2019 has been my busiest convention year ever. I attended 7 conventions of various types and traveled outside my local area to Canada and California. It was an eventful year to say the least and I am still shocked I was accepted into so many of these events. Looking back, there are some really great memories (especially meeting new people) but overall the experiences of the conventions were STRESSFUL.

The reality is I barely broke even on some of these conventions, others I lost money on, and a few I made some money on. But overall it wasn't very successful monetarily. Some of this on me not budgeting well, travel expenses, lack of preparedness, and poor judgement on if my product fits into the convention. However, many of these events fell short of expectations and of their own rules. They were unorganized, poorly run, badly advertised, and full of false promises. This blog is adressering my experiences both positive and negative, to provide clarity on my part, and to show the difficult realities of artist alleys. This is in no way a personal attack on those who run the events either. This is my perspective and my own experiences.

My most enjoyable convention of the year was probably Anime North in Toronto, Canada. My first 3 day convention and first international convention, Anime North was my most profitable convention last year but what made it a good experience was the staff. The people in charge of Crafters Corner were readily available, came around during the event to check up on each artist and even offered to watch tables for bathroom and food breaks. As someone who is a single artist and has no helpers, this is KEY for me to be able to survive the 8-10 hour days. I felt like there was actual care for us artists and our safety. The hall was closed off each day at the end which allowed packing up/covering up tables to be easy.

I was also lucky to meet a few instagram followers IRL and was blessed to receive snacks and drinks from one. Everyone was incredibly kind and fun to talk with.

My only issues with the event were that I could only take cash (which was confusing when suing a different currency but is totally my own issue) and the placement of the crafters corner. The location felt very separated from the others. Anime North has several groups for artists so 2D artists were in a separate section, and professional artists had their own room. Traffic flow was not great because of this. I am just not used to that kind of setup, so it is not inherently bad just unfamiliar.

Overall a fun time, learned what items did well and what did not, and how i should display certain items to be more visible.

I attended 2 Patches and Pins expo events in NYC, both the April and October ones. I’m only going to briefly touch on these and I'll explain why.

I did OK at both events which means made back the price of my table and then some but definitely not as good as I had hoped. There are a lot of issues with these events from lack of communication to poor foot traffic. I will not be attending any of these events in the future, not because I don't think it’s worth it, but because of the many, many issues that lay beneath the surface due to how it is run. I have also taken into consideration the horrible experiences of other artists and the harassment many faced as why I cannot in good conscious keep supporting this event. I apologize for any attendees who were looking forward to me being at these but I hope to find more events that are better run.

I attended 2 small conventions in the summer: MinCon and Philly Comics and Cosplay Day (PCCD). Now these are mainly volunteer run and again, are fairly small events so tables were cheap. However, the organization or lack thereof was just horrifying. MinCon which is held at a library and heavily geared towards children (which i wasn't aware of) was one I almost just walked out on. The table itself was free but you had to donate a raffle item, this was totally fine with me until I walked in and saw my “table”. This space was one which had no behind the table space to sit because it was two connected computer tables- which meant i had to sit/stand in front of my own display which was incredibly awkward (and left me with no personal space). MinCon wasn't really bad because of profits but just the experience itself of a small, tightly packed artist space and faux table.

PCCD was another, small convention that I had actually attended before a few years back. It was held at a new location from before which was bigger. Unfortunately the space they put half of the artists in was on a bottom floor totally separate from the upstairs spaces where the rest of the convention was held along with absolutely no signs saying “hey there are artists downstairs”. The con-goers who did come around came by accident. Combine that with making no profits transportation costs) it was pretty bad. Both events were just long, wasted days and I will not be returning to either.

Five Points Fest was a mix of good and bad. I did really enjoy the 2 days there and hope to get in again this year.

Pro’s- i was in Pin Alley which was an outdoor space with tents. There were several food trucks and a beer section, along with live spray painting which was cool. The weather held out to be nice and the other artists I met were really awesome!

Con’s- No one knew there was a pin alley… once again there were no signs inside where the main event was that pointed to there being vendors outside. So people more stumbled into the Pin Alley when they went to get food and beer. The crowd itself was good- mainly adults who are into fun art, i just REALLY wish there had been better advertising.

Still a fun time and like I said I hope to be accepted again this year.

Now finally, Anime Impulse (which is technically this year 2020 but i'm lumping it together with 2019)

I knew this was a risk- being from NYC and going to a California convention was not going to be cheap. I also knew that being an artist that does not do fan art would be a challenge at a heavily anime centered event. But since I did Anime North, I assumed i’d still do well, especially since I do a lot of jfashion accessories. I had also read over their rules and restrictions about not having more than 50% fan art- unfortunately that was not enforced whatsoever and most artists were entirely fan art. But my biggest issues are not with that, my issues were with how the event was run. The documents I received stated the hall artist alley was in would close at 7pm. This did not happen. When 7pm came around and started covering up my display and items the hallwas still full of people playing games and wandering around. There was no one here to tell people to leave or an announcement that AA was closed. I left my table and products in a hall still open with a bunch of people still inside and i was lucky to come back and have nothing stolen.

I expect when a convention says the hall closes, it actually closes and when they say we can leave our tables setup because they will have security I expect that. Neither Happened.

Besides checking in on Friday and getting my passes, I never saw the AA Staff. No one checked up on the tables (except when it was reported that someone was using fake bills). Even at my small events staff comes around at least once to just make sure everyone was ok.If not for the fact that one of the food vendors was doing delivery to tables, I wouldn't have had food and i definitely didn't get any bathroom breaks.

Multiple tables were vacant, many vendors were extremely late- at most cons you lose your table this way or waiting list artists are called in. Instead some artists just took over other tables or moved locations.

The only positive thing about this unorganized artist alley was meeting so many amazing new people. I'm really glad I could go just for that reason. I didn't make any money on this which I knew I risked. I stressed out over this con making a bunch of new things and closing my shop for 2 months for it to flop.

I won't be returning (even after being immediately invited back for next year via email) because I have no trust in the AA, no trust in an event that doesn't follow its own rules, that does not show any care for their artists. It was just such a horrible experience as an artist to deal with. I hope as this event matures it becomes more organized.

The reality of doing conventions is that it is hard, stressful, and always a risk. I am pulling back on doing conventions for a while. I really only have 2 planned this year and they are both enamel pin events. My experiences this past year have exhausted me and I share all of this because when you see me stop posting or stop making new items it is because I am both discouraged and just plain tired. I am grateful to have had the opportunities to attend each and every event. I am still critical because I think it is important that artists be treated well and accurately communicate with. Don’t settle for anything less.