Guide: Tips for preparing for your first convention

[varethane]

At Fan Expo up here, they have a thing where on the last day of the convention, exhibitors in the AA and in the dealer's area can sign up for tables at the next year's convention for..... I think it was a 10-15% discount? Generally the people who do this are assigned the same table location that they'd held before, so I'll probably end up in the same part of the hall as before in 2012. XD

[kaxen]

One thing I suggest if you use PVC pipes to make your table display: paint them. (or wrap them in ribbon or something).

For some reason, nearly everyone at AX uses white PVC poles which I think looks icky especially when it stills has those prints on the side from the factory. I have seafoam green painted PVC poles. It's much more memorable. I was talking to a guy about AX and he asked which table I was and all I had to say was "the one with the green pipes" and we were talking some six months or so after the convention which I assume is decent amount of time to forget things. So I think that's pretty good recognizability.

Guh, I need to cosplay. Last-last year, I cosplayed Czes from Baccano and then managed to drag some of the cosplayers from the Baccano cosplay meet over to my table. That sold a couple buttons.

I dunno who I will cosplay this year. I want to do something simple since my main merchandise is plushies, so I need my sewing machine for merch most importantly. Out of the fanart, I'm going with Legend of Korra, Sherlock, Assassin's Creed, and My Little Pony, so I sort of want to hit one of those... Maybe I'll do those "humanized ponies" thing and do Twilight Sparkle so I can buy a nerdy argyle sweater that I've wanted... 



My big-ticket item is 2-foot-tall Altair and 2-foot-tall Desmond. I can't decide how to display them. I want to put them in a box of "hay" but that probably doesn't help visibility...

[Duskglass]

If you want a simple cosplay MLP seems like your best bet. (Not familiar with the series but I've seen a lot of pony cosplayers around.) Sherlock seems like something that would be most effective as a group (since the clothes tend to be mostly modern and fairly simple), while Korra and asscreed would require patterning and constructing an entire costume from scratch.

[glancereviver]

I painted my poles, but then they did not want to stick together evenly after I did it.  So I probably won't try that again.

[Muninn]

maybe this is a strange question.. but what are you using the poles for? o.0

[Mithandir]

Something liek this I'm guessing:



I'm making a different one for the cons this year

[T III]

Best convention display I've ever seen is by Doctor Geof creator of the webcomic Fetishman, the Steampunk Literary Review, and of course, The First Tea Company where I am currently ranked as Cakey-Major w/Cake (previously Brew-Tenant Colonel w/Ocelot)... I have a swanky ID/warrant card to prove it and everything.

His entire stand and most of his merch folds down into two antique suitcases which he uses as part of the display itself... example follows...



(Not the best angle, but the only one that I could find that showed the full table)

[kaxen]

I painted my poles, but then they did not want to stick together evenly after I did it.  So I probably won't try that again.

I painted my poles with the set-up already assembled. I don't paint where the pole is stuck into the joint-thingies.

maybe this is a strange question.. but what are you using the poles for? o.0

Displays. Mine looks like this

...I'm also the only person at AX with a giant green unicorn on my banner. @_@' GREEN! IT'S A GREAT COLOR (though unfortunately CMYK printers can't handle sea foam green).

[Muninn]

Aaaah I was thinking everyone was spending huge amounts of money on those con-banners.... but that looks really effective . (also... ALTAIR! <3)

[Mithandir]

Muninn: the company in the netherlands I linked in the tablecloth thread does banners pretty cheaply ... 12 eur per square meter for heavy duty banners.

[kaxen]

Aaaah I was thinking everyone was spending huge amounts of money on those con-banners.... but that looks really effective . (also... ALTAIR! <3)

I commandeered my school's large-format printer so mine was way cheaper than it should be at "free."


I need to get a better tablecloth though.

[T III]

Aaaah I was thinking everyone was spending huge amounts of money on those con-banners.... but that looks really effective . (also... ALTAIR! <3)

Even the roll up banner stands are cheap if you know where to look, as I've said before - I got my latest one from ebay £30 included shipping and printing. Don't buy things like that from big firms like Staples though as they charged me £100 for my first one (plus £15 for "5 minutes work" as it said on the receipt).

My current set up looks something like this:


Which really isn't that impressive, I really need to redesign it properly for the big events this year.

[Muninn]

ohw that's not expensive at all. I've asked around over here, but there wasn't any available under 100 euro's... and that was a rather small one too. I'm not going to spend a lot of bucks on the EFF con, because I'm still kind of wondering how it will turn out (since it's not a comic con, and I have a hunch that they have put us somewhere all the way in the back ) but I'll definitely look into it for possible future con's thanks!

[T III]

ohw that's not expensive at all. I've asked around over here, but there wasn't any available under 100 euro's... and that was a rather small one too. I'm not going to spend a lot of bucks on the EFF con, because I'm still kind of wondering how it will turn out (since it's not a comic con, and I have a hunch that they have put us somewhere all the way in the back ) but I'll definitely look into it for possible future con's thanks!

Honestly eBay is your best option for these things if you don't want to pay massive prices. I'd suggest looking up "roll up banner" and making sure the description includes them printing the image etc. But I'd also suggest looking up wire storage cubes, they're handy as shelving or backing displays and they fold down easily. Both are available via eBay for less than £30.