Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Phoenix Comic Con/My Yays and Nays

I like to write up my likes and dislikes about conventions in a separate post, just because it can otherwise make things lengthy, and who wants to look at walls and walls of text? So here are my yays and nays for Phoenix Comic Con (spoiler, they're pretty much all yays):

Yays: 
*Their air conditioning was fantastic. I can't tell you how many conventions I've been to where it gets nasty hot for seemingly no reason other than they don't run the A/C enough. Lots of people equals lots of heat, which is no good. This place was rocking that A/C, and it was nice. The convention center wasn't cold, but it wasn't hot either. I guess with record setting highs outside, they understood that people didn't want to be roasting inside too. Thank you.

*They gave away prizes. I have never been to a convention where the convention itself hands out prizes for asking questions in panels. We got all of our prizes because our kids were well behaved (seriously) or because they had some extra prize cards and needed to dump them. Once you got a card, you took it to this table and you had a choice of some comic books, Walking Dead Lego-type sets or tee shirts of conventions past. We ended up with three Walking Dead sets and three shirts. I think that's really cool of the convention to do that. It encourages audience participation during panels, and it helps them unload unsold merch- so nothing goes to waste. 

*They appreciate their 18+ fans. This actually ended up being pretty limiting for my husband and I since we brought our children, but there were quite a few panels and events that were labeled 18+. I thought that was cool though, it gives older con goers a place to hang out without having to censor themselves. And I also thought it was really cool that they advertised so many outside events in their program guide. At larger cons, you hear about these great parties, but if you don't know the right people, you can't go. Well, at PHXCC, they were printed in the guide, so everyone had a chance. 

Mehs:
*Panelists. If you're not hosting an 18+ panel, please don't tell people that you can't say what you want to say because there are children in the room. It makes people think they're missing out on really great stuff because of the children, and it makes them very disgruntled towards the people who brought said children. People with children like to attend conventions and panels too.

*No bags, lanyards or programs given with badges. Mentioned this in my Friday coverage, but not having those things right away was a huge pain. And the freebies weren't flowing like they do at larger conventions, so it took a minute to find some on the floor (which the staff said "would be like, so easy to do").

Nays:
*The cosplayers. So I'm probably going to get some crap for this, but it has to be said. I think I saw some of the rudest cosplayers at this convention, and that's why I don't have any pictures of them anywhere in my coverage. Don't get me wrong, there were some amazing cosplays there, and I'm sure that there were also some very nice cosplayers too. But after hearing one girl tell her friend how much she hated everyone that asked her for a photo, then turn around and act all sweet with some guy, only to call him a name when he left- I was less than impressed. And you might be thinking, well that's just one girl. No, there was a lot of that, and its for that reason that people hate asking cosplayers to take their photos. It was just really sad to see people behave that way. 

Overall, I had a really fun time. My husband and I want to go back next year (sans children) and experience all the other events that are offered. 

This was at the convention center. When we were driving into Phoenix, there 
was this radio ad about having scorpions removed from your home. Um, no thanks!

Check out Friday and Saturday's coverage, and let me know, are you interested in going to Phoenix Comic Con next year? Maybe I'll see you there!

No comments:

Post a Comment

I look forward to reading your words of wisdom. Don't freak out if you don't see your comment right away, I do moderate :) Thanks!