Jul
2012
A Box Full of Whatchimacallits – Oz Comic-Con
The Top 5 and Bottom 5 of Oz Comic-Con Melbourne
This past weekend saw Melbourne’s first Comic-Con, a name synonymous with nerds, cosplay, guest stars and (to an ever decreasing margin) comics. To attend one of these for the first time is an experience unlike any other, but it is not one that is perfect, idyllic or in certain circumstances, even enjoyable.
The Melbourne Oz Comic-Con had its fair share of problems, and if you were to follow its Facebook page you would see some world class “nerd rage” over what some people perceived as a mismanaged event. While those displeased are clearly the loudest, it is unclear if they are the majority, so in the sake of fairness we present the Top 5 and Bottom 5 of Oz Comic-Con.
Top 5
5.) Exhibitors
One thing Oz Comic-Con had that was similar to almost any exhibition, conference or show was people out to sell their wares. Which can range from great – where you find a company you knew nothing about that fills a need you didn’t even know you had – to “gouging” price wise. Oz Comic-Con leaned more to the former, and while the latter was present, none of the sellers ever felt particularly pushy. Most were content on letting the flow of traffic browse their wares with a passing conversation and not an attitude of “buy it or GTFO”.
4.) The guest photos and signings
Disclaimer – This does not refer to the organisation, lines or waiting associated to the photos and signings but for the guests themselves. All the guests were great, willing to make brief banter with guests who had been waiting hours to see them, and extra props to Patrick Stewart and Stan Lee in particular, who crammed as many photos and signings as humanly possible, even after the organisers oversold their ability to do so. They exuded professionalism, even under pressure and duress.
3.) Guest panels
Some guests treated the panels like acting jobs, others like a personal Q&A session, but every one of them brought something fun and entertaining to the table. The Australian attendees may not be as chatty question-wise as their American counterparts, but the guests took it in their stride and were always gracious and thorough in their answers.
2.) Prepurchase of VIP and Platinum Tickets
There were a lot of things that Oz Comic-Con did wrong ticket wise – overselling, mismanaged lines and many more things that belong in the second part of this article – however one good thing they had was the ability to buy a bypass for the queues under the title of “VIP” and “Platinum” tickets. While far more expensive, and having to be bought well in advance, these VIP and Platinum passes were worth their weight in gold, if you are someone who considers time to be money. Being able to sleep in until 10am and then make your way straight in, as well as the ability to walk out mid-day and come back without having to re-queue makes a world of difference.
1.) The people and cosplayers
Regardless of being a regular or VIP attendee, if you went to Oz Comic-Con, you would have spent at least an hour waiting in a queue for something. Being able to watch cosplayers and try to guess who they were dressing up as, and how they found the time to make such extravagant costumes (as well as in some special cases, what degree of sneeze intensity would send them flying out of their costume) made lining up that much more bearable.
In the same regard, standing next to the same person for hours on end often opened the floodgates to conversation, and easily the best thing about Oz Comic-Con were the people who attended it. Brought together by a common interest, the conversations that arose were just as interesting and enjoyable as anything the organisers came up with.
Bottom 5
5.) People
Normally as a rule, I’m against murder. However when facing the prospect of having the person in front of you drop dead meaning that there’s one less person between yourself and your goal – only 5 metres away, but a twenty minute wait – you begin to see the perks. As stated above, when in a queue you can normally generate a rapport with those around you, yet when you’re just trying to get through a queue blocking an entrance (as often faced by the VIP and Platinum ticket holders) people just become a mass of angry, rude and pushy bodies. If you are somewhat of the “meeker” temperament (as many nerds are) you may find having to push people to the side to simply get to where you need to be a quite dehumanising experience. We did.
4.) Branding
Simply put, the branding looked cheap. The website went down at a the drop of a hat, the social media control was nearly non-existent and the whole lead up felt like it was being winged one day at a time. Some would say “oh it’s their first time” and that excuse goes a little way, but as someone in the advertising field, I can say the logic in successful companies is “If I don’t know how to really do it, hire, find or ask someone who does”. It comes across as cheap, arrogant or greedy if you don’t.
For all the condemning, this really is constructive criticism; it’s an area that can be improved. Don’t just use mates who can use iMovie or give you a freebee website – Rebrand, get better servers and hire a marketing person or company to just deal with this aspect and the event will only grow.
3.) Treatment of VIPs
The pre-bought VIP tickets were a wonder for queue jumping, the exclusive sessions and in theory were a great idea. The problem came with the execution of those ideas – no effort was made to separate VIP queues from regular admission and the instruction given to all VIPs of “Just go to the front of the queue and talk to the volunteer there” is at best not thought out and at its worst actually a worse experience than just lining up normally, as there was no way to get to the “front” of the queue without pushing all the way from the back against people who had no intention of letting you through (See: 5.) People).
2.) The dinners
At Oz Comic-Con there was an opportunity to have dinner with a celebrity. This option was not cheap and engendered certain expectations. Our guests (Sir Patrick Stewart and his son, Daniel) were much like the ride at the beginning of Jurassic Park – one no-show and one who felt ill and couldn’t stay long. Much like the dinosaurs in that film, I had no hard feelings towards the men who didn’t come or couldn’t stay long; they are humans who were jetlagged and had worked a very long day.
The distain here fell to the organisers who came across as simply greedy. They put as many people on two tables as physically possible so it was often difficult to hear or see the celebrity. The event was not cheap and yet something as simple as drinks were not included (this surprised even Sir Patrick Stewart, who at the beginning of the evening when asked if he wanted a drink exclaimed “We ALL need drinks here!”). A round table with drinks, a private room, fewer people, not making the celebrity work a 12 hour day (and if necessary up the price to compensate) would have resulted in 12 glowing reviews instead of 30 negative ones.
(As a side note, to anyone at that dinner, all I can say is thank you – the conversations with you all during and after dinner made the whole event a good learning experience, rather than a massive disappointment.)
1.) Signage
Recently humanity came up with an amazing machine that could help with relaying instructions. You should look into it.
