Worldcon Vs. Comic-Con?

[kevin_standlee]

SF Signal has published one of their "Mind Melds" about What Worldcon and Comic-Con can learn from each other. Like Cheryl says, I think anyone proposing that Worldcon should settle down in one place so it can Get Big has missed the point. The Olympics have had similar arguments. It's very inefficient for the Olympics to be in a different place every four years; it would be much better if they picked one place and built a permanent Olympic facility. (Greece would be traditional, but I bet Sydney would work out better and be more comfortable.) But part of the point of moving around is to bring the event closer to different people. Comic-Con may be wonderful, but it's always in San Diego, and if you live in (say) Glasgow, it's always going to cost you a fortune to attend, whereas a Worldcon can be expected to sometimes come within relatively easy striking distance.

But what do I know? The last time I attended Comic-Con, it was merely 30,000 people.

That doesn't mean that I think Worldcon is Just Right. It isn't. If we could get it up to or beyond its historical peak attendance of about 8,000, it would work better as a convention without destroying the management paradigm Fandom developed for running it. And it would cost less per person and we could charge less for membership, too -- on the order of $100 less at the door than we currently charge.

Comments

Re: Comiket finances

[nojay.livejournal.com]

"I only wish I had realized that in 2007 the summer version of Comiket 72 was August 17-19, as I would have gleefully gone early rather than stayed later to attend."

I spotted this coincidence some time before Nippon2007 and made my plans accordingly, spending a day at C72 and then touristing before finishing off my trip with the Worldcon at the beginning of September.

As for attendance, I would presume that only a small percentage of Comic-con attendees turn up for a single day or two and most attend for all four days i.e. similar to Worldcon attendance patterns. From what I have been given to understand very few Comiket attendees turn up for all three days of the event and only a few more even make two of the three days. Each day is themed to a certain extent and people interested in, say, BL/yaoi doujinshi won't necessarily bother to turn up for the shonen day. I do know that I only managed a single day on both my visits to Comiket in 2007 and 2008. For one thing the endless queuing in high heat is very exhausting.

My own guesstimate for recent Comikets is 160,000 different people each day, maybe 30,000 who make two days and 5,000 hardcore types (costumers, probably) who make all three days. From observation I'd say the audience is 99% Asian and probably 98% native Japanese.