Forum - View topicNEWS: Llamacon Sets Attendance Cap
|
Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
ACDragonMaster
 Posts: 405 |
|
||
|
Smart move. First-year conventions generally are not well-prepared to handle more than a few hundred people, between just not having the staff and not having the experience for it. I helped out with a first-year con that had maybe 300 or so attendees, and that was difficult enough for all the staff. I'm still quite impressed that the first year of Anime Detour went so well, where they ended up with 600 pre-registrations and another 600 at the door.
|
|||
|
|||
|
dokool
Posts: 83 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
|
||
Thanks  Our venue can probably fit more people, but 500 was the number we decided on because of parking issues on campus. We lost 20 spots we thought we had to construction, and as it is people may have to walk a couple minutes to get from their car to the DAC (only if we reach capacity, that is).
We encourage anyone looking at attending Llamacon to pre-register - not only will it give us an idea of what numbers to expect, but the more advance registrations we get, the more cool things we can do for our attendees. -Dan O ConChair, Llamacon 2006 |
|||
|
|||
|
dark_kratos
Posts: 1 |
|
||
|
you better be prepared for more people then you expected. I work for anizona as a staffer and last year we had well over our cap of 800 and had to turn them back. This year we have a 1200 cap but I expect more then that again and that is also due to the fact that people are looking for an expo that is a precursor to anime expo. Well good luck!
|
|||
|
|||
|
ACDragonMaster
Posts: 405 |
|
||
Oh, a couple minutes' walk isn't bad. The one time I went to Otakon, the group I went with managed to get one of the hotels relatively near the convention center and it was still a good two blocks away. Of course, that's Otakon, but my point is, it's not unusual for conventions to have a bit of a walk. ;p And most people I know who regularly attend conventions carpool. At least 2-3 people to a car, sometimes you get groups of 6+ in one vehicle if someone has access to a big van. Many can't afford the gas to just drive by themselves, anyway, so that probably would help with the parking issues a bit. Or maybe not, but you never know. And yes, pre-registrations help enormously in figuring out how many to expect. Most of the time. >_> |
|||
|
|||
|
dokool
Posts: 83 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
|
||
Well, 500 assumes 2 people/car and our campus parking lot being filled, so hopefully we won't have to use the *far* lots (which are a 5-minute walk and on the other side of campus from the DAC) - we *are* planning on having most of our constaffers outside with flashlights helping people get to their cars after the Piano Squall concert, since it'll be dark and who knows what the weather will be like. The problem with pre-regs for us is that I've been hearing a lot of different things - I've heard we're gonna get a lot of people, but I've also heard that since we're a one-day con and since people want to support new cons in particular, lots of people are gonna wait till the day of the con and give us the extra $3... suppose we'll see either way, but given our guest roster (2 musical guests, 4 webcomic artists, 1 VA guest, 2 fandom guests), and the strength of our schedule (easily comparable to a three-day con's daily programming), I have high hopes. |
|||
|
|||
|
ACDragonMaster
Posts: 405 |
|
||
|
*nods* That makes sense, it probably wouldn't go over too well if attendees got lost on the way to their cars. ^_^;;
As for pre-reg... usually, the number of pre-regs you have as of the cut-off date (or within the next week for mail-in registrations) will give a rough idea of attendance numbers. Though you never know. Things like advertising and location can make a huge difference- a first-year con in a highly populated area is probably going to get a lot more at the door registrations than somewhere out of the way. Though putting a limit on registration would probably help convince people to pre-reg. Probably. It's been my experience that with newer cons that sort of thing can end up pretty unpredictable. >_> |
|||
|
|||
|
dokool
Posts: 83 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
|
||
Yeah... well, advertising has gone pretty well - I've been handling the otaku scene (PRs sent to anime-cons.com, and we've been lucky enough to get listed on ANN twice, plus stuff to LJ communites), and our school is sending out PR to local and regional press. While the only X-factor is weather (we're in Western MA, which is in the Berkshire region, kinda out of the way, and prone to lots of white stuff), we're pretty confident in our location - an hour from Albany, 90 minutes from Hartford, 2.5h from Boston, ~3ish from NYC means that we're within driving distance from almost every anime convention in New England. However, whether we get 20 people or 200 or even hit 500, we'll give them a day to remember
|
|||
|
|||
Kagemusha
 Posts: 2783 Location: Boston |
|
||
|
Holy crap, there's actually a con in Great Barrington?!?!? I thought I was one of the few people who actually had been through there. But I guess they get people coming in from New York and Connecticut since it's so far west. Still, talk about tiny mountian towns.
|
|||
|
|||
|
dokool
Posts: 83 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
|
||
Hah - yeah, well, you wouldn't expect a college to be in such a small town, would you... |
|||
|
|||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group