This review is reposted with permission. Original review is
here.
Hoshicon 2013 Artist Alley Report
July 4, 2013 at 8:15pm
Friday
On Friday morning around 10:30am to setup as the ArtistAlley was schedule to open at 11am. When I arrived to find out whereregistration was to pick up my badges and sign in for my table, I was told justto head over to the Artist Alley as they had run out of badges. Found it strange at first, along with the hubby as he is my helper for the conventions but shrugged it off.
When we finally got to the alley and showed the paperworkthat I had indeed paid for badges and a table (showing ID that I waspaprikaSTUDIOS), we went to set up our table. To our surprise, the tablessupplied for the alley between 6 to 8 feet long but no bigger than a 1 to 1 1/2 feet across. There was literally no way we could use the guilten behind the table as there was no space to put it unless we sacrificed display space. Plus our table was against the wall without a convenientway to get behind our table. The only way we could get behind the table was to either go around the back and constantly excuse yourself to other artist while trying not to step on body parts/other artists' product to get to our table orcrawl underneath table.
Still we made due with the first day of the conventionand setup up our display. Had to constantly move the stickers around so the Hubby could use guilten on the table to cut up the pictures for the keychains. First day of sales was not that great though as there really wasn't a lot of traffic in the alley, but I did have a fun time with the people of Two Tiger Moon and had fun conversations with The Art Slave.
Since traffic was so slow, I decided to head to the dealer's room to see if there was maybe a nendoroid, nendoroid petit, or afigma that I may have been interested in purchasing. While I was able to find a legit seller (who constantly over prices her figures), I came across dealers who were selling bootlegs. I wasn't sure if I should report this or not as I had some experience in the pass where the con ops did nothing when I reported these things last time. So I concurred with one of my artist buddies and aftera short conversation, decided to report these two dealers who were selling nendoroid petit bootlegs to the con ops. I had to go back twice to the con opsroom to explain how I knew they were bootlegs, how they could find more information on the net that the items I stated were bootlegs, and stealthy pointed out the dealers in the Dealer Room. They thanked me and said they would check into the situation to determine what to do.
By the end of the night, the Artist Alley with filled with mainly artist chatter and YouTube videos. I had made my money back from purchasing my table at the ArtistAlley, food and driving time but that was about it for Friday. Friday was more about getting to know more about the artist around you and just having fun.
Saturday
I'm more than sure that all of us were hoping for a better sale day on Saturday since sales on Friday sucked pretty much. The great thing was that it was! The convention was definitely more busy on Saturday and more people were coming into the alley to see what was available. Saturday, I was starting to feel good and was happy with what was being made as a profit for the convention.
A lot of cosplayers came out that day with cosplays ranging from Hetalia to Homestruck to Rurouni Kenshin. It had a very diverse group of people who liked different types of anime. It was really great to see. I still got offers for my Madoka plushies and my Tachikoma plushies but quickly informed them that they were a part of my private collection and I had no intention of selling them (but pointed out my stuff on the table afterwards). I got to meet a lot of people that I had saw at Triad Anime Convention and/or Animazement who were bringing their friends over to buy stuff from me or bought more stuff from me. That really put a smile on my face, especially when they showed me they were either wearing my keychains or had my stickers on theirstuff. I really love it when people come back from other conventions showing me this.
When we got some down time, I decided to check to see if the dealers from Friday were still there. They were gone. Learning this from a few other people and dealers, found out that they were told to pack up and leave by con ops after confirming they were selling bootlegs. I was really happy about this because I know how it feels to be sold bootleg nendoroids and spending money on it - not the greatest feeling of all (which is why I seriously increased my knowledge on nendoroid/nendoroid petit/figma after that incident).
Much of the night went by pretty well in the Artist Alley. Overall, it was a very good day for sales for a small con. I did say my goodbyes to The Art Slave as she was not coming back on Sunday. I hope to see her again at another con soon ^^
Sunday
Sunday picked up a bit late morning to early afternoon. Since we knew it was checkout day and a smaller con, we weren't expecting much.The morning was slow with a sale here and there. I met and talked to a Sailor Mars cosplayer for awhile though who was excited to know that I was going to be in the Artist Alley for Anime USA this year as she was going to be there.
While Sunday was not another repeat of Friday, it was definitely a lot slower than Saturday and the day was ended with playing UNO with Two Tiger Moon and the Hubby being attempted to be scouted by a local theatre director (who also told him he was beautiful btw - LOL). A person from the staff though did come by the alley and asked how we were enjoying the AA. I told her that I was pretty happy although was not too fond of the layout since I constantly had to climb outfrom underneath the table a lot.
Other than that, wrapped up Hoshicon around 3ish, saidgoodbye to Two Tiger Moon and headed home.
Conclusion
While the convention was understaffed and some layout concerns with the Artist Alley (in my opinion), I believe this convention has alot of potential in the future to be a really great convention. Next year, I would like to see them at a different hotel as I don't think the hotel is a great hotel to hold an anime convention (was there for Triad Anime Con) and maybe to have tables that have good length and width for people who continue towork on product during the convention or take convention commissions.
I was really impressed on how well they took action towards the dealers in the Dealer's Room that were selling bootleg and how they rectified that situation. For a small convention, that shows how much they actually care about making sure when people buy product from the convention itslegit and not a boot.
The biggest cosplay genre at the convention was definitely Hetalia and Homestruck. All the con goers were really nice and had a great time talking to them.
I will definitely put in my application for Hoshicon's 2014 Artist Alley next year and continue to hope that this convention grows. I may even put on my own panel at Hoshicon as well next year, so you never know. Until it grows a little bit bigger though, Hoshicon's Artist Alley is probably good for artists at this time that are in-state or nearby state neighbors
