Location Location… Location…?

There’s all sorts of things that can affect how well you do at a convention, and location is one of them.

I mean, some of that’s just obvious. No one wants to be the booth stuck behind the pillar. And so-called “endcap” or “corner” booths often cost more to reserve just by virtue of their presumed increased visibility and access to traffic.

But then you get that stuff that really seems out of your control, and although you can’t be 100% sure there was an impact, your gut tells you there was.

I believe WonderCon this year was an example, where some unfortunate factors conspired to basically cause the entire Small Press section to be “stuck behind the pillar.” The layout of the Anaheim Convention Center being as it is, there are large solid walls between the halls that WonderCon extended through. WonderCon can’t help that, of course, but decided to move the entry point after people picked up their badges to a far side rather than a more front-central position as in previous years. Now this made some sense from a logistical standpoint since before people would have to pick up their badges, exit back to the lobby and then re-enter further down, rather than this year where they just proceeded directly from Hall D to Hall C and poured on in right at Artist’s Alley, beyond which were all the big draws like the DC Comics booth. Finally past all that and past two of the aforementioned walls was Small Press in Hall A.

It’s not easy to get a feel for traffic when you’re chained to a booth, but by the time Sunday rolled around it was pretty clear that there was an imbalance going on with half the convention being a lot more crowded than the other half, and in the after reports a good portion of the Artist’s Alley exhibitors happily reporting constant attention and sales while a good portion of Small Press had the opposite experience. Not a great outcome, particularly when you factor in that a Small Press table also costs twice as much.

WonderCon keeps changing its floor plan every year so far and I expect next year will be no different, so I’m not going so far as the guy who has announced he’s jumping ship to Artist’s Alley, because for all we know Artist’s Alley could draw the short stick next time around. Or ideally the convention finally finds a balance that makes everyone happy, or at least no one really unhappy. In the meantime it’s something to keep in mind… as soon as that floorplan gets published, check where people enter, check where the dividers are and what sections are where. You probably won’t be able to do anything about it, but you can at least steel yourself for a slow outing if the placement seems awry.