This is a very special edition of “This Week in Geek,” in which I will be reviewing the Salt Lake Comic Con which concluded on Saturday, September 6, 2014. I will be giving out a grade in 5 different categories, plus an overall grade. The 5 categories will be Tickets and Ticket Pricing, Lines/Crowd Management, The Vendor Hall, Panels, and The Celebrity Guests. I will not be grading the extra events because I did not attend any of them, so unfortunately, I can’t grade them. The grades will be in the standard letter grade format, where A is excellent and F is horrible failure. There will be no “E,” for those of you who are not familiar with letter grades. Most of the grading will be based on my experience as well as feedback I have received or seen from others. Let’s get started:
Tickets and Ticket Pricing
This was very different this time around than what we had seen previously with last years Comic Con and April’s FanX. With FanX, the tickets were posted with their prices and they didn’t change. This time around they used a system called GrowTix, and they started with the tickets being very low, and the prices increased over time, thus rewarding folks who bought their tickets early with a much better deal. This, I think benefits everyone, because with more tickets pre-sold, especially early, they can go to different vendors and different celebrities and show them how many tickets they have already sold, enticing more of them to come. It benefits us because we can but the tickets early and pay a lot less. Another bonus was if you follow Salt Lake Comic Con on Facebook or twitter or both, then they always let people know in advance when the ticket prices were going to rise, so you could buy them before they got to expensive. We bought our tickets in June, just before Father’s Day, and spent $64 on two multi passes, which worked out great for us and our budget. Also, with GrowTix, you do have the option to go back in and for a fee, upgrade your ticket to a VIP or Gold ticket if they are still available. I checked on the day before the Con, and if I had wanted to upgrade to Gold, it would have only cost $50 for both tickets. VIP had already sold out, so I am not sure what the price difference would have been.
My biggest complaint with the tickets was how much the fees were on top of the ticket price. I understand that this is pretty common practice, but my tickets were $64 total, but then with fees I ended up paying $80 all together. I understand that $16 in fees is not a big deal for something like this, but I just wish that the fees were already included in the price. This is not a complaint against SLCC, but the whole system in general. My complaint for SLCC was that when we came on Friday we brought the kids with us, and we have 5 children, meaning we needed to buy a child’s ticket for $5. When we spoke with the volunteer, he told us it was 7 almost 8 bucks because of sales tax and some kind of convenience fee. That was a little weird. I get convenience fees when purchased online, but not when I am buying them at the door. However, the volunteer ended up not being able to locate the button on his iPad, and just gave us the wristband for free, so I really don’t have anything to complain about here.
As far as the prices go, I thought they were reasonable and they offered multiple levels so you could buy the ticket that worked for you. I had little to no interest in entering the vendor hall early, or in photo ops or autographs or a T-shirt, so the multi pass worked for me. The VIP was pricey, but if you can’t afford it, the multi pass still provided you with a lot of fun for 3 days. I did not feel like my experience was hindered because I did not have a VIP pass. Remember, going to a convention like this is all for fun, and is a luxury, so do what you can afford and enjoy it.
Grade: B+
Lines/Crowd Management
Thursday was rough for lines. Really rough. Read my post about my first 2 days, and it really goes into it, so I am not going to do that here. Obviously they needed to work out a few kinks, and on Friday and Saturday it looked like they did. Lines moved very smoothly from what I experienced and saw on Friday and Saturday. Inside, it seemed like the managed the lines well for the most part for the celebrities and the panels.
There were times that the volunteers looked a little overwhelmed by the crowds and some things got a little mis-managed. Let me make this clear, this is not a disparaging comment on the volunteers. In my opinion, volunteers are just one step down from super heroes. They are giving up their own personal time for free to be here and deal with a lot of people, and some of the people are not very nice. Volunteers do this because they love Salt Lake Comic Con, and for no other reason. I tell you this because I know for a fact that they work very hard, and the perks they receive do not make up for it. So, next time you are at a convention like this, just find a volunteer and give them a metaphoric kiss (not a real one because then you will be kicked out). The problem was not the volunteers, the problem was just the sheer number of people. I was there all day on Saturday, and it was just unbelievable. The mismanagement came when they had lines for popular panels set up on the outside of the walkway upstairs, meaning that they had to cross over all the traffic. This was not fun when I was trying to get through to a panel I wanted to attend and they blocked off all the traffic in the hallway for about 5-7 minutes, making me late for my panel. Not a major deal, but it could have been avoided by having the line form on the inside, thus not hindering traffic.
Grade: C+ (Can’t overlook Thursday)
The Vendor Hall:
I did not love the set up of the vendor hall this time around. I think it felt way overcrowded and there were a few things that caused some major traffic issues. For example, the first section of celebrities happened to be across from a booth where they had people playing video games. The problem was that it happened to be a point where a lot of people were trying to get through, and there were also a lot of people stopping to watch the screens with the games on them, causing major congestion. This happened in a few areas. KidCon was also an issue. I could not tell where KidCon started and ended. There was a big banner indicating the general area where it was, but a lot of the booths were intermingled with regular booths, and it all just got mixed and jumbled together. In April, at FanX, the KidCon had its own separate area with plenty of space and it was nice. I understand that KidCon is not a major draw for everybody, but it is for us, and this time around it just wasn’t as good. There were a ton of vendors and they were crammed in there, and it got really tight on some of those aisles, especially when people stopped to get pictures with other people. Big positive was where they had the celebrities this year. For the most part, that was a big improvement, except in the first little area mention above.
Grade: C-
The Panels:
I thought the Panels were very well done. There was a huge diversity of topics to choose from, really something for everybody. I found it very easy to find panels I wanted to attend every hour, and it wasn’t just the big time celebrity panels. They had panels on comics creation, on writing, on film making, on podcasts, etc. It was a huge and great selection. I loved it. The panels were my favorite part of the whole convention, and made the whole thing worth it for me. Whoever is in charge of the panels did an excellent job and deserves a raise.
Grade: A+
The Celebrities
Boy, I have seen a lot of comments about the selection of celebrities that came this time around. I think there was a pretty good selection, and some pretty relevant big time names that showed up. How many people came from the cast of Arrow? Quite a few, and that is the best super hero show on TV right now, and one of the better ones ever made. That’s a big deal. Plus, Howard from TBBT and Stan Lee, the creator of Marvel (Not really, but pretty much Marvel as we know it now). Plus, 2 Doctors. These are big time guests, and all the ones I just mentioned were mentioned by fans after FanX, people saying they wanted these guests. They listened to us and worked very hard to get what we wanted. Being upset about the guests is really subjective. Usually, when someone is upset it is because a guest they really wanted was not there. The other thing to remember is that despite all of our success, we will never be SDCC. Studios and publishers send their people to SDCC, the celebrities don’t really have a choice. They go because they have to, it’s in their contract, all of that stuff. The guests that come here come because they want to. They were invited, and the genuinely want to come out for this. That’s pretty cool.
Grade: A
Overall, I really enjoyed this year’s Comic Con. I think overall, it keeps getting better, and more and more people come out to see it. It set new records for attendance, breaking the records they set back in April for FanX. That is pretty awesome, and it means it will probably be around for a long time to come. Despite all the success, there will still be kinks. I saw someone post on Facebook that we need to learn from SDCC, which is true, but keep in mind that they have been doing this for a very long time, and this is SLCC’s 2nd year. Considering that, SLCC is doing awesome.
Overall Grade: A very solid B+
