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Looks like I volunteered to take my daughter. At least I will get to meet Maggie!

You mean next weekend? I didn't know there was a comic con in Atlanta. Just assumed no one would be silly enough to go up against Dragoncon

Well if we ever get the Dome built, according to BBF we can get that here instead of Atl

You do know that the Alabama Phoenix Festival is here at the Sheraton next weekend, right?

http://www.alabamaphoenixfestival.com/

It's a newer, much smaller con, but you can get your geek on, see the cosplay girls in spandex, talk to writers and artists and scientists. Don't miss Doc Osborn, he's a howl.

As to Comicon Atlanta, it does not compete with Dragoncon, they are months apart and the market is plenty big enough to support both.

(05-23-2014 04:22 PM)blazerwkr Wrote:  Well if we ever get the Dome built, according to BBF we can get that here instead of Atl

Well, at least we might be in the running. We won't ever know for sure until we can compete. Right now, for those truly large conventions / shows we can't.

(05-24-2014 09:58 AM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  

(05-23-2014 04:22 PM)blazerwkr Wrote:  Well if we ever get the Dome built, according to BBF we can get that here instead of Atl

Well, at least we might be in the running. We won't ever know for sure until we can compete. Right now, for those truly large conventions / shows we can't.

No, we wouldn't. I can guarantee there would not be a major Comiccon in Birmingham and Dragoncon is never leaving Atlanta. Neither of those events are held in a domed stadium.

(05-24-2014 01:00 PM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  

(05-24-2014 09:58 AM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  

(05-23-2014 04:22 PM)blazerwkr Wrote:  Well if we ever get the Dome built, according to BBF we can get that here instead of Atl

Well, at least we might be in the running. We won't ever know for sure until we can compete. Right now, for those truly large conventions / shows we can't.

No, we wouldn't. I can guarantee there would not be a major Comiccon in Birmingham and Dragoncon is never leaving Atlanta. Neither of those events are held in a domed stadium.

In that case, would we be able to lure either to Legion Field? (jest)

(05-23-2014 12:34 PM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  Looks like I volunteered to take my daughter. At least I will get to meet Maggie!

Yes!!!!

(05-24-2014 01:00 PM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  

(05-24-2014 09:58 AM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  

(05-23-2014 04:22 PM)blazerwkr Wrote:  Well if we ever get the Dome built, according to BBF we can get that here instead of Atl

Well, at least we might be in the running. We won't ever know for sure until we can compete. Right now, for those truly large conventions / shows we can't.

No, we wouldn't. I can guarantee there would not be a major Comiccon in Birmingham and Dragoncon is never leaving Atlanta. Neither of those events are held in a domed stadium.

Dragoncon is not 50,000 people milling around under a dome. It is many dozens of events running simultaneously across six large downtown highrise hotels which are booked full of con-goers. The large meeting spaces and ballrooms server for merchant areas, the art show, comics and artist's alley, dances, costume shows, concerts, film festivals and the like. The smaller meeting rooms (and between all the hotels there are probably forty or fifty of them) are used for panels on everything you can imagine that's even vaguely F/SF related.

Dragoncon uses a core of three major highrise hotels on adjacent blocks, with two more who are a block or two away. There is a major downtown foodcourt a block away with the sorts of food options you would get at the Galleria. Everything is in walking distance, and within walking distance of the Peachtree St. MARTA rail station.

There is no space in Birmingham suitable for anything remotely similar, and the dome would do nothing to solve it.

The con here next weekend at the Sheraton is illustrative of the problem. It has the space needed and the hotel rooms. With the new growth of the entertainment district there is at least somewhere nearby to eat, although decent *affordable* food remains something you'll have to drive for. Costs at the Sheraton are high - every water pitcher on a table, every pipe and drape wall, any extras at all are all at extra cost, and their costs are very high. This is especially true for a new and small time convention without deep pockets, an established name and fan base, and well known name guests to draw in fans. Several attempts have been made at starting an ongoing SF convention here, and they have all folded. It's been about fifteen years since Continuity folded here, which was a pretty successful con that ran in Birmingham for years.

Alabama Phoenix has some backers with pretty deep pockets. I hope they make it, but the Sheraton has in the past been very difficult with regard to costs and the attitude of the management regarding having a con there. You need a large hotel with substantial meeting space and a lot of rooms available at a decent room rate to make one of these go.

Anyone going? We eill be there Friday night and Saturday.

(05-25-2014 12:58 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  

(05-24-2014 01:00 PM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  

(05-24-2014 09:58 AM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  

(05-23-2014 04:22 PM)blazerwkr Wrote:  Well if we ever get the Dome built, according to BBF we can get that here instead of Atl

Well, at least we might be in the running. We won't ever know for sure until we can compete. Right now, for those truly large conventions / shows we can't.

No, we wouldn't. I can guarantee there would not be a major Comiccon in Birmingham and Dragoncon is never leaving Atlanta. Neither of those events are held in a domed stadium.

Dragoncon is not 50,000 people milling around under a dome. It is many dozens of events running simultaneously across six large downtown highrise hotels which are booked full of con-goers. The large meeting spaces and ballrooms server for merchant areas, the art show, comics and artist's alley, dances, costume shows, concerts, film festivals and the like. The smaller meeting rooms (and between all the hotels there are probably forty or fifty of them) are used for panels on everything you can imagine that's even vaguely F/SF related.

Dragoncon uses a core of three major highrise hotels on adjacent blocks, with two more who are a block or two away. There is a major downtown foodcourt a block away with the sorts of food options you would get at the Galleria. Everything is in walking distance, and within walking distance of the Peachtree St. MARTA rail station.

There is no space in Birmingham suitable for anything remotely similar, and the dome would do nothing to solve it.

The con here next weekend at the Sheraton is illustrative of the problem. It has the space needed and the hotel rooms. With the new growth of the entertainment district there is at least somewhere nearby to eat, although decent *affordable* food remains something you'll have to drive for. Costs at the Sheraton are high - every water pitcher on a table, every pipe and drape wall, any extras at all are all at extra cost, and their costs are very high. This is especially true for a new and small time convention without deep pockets, an established name and fan base, and well known name guests to draw in fans. Several attempts have been made at starting an ongoing SF convention here, and they have all folded. It's been about fifteen years since Continuity folded here, which was a pretty successful con that ran in Birmingham for years.

Alabama Phoenix has some backers with pretty deep pockets. I hope they make it, but the Sheraton has in the past been very difficult with regard to costs and the attitude of the management regarding having a con there. You need a large hotel with substantial meeting space and a lot of rooms available at a decent room rate to make one of these go.

There's just no reason to go through all that trouble with Dragoncon so close.

Sure there is! I've worked on numerous Con committees in three cities now. How about starting with having a con in Birmingham means people here can go to one without spending an arm and a leg? You can take your kid for just the price of a membership and some lunch, and you both can get an idea what one is like.

That's kinda like saying why bother going to a Blazer football game when you can watch the Superbowl.

(05-27-2014 08:05 AM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  Sure there is! I've worked on numerous Con committees in three cities now. How about starting with having a con in Birmingham means people here can go to one without spending an arm and a leg? You can take your kid for just the price of a membership and some lunch, and you both can get an idea what one is like.

That's kinda like saying why bother going to a Blazer football game when you can watch the Superbowl.

This!

A well-planned con, regardless of size, can be fantastic. Kansas City hosted one back in March. It was a mid-sized con, about 10,000 people in attendance, and it still managed to snag some great guests (included The Shat!), and it was reasonably priced: Just $50 for a three-day admission. Everyone who went (self included) had a blast as near as I could tell. And, according to the organizers after the event, it made enough money to make a $5,000 donation to the local children's hospital cancer ward.

Birmingham has the ability to host some reasonable events. I attended several in the 1980s and early 1990s, when cons were still in their infancy and still niche events. I discovered then the power of volunteering for said events: I had dinner with Scotty and The Great Bird of the Galaxy himself, Gene Roddenberry, at a 1989 event at the BJCC. James Doohan signed my original set of Enterprise blueprints. It was awesome.

I've been able to sit in the autograph room and bs with writers that I've been reading for thirty or forty years. It's a helluva lot of fun.

Day one we hit several filing locations of TWD including where they filmed Woodbury.

Some really neat places.