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Conventional Wisdom
Jul. 16th, 2008 09:09 amBut first a little housekeeping on some of my previous blogs.
I did see my oral surgeon again and he said it looked 1000 times better than last time. The weird feeling along the tendon that attached the tooth is normal and he doesn't need to see me for six months. Which is a big sigh of relief for me because the next step was to pull the offending tooth.
Caroline is working on her letters and writing out words. I now can spell things for her slowly and she can write out what I am spelling with very little confusion. She is writing in all caps but I am told that is not unusual. She is so ready for Kindergarten. She was bitten by something outside again but it didn't swell up as badly as last time.
OK onto the topic at hand
Some of you know about the FedCon USA disaster. Well now JumpCon has cancelled a number if not all of its events and is leaving another trail of not great will on both the talent and the fans side. JumpCon is an idea that might have worked back in the 80s or early 90s ala CreationCon or some other for profit conventions like Chiller in New Jersey.
JumpCon billed itself as an autograph convention with the additional bonus of being able, if you were willing to pay, to have a meal with the guest that you wanted to meet and spend more than an autograph with. This has been done at other conventions in a broader sense like United Fan Con's various get togethers with the guests. And there are fans that would pay the prices being ask for the opportunity to get closer to the people they admire.
Personally I thought JumpCon bit off more than it could chew by having an autograph convention the week after DragonCon and I was dubious about some of the guests that they were using in promotions. I asked a couple of agents I know if these lists were legit and at the time they were. They started canceling or, as they put it, postponing conventions for one reason or another. This set off red flags for me and I checked back with the agents to find out what was going on. At that point I pretty much figured JumpCon was done due to the responses I got.
The question becomes can a new convention make it these days? I think the answer is yes. We have seen it with the Harry Potter conventions...sorry conferences. Specific forms of fandom have had conventions devoted to their interest that have worked and gone more than one year. Yes, I know there are exceptions including the Flanvention which crashed and burned in a rather spectacular fashion. But it is getting harder and harder to do. There are a number of very establishing conventions that are still going strong for example, Shoreleave which just produced the 30th edition of their convention or DragonCon which can legally drink this year having been around 21 years. The talent knows what to expect from those conventions and have people to ask what their experience was at the convention which a start up does not have.
Peter has a rule that, with rare exceptions, he doesn't attend the first of any convention. He gives them that first year to sort out the bugs and glitches that always happen with a start up. After that he does consider it but we have a very limited number of spots open for him to go to a new convention because of long standing commitments to older conventions that we have been going to for years.
Here is a list of our regular conventions that we have attended as a family. I think I have it in order of the year but I might be off about which is before the other.
Farpoint
ICon
New York Comic Con
Shoreleave
DragonCon
Peter also attends the San Diego Comic Con and recently the various WizardCons.
This year we are going to the Toronto Expo which Peter and I have done before and had a great time.
There might be one or two that Peter has committed to that I am forgetting because I don't have my calendar in front of me.
Conventions that don't happen just make it that much harder for those who want to start a convention. Right now my rule of thumb is that if the guest list looks entirely too good to be true, it probably is. I hope someone does a convention that proves me wrong and they succeed but right now I am sticking to what I know.
I am grateful for conventions that work and are well run.
I did see my oral surgeon again and he said it looked 1000 times better than last time. The weird feeling along the tendon that attached the tooth is normal and he doesn't need to see me for six months. Which is a big sigh of relief for me because the next step was to pull the offending tooth.
Caroline is working on her letters and writing out words. I now can spell things for her slowly and she can write out what I am spelling with very little confusion. She is writing in all caps but I am told that is not unusual. She is so ready for Kindergarten. She was bitten by something outside again but it didn't swell up as badly as last time.
OK onto the topic at hand
Some of you know about the FedCon USA disaster. Well now JumpCon has cancelled a number if not all of its events and is leaving another trail of not great will on both the talent and the fans side. JumpCon is an idea that might have worked back in the 80s or early 90s ala CreationCon or some other for profit conventions like Chiller in New Jersey.
JumpCon billed itself as an autograph convention with the additional bonus of being able, if you were willing to pay, to have a meal with the guest that you wanted to meet and spend more than an autograph with. This has been done at other conventions in a broader sense like United Fan Con's various get togethers with the guests. And there are fans that would pay the prices being ask for the opportunity to get closer to the people they admire.
Personally I thought JumpCon bit off more than it could chew by having an autograph convention the week after DragonCon and I was dubious about some of the guests that they were using in promotions. I asked a couple of agents I know if these lists were legit and at the time they were. They started canceling or, as they put it, postponing conventions for one reason or another. This set off red flags for me and I checked back with the agents to find out what was going on. At that point I pretty much figured JumpCon was done due to the responses I got.
The question becomes can a new convention make it these days? I think the answer is yes. We have seen it with the Harry Potter conventions...sorry conferences. Specific forms of fandom have had conventions devoted to their interest that have worked and gone more than one year. Yes, I know there are exceptions including the Flanvention which crashed and burned in a rather spectacular fashion. But it is getting harder and harder to do. There are a number of very establishing conventions that are still going strong for example, Shoreleave which just produced the 30th edition of their convention or DragonCon which can legally drink this year having been around 21 years. The talent knows what to expect from those conventions and have people to ask what their experience was at the convention which a start up does not have.
Peter has a rule that, with rare exceptions, he doesn't attend the first of any convention. He gives them that first year to sort out the bugs and glitches that always happen with a start up. After that he does consider it but we have a very limited number of spots open for him to go to a new convention because of long standing commitments to older conventions that we have been going to for years.
Here is a list of our regular conventions that we have attended as a family. I think I have it in order of the year but I might be off about which is before the other.
Farpoint
ICon
New York Comic Con
Shoreleave
DragonCon
Peter also attends the San Diego Comic Con and recently the various WizardCons.
This year we are going to the Toronto Expo which Peter and I have done before and had a great time.
There might be one or two that Peter has committed to that I am forgetting because I don't have my calendar in front of me.
Conventions that don't happen just make it that much harder for those who want to start a convention. Right now my rule of thumb is that if the guest list looks entirely too good to be true, it probably is. I hope someone does a convention that proves me wrong and they succeed but right now I am sticking to what I know.
I am grateful for conventions that work and are well run.
