Indy PopCon [IN]

[Admin Lily]

Website: Indy PopCon

[catbat]

Indy Pop Con | Indianapolis, IN | May 30- June 1, 2014
Hotel: n/a (commuted)
General area: It was held at the Indianapolis Convention Center, which is a RAD place in general. Nice surrounding area with lots of hotels and food options within easy walking distance. The area is very receptive to the convention community here and has been for many years. For Pop Con, Scotty’s Brewhouse actually hosted several events for Pop Con attendees and were super receptive!

Table Info: $150 for 1 8’ table and two badges. 2015 is TBA, but there was plenty of space behind the table, which was quite nice. However, the AA was very saturated and there were tons of artists to sort through, spreading traffic kind of thin.
First come, first serve.
Special Rules: n/a
Theme: General/Pop-Culture
Size: Medium. It was difficult to evaluate, as (compared to Indiana Comic Con from two months prior) there was much more room. There was less than the projected attendance of 10k+, in part because many people were scared off from Indiana Comic Con. However, it was certainly not a small crowd.

Attendees: The attendees were absolutely swell and super polite. At this point, I’m beginning to see many repeat attendees from previous Indianapolis cons.
Staff: If there was one thing that really stood out about this con, it was the staff. They went above and beyond in every respect. They were exceptionally receptive to feedback and were always on hand, even on their online outlets.
What Stood Out: Time to fangirl. Aside from getting some guests that I was genuinely interested in (Nicholas Brendan, Kristian Nairn, Sylvester McCoy, Ron Glass, Joel Hodgson, and John DiMaggio to name a few,) my favourite comic artist of all time was there (Ben Templesmith.) I freaked out. It was awful and wonderful and beautiful and terrifying.

Aside from that, the website is also super well done and easy to navigate. I was actually quite impressed. Each vendor/artist/guest got a little blurb on the site as well, which was nice.

The other thing I really enjoyed was the artist drink-and-draw hosted at Scotty’s. It was a casual gathering of aritsts, both selling and not, the restaurant had Spiderman and Pacific Rim playing in the back in the special hosting room for the Pop Con people, and we just drew, drank, and had a good time. There was a theme and prizes but it was generally just really fun.
Popular Products: This was my first time introducing fanart into the mix, but once again, it was difficult to judge because sales were really slow. It was about an even mix of fanart and original as far as popularity went.

Profit: Low. I made back table cost easily, but it was slow for sales.
Pros: Wonderfully organized. Great people. Great guests. Great staff.
Cons: Slooooow for vendors and artists. Attendance lower than projected.
Worthwhile? A resounding yes for me. It seemed that Pop Con had the exact opposite problem that Comic Con did in that it was supremely well organized and accommodating, but the con-going community was scared off from bad experiences at the prior convention. I’m hoping this one sticks around, though, and will definitely go next year.

Copied from my Review Page.