A Convention to Remember

What happens when you combine elements of popular culture across more than 200,000 square feet? Magic — as much for the vendors as for the visitors!

The convention ran from Friday, May 30 to Sunday, June 1. Vendors were able to bring their stuff in and set up more-or-less all day on Thursday. My hubby and I were kind-of dreading that. We packed everything into the truck that morning (a snug fit — if we ever do a larger convention, we’ll need a bigger truck!), with visions of long line-ups of vehicles at the loading docks of the Niagara Falls Convention Centre dancing in our heads.

Happily, vendors arrived in small groups, so we were able to park near the docks and use our carts to wheel things up the ramp and into the main hall in short order. My corner booth was a little more snug then we’d expected, so we performed a bit of tweaking to make the most of the space while staying within the chalk markings on the floor.

Bringing everything inArranging and rearrangingThe final look

It took only about an hour from load-in to finished booth, apart from my hubby’s geek-out moment when he spotted his first ‘live’ Dalek down the aisle at the large Dr. Who Society booth and disappeared in that direction for a while.

After that, we were free to wander the show floor and check out the massive Optimus Prime replica truck, the Bumblebee Camaro, the Cheech and Chong Love Machine, and a chocolate & fudge vendor pouring out all their delectable goods into plexiglass bins. I didn’t turn down some free samples — smart move on their part, as we were instant converts.

The huge replica Optimus Prime truckBumblebee Camaro – automatic trannie, sadlyThe fuzz-filled Love MachineWe bought a lot of these chocolates!

On opening day, we had to be ready to go by noon, when a couple of thousand school kids came romping through as part of the convention’s first ever Educon. It looked like they were having a great time, having already spent time in a slew of other special activities. When they left for their buses at 1:00, we had time to grab some lunch and hit the washrooms before the VIP visitors began to arrive at 2:30.

Over the three days of the convention, we met all kinds of wonderful people, some fantastic cosplay outfits, and regular visits or pass-bys by the special costumed guests, who got prepped in the service hallways just on the other side of the wall from my booth. We got to know the fellow who played Bumblebee Transformer, Iron Man, and Master Chief quite well, as well as the TMNT performers from Buffalo. Watching the stream of cosplayers past my booth was great fun — I chatted with a lot of them. The Daleks all had real people inside — I watched them being ‘assembled’ one morning — and they roamed freely around the aisles. One of them came by on Sunday to insist that it COULD survive my Chaos Roads (a quiz playing on my computer monitor) because, of course, it’s a Dalek! When I politely disagreed, it promised to bring an army and ‘analyze’ the situation.

I was busy at my booth and didn’t have time to see many of the celebrities, but I did make a point of seeing Robert Englund (Freddy Kruger!) signing autographs with, as you might imagine, a long line (Freddy striped sweaters were the most popular costume at the Con). I was also able to say hello to Tim Rozon, my favourite actor from two of my all-time favourite series, Wynonna Earp and the currently-running SurrealEstate. He was very gracious and friendly (and even better-looking in person).

Quite a few people were interested in my novels — one couple even bought a complete set for each of them! I also received a lot of compliments about the look of my booth, and one fellow in the publishing industry was really jazzed about the look of my books, from cover design to interior layout and readability. Great feedback to have!

My best sales were on Sunday, interestingly enough, and when we’ve gathered our thoughts we’ll sit and analyze the costs vs sales, but in a typical turn of life, we were notified on Sunday afternoon that a family member had been rushed to the hospital for Emergency Surgery. The security guards outside were kind enough to let us part close to the ramp so that we could pack up quickly at 3:30 when the convention was winding down, and we were able to get to the hospital in good time. We’ve been a little preoccupied ever since, but I wanted to share this post with you.

Here’s a selection of my favourite memories:

Fantastic Maleficent & AuroraFinal Destination Bloodlines sneak peek – that had to hurt!Predator was willing to strike a few posesA snarky Grinch chatting with usAmazing Iron Man costume, along with one of the Heroes on the Half ShellSame fellow as a towering BumblebeeAt my booth, with Patti in the backgroundThe Dalek comes to discuss/threatenGorgeous laser-etched charcuterie board with my Map of Llithfaen on it!

Despite the long hours, sore feet and general tiredness, we had a blast! The people in the booths beside and behind us were super-nice; we shop-talked quite a bit during slow times. Special thanks to my hubby, who’s been my rock and brilliant advisor during all of the months of prep as well as at the convention, and to my two great friends Debbie Maloney and Patti Welch, who were my enthusiastic and dedicated assistants for all three days! Cheers to all of my friends and our family members who showed up to share the moment with us — they all spent several hours there and seemed to be having a great time, from newbies to veterans.

I look forward to doing more conventions, now that we have a much better idea of setup and pacing, and have several smaller appearances planned for this year — check my Events page for listings as they’re confirmed and posted.

In a further post down the road, I’ll discuss logistics and planning, and what worked well vs. what I’d do differently next time.

As always, all photos are by me and may not be used without my express permission. All rights reserved.