are all just so AWESOME! I honestly did not expect so many fans to be at this convention, but thank you for proving me wrong!! And thank you to the fellow fanartists for supporting me, giving me convention advice, and for doing art trades! Please do not hesitate to contact me for an actual custom/request art trade or another print trade! You’re all so amazing, supportive and fun people to be around! Let’s meet again soon!!
CONVENTION REVIEW (VENDOR’S PERSPECTIVE)
I’m not exactly sure how to critique this experience as I don’t really have a whole lot to compare it with. So I guess as you read this, please take it with a grain of salt!
As far as the actual table setup goes, I felt like it made sense, and the table skirts were nice and secure in comparison to other events that I’ve been to. It took a little rejigging behind the table to get a setup that made sense for easy navigation for purchases, while still giving me room to stretch my feet. But once I had my system, I felt like the space was fine. My only “complaint” is that if you have banners behind you, or are trapped on either side with other vendors that have large banners, the space gets rather tight fairly quickly. However, everyone is super understanding and friendly so I never felt too awkward trying to shimmy through for bathroom breaks.
The lighting in the Metro Centre was fairly even throughout. However, I found at the end of the first day that it was beginning to bother me. I’ll probably take an actual baseball cap or something with me next time just to have a brief break from it.
In our particular row we had a really strange flow of traffic. The reason we all surmised was from two empty tables at the end of the row. A few friends of mine had said they assumed that there was just nothing down our isle because of how empty it seemed from the one end. And on the OTHER end there was a huge pillar that almost obstructed people’s view of the isle. Aside from that, I personally liked our location. Our neighbours were super friendly and had amazing work. It was humbling to be surrounded by two popular artists!
Much like what Golden Enigma said in her review, not a lot of people seemed interested in buying things in the artist alley. I honestly believe the reason that I did as well as I did was because I catered to super niche fandoms.
I think for my first “big” convention, things went well. Despite the inconsistent traffic, the slower pace made for more opportunities to interact with the people that did come by our booth, and was a good way to dip my toes into the con’life. I think I might try to table again next year, but we’ll see!
