Con Review Tuesday!

Good morning my fellow readers! Hope everyone is surviving the summer, wherever you are. To any readers who might be in Cali or NoLa, I hope you are all safe! Readers who might be gearing up for TrotCon, I hope you enjoy and I hope to join you next year! In the meantime, since I am still doing my internship, I have been doing smaller conventions, mostly one-day conventions. I remember in my last SPS post, I mentioned how big a supporter I am of smaller conventions. I still stand by this statement, especially because I am seeing more and more one day conventions being run by libraries, which I think is awesome. Libraries are becoming a forgotten resource to everyone in this day and age of computers and internet. But honestly, these places are where some of these smaller, local conventions can start before they get bigger and bigger. As I said last week, smaller conventions are a great resource for those who want to go to conventions, but are unable to for whatever reason. There are people who might have some sort of physical disability that might make it hard to deal with larger crowds, or they might have a fear of large crowds or get claustrophobia. One thing I have noticed at smaller cons are usually also kids who might have some other kind of disability in one way, shape or form. But these kids get SUPER excited and it's great for them because they get to feel like they are taking part in something, without getting overstimulated. So, make sure you all support your local cons! No matter the experience, they are worth it just to see the kiddies!

So speaking of local cons, this past Sunday was MinCon for me. This was one I hadn't attended before, but I saw it was free, with the only cost for artists being to donate an item for their cosplay contest. I'd say that's a pretty easy fee, and I was able to donate one of my Kirby figurines for the contest. It was in Long Island, which is normally a slight hike for me (no worse than when I go out to Mohegan Sun for CT Gamer Con), but since I was already in the city last night, it wasn't horrible. Now, any sales for this would be seen as a win, because I didn't have to pay anything. But I was a bit disappointed. Despite a LOT of foot traffic (I say this again, SUPPORT LOCAL CONS), I didn't make much, barely breaking $45, which was a disappointment. I honestly thought I would have an advantage, given that when I did a lap around the AA, I saw I was the ONLY ONE who had figurines. Everyone else had prints, stickers, and things like keychains or pins. Now, while I DID have my buttons, I didn't bring much by way of 2D stuff because I was unsure of the set-up and how much room I would have. When dealing with a new layout, I always believe to just stick to what your bigger sellers are, and for me, that's my figurines. Makes sense, right? So, I was a bit sad to not get a lot of sales. I also realized that for a smaller con, I need to get a smaller table runner--my banner ran ALL the way around my table, since it was so short. Might not be a bad investment in general. However, in general, it was a slight disappointment. I didn't take a pic of my set-up for this time around, which I know I should do for future reference, especially since I got two one day cons coming up in the next few months or so.

However, the lesson of this should be for everyone thinking of a small con: while keeping stock limited, make sure you have a tiny bit of everything, and keep supporting your small cons!