waterdancer

Yes, it appears I most likely won't be returning to AX. But there is good reason. Please hear me out. Upon entering the con center, one of the first things that could be noticed is a few empty booths lining the back of the exhibit hall. On one side there was a wall setup that was easily ignorable at first, and on the other side was seating for attendees. Anyone who's been to AX last year knows, that space used to be filled with more dealer booths. it was significantly smaller, but cleverly camouflaged to look as big. So why so small this year? It was a bit puzzling at first. I stopped by the Anime Hot booth, friends of mine, all of us being from Vegas, and heard some terrifying news.

Apparently, in the past, as the dealers come to set up their booths, they could drive up to the docking area, unload from the car or what have you, use the con centers trolleys, and forklifts, and palettes, all for roughly a flat fee of $750. This year, however, when all the dealers showed up, they found out that they would have to pay by the pound.

If you've ever been to a con, think of those large metal walls the dealers always set up with to hang merchandise off of. You ever try to lift one of those? Neither have I. But they're heavy. I was told they're too heavy too carry, and need to be loaded up by the palette, and moved with a forklift. Crazy huh?

So, talking to dealers around the con, there was one guy who had a fairly small booth. Just 1 table, Im not sure if he had any of those metal walls, wasnt selling much, just a few T-shirts, and his move-in cost for the con was $1,500. This seemed really ridiculous! Another booth told us they had to sell over $9,000 before they even started making a profit. There was another booth, I can't remember the name of their company, but they sold t-shirts, and they where real popular. their booth was huge, took up 3 or 4 tables, and had a cage built out of those metal walls. It was real cool to walk into their cage and be in like this small room all of the sudden. This year, when they showed up and saw how they where going to be charged for the move-in, they told AX to keep the money they had already paid for their booth, and that they where leaving and would not be coming back if this kept up. Apparently many other booths did the same.

This has angered many dealers, and I'm not even done yet. Since the last day of the con was july 4th, the move-out for all of their stuff was doubled! So that poor guy, who wasnt even selling much and paid 1500 to get in, would have to pay 3000 to get out!!

Now, If you've kept up with me, I'm sure you're asking, 'Why would AX do this? don't they know it's bad for their con?' I want to tell you this. It is not AX that charged all these insane fee's. Its this GES Union (excuse me if I got the name wrong) that governs conventions. They changed their rates this year to be so unreasonable. There was nothing AX or the dealers could do.

In response, AX wrote up a contract for next years dealers to potentially help out. We actually went down and got a copy of this contract to read for ourselves. It stated that next year, included in the price of the dealers booth, AX would pay for up to 500 pounds of the move-in and move-out cost. Sounds alot nicer, but as I kept reading, I saw that one perk was not enough. Those 500 lb where for 'cartload' only, which meant all of those large metal walls, which if you remember are moved by forklift, would not be covered. Then, looking at the price of dealers table, the absolute cheapest and smallest booth was still $1,150. And this rate was only good for the next 3 months. after that the prices went up by $200.

I kept reading until the cancellation policies. Until October, dealers can cancel their booth registration for a full refund, of course, with a $50 processing fee. After that, they can only get a 50% refund, until March. After March, there is no refund. But here's the kicker: Dealers won't know what this GES union company is charging for move fees until May, two months before the con. By that time, it's too late to cancel.

So you can see why a bunch of dealers would be angry and not want to return right? I heard a few booths where banding together and trying get other booths in not returning to AX until this is resolved. They feel if they start getting treated this way at AX, other cons may think they can take advantage of their dealers too. And they cant. Essentially, its almost a dealers strike. I cannot foresee AX being very successful next year.

Now, from here, I'm going to talk about more of the rumor stuff. Everything before was stuff I heard straight from dealers, and read straight from the contract. Here on out, it is pure speculation on mine, and dealers behalf.

So, after day 1 at AX, they made an announcement that due to the "overwhelming success of AX this year", AX would pay for all of the dealers move-out fee. AS I mentioned before, that was double their move in fee. It's also pretty clear that AX did not have a "overwhelming success". I don't have the numbers, but my guess is that they have about as much attendees this year as they did last year. which, mind you, is nothing to sneeze at, but I wouldn't call it overwhelming. So, this sudden act of charity made me think that it didn't really make sense. what did AX have to gain by it? One of the dealers pointed it out to me. They know dealers are angry. They want them, no, they NEED them to come back. They where trying to sweeten the deal.

In other news, this part fact, SPJA (who owns AX) contracted IDG World Expo to run AX this year. Here's a news post: www.idgworldexpo.com/WWWRoot/S… Now the rumor part: according to a dealer, in the past, cons that IDG has been contracted to run, they have supposed bought the next year. Now I'm not entirely sure that's a good or bad thing. From what I can tell by a quick glance at their site, IDG has been contracted to run E3 and Macworld this year, but I'm not sure what they own. SPJA is supposedly non-profit... I'm sure someone's getting paid, but the concept of SPJA is that the money goes to the con. and in the past they've done good. Not always perfect, but good.

There was also a rumor, a rumor which I have absolutely no fact to determine the truthfulness of, that they may start charging an entrance fee into the dealers hall for attendees. To make us pay for the privilege of spending money. This rumor I suspect to be bogus, but I share with you what I heard.



THAT ASIDE. Otherwise I had more or less of a good time at the con. As I mentioned before, my favourite booths where not there, and the ones that where, where surprisingly small. However, Manga Gamer had a huge booth this year! 3 infact! And they where selling some excellent stuff. We got 3 pillowcases, one of which was deliciously dirty, and a pack that cam with Agarest Tales, a promotional pillowcase, and a boobie mouse pad. good times. ^^ We hung out with our friend Jake, and his new friends, who happen to do excellent cosplay. I also met and talked to a couple of other excellent cosplayers, one does this excellent Taiga (Aisaka) from Toradora, I've seen many pictures of her before. the other does saber from fate stay (!!!). So I got to hang out with lots of good people. We ate at a ramen shop which had DELICIOUS food, and I bought a penguin suit! yes, a penguin suit! I love it so much! <3 it was only $40, and its a full head to foot jumper tupe thing. it even has an adorable tail. They had lots of animals, and I was considering the hamster, but I love penguins. I would have loved it more if it was blue, but all the same. They hotel we stayed at was super cheap, and it showed it, lol, but we managed just fine. ^^




I'm still accepting commissions! Please let me now if you have any other questions or thoughts. I'll consider anything. ^^

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