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President of CCI board of directors, John Rogers

By: Nick Eskey

Signaling the end of the three day WonderCon weekend, Comic-Con International’s board of directors president, John Rogers, was joined by Con-goers for the “Talk Back” panel.

As opposed to the SDCC Talk Back which normally has a litany of people with grievances, WonderCon’s is known to be almost completely made up of praises. This year wasn’t any different.

The first woman to speak said that she was disappointed that nothing big was in the Arena this year, but still had fun with the smaller panels. A few others came forward saying simply that they loved the convention, some even admitting to liking it better than SDCC.

Not all were compliments though. As it goes for questions and concerns, the issue of the why WonderCon always falls on Easter was addressed. Whether it was intentionally planned that way or not.
“Believe me, we would have preferred if it wasn’t Easter weekend,” said John Rogers. “It really comes to how everything falls when it comes to scheduling, availability, traveling, hotels… and it just turned out that we had to during Easter.”

A new addition to the convention was having badges first checked right before entering the front of the convention center with the fountain. It was asked what the intention of doing this was, as well as checking badges as you get into exhibit halls. “We were seeing that once you would get to the glass doors, people were being blocked by others with pamphlets and cards,” said Rogers. “It caused some congestion at the front. We felt that this would keep the doors free and accessible.”

Another concern was regarding the signature raffling, saying that it didn’t seem fair for those that would wait in line early, to find out that it was a raffle, putting them with equal footing for those who came later.

“The ticket raffling is the preferred method for CCI. We instruct all exhibitors that approach us regarding signings to do raffles… What we would foresee is that people would start lining up quite early, and then next time even earlier than that. This gives everyone an equal chance regardless of when they line up.”

But definitely the biggest question to come of the panel was, “Will WonderCon stay in Anaheim next year?” John Rogers straightened in his chair, and began with “Um… well.”

As it turned out, it was confirmed that WonderCon would not be returning to the Anaheim venue next year. “Unfortunately there wasn’t any availability next year for the convention center.”
Where then will it be?

“When we were looking for other venues and approached LA, it turned out that they had a cancellation and welcomed [the convention].” After being in Anaheim for three years, San Francisco before that, WonderCon will now be making the move to Los Angeles.

“This is going to be a whole new city, a whole new market, new facility… But we are thankfully foreseeing some fairly decent deals for the hotels.”

It’s sad to see Anaheim losing WonderCon. It personally makes sense to have it there with the abundance of hotels around it, and with Disneyland just being in fifteen minutes walking distance. But because the whole scheduling and negotiation of venues is a difficult business, I can understand the board’s decision to go.

With LA in the conventions future next year, we can rest assured to aspect some road bumps in its execution, and unfamiliarity from con goers. Let’s all hope for the best!

President of the Comic-Con board of directors, John Rogers, returns for the Talk Back.

By: Nick Eskey

Signifying the end of the four day odyssey that is SDCC is the Comic-Con Talk Back with John Rogers (president of the Comic-Con board of directors). As it normally does, the room has a line that runs the length of the room all the way to the back, and then some. The pressure is thick in the room. A mini argument even breaks out in the middle of the line before the Talk Back begins. Last year, the main points of discussion were the crass behavior of security, and Hall H issues in general.

Some of the more minor things that were mentioned maybe once or twice were; the ridiculousness of how Ace Parking decided to sell parking spots during the duration of comic-con instead of on a day-to-day basis, trying to add real-time line numbers to the online ticket queues, and how ill-informed the security can be. “If you have a solution for well informed security guards, I’d love to hear it,” said John looking over his glasses. Another thing was the bathroom passes given to those in Hall H. “How can you keep track if the same person is returning with the pass?” Rogers agreed to it, but reminded “We tried scanning people’s passes one year to keep track, but the process took too much time. I wish there was a simple way.”

A great number of discussion was over the frustrations regarding the online registration, and that people wanted a return to the onsite badge sales. John responded by saying, “Unfortunately because of the growing popularity of the convention, onsite sales would only increase wait times for everyone.” Despite this fact however, those who proposed the return stayed resolute to their request. One woman went so far as to ask, “well how about next year can you get me extra passes? I’ve been trying to get other family members some tickets, but I don’t understand the website. What can you do for me?” Rogers looked surprised, and went to say, “There’s a large demand and not enough to meet it. I don’t know what I can do.” “What about the press and the professional people? They get passes? What can you do for me?”

For those that can’t get into Hall H, or rather not brave the lines, there is a room designated for a Hall H play back. One of the downsides to it however is the lack of exclusives. Studios ask for certain things to be only viewable in the hall, so as to lessen the risk of recording. One man proposed that John give the studios an ultimatum. That they allow exclusives in the play back room, “or else. Comic-con  doesn’t need them. They need comic-con.” “We are about being fair and equal to everyone,” said Rogers. “How fair would it be if we don’t let 6’000 people get to see it because 900 people can’t?”

For serious issues, there certainly were some big ones this year. An observation of mine was that there were quite a bit of handicapped individuals lined up this year compared to las. And for good reason, for all of them had something to say. A couple points were that the comic-con website was not as insightful as some of them would have liked to, sometimes even confusing to the point of frustration. A large issue was especially the handicapped line for Hall H. As one gentlemen put it, “we didn’t have provisions such as the able bodied people did, and we weren’t given wristbands.” At the part about the wristbands, Rogers looked surprised. “They didn’t give you wristbands?” he asked. About two other people in the crowd also seconded it. “It wasn’t supposed to be that way,” answered Rogers. Apparently a line moderator deemed it “useless” for those in the line to have wristbands.

For Hall H, any handicapped person is allowed an attendee to help them traverse the lines and crowds. But one oddity that one woman brought to light was how the disabled individuals were then being separated from their attendees when led in the hall, and those left behind had to wait. “By the time I was allowed in, it was an hour and a half later,” said the woman. She also observed most of the attendees weren’t even allowed to sit next to those they came with. Rogers apologized and full heartedly agreed that in no world should something like that happen, and also would find out what was going on.

Though not everything was complaints. There was quite a bit of praise over the issuance of wristbands for the Hall H line. “It made it so much easier to counter people cutting when others have been waiting all day.” One man commented on how he wished he could grab multiples for those that couldn’t be with him at the time, but John pointed out that if they allowed this, “there’d be the risk of people selling them to others.”

It was good to see that one of the main points from last year was surely worked on. I maybe heard of one guard issue this year. I personally could see that they were more professional in their manor. But the Hall H issue is still on the table. In fact, it might be getting worse. And with all the issues that arose this year with disabled services to compound it, there was definitely a disconnect somewhere.

John Rogers looking as stoic as usual.

Though WonderCon has been in Anaheim for three years now, no event goes without some sort of hiccup or two. Myself being more use to the larger conventions like Comic-Con in San Diego, I was prepared to hear a pummel of negative feedback from the line gathered for this year’s Talk Back panel. A familiar face, president of Comic-Con Internation John Rogers, sat alone at the table, thick notebook at the ready. Those not in the know, this panel is geared toward hearing the thoughts and concerns of fellow convention goers to see what was done well, or what issues need to be addressed. Comic-Con’s Talk Back’s are known for some heated words and hurt feelings.

But for WonderCon, that really wasn’t the case.

What I thought would have been a large line actually only mounted to maybe about a dozen individuals, almost of which had positive things to say about the convention. The compliments ranged from, “easy check-in process,” “great hotel selections,” to “very well managed.” The consensus though was “please keep WonderCon in Anaheim.”

The few meager grievances that were mentioned were the lack of chairs afforded to exhibitors, and of security. It seems that every year, despite what convention you go to, security is always an issue. Since these conventions get so large, a third party security company is needed to help. They aren’t direct employees of the convention, but of the security company, and this allows for a lot of the security personal to be unaware of certain comings and goings. “One security guard told us to wait in a line against the wall for one of the halls, and then later another security guard told us we couldn’t be there,” says one man. “It’s hard to have to listen to someone when they don’t all communicate.”

As for suggestions for the future of WonderCon, one gentleman asked if there were plans to expand into the other halls and rooms of the convention center. John Rogers answered, “We’ve added some additional space compared to last year. We don’t want to go too crazy too fast. That’s what happened with Comic-Con, and now it’s just too hard to manage.”

As I mentioned earlier on how everyone asked to keep WonderCon in Anaheim, the very last person in line posed the question directly; “Will WonderCon be back in Anaheim next year?” In reply, Comic-Con president said, “At this time nothing is finalized if WonderCon will be back in Anaheim next year. We are looking at a few other options, so we’ll make that announcement once we know.”

I was happy to hear all the great things said by WonderCon attendees. The air was positive, and everyone seemed generally happy with how the convention was slowly evolving. Whether or not WonderCon will be back in Anaheim next year and keep these good vibrations, it will remain to be seen.

~Nicholas Eskey