Out of Steam

[kevin_standlee]

As we had to cancel out on going to the World Fantasy Convention, Cheryl and I planned to go to Steam Powered, the California Steampunk Convention. Imagine our surprise when I went to the web site this evening to buy memberships "VIP Event Passes" and found them labeled SOLD OUT. Having a convention actually turn people away wanting to give them money is a rare and odd experience for me. I know ComicCon has run out of space at the jaw-dropping 125,000 people, and OryCon at one point had to impose a membership cap while out on Hayden Island, but this is surprising, especially for a first-year, start-up convention. I certainly didn't expect it.

Comments

[cynthia1960.livejournal.com]

WisCon has also gotten to the point where they've hit the 1000 cap.

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess I don't get to go, either. Nor does ewhac.

[dinogrl.livejournal.com]

As I posted earlier, I'm not happy about it either. Harrumph.

Seems they just don't need our money.

[querldox.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not a huge hotel. Only 136 rooms, 9000 sq. ft. of function space, and that's in only 3 or 4 (the largest room can be divided) function rooms. Figuring one or two of those is the dealer's room, and I can see a relatively small cap on the numbers.

[twilight2000.livejournal.com]

The other option is to just show up -- it's quite possible they'll have at the door tix and if it's not far...

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

They claim on their site that no at-the-door "event passes" will be available. We may go down there to meet some friends one evening, but not to attend the convention.

[twilight2000.livejournal.com]

Damn. Way to engratiate yourself with the existing con folks -- geez... I'm guessing there'll be a healthy barcon down there if this is how they're handling their "passes"...

[bovil.livejournal.com]

We'll phone you on Saturday with an update, but I've got some theories as to why they sold out and why they're not doing day registrations.

[whumpdotcom.livejournal.com]

do you need a conspiracy theory when simple logistics applies. The hotel is not that large.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

I know the hotel pretty well. Friends of mine coordinated the first major event in the Domain.

There are a few other logistical issues with the structure of the event that could influence a reg cap.

[dinogrl.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. Storming the castle. I like that idea.

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, post and let people know. I couldn't buy tickets because I had a commitment for the weekend, but if I'm bagging out on that early, I could be at the con instead.

[dinogrl.livejournal.com]

What I find interesting is that they have a relatively large dealers room with many folks selling the same things. I will be very interested how it all pans out for dealers in all of this.

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

I'll ask my friend Autumn once she's set up there; she's vending at the event

[dinogrl.livejournal.com]

Being a dealer myself (but not at this "event"), I know some of the vendors. That is one reason why I wanted to go for a day, and would have been happy to pay for an entire weekend to stop by to see out of town friends.

[redneckotaku.livejournal.com]

This seems to be a rare case of a con where they have alot of demand and too little space. Zenkaikon (a metro philly con) had this issue this year. They sold out during Saturday though. I am amazed that in these times an Anime Con can double in membership in one year.

[nojay.livejournal.com]

Thje summer Comiket has just about reached its limit at Big Sight in Tokyo bay -- this year it had 550,000 attendees over the three days, most of whom (like me) spent most of their time standing in queues to get somewhere interesting.

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

The first Anime Boston had a similar problem -- when the demand exceeded their wildest expectations. They didn't know in advance how many people would show up...they hoped for 800 and would have broken even with 800. They had to close the doors on Saturday at 1 p.m. when they hit the hotel's fire marshall cap (something like 2,200).

But Mike points out that a steampunk con should only be taking reservations by telegraph...

[twilight2000.livejournal.com]

I LOVE that :>

[bovil.livejournal.com]

Check out the website, DJ Neshemah just mentioned that there are a few passes available now. I expect they were finally processing cancellations...

Scratch that. It's 98 available passes. They must have just revised their capacity numbers.