By: ~The Artist~ & ~The Guardsman~
Additional writing and interviewing by ~Attendee 2~
You would think our first major article on this blog would be about this weekend’s Metrocon, or last weekend’s Tampa Bay Comic Con and the security snafu that they had. It’s not even about the past Super Con in Fort Lauderdale
Our actual story is about Megacon. Now the convention has already past in Orlando and the next one won’t be until September/October in Tampa. Our reason for talking about Megacon is about a bigger issue that is having, or will have, an adverse effect on conventions here in Florida.
For those of you who don’t know: Megacon is a yearly convention that’s held in Orlando,
Florida and it has been since the 1990s. It has been a Florida convention staple, and working hand and hand with the local geek community at large, and has recently expanded to host a show in Tampa Bay.
Recently, the convention was purchased by a Public limited company known as Informa, a publishing and events company, based out of London.
Now there is nothing inherently wrong with businesses operated with the company or person in-charge not living in Florida. Many conventions do this (Mizucon, Finalcon, and Minecon 2013), and some convention organizers from Florida will host conventions outside of the state (Supercon in North Carolina).
The bigger issue is conventions that are being operated by major corporations or businesses. The concern is based on what happens when a corporation steps in and runs conventions.
Megacon in the past has been a key player in the convention community in Florida, and the Orlando geek community. They have worked with local fan groups and panelists to put on a great show, and their nighttime and after hours shows were always top notch.
However, after it was announced that Megacon was sold to Informa in 2015, there were some immediate concerns with entertainers, dealers, and staffers. Many had wondered if their contracts were going to be carried over to the new owners. Artists and dealers had to meet with organizers, during the convention in 2015 to renew and review contracts that were signed and in place for 2016.
Many entertainers that were also lined up for 2016 had received little to no contact from the new organizers, or were asked for a step-back on demands.
One former cosplay guest for Megacon 2016, who wishes to not be identified, was asked if they could find another way to the convention as the flights was expensive, after the guest was told that they would be flown out for the convention. Another issue was that the organizers could not communicate with the guests as often, because they were busy organizing other conventions.
This led to information and last minute, messy, confirmations.
There was also a major change in the programming to the convention itself. The convention during its first year under Informa (2015), the convention was moved to a smaller venue. Keep in mind, in 2014 they had hit record numbers to the point that Orlando traffic patterns were severely challenged because of the influx of attendees.
Line control was also mismanaged. The only time there was any control was during Stan Lee’s Q&A. But, during other panels, lines, and waits; scuffles were happening because of people skipping.
There was no game room, which, while is not a requirement for a convention, was always present at Megacon. Attendees that were hoping to spend time at one, had to find a alcove in the convention hall itself, and make a gamers den with gear and equipment brought from home.
However, the biggest and most jarring change, was the cutoff time of events.
There are now little to no events past 8 PM, and any other events that are past that time, are either off site or separately ticketed. There are even some panels that you need to pay to enter.
While now there are strides to make conventions family, friendly, fun; there are others that want to have late night fun and enjoy more time at the convention, while not hurting their wallet, and getting more bang for their buck.
This has led to a common complaint, that Megacon was only good to shop at and meet guests, but not worth the rising ticket prices.
Photo ops with guests have increased, and some celebrity panels and Q&A panels were a separate ticket. Meaning on top of the weekend pass, and parking, and hotel, and other fees; you still gotta pay for the “DLC”.
While recently this has slightly changed, there has still been one major issue: little to no
community involvement.
In the past, it was easy to be a part of Megacon, as a panelist, entertainer, host, event runner, or more. However, many of that has been outsourced to others in Informas convention sphere.
According to Informa PLC’s annual 2015 report, it lists Megacon as nothing more than a
financial acquisition.
While there hasn’t been any major monetary issues from Megacon to report on yet: there was an issue before with another convention that is owned by a corporate entity: Wizard World.
While Wizard World started running events in 1991, they really pushed their convention
numbers in 2008, about the time conventions really began to saturate the market. This was a major concern for local conventions, as it could take away attendees and money from local conventions, and have a negative impact on the scene. One issue was that many fan communities and local panelists had to pay to be a part of the show. Some fan groups paid upwards to $600 for a table, and the tables were often hidden.
Boycott groups were set up to make people aware of this unknown issue.
Wizard world did take a major hit. 2015, Wizard World had a $4.25 million loss, and began to scale back its conventions.
We asked Aaron Pabon, a Florida convention entertainer and convention consultant if there were any positives to corporate owned conventions.
The only positives Pabon mentioned was that they will have larger budgets for more events and guests. Also more resources from other conventions, and can work with conventions related to the parent companies.
This sound like personal positives to the owners, but not the public.
Pabon did follow up with “The key issue is that the event itself is no longer locally owned and operated. Any profits are not kept locally, and are instead floated around to the other
conventions. Also any deals the convention has made with local vendors, guests, or other
conventions could be canceled. Most of the work can be outsourced to non-locals. If the corporation feels that the convention is not viable in profits, they could stop convention
operations, and stop running events in the area.”
That last bit is the most worrisome.
Should Informa decide that Megacon, or any of the convention they own are not worth their time or money; they could just stop running them. Also, since they now own the name Megacon, if they decide to end for BS financial reasons, then Megacon could cease to exist.
Our final call to action: let’s put more support for locally owned, fan conventions, and not these corporately, businesses owned ones.
Sources:
https://informa.com/Documents/Investor%20Relations/Annual%20Report/Informa-Annual-Report-2015.pdf
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/11/22/wizard-world-to-run-out-of-money-in-2017/
EDITED FOR CLARITY AND GRAMMER Aug 7, 2017
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