NashiCon [SC]

[Admin Lily]

Website: NashiCon

[paprikaSTUDIOS]

Convention attended: Nashicon 2014
-City: Columbia, SC
-Location: Lower portion of the convention center, the hallway in front of the dealer's room
-Table Cost: $75 for a full table, 2 badges

FOREWORD

Nashicon is a two day anime convention that is located in Columbia, South Carolina. For 2014, the convention ran on Easter weekend. Last year attendance only broke around an estimated 600 to 800 people. The application process was FCFS. I learned about Nashicon when I was in the artist alley for Animazement 2013 and the convention staff spoke so highly of the convention that I decided to keep my eye on it as a possible convention to attend for in 2014.

Once again, these reviews are accounts of my experiences at these conventions and are only suppose to serve guide to help other artists who are looking to participate in the artist alley of said convention. The reviews are in no way affiliated with the convention nor convention staff itself.

**SATURDAY**

Checking in at the convention was very easy with only a few hiccups. Since they were still setting up, there really wasn’t any signage and had to ask a few people at first where do we check in for our table and badges. The staff were very amiable and polite, in fact they were very much down to Earth being able to joke around with them instantly.

As this was our first time in Columbia, South Carolina, we didn’t know much about the area, much less the convention since this was also our first year for Nashicon. We had originally parked in a parking garage right across from the convention, which was a little pricey considering how much we would have had to pay to exit the garage for two days. When we inquired about where we could possibly unload our products and display, we learned that there was a parking area just outside that was pretty much reserved for staff and artists were welcomed to use it as well; there was no charge to use the parking lot. While I was glad to learn about this information, I wish we would have been told ahead of time in an e-mail.

The parking lot was located on the same level as the Artist Alley. This was an idea area for us as it made transporting our items to our table rather easy. The convention was suppose to open around 10:00am, giving artists from 8am to 10am to setup their displays. We started to setup around 9am and it seemed that the convention had opened earlier than expected on goers were already flooding the halls of the alley. This is only an assumption though and was never confirmed. In fact, there was several times I had to let people know we were still setting up but were welcomed to look and buy something that caught their eye.

On a separate note, the staff of the convention center itself is ONE OF THE NICEST GROUP OF PEOPLE I’VE EVER DEALT WITH! Seriously! They always held the doors open and even offered to help carry some of our items to our table (and vice versa when the convention was over). Typically, when I see the staff of the convention center, they can be rude or just pretty much ignore you except for checking your badge. This was not the case as these people showed hospitality towards the artists.

The traffic at this convention was great. We had some downtimes but overall, Saturday was very busy. We noticed that a lot of con goers had one day badges for Saturday; something we were expecting since this convention was taking place on Easter weekend. A good perk of this convention is that you had outlets since the alley was located in a hallway. Working with our nearby artist, we ened up sharing the outlets (yay for power strip!) at no extra costs!

A lot of the convention staff did turn a blind eye when artists brought in food and drinks at their table since the convention was a “No food/drinks” area as they had their own consession stand. We found out about this rule mainly because we had offer a con staffer a drink when he said he couldn’t take it.

While the alley was a 24 hour hallway alley, the convention seemed to really die down around 9pm. We packed up our merchandise and covered our display and called it a night.

**SUNDAY**

Sunday started off slow. Since it was Easter, we were expecting sales to be slow in the morning and not to make as much as Saturday. Traffic picked up a little bit in the afternoon but the convention’s strong day was definitely on Saturday.

We started breaking down at 5pm and the convention staff (Nashicon’s staff), were very helpful. They offered to get people to help us take our stuff back to our car to pack up, which in the end, we took them up on their offer.


**OVERALL**

Nashicon is definitely a convention to keep your eye on in the future. At the moment it is a small convention so I would only recommend artists that are local to nearby states to attend this convention’s artist alley. For a small convention and for it only being two days, we did see a good profit from Nashicon.

The staff of the convention as well as the convention center itself are absolutely helpful and kind. They really seem to care about this convention and the people involved in it. While there was a little worry sine the head of the artist alley was replaced only months before the convention was taking place, overall it was a wonderful experience and I have every attention to apply for Nashicon again in 2015.