Saturday, June 12, 2010

The Other Side of the Coin

Okay, I wrote over six hundred words yesterday about how much Wizard World Philly sucks. It never being my purpose to trash the con, let’s turn it around. How can we improve it? How can we save it?

The number one thing to be done, unfortunately I don’t know how to do, but you have to bring the comics people back. Get Marvel and DC back here. That Young Avengers announcement earlier this week should have been made at a convention, ideally this one, why didn’t it? Whatever happened to make the big two not be here has to be fixed. Get Image and Dark Horse here. Get Dynamite here – they are right across the river after all. Get the comics back and get the comics pros and guests back. Come on, it’s not a comic book convention without the comic books.

Befriend the comics press. In a world of Twitter and Facebook, they can destroy you before you even open your doors. I know for a fact that there are folks who did not come yesterday because they heard how lame the con was from Twitter. Whether it was true or not, they still did not come. You want excitement from the Twitterers, not derision. Use the tools. I saw many Tweets from folks at the con, but none from the con. Wizard should not only be Tweeting, but also replying to Tweets.

Embrace the press, don’t just befriend them. I can’t tell you how annoyed I was at the locked Press Room. Wizard was so proud about the number of press at the con, so why don’t you treat us better? Yes, I know you let us in for free, but how about just a little help along the way to giving you good coverage. Letting us know there’s a Press Room is a good start. Water and wireless would be a bonus, you’ll get high marks just for that. We’re cheap and easy. In a good way.

More outside events would be a step in the right direction. Let me tell you, there were folks like me who were disappointed by the con, but were sooo psyched about the zombie party and Kaiju Big Battel. More stuff like that would be fun. How about some bands or maybe stage shows? Perhaps even let folks know about that Philadelphia treasure next door, the Reading Terminal Market, instead of forcing them to eat those high-priced hot dogs at the Convention Center. Have some Philly pride.

These are just ideas, and they are given out of love. I don’t want to lose our comic con. I want it here for years to come, and I want it to be more popular and successful than ever before. Let’s do it.

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