(I only have about half my pictures currently - I gotta get my other camera out and put em on the computer!)
TEKKO CON 2015
This was my first time attending Tekko con as an artist, so I had no idea what I'd be getting myself into. The show itself was in Pittsburgh, PA, and apparently it was its first year at the convention center it was being held in. (Apparently it had been in a hotel previous years, and finally got big enough they wanted to move it to a larger location)
Pittsburgh is definitely an interesting city, and by interesting, I mean all the roads go at 45 degree angles when you're out of the main downtown. I come from a relatively flat area, so the steep side roads always weirded me out. Thankfully, I didn't have to take any of said roads, I just got to marvel at the cars all driving on them like it's no big deal.
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| Of course, now looking at this, I want to redo the WHOLE THING UGH |
Anyway, we got there late on Thursday night, and checked in early on Friday for set up. The vendor hall was much different than any previous show I had been to, which is to say that they artists were all lumped in the center, and the vendors formed a wall around the outside. Set up went relatively well as we attempted to remember how to set up the booth this time around.
Weekend went pretty well, so here's the Good, Not-As-Good, and Suggestions part of the recap that we're all aware of.
GOOD (Things I liked)
+ Pleasant people. The staff was pretty friendly, and many of the other artists who were there were pretty awesome too - met some really nice people, which I can't really complain about, yanno?
+ Natural Light. There were big windows on the top part of the hall we were in, which was great because natural light was always coming in (the weather was awesome like that)
+ Well Spaced Tables. Each table had a couple of feet between each of them, and it was nice to know I could climb out from behind the booth when I needed to.
+ ALL THE SPACE. There was a lot of space behind the tables as well, which was lovely!
+ Pretty nice town. We had to park in a parking garage a few blocks away, and it wasn't TOO scary for me, which means it was probably a really nice part of town. :P
NOT-AS-GOOD (Things that weren't so great)
- Natural Light. :P Now, don't get me wrong, I loved the natural light, but around 5-6 pm each day, the sun shone directly through the upper windows, and I swear directly onto my table. Show can't really change it, just means I'll bring sunglasses next time!
- Room Set-Up - the idea of having the vendors surround the artists seems like a right fine idea, but I was afraid it had a lot of flaws. I lucked out and got a booth facing inward into the center area, but I worried about the artists on the outside ring. They were just an aisle over from the vendors, and I am pretty sure a lot of them accidentally got overlooked by attendees. I hear the vendor hall is moving to a larger room next year, so hopefully maybe they'll do a side-by-side set up, but if they do the "in the center" again, they may need to calibrate the design a bit.
- AWESOME WEATHER. The weather was absolutely beautiful this weekend. That also meant that everybody hung out outside instead of the hall, so it was steadyish but not as crazy as I'm used to on Saturdays. I did well enough though, so I can't really consider it a huge complaint.
- That chocolate booth. SUCH TEMPTATIONS. Okay, not really a complaint, more a very well-placed booth (right near the bathroom) so EVERYBODY would pass by it at some point. :P
- THAT FUNIMATION BOOTH. All the very loud promos, and the screamy guys in the video (I think it was an ad for DBZ?), SO ANNOYING after a while.
SUGGESTIONS
~ Keep it later, aka, in April. I really liked the timing (apparently it was later than usual) so the weather was great.
~ Change up the room set-up. Maybe switch to a side-by-side?
~ Keep the convention center! I really liked it, and it gives a lot of room for the show to grow.
TL;DR
Did I like the show? Yeah! Would I go back? FER SURE. I had a good time, and everybody was so pleasant, and with it being about ACen distance away, it wasn't too bad to get to (except that last part of the turnpike which always makes me dizzy, I'll just have to engineer a different way to get in).
I'll keep my fingers crossed and try again for it next year!
