This review is reposed with permission. Original review is
here.
Anime USA 2013 Artist Alley Report - "Location, Location, Location!"
September 16, 2013 at 5:48pm
Foreword
I had an excellent time at Anime USA 2013 even though I had only made a profit similar to that of a small local convention in near where I reside. I enjoyed spending time with every artist I had met this year such as Team X Studios, Lucky Squid Studios, Shattered Earth, The Art and Music of EmpathP, and Magical Tea Time to name a few. I would not have traded this time for the world! ^^
My report of Anime USA 2013 below is my opinion of the convention based on the time I spent there and is only meant as a helping guide to those who are curious about attending artist allies in the future but unsure about if a particular convention is a good investment to attend to.
Convention Layout - 0/5
Of all the conventions I have attended, Anime USA probably ranks #1 for the worst layout that I have experienced so far and I've only been doing this for less than a year. When I first arrived at the convention, I tried so hard to follow the map that was supplied to us through the phone app, Guidebook as well as their map that was in the programing book. Unfortunately though I couldn't follow the map at all as it really didn't seem to match the layout I was seeing. After asking three separate people, I was able to locate the alley because one of the Con Ops people walked me to it.
While there were some signs that directed people to where Artist Alley was, the signs were not that eye catching enough to where people would notice it. I mean, these signs had a white background with fancy black lettering done with a sharpie. The only color that was on the actual border was a small drawing of their mascot. With the strange layout of this convention layout, this convention needed BIG signs with colors that would pop out and catch con goer's attentions. The white signs were not doing it.
By the end of the second day, there were additional make-shift signs of where staff members had written "Artist Alley" and tapped it to the back of the chairs to help direct people to the areas. A Kinkos/FedEx was avaliable on Friday to where the staff could have easily made better signs to help traffic but unfortunately they did not use that service to their advantage.
With such a confusing layout of the hotel, it was extremely clear that the one this this convention lacked was signs that caught the eye of convention, making it very very difficult for people to find the Artist Alley and even the Dealer's room.
Artist Alley Layout - 2/5
There was a total of 75/76 tables in the Artist Alley and definitely felt over crowded in a locked room. The way the room was laid out felt like the layout of the alley should have been differnt as well. While I was in a good location, there were artists in the back where people wouldn't see their tables at all unless they actually walked around the corner. It felt like the convention was trying to push as many artists into the room as possible.
There was two things that I had issues with during the weekend as well. One was the dreaded middle "black bar". The bar separated the areas between the tables where artists were back to back for reasons to keep them in their designated areas (from what I gathered). In my opinion, I believe these black bars were really not needed and made the areas between the tables really crowded.
The second issue I had was with the power. The convention gave everyone 1 complimentary internet connection and 1 complimentary power connection to the artists. The main power outlet cords were not taped down and were tripping hazards; I know this because I did trip and almost fell down completely. Also, it seemed that the internet passcode had leaked for the room to where there was heavy traffic on the bandwith where at the end of the first day, I was using my phone connection (which was actually very good).
Staff - 4/5
Regardless of the many complications of Anime USA's layout, the staff of the convention were really sweet, especially when some of the convention volunteers themselves were more familiar with the layout to help out those who were lost.
And I must say, the Head of the Artist Alley, Kate, was probably the nicests and most interactive with other artists that I have seen so far this year. She would keep coming around and checking on artists to see if everything was going well. So definitely thumbs up for her as she did an excellent job with the artists.
Selling - 3/5
There were points where we were SUPER SLOW in the convention. I could litterally work straight without customer interruption (which I LOVE) to get more product on the table. I believed the low traffic amount was maily due to the poor layout of the convention itself and the lack of signs.
Friday was very slow until after the Dealer's Room closed. It was pretty much busy for the rest of the night for us until the close of the alley that day. On Saturday, we had a pretty good stream of traffic (which I had to leave for about four hours hunting down ink in D.C.). Then on Sunday, it was almost a repeat of Friday but slightly more busy.
We also met a lot of con goers who would comment about my works and then asked what other conventions I was going to be attending or attempting to be attending at. It seem that a lot of the attendees had a small budget (which is not a bad thing as it shows responsiblity) and had already reached the limited amount they were willing to spend.
While we did get into the green with this convention, profits only matched a local convention in the state that I live in which was a 2nd year small convention. Since I live 5 hours away from D.C. and I got experience from the convention, this drive wasn't really worth it in the end. This is such a pity because I was really looking forward to this convention as it was my first out-of-state convention. What really made this convention worth while is that I met a lot of artists that I talk to in the Artist Alley Network Internation Group on Facebook and was actually able to put faces on artists friends that I had made through Facebook.
Overall AA Convention Rating - 2/5
While the staff was absolutely wonderful at Anime USA, there were a lot of cosmectic issues that made this convention very hard to sell at. The layout of the convention and the artist alley made it rather hard for people to locate the room where the alley was at and the generation of sales was rather poor mainly due to traffic. While I enjoyed my time at Anime USA, I do not believe I will be returning to this convention until they pick a better hotel location that suits a convention of this size verses the Marriot Washington Wardman Park.
