Tidewater Comicon 2016 Artist Alley Review

Here is my review of Tidewater Comicon 2016 from the perspective of an Artist Alley artist :) I'm hoping this information will be helpful to other artists considering TWCC for next year.

Pre-Convention:

Purchasing a Booth:

Tidewater Comicon launched a Kickstarter to help fund their show for this year, and artists purchased their tables through this. Super easy to do. Your booth fee also included two badges. Regular and corner booths were available. I chose a corner booth, because I think the extra cost is worth it for the additional space and exposure you receive. The corner booth came with 2 8ft tables. I think for both regular and corner booths, their prices are very reasonable.

Great Communication:

The convention stays in contact with its vendors with updates and all information needed. They're really well-organized, and it makes vending for this con a breeze to deal with. They also had a FAQ page for artists/dealers.

During Convention:

Load-In:

Loading in was SO EASY. As I said, this con is super organized and efficient. We drove through the back gates, brought all our stuff in, got my badges (which took all of two seconds), and I started setting up my table. EASY.

Staff:

Right when I finished setting up my booth, a staffer came over, introduced himself, and told me if there's anything we need or need help with that he or any other staff are available. Everyone was super friendly!  A+++++++++ :)

Hours:

The hours were such a blessing for an almost-thirty-year-old LOL. So many of these conventions have their AA open until like 10pm and other ridiculous hours. Tidewater Comicon was Saturday, 9:30am - 6:00pm and Sunday, 10:00am - 5:00pm. Do you think those hours are too short to make many sales? KEEP READING>(^-^)>

Artist Alley Floor Set-up & Venue:

Nice amount of space between tables and behind tables. Beautiful amount of space for the aisles. Perfection. The venue itself is absolutely gorgeous. Venue staff kept the bathrooms very clean (compared to other shows I've done).

Traffic:

THE TRAFFIC. Saturday- NON-STOP. Non-stop. I'm not even kidding. From 9:30am until closing. I honestly don't know how any artists without booth helpers even survived. It's currently Wednesday, and I'm still freaking out about the amount of traffic. I can't even say that there were lulls on Sunday, either! I ended up selling out of pretty much everything. With six years of doing shows, this was my most successful one. I talked with another artist who's been doing NYCC for the past three years and said this show was more successful for him than NYCC. Tidewater Comicon is on fire!!There was such a beautiful, positive energy at that show, too. The attendees seemed super happy and said the sweetest compliments about my work! My face started to hurt from smiling so much LOL. Everyone was so nice!! The majority seemed to be families or young couples.

Post-Convention:

Closing & Load-out:

Breakdown and load-out was super easy. However, I will recommend that if you have a cart to wheel your stuff out to your car- do so. I didn't have much stuff leftover, so it only took us one trip. But others had to drive their cars back in through the gate to load their stuff, and there was a super long line of cars. I imagine that took quite a while. Summary: Tidewater Comicon 2016 was amazing and the most successful show I've had in six years :)