Show Report- AnimeFest 2010

This was our first time at AnimeFest. We decided to do it because it was a 4 day convention, and we thought it would be worth the drive out to Texas. Yeah, sure there's Dragon*Con, which is closer, but tables there are $500. We still believe it would have been worth it if our table was not in such a bad spot, because we moved to the other side for Monday and made twice as much, even though the show closed early.

Specs:
Sept. 3-6
Cost of table: $115 for a 6 ft + badges
Juried: no
Tables/chairs provided: yes
Indoor/outdoor: Indoor
Attendance: 7000
Profit: low

Pros:
-No waiting in registration lines, they had our badges at the AA sign in.
-We actually saw people we knew.
-Everyone was super nice, and we met a lot of new people
-There were a lot of really good cosplayers
-The staff in charge was helpful and apologetic about the location, and encouraged us to give feedback on the website.
-All the staff we talked to were friendly and helpful, and so were the other artists.
-A lot of the artists sold crafts and not just prints
-The AA didn't have set hours, so we could sell as long as we wanted. We usually stayed a couple extra hours and made a few more sales.
-the dealer's room was very large

Cons:
-Our table was in a bad location with low traffic
-Photoshoots all day Saturday blocked our booth
-The AA area was not secure, so we had to set up and break down every day. Even just leaving our table cloth up, we came back to find trash all over our table and spilled drinks.
-There were a lot of tables selling almost identical merchandise.
-We only had time to rush through the dealer's room once, but didn't really see anything we liked.
-Didn't bother us, but we heard some people complaining that there was no console gaming room.
-panel schedule wasn't in the con booklet, and by the time they got copies of the schedule out, the panel I wanted to go to was over.

If we lived closer, this would have been worth coming to, but for us, it's just too much travel for not enough profit. Unfortunately, I doubt we will return to this con, but we do want to return to Texas and try to do A-kon next year.

Check out all of our pictures on Facebook: AnimeFest 2010